1. The Future of Small Minority Business: Holding on to Old Markets; Tapping New Ones Barry Bluestone Cynthia Jackson Darnell Williams Russell Williams Untapped Markets: Embracing Potential for Economic Opportunities ABCD Federal Reserve Bank of Boston October 8. 2002

2. Status of Minority Business in Massachusetts State Population in 1997 according to Census Bureau estimate: White Non-Hispanic--- 85.3% (5,217,300) Minority------------------- 14.7% (898,176) Black--------------------- 6.3% (384,540) Latino-------------------- 5.9% (361,859) Asian--------------------- 3.5% (212,473) American Indian------ 0.2% (14,675)

3. Minority Owned Firms in Massachusetts Minority-owned firms constitute 7.3% of all Massachusetts firms 12,729 Asian firms 12,725 Latino firms 11,834 Black firms 3,428 American Indian-owned firms

4. Business Ownership in Massachusetts Percentages of firm ownership in Massachusetts: 89.9% of firms are White (non-Hispanic) owned 2.4% of firms are Asian-owned 2.4% of firms are Latino-owned 2.2% of firms are Black-owned 0.6% of firms are Native-American owned 0.3% of firms are 50/50 minority/non-minority owned 2.6% are classified as Other

8. African-American Owned Businesses in Greater Boston: Survey Results 40 firms Interviewed out of 467 identified 28 are male-owned; 11 female-owned; 1 male/female owned Average number of employees: 3.2 Median number of employees: 3.0 About half of these firms are in service industries (19), another 15 are in construction, with the remainder being in real estate, manufacturing, retail trade, wholesale trade, and financial/insurance services.

9. Survey Results Only 14 have annual gross revenue levels of $500,000 or more 13 have annual gross revenue levels of less than $100,000 97.5% have a business computer 55% use specialized revenue tracking software 48% use specialized expenditure/accounts payable software 25% track their accounts, inventories, and payroll manually without use of computer software

10. The Greater Boston Small Business Asset Development Project Collaboration Northeastern University Roxbury Community College Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts Three-year demonstration project to supply pro bono technical assistance, training, financial assistance, and e-commerce capability to a carefully selected set of small minority-owned businesses in the Greater Boston community.

11. Purpose The purpose of this effort will be to establish and test a system of small business assistance that can help minority-owned firms develop the expertise to sustain and expand their markets increase their employment levels increase the value of business assets in the community Using existing technical expertise and resources at Northeastern University, the Urban League, and Roxbury Community College

12. An Integrated Array of Technical Assistance Classroom training in general business operations, management practices, and accounting procedures. Laboratory training in general computer use and e- commerce applications Training in business-to-business (B2B) software for vendor firms Technical consulting in specific business practices (e.g. marketing, image, customer appeal, customer service) Marketing assistance with large institutional vendors

13. Array of Services, con’t Development and maintenance of e-commerce/ B2B websites for each client firm Specialized training in order to transfer maintenance of websites to client firms themselves Assistance in locating financing for client firms

14. Overall Goal Build business assets in the local communities where people of color reside Create role models for new business enterprise Build a model of university/community cooperation that can be duplicated in other cities