Virtual Black Business Ecosystem

Currently, a dollar circulates only six hours in the Black community which is drastically shorter than any other community. Our app is designed to help consumers easily locate Black businesses and service providers while also providing solutions for Black businesses to locate suppliers and wholesalers so that we can support Black businesses at all levels. The app will encourage users to visit new businesses by allowing them to earn points that will be distributed to select businesses each month as grant funds. We will also provide a video vault to provide business tips for business owners and financial literacy tips for users. Our ultimate goal is to connect American businesses with businesses in the African diaspora for import/export opportunities. 

Small businesses are the backbones of American communities. When we support small businesses, we are often supporting the families who own the businesses. Unfortunately, many Black businesses do not receive the support needed to attain success and scale. A lack of digital connectivity, access to resources, and ability to market to their target audience impede many business owners from reaching the point of becoming economic drivers capable of hiring workers. 

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20% of U.S. small businesses fail within the first year. By the end of their fifth year, roughly 50% have faltered. After 10 years, only around a third of businesses have survived. Binded Media states Blacks own about 2.6 million businesses or 9.5 percent of all U.S. businesses yet Blacks are 13.4% of the population. Our goal is to increase the number of successful Black businesses.

We are developing a virtual Black Wall Street that will serve as a directory of Black businesses across the country, provide monthly grants for businesses that users can vote on, utilize geolocation functions to assist users with finding businesses in their community and connect business owners with suppliers and wholesalers to ensure the dollar circulates longer in the Black community.

We have three target markets

• Users: we will market to travelers who want to support Black businesses when they visit different locations, residents who move to new communities and want to locate Black businesses in their new community, and consumers who want to support Black businesses
• Businesses: we will have Black businesses including service providers like plumbers, dentists, doctors, mechanics for consumers seeking to support Black economies
• Suppliers/Wholesalers: we will have the capabilities to connect business owners with suppliers and wholesalers to support Black manufacturing with a concentration on supporting and connecting Black farmers with food pantries, grocery stores, and restaurants

We believe that creating a Black business ecosystem that supports the business owners by connecting them with more consumers as well as suppliers/wholesalers will help to build more economic power in their community. We want to see more Black businesses scale to open multiple locations, seek opportunities to buy into and become franchises but most importantly, hire full-time workers at a living wage.

We are in the prototype phase of our app development. The MVP (minimum viable product) will be ready to launch in September at our Economic Empowerment Symposium. We will invite members of our community to beta test the app. As we receive feedback from our community, we will continue to add features and make improvements so that the product achieves our overall goal of increasing the quantity and quality of Black businesses.