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Jun 24, 2023

We're happy with our 20-year track record of providing an launching pad for entrepreneurs and small companies everywhere to be noticed and prosper. Black Connect is an organization that is non-profit and nationwide, which encourages entrepreneurship in Black communities. Black community. Their aim is to end the gap in wealth between black and white communities in America by increasing the success percent and number of black-owned businesses.

We are able to do this because we donated $100,000 for Black Connect as a part of our 2020 commitment to support organizations working toward elimination of racial inequality. Since the beginning of 2020, when we pledged the sum of $500,000 to Black Connect, we have subsequently contributed $375,000 to the budget of social justice.

We spoke with Black Connect's chief executive officer and National President, Angela Majette, about how they are creating an environment of resources that will aid and support Black entrepreneurs to be successful.

Angela Majette: There were several factors that led to the decision I made to create Black Connect. It started with my personal experience as an entrepreneur as I began my own business some years ago, I searched around for an organization modeled like Black Connect and couldn't find an organization like it, and the idea of creating what today is Black Connect has been in my head for the past 20 years.

Similar to leaders like Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey, I believe that the capacity to attain economic independence by owning a business, is the basis of not only Black prosperity as well as civil rights, however, it is also a necessity for Black Americans. When my son contacted me at college to inform his plans to open a business, and that he had many queries about business, which I was able to answer and I pondered each one of the entrepreneurs I met from early on who did not have an immediate family member or person to ask for help. It was time to start Black Connect.

The two first projects that I designed were our pro-bono legal assistance program as well as FeverPitch.

I focused on legal services for business as each significant business decision comes with some legal implications. Being a lawyer analyst and small business owner, was well aware of the gap for both legal aid for people in need as well as in the field of nonprofits with regards to Black entrepreneurs as well as small-scale business owners.

Over the last 20 years, as an accountant and a legal analyst, I have worked closely with many entrepreneurs and business owners while collaborating with attorneys in business litigation, formation of businesses and other transactional concerns. I've observed firsthand that a lot of the legal concerns entrepreneurs and business owners are faced with can be avoided or minimized by obtaining legal guidance at the start.

I designed FeverPitch the national pitch competition because it is less than two percent of venture capital flows to Black entrepreneurs. Black entrepreneurs often aren't protected from the strict regulations which govern the vast majority of pitch competitions. FeverPitch is the most anticipated event, and is a great opportunity to get corporate sponsors to be part of our goal. The employees of our corporate sponsors are judges in FeverPitch and provide helpful feedback to the entrepreneurs. FeverPitch is an ever memorable event for us at Black Connect and we're currently prepping for FeverPitch 2023. It's great to be able to collaborate with such an eclectic group of innovative and driven entrepreneurs.

We started to concentrate on marketing as 96% of businesses owned by Blacks are not staffed by employees. It means that many small business owners cannot pay for a marketing team. To grow, the company has to be able to earn profit, but not having employees, the company owner has little or none support for the marketing or sales. Smaller-sized companies heavily rely on marketing via social media that was previously believed to be the most efficient and effective method of advertising for small companies. However, the dynamics of social media marketing has changed. Social media platforms are saturated; customers are suspicious of false news and the price for social media marketing is rising.

Numerous companies pay between $4,000 to $7000 per month in advertisements on social media platforms which is why it's not a surprise that the constant feedback we get straight via Black Connect customers is marketing via social media. However, it doesn't result in the growth of sales because of that Black small-sized businesses don't have the purchasing power.

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