EthnicMajority

(Hispanic Business) Marriott International Inc. today introduces its newest advertising campaign designed to showcase the breadth of its brands and welcome all frequent business travelers. The new "For You, We're Marriott" campaign focuses on African-American, Hispanic and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) business travelers and will run in both print and digital media through year's end. 

The ads champion frequent business travelers, who "conquer their missions on the road without forgetting the important things in life." They also illustrate that Marriott understands the needs of all business travelers and welcomes them, across the global portfolio of Marriott hotels. 

"We believe smart messaging resonates with our customers," says Joanna Todd, Vice President, Segment Strategy for Marriott. "In this latest multicultural marketing campaign, our intention is to celebrate frequent business travelers and recognize that their expectations are as diverse as they are. The campaign puts a human face on business travel, for the men and women who stay with us every night." 

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(ABA Journal) Last fall, Christopher W. Quinn II offered a free consultation to 10,000 subscribers of the Michigan Chronicle, an African-American newspaper, as a way of advertising his Detroit-based solo practice specializing in business and real estate law, and criminal defense.

Dale Minami of Minami Tamaki in San Francisco sent 250 CDs of the Japanese-American jazz band Hiroshima to clients and former clients as a holiday gift last year. The firm of 15 lawyers also distributed pedestrian-safety fliers in English and Japanese through organizations in Japantown as one way to stay connected to the Asian-Americans who make up 50 percent of his firm’s client base. Minami, who handles personal injury cases, came up with the idea after he had his 10th case representing an injured pedestrian.

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(QSR Magazine) The franchise business model is an attractive option for Hispanics and other minorities to consider owning, because it is a strong avenue to take for financial success. According to the 2007 Franchised Business Ownership survey conducted by the International Franchise Association’s (IFA) Educational Foundation, minorities made up 19.3 percent of all franchisees, and Hispanic-owned franchises were 5.8 percent of the total. And the survey reported that Hispanic franchisees prefer owning quick-serve restaurants.

The quick-service industry should see this as an excellent opportunity to tap into the Hispanic demographic, and minorities in general. The Hispanic population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, makes up 15.1 percent of the population. It is estimated that this figure will double by the year 2050. Statistically, Hispanics are the fastest-growing population in the U.S.

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(CNN) Last night CNN aired Soledad O’Brien’s “Black in America: The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley,” which follows eight black tech entrepreneurs trying to raise equity capital in Silicon Valley. As it traces their stories, the documentary also interviews industry insiders about the dearth of tech startups led by black entrepreneurs, highlighting a CB Insights study that shows less than 1 percent of all venture capital investment went to digital startups with African-American founders in 2010.

Tomorrow Rutgers University will host a two-day summit that aims to collect ideas on encouraging investment in minority-owned businesses in struggling urban areas. Entrepreneurs, angel investors, and policymakers, including Newark mayor Cory Booker and members of The America21 Project will discuss the documentary. They’ll also listen as a selection of entrepreneurs present their businesses to a panel of venture capitalists and discuss how to develop an angel fund and a national network for minority entrepreneurs in urban areas.

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(Red Orbit) The National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) today announced a collaboration with NuLevel Strategic Solutions, LLC, a minority-owned management consulting firm based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Nulevel has developed a set of online business tools that NMSDC will offer to its certified Asian, Black, Hispanic and Native American minority business enterprises (MBEs) to assist them in assessing financial operating capacity, business health and value relative to their respective industries. These assessment tools will be part of an on-going series called the "Biz-Fit Challenge."

"This is a great way for NMSDC to help certified suppliers take the pulse of their company, and make continuous improvements that will strengthen their businesses," said NMSDC President Joset Wright. "Only the strongest, most agile businesses can compete in this recovering economy, and NMSDC is pleased to help position our MBEs for success."

"Undercapitalization and the inability to access market opportunities are two of the greatest challenges confronting minority-owned businesses," noted David Willis, principal at NuLevel. "However, these challenges are compounded by management teams that are not spending adequate time understanding the internal dynamics of their businesses. We find that many business owners are focusing more on business development and less on overall business health. Greater focus in this area will likely lead to more profitable and sustainable growth."

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(Black Voice News) There is a silver lining in the dark cloud of the great recession. A new Census Bureau report reveals that from 2002 to 2007 the number of Black-owned businesses in the United States increased by 60.5 percent to 1.9 million – more than triple the national rate. According to Census Bureau Deputy Director, Thomas Mesenbourg, “Black-owned businesses continued to be one of the fastest growing segments of our economy, showing rapid growth in both the number of businesses and total sales during this time period.”

The reasons for this are many, beginning with the long history of African American entrepreneurship in response to poverty, high unemployment, and discrimination. Consider the case of Madam C.J. Walker, the daughter of slaves who, in the early 1900s, turned her dream of financial independence into a hair care and cosmetics business that revolutionized the beauty products industry, created good paying jobs, and made her a wealthy woman and philanthropist.

Like Madam C.J. Walker, many African Americans may have turned to entrepreneurship in the years covered by the Census Bureau study because of high unemployment in our communities. The fact is, Black unemployment never got back down to where it was before the recession in 2001. So in effect, what we are seeing is a bit of entrepreneurship by necessity. There’s also an economic independent streak, particularly among emerging generations in the Black community. Building a business gives great satisfaction and cushions them from the shock of losing jobs because of economic down cycles.

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(Huffington Post) While Wall Street financiers reap healthy profits off the backs of a bailout that U. S. taxpayers paid for and while leading U. S. businesses that could hire, incredibly, refuse to hire for reasons that make no sense to me and millions of out of work Americans, I, for one, have had enough.

I’m tired of Wall Street benefiting while Main Street USA–and far too many of those Americans who suffer in silence on our nation’s side streets–wait in frustration for a good faith show of support from those who’ve benefited from the American taxpayers.

To riff off one of our President’s favorite talking points, for those leaders who are serious about putting America’s economic interests in “drive,” I believe the keys to our nation’s economic engine should be put in the hands of small business owners–especially the growing legion of innovative African American, women- and minority-owned business owners that have a proven track record of reinvesting their talent, their financial investments and their jobs in local communities.

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(Los Angeles Times) The number of minority-owned businesses in the U.S. increased nearly 46% to 5.8 million from 2002 to 2007, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.

In the same time period, the total number of businesses increased 18% to 27.1 million.

The new data come from the Preliminary Estimates of Business Ownership by Gender, Ethnicity, Race and Veteran Status, culled from the census bureau’s 2007 survey of business owners.

The same report found that black-owned businesses rose 60.5%, Native American and Alaska Native-owned businesses climbed a combined 17.9% and the number of Hispanic businesses gained 43.6%.

Other highlights of the report:

• Of the nation’s 27.1 million businesses, roughly 5.8 million had paid employees. These businesses employed 118.7 million people, a 7.1% increase from 2002.

• Of the 5.8 million minority-owned businesses in 2007, an estimated 5 million had no paid employees.

• The number of women-owned businesses totaled 7.8 million in 2007, up 20.1% from 2002. Men-owned businesses totaled 13.9 million, up 5.5% from 2002.

• There were 1.9 million black-owned businesses in 2007, up 60.5%, with 37.6% of them in healthcare and social assistance, repair and maintenance, and personal and laundry services.

(Business Wire) Bank of America today announced a commitment to increase its spending with small, medium-sized and diverse businesses, pledging to purchase $10 billion in products and services from those companies over five years, with the spending amount expected to grow by an average of more than 5 percent each year.

“What businesses of all sizes are telling us they need most right now is more business,” said Brian T. Moynihan, president and chief executive officer, Bank of America. “In addition to extending credit and providing technical assistance and a full range of banking services to our clients, we want to increase our support by purchasing more of their products and services, particularly from small, medium-sized and diverse businesses — coast to coast and across a wide range of industries. We hope other large companies will do the same.”

Small, medium-sized and diverse businesses provide the bank with a broad range of valuable services and products, including advertising, furniture, cleaning, courier service, home inspections, legal services, landscaping, maintenance, photography, security and software.

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The California Supreme Court debated the constitutionality of Proposition 209 on Tuesday, questioning whether the reach of the 1996 ban on affirmative action in government should be limited.

During a hearing Tuesday, some members of the state high court appeared inclined to permit some type of affirmative action when needed to address deliberate and ongoing discrimination.

The court is reviewing a San Francisco ordinance that gives firms owned by women and minorities an advantage in city contracting. Although the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeal upheld the constitutionality of Proposition 209 in 1997, the state high court is not bound by the circuit ruling.

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