'Freedom' = Owning Your Own Business

In the United States of America lies a large industrial city which is the site of one of the world's largest slave labor camps.

Located in and around the center of this city are community settlements where the slaves live.
Each morning the slaves move herd-like from their quarters into the slave labor camps.

Each one is at his or her station by 7:30 AM. Here they report to their master for the day's duties. And here they remain chained until 5:00 PM when they're released to go home.

The slaves have no choice as to how many hours they must labor. Sometimes they are required to work overtime until their master tells them they may leave and go home.

Each year the slaves are told when to take their vacations, for how long, and when they must return.

They have little choice as to how much money they earn as they are paid not what they are worth, but what the job is worth.

They are allowed very little time for lunch and coffee breaks during the labor hours.

The slaves will remain in their chains in great fear because the master can punish them with the "firing" or "layoff" whip.

It is said that even some of the older slaves who have been good and faithful have felt the sting of the whip.

Day by day, year-by-year, the slaves toil and grow older until the master decides it is time to release them to the retirement camps where they're forced to sit idle and wait for death.
It's a well-known fact that the old slaves who try to keep working are sometimes whipped with a "stop-their-pension" whip.

I know these slave camps exist for I once was a slave. But now I am a free man who lives among the slaves.

The reason I am free is because I am in business for myself as an Entrepreneur.

Yes, I am truly free. I arise in the morning at the hour called for by my schedule. I decide my own hours. I can even sleep in late while the slaves are at work. I can vacation when, where, and for how long I please. I'm free to take my coffee break and lunch when I decide.

And of course, I can decide my own paycheck because I am not a slave.

I can choose to work when and where I please and with whom I please.

I'm free to stay in the city for as long as I want, or to move on to greener pastures if I decide to.  I've seen many slaves sadly pack their belongings to leave their city in search of a new master, but it is always the same.

There is, however, a ray of hope for the slave.

He or she can buy their own freedom.

The cost is not high, yet it seems high to those who do not have the courage to pay the price.

What is the price?

ONE MUST BE WILLING TO BE ONE'S OWN MASTER!

Cincinnati Business Incubator: Small Business Legacy Comes To An End

The Cincinnati Business Incubator (CBI), which focused on women- and minority-owned businesses, closed its doors Jan. 31. I served as CBI president from 2002-2006 and enjoyed my time working with small business owners and entrepreneurs who had a dream of growing profits and employee local residents.

A decrease in funding from the city of Cincinnati contributed to the demise of the incubator, which had been struggling to maintain profitability during the recession, according to a statement posted on the networking site LinkedIn.

"As a result of the past year's volatile economy, in addition to the timeline to profitability interrupted by the decline in city funding, CBI has attempted to reorganize and modify its business model," read the statement posted by Tracey Hayes, former associate executive director at the CBI.

"Unfortunately, those attempts have not been significant enough to continue incubation services to the small- business community of Greater Cincinnati."

I'm sorry to see this incubator ending over 20 years of service to the small business community of greater Cincinnati. Do any of you have memories of CBI that you care to share?

Gotta Get Goals

Theo Johnson is the creative genius behind the Now That is What I'm Talking About blog. He tagged me with a meme on goals back in April 2007. The original meme was started by Alex Shalman. It has taken over five months ... but, the rhinos in my Electronic Village have elephant-like tendencies ... we never forget! My goals are actually quite simple at this stage of life.

1. Be a better father, son, brother and uncle - This takes many forms. First, I recognize that I need to be a better role model, including showing my children the importance of having God in your life. African proverb says that when there is a difference between a man's actions and his words ... believe his actions. My actions need to improve drastically in terms of my attendance and support of church. It is a tangible action that would be meaningful for my young son and daughters. It would also be something that my mother and sister would like. One thing is certain, I will be a great witness for others based on the ups & downs that I've had in my life. Finally, my nieces could use a positive male role model ... and Uncle Villager is ready to take on that role for the next few decades. I plan to write, call and visit with my sister, nieces and parents on a regular basis. We are located on the four corners of the continent ... so it will take some doing ... but, this is an important goal.
2. Become financially independent - I read with interest a post from Field Negro earlier this weekend. It reminded me of the financial roll that I was on a few years ago. Black Enterprises magazine once gave stats that showed I was in the top 2% of Black folks in terms of family income. However, that house of cards crashed when I managed to mess up my marriage ... get divorced ... and get hit with some whopper child support payments. At the exact same time, I left my corporate gig to start my own business ... and for a few years it seems that I lived off of credit cards and such. In other words, I dug a very big financial hole for myself. Over the past year I have been taking steps on a day-by-day basis to get my sh*t together. My credit score is moving up and my child support payments are timely. My new motto is ,'Start Late, Finish Rich'. I enjoy reading about bloggers that are making big bank. They are an inspiration as well. My former wife is also an inspiration in this regard. Anyhow, my goal is to become financially independent within the next five years.
3. Grow my business - I became a full-time entrepreneur on July 5, 2002. That is when I began my business in earnest. My largest contract was signed with the Cincinnati Business Incubator about a year later. I currently have 48 clients under contract at the incubator. These are some dedicated entrepreneurs and business owners that are looking to create jobs and economic growth in the community. Our most successful incubator client is a 3-year old firm, World Pac Paper, that is now one of the top six Black-owned companies in the city. My consultancy added other contracts and clients over the past year. The joy is that I have been a 1099-brother since July 2002. Those of you who own your own business will understand what that means! Now, I need to take my business to the next level. One thing that I need to do is update and implement a revised business plan. The steps that I took to get my consulting business started have run their course. I now need to take different steps to grow my consulting business over the long-term. As such, my immediate goal is to have a new business plan in place before the end of the year.
4. Provide four-year scholarships for BDPA students - I am the executive director for the BDPA Education & Technology Foundation. I was blessed last month to be able to hand out $40,000 in scholarships to students from Chattanooga, TN; Detroit, MI; Chicago, IL; New York, NY; and Rochester, MN. The scholarships ranged from $500/student to $3,000/student for the winning team from Southern Minnesota. My vision is to hand out 4-year scholarships to these students. If baseball, basketball and football players can get full rides from high school to competing colleges ... why can't these talented information technology students have those same benefits and opportunities. I created the BETF-Blog so that we can communicate more effectively. I hope to hand out the first full 4-year scholarship at the 30th annual BDPA Technology Conference in August 2008.

I have other goals in life that revolve around relationships and such. However, these are the ones that bubbled to the top as I typed out this post today. It is always good to put your goals in writing. We'll need to come back every once in awhile to see how these turn out. My thanx again to Theo for tagging me with this meme. I see that Vanessa and Benin were much more timely in their response to Theo's tag. I gotta get rid of this procrastination-habit!

Anyhow, I get to tag others now. My choices are:

• Adrianne - Black Women in Europe
• Bronze Trinity - Man I Need Something To Do
• Eddie - Eddie Griffin, BASG
• Invisible Woman - Black Cinema at LARGE
• Keith - The 'D' Spot
• Wayne - Field Negro

As we used to say when we were kids ... TAG YOU'RE IT!

More Website Traffic with ThinkBigSites.com

I run a small business incubator in Cincinnati, Ohio (USA), in addition to serving as one of the elders of the Electronic Village blog. As such, I am always looking for recommendations to share with my clients that can help propel them into higher and higher profits. I invite my incubator clients and those of you here in the village to check out a website optimization firm called ThinkBigSites.com.

Unfortunately, few of my small business clients operate a blog. I think that blogs can be a powerful component of our search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Blog Marketing is all about visibility -- making the right people aware of the right product at the right time. Marketing is about customers and getting our message to them. Blog marketing can increase exposure, generate buzz, and create a global message to which individual customers can respond. The effect is powerful viral marketing with blogs linking to other blogs. The real value is things that you don't expect. Blogs create more opportunities, and more challenges.

What industries does Blog Marketing work on? Really any market where Internet marketing strategies are important. The major ones are E-commerce, Finance, Mortgage Lending, and Real Estate internet marketing. Blog marketing works across all markets.

ThinkBigSites.com has developed a unique blog marketing and inbound linking strategy that helps customers in terms of branding and search engine rankings. Bottomline? This company can drive more website traffic to your company.

How does a blog work for SEO? A blog has regularly updated content that is keyword rich. These regular posts are broadcast to the Blogosphere via RSS as soon as you post. Quality blogs attract a large number of incoming links to your website content. I have only been blogging since January 13, 2007. By no means am I an expert. It is clear to me that companies willing to work with small business owners can truly help level the playing field when it comes to our marketing efforts on the Internet or in the Blogosphere.

I would be interested in hearing from villagers that are finding ways to incorporate their blogging efforts into the growth of their business. Do you see blogging as purely recreational? Or do you think it is something that can create or increase profits for you?

Pete Rose: 'It Was 20 Years Ago'

Yesterday was an interesting day. Over 40 business owners and service providers attended the monthly Lunch'n'Learn seminar hosted at my incubator. The presentation and Q&A session were focused on learning how we can do business with the city government. I anticipate that most of my incubator clients will take steps to register as a Small Business Enterprise in the near future.

Later in the day I attended the 78th annual meeting of the Allied Construction Industries. My incubator strives to build the capacity of MBE/WBE companies in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. So, networking with ACI is important. Frankly, it is impressive when any organization can do something for 78 years in a row ... so, I looked forward to this meeting over at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center. There were over 1,000 folks in attendance. The keynoter was baseball's 'hit king' -- Pete Rose.

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. As such, I used to truly dislike Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Joe Morgan and the rest of the so-called Big Red Machine. That's how things are when you are a kid. You love your team and you pretty much hate all the other teams. I used to hate the Cincinnati Reds.

So, I wasn't all googly-eyed about hearing from Pete Rose. However, I must admit that he was hilarious and a perfect match for his hometown audience. He had me and the others in the audience rolling with laughter at least half a dozen times during the course of his speech and Q&A session.

His discussion ranged from his childhood on the west end of Cincinnati to his years in baseball beginning as a minor-leaguer in 1960 to his son's continuing quest as a 36-year old to play pro baseball to his 16-1 record as a member of the National League all-star team to his gambling addiction to his relationship with the current baseball commissioner to his interactions with Joe DiMaggio, Priscilla Presley and others.

Pete is 65 years old ... and his life revolves around his career as a baseball player. He clearly expressed a dream of becoming a major league manager again in his future.

The most compelling moment of his speech for me was simple. When asked a question about his suspension from baseball as a result of his betting on the games ... he said simply, 'It was 20 years ago...' I must admit that in today's baseball when it is acknowledged that huge numbers of players were cheating with steroids and when drug fiends, wife-beaters and drunks are still accepted into baseball's Hall of Fame and are still managing or playing ... you have to wonder why they don't cut this guy a break.

It was 20 years ago. What do you think? Is it time for baseball to bring Pete Rose back from purgatory?

Cincinnati Business Incubator

Great news! I learned today that the city manager signed off on our $100,000 grant proposal to provide incubation services in Cincinnati, OH for CY-2007. This is a critical part of the fundraising efforts that we are currently engaged in for our non-profit incubator. It isn't of global importance ... but, dayum ... it is a good feeling to know that our non-profit incubator is moving in the right direction!

One of my goals for this year is to find 20 corporations to match the $100k grant from the City government. I'll keep you apprised of how that effort goes over the coming weeks and months. Suffice to say that today was a good CBI day!

Cincinnati [sigh]

How does the saying go ... anything that isn't bad news is good news. Actually, I don't know if that is the saying or not. However, I do know that it has been a long time since those glory days in the mid-1990s when Cincinnati was being touted as the 'best place to live' in national magazines. I run a small business incubator. Our main purpose for existing is to help emerging businesses create jobs and encourage economic development in the urban core of our town. So, it was tough to see the news that Forbes Magazine's "Best Cities for Jobs" listing ranked the Cincinnati area at 56 (our of the top 100), using five criteria: unemployment rate, job growth, income growth, median household income and cost of living.


The good news is that our town's 2007 ranking (#56) is up one place from the 2006 ranking ... and we are ahead of most other cities in our Tri-State (Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio) ahead of most cities in the region. The Tri-State did best in the cost-of-living area, where it ranked 15th, and worst for income growth, at 84th.

Among regional cities, only the Indianapolis area did better, at 41, although that was a drop from its 18th-place ranking last year. Akron moved up to 61 from 74 in 2006; Columbus dropped to 65 from 54; Louisville fell to 79 from 76; the Cleveland area moved up to 92 from 94; Dayton dropped to 95 from 88; and Toledo inched up to 96 from 97.


Folks in my family are employed, however, if they were to seek jobs they would be interested to know that Atlanta (#22), Los Angeles (#88), San Diego (#31) and Washington DC (#5) were also on the list.

I guess if you are looking for employment ... it would be good to move to Raleigh-Cary, NC. That is the #1 city for jobs according to Forbes. Detroit area ranked at the bottom of the list. I guess if you're from Motown the good news is that there has to be a 101st city someplace in the country !


Click here to see a slideshow of the top 25 cities. Did your city make the list?

Who Sez I Ain't Got No Class

Today was interesting at the Cincinnati Business Incubator (CBI). One of our clients who brought in $1.5 million in business last year decided that he would be shutting down his LLC in order to focus on some excellent career opportunities with his employer of the past 17 years. He had been working 48 hours per week on his job ... and another 30 hours per week on his business. He worked through various alternatives and determined that he wanted to focus on career advancement with his employer. I met with this entrepreneur early in the morning. His last day at our incubator will be March 31st.

Later in the morning I met with a branch manager from Huntington Bank. She is currently working on a potential loan package for another of my CBI clients. My client is looking for a $50k line of credit. My meeting with the branch manager focused on the idea of Huntington Bank becoming a corporate sponsor of our non-profit incubator. I think that that meeting went well. Time will tell.


I had a lunch-time meeting as a guest for the community advisory committee of our Cincinnati-based Public Broadcast Service (PBS) --> WCET. One of the delightful aspects of the meeting was a live webcast of their 1-year old project known as CET-Connect. The amount of content available on this portal was amazing to me. I am hopeful that CBI will become the 31st "partner" for CET-Connect. We may be able to have one or more of our lunch'n'learn seminars webcast on this portal. We would do other cross-promotion. I would love to see interviews and discussions on topics of interest to small business owners in this portal. The most amusing part of the meeting came at the end when the hostess asked if I would be interested in becoming a member of their community advisory committee.


However, the coup-de-grace for the day occurred just a few moments ago when I was informed that the "Cincinnati Opera could use your assistance". It turns out that the Cincinnati Opera is planning a remarkable project for delivery in October 2007. They plan to stage a newly commissioned opera inspired by the life of Underground Railroad conductor John P. Parker. Cincinnati Opera has engaged distinguished composer Adolphus Hailstork to create a new work, aimed at informing young people and families about this admirable man. Parker moved to Ripley OH, after purchasing his own freedom. He launched a successful business as an iron maker and inventor, but he also helped people fleeing from slavery -- often imperiling his own life in the process.


This October project will be known as RISE FOR FREEDOM ... and it will be about 60 minutes in length, and presented at the Aronoff Center in downtown Cincinnati. Anyhow, I've been asked to serve on the advisory committee for this event. I replied that I would be honored to do so ... as long as I wouldn't be disqualified for only attending one opera in my life. I attended San Francisco Opera (by accident!) in the early 1980s. Our group thought we had bought tickets to a Whoopi Goldberg concert ... an example of why you shouldn't drink too much at happy hours .


Anyhow, today was a good day at the incubator. Public television ... the opera ... who sez that I ain't got no class!

Microenterprises

Cincinnati Business Incubator (CBI) is a non-profit incubator designed to support growth of emerging businesses. Most of the clients that we work with start off as microenterprises (less than 5 employees). As such, I am always trying to learn more about ways to support these businesses in their efforts to create jobs and grow profits. I was pleased to recently learn of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO) and the microenterprise.org website that they host. Several microenterprise fact sheets developed by AEO and its partners are currently online. These fact sheets were designed to promote microenterprise to key populations, supporters, and partners. I encourage anyone interested in the idea of entrepreneurism and microenterprises to take a look at the fact sheets.

National College

It appears that I will need to polish up on my speaking skills. I accepted another invitation to stand in front of a room of people. This time I will be talking to a classroom of students at National College on January 24. The class is Introduction to Business. The instructor is Thomas Jefferson. Professor Jefferson asked that I speak to the class on my steps to career success. He also wants me to share a little about how technology is impacting business in today's domestic and global markets. Anyhow, wish me luck on this presentation. Share your 'comment' or thoughts on how you feel that technology is impacting business in today's domestic and global markets.

Media Lead

For a USA TODAY story about small businesses and technology, Entrepreneurs reporter Jim Hopkins is asking small business owners to answer the following questions by the close of business on Thursday, Jan. 18: What are the three most frustrating technology challenges your company faces today? Please be as specific as possible. Send your name, title, business name, city, state, product or services sold, number of employees, business website and phone number to mailto:jhopkins@usatoday.com

Cincinnati Business Incubator (CBI)

My consulting firm has a number of contracts. The largest is with the Cincinnati Business Incubator (CBI). CBI is one of over 1,100 business incubators located in the United States. Heck, there are five business incubators located in the greater Cincinnati area along. CBI was created in 1989 with a mission to support the growth & development of small businesses owned by women and people of color.

I came on as the president/CEO of the non-profit incubator in May 2003. There were 17 small business owners under contract with CBI in May 2003. We have 48 clients under contract today. Over the course of time, I will share information on both CBI and our clients here in the Electronic Village blogspot. I hope that many of our clients, sponsors and supporters will find this part of cyberspace and share their insights as well.

I also encourage any of you that either have a small business or consider owning one in the future to share your thoughts, questions and insights.

Supplier Diversity

The Institute for Entrepreneurial Thinking is the leading authority on issues related to minority business development and supplier diversity. Their mission is to help their clients improve the outcomes of their investments in these areas. They are an objective, balanced and practical resource committed to providing leading edge insight to their clients about the evolving opportunities and challenges related to race and business.

The brother that runs The Institute is Dr. Melvin J. Gravely. Mel lives in the greater Cincinnati area. I've known him since I came to Cincinnati OH in the mid-1990s. He is truly a remarkable brother with strong beliefs about all issues related to entrepreneurship and business ownership. In fact, he recently accepted a position as the director of the Minority Business Accelerator working with the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Anyhow, Mel publishes a newsletter each month. The title of the current newsletter is Getting to the Next Level: The Real Challenges of Supplier Diversity.