Our Black Year (36 page)

1.
Begin with the “low hanging fruit.”
Make it easy on yourself: Jump-start your new lifestyle by altering your spending habits on what is most convenient. Subscribe to a Black newspaper or magazine, support Black designers at the department stores, buy Black-made products at mass retailers and grocery stores, open an account at a Black-owned bank, buy gift cards at a Black-owned McDonald's or Burger King.

2.
Take baby steps.
Do this so you won't give up if your first attempt to “buy Black” does not go as planned. Start with some product, place, or person you know. That first good experience will be the impetus to start living differently. You cannot fly into flying.

3.
Use a Black company for a service you need on a regular basis.
Once you find a Black dry cleaner, mechanic, or bank, become a repeat customer. Now $1,200 is going to a Black business this year, just from making a simple switch. Have a portion or all of your paycheck deposited directly into a Black bank or credit
union. They're FDIC insured too! Now your money is helping to grow a Black investment or community bank.

4.
It's not a test—it's a relationship
.
As with every major brand or company you support, from Wal-mart to your optometrist, there will be good and bad experiences with your new Black companies. Don't make those entrepreneurs overcome hurdles and maintain standards you do not impose on the big companies. Don't treat them with suspicion, expecting them to fail you. It's your new Black dry cleaner, a role model for your community that you choose to support because he helps sustain the neighborhood economically and is inclined to employ Black people. If the service or product costs a little more, pay it. Consider it an investment in the growth of a Black company. It speaks to your commitment and willingness to sacrifice.

5.
Buying Black at the mass retailers.
We have to support the Black manufacturers and distributors whose products are already in the stores. The mass retailers all have websites and 800 numbers. They also have diversity or supplier diversity executives. Ask them to stock Black-made products and to use Black vendors. We all have to do this. What if one such executive got twenty calls in one day?

6.
Shop online
. On websites like
www.blackbusinessnetwork.com
,
www.izania.com
, and
www.blackshoppingchannel.com
, you can find a wide range of goods and services. You will not find everything, but my guess is you will find something you assumed you could not. My detergent, NuWash, is better than Tide, but it's not in Publix or Kmart—yet. I found it at
www.BlackBusinessNetwork.com
. Compro Tax (
www.Comprotax.net
) does not have thousands of outlets like Jackson Hewitt and H & R Block, but the products and reward you get from supporting it are beyond compare. More resources can be found on our website,
www.EEforTomorrow.com
.

7.
Buy in bulk.
When you go to the one Black-owned dollar store in your city, buy five containers of lotion, ten bars of soap, three containers of dishwashing liquid, five boxes of pasta, and three bottles of veggie oil!

8.
Consult your local Black Chamber of Commerce and Urban League.
They know the best-quality local entrepreneurs, and they want to hear from you. (Go to
http://usbci.org/
,
http://www.nationalbcc.org/
, and
http://www.nul.org/
.) If they don't have the answer to your question, they know how to find it.

9.
Buy or Die.
When you buy Black, you are not just buying bananas, shoes, coffee, or a laptop; rather, you are making an investment in our collective well-being. So buy Black as if our future depends on it—because it does.

10.
Black businesses are not charities.
Do not think you are doing someone a favor by buying Black. Yes, it is our duty. But when you start thinking that this is an
extra
thing you
gotta
do, it transforms what should be a natural and voluntary act into a burden, which ultimately has an impact on your spending habits.

11.
Black is better.
You have to work from the paradigm that our businesses, entrepreneurs, goods, and services are the best. And they are the key to your community's future. That truth is priceless and better than anything else.

12.
Share your great finds with The Empowerment Experiment.
We are out there preaching about how Black businesses and professionals are the best in the world. We need to back that up. If you own a business, register it on the EE website (
www.EEforTomorrow.com
). If you find a great Black business, let us know so we can spread the word. Every time you do you make it easier for the next family or business to buy Black, and it improves the strength and credibility of our movement.

13.
Save your receipts.
Get a big envelope and put your receipt in it every time you make a purchase. Soon this action will become second nature. And when you look at these little pieces of paper at the end of the week or month, you will smile, recommit to this effort, and think about the future you're creating.

14.
Join with us.
We get asked all the time, “Have you been able to inspire others?” The movement will die if it's just the Andersons. From the start we envisioned a national campaign in which Americans would pledge to support Black businesses and the mainstream corporations that do business with Black businesses via substantive supplier, vendor, and franchisee diversity, and The Empowerment Experiment would facilitate and monitor the fulfillment of the pledges. We are building partnerships with several historic, activist, and professional organizations like Frasernet, civic groups, corporations, and academic institutions to do this. The money you spend is your EET (EE Total). This is what the EE Campaign—which we're calling the “What If?” Campaign—is all about. The cumulative spending will be tracked in real time and showcased on our website. So please make your purchases and investments really count by keeping track of your spending and passing that information along to us at
www.EEforTomorrow.com
.

The EE Foundation needs your support. Please send your donation to:

 

 

 

3/19/2010

 

 

 

 

 

This paper was completed by Kellogg students as an independent study project under the supervision of Steven Rogers, a Kellogg professor and director of the Levy Institute for Entrepreneurial Practice. Professor Rogers was an economic sponsor of The Empowerment Experiment and an advisor to John and Maggie Anderson as they complete this project.

The Empowerment Experiment (EE) is a creation of John and Maggie Anderson in which they, along with their two children, publicly committed to purchase solely from Black-owned businesses for one year beginning in 2009. The Andersons maintained a detailed account of the project by documenting the search for products and services, a log of purchases or investments made, and records of quality and pricing relative to a “typical” expenditure. The Empowerment Experiment researchers have used the data from the Andersons' reports and other supplementary sources to track the impact the study could have on black businesses if replicated in the United States.

John C. Anderson
is cofounder and president of The Empowerment Experiment. John is currently president of In Sight Financial Management, a financial services firm that provides wealth protection strategies, asset management, and financial and estate planning to individuals and businesses. Prior to this role, John was a manager with Cap Gemini and Ernst & Young, and a finance director with Ameritech. John holds an AB in economics from Harvard University and an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Maggie Anderson
is CEO and cofounder of The Empowerment Experiment. Maggie is an accomplished strategy professional with twelve years of legal, research, communications, and business strategy experience with a JD and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

John and Maggie Anderson live in Oak Park, IL, with their two daughters.

Over the course of 2009, the Andersons made 513 purchases and spent approximately $48,943. These purchases spanned approximately 23 sectors
as described in
Exhibit 1
.
¹
Child care, automotive, restaurants, and food merchandise expenses accounted for over 74% of the dollars spent with Black businesses or on Black products, which totals $36,373.71. While the Andersons were able to spend approximately 68% of their after-tax income with Black businesses, there were numerous products and industries that the Andersons were unable to find. As described in
Exhibit 2
, the luxury and higher-end clothing merchandise, food retail such as grocery stores (after the only Black-owned grocery store closed), and general home merchandise were some of the products the Andersons were unable to find in the Chicago metropolitan area. The Andersons often relied on Black-owned dollar stores to purchase products they would traditionally purchase at specialty retail stores.

 

 

The Andersons logged quality and service ratings for each of the businesses they patronized. The ratings were coded on a scale from 1 to 6, with the following qualitative ratings attributed: 1–Fair/Below Average; 2–Average/Satisfactory; 3–Good; 4–Great; 5–Excellent; 6–Outstanding. The top five sectors with consistently high quality and service were: Health Service, Appliance Repair Service, Security, Leisure/Hair/Spa, and Shipping Service (
Exhibit 3
). These services on average ranked 5.6 out of 6. In contrast, the sectors with the lowest ratings for both quality and service were Banking/Financial, Dry Cleaning, Real Estate, and Transportation (
Exhibit 4
). In aggregate, 45% of the industries represented scored a 5 or above. Other sectors, such as Restaurants, were widely utilized, but represented only average ratings for both quality and service.