African American Entrepreneurship
Here is an article from this week's National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship. Read the full newsletter here.African American Business Booms
Last month we reported on the boom in Latino-owned business; this month it’s African-American owned firms. New data from the US Census Bureau shows that African Americans have the entrepreneurship bug. The latest data from the 2002 economic census finds that the number of black-owned firms grew by 45% between 1997 and 2002. (The total number of businesses in the US grew by 10% over this period). Meanwhile, the revenue of these firms grew by 25% over the same period. Overall, there are 1.2 million black-owned businesses in the US, accounting for roughly $88.8 billion in revenues. These impressive statistics also contain some more sobering notes. As with all types of businesses, most black-owned firms are small. Ninety-two percent were self-employment ventures. For all US firms, self-employment ventures account for ¾ of the total. So, while African-American entrepreneurship is booming, the future challenge ahead is to assist these new entrepreneurs in creating businesses that provide employment opportunities and generate new wealth in the community.
To access the April 2006 U.S. Census Bureau report, Black-Owned Firms: 2002, go here.
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