BY HUGH R. MORLEY
THE RECORD
STAFF WRITER |
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Donna English doesn't see her Elmwood Park-based bake shop, Just D'sserts by Sparkle, as having any particular color |
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Donna English owns this bakery in Elmwood Park.
"I don't want a black bakery," said English, 51, who is African-American. "I just want a bakery. I'm from New York. I didn't see color growing up."
It's an attitude that has helped English weather the kind of trials and traumas that can beset anyone starting a business, African-American entrepreneurs in particular.
FAST FACTS
African-American-owned businesses in the U.S.
The Small Business Administration has guaranteed 534 loans totaling $197.9 million in New Jersey since the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1 2009.
Here is the number and amount made to African-American-owned businesses:
Number of loans 24
Percent of all loans 4.5
Dollar value of loans $2.3 million
Business ownership rates in different ethnic groups
Percentage of workforce owns a business
Total 10.1
Non-minority 11.3
Native-American 7.6
Asian/Pacific Islander 10.3
Hispanic 7.9
African-American 5.5
Sources: U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Small Business Administration – New Jersey
Black entrepreneurs face challenges that other entrepreneurs experience less, from difficulty getting credit to having few support networks to tap, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City, Mo., think tank.
Yet across North Jersey, black entrepreneurs like English continue to test the market with an idea or venture, eager to work for themselves, rather than someone else.
For English, the opportunity came when she was laid off in December 2008 from a job as an accountant at a non-profit organization, where she had worked for 10 years.
By then, she was running the baking business part time, making desserts at home and selling them through her church, for several years.
But she was reluctant to take the plunge into running it full time, out of "fear, I guess, and just not seeing anybody else do it. I was always supposed to go to school, get a degree and work for somebody."
Then, she got fired.
"I was like, 'Wow!' " she said. "I could really work hard for somebody else and they can say: It's time for you to go."
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Meeting challenges
Jason Martin opened his photo and video production studio, Jus Pray Production, two years after running a similar business and a recording studio from his home. He invested about $80,000 in the business, much of it his own money, gave it a new name and gave it its own location — convinced he could overcome the hurdles he would face.
"If you look at the statistics, African-Americans are one of the largest groups that start businesses," he said. "We definitely start. But one of the toughest things is to finish, to remain and be successful."
He said community support and his faith convinced him that he could overcome the challenges.
"If you have the entrepreneurial spirit, you only feel comfortable in a position where you determine your own destiny," he said.
Nationally, a smaller proportion of the African-American workforce — 5.5 percent — owns a business than other minority communities and the total workforce, the U.S. Department of Commerce says.
An analysis of gross receipts and size of workforce at African-American-owned firms shows that the disparities are actually worse, said Daryl Williams, director of research and policy/minority entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation.
"They don't make a lot of money, and they don't hire a lot of people," he said.
Aside from the challenge of getting financing, African-American business owners have difficulty sustaining and growing their business, he said. One reason is the scarcity of a network of black entrepreneurs, and another is the lack of experience in creating the processes and operations needed to grow a business into a medium-sized venture, he said.
"It's more about there not being a network, the tools you need to grow a business, and the market to grow a business," he said.
Support group helps
Isaiah Jefferson and his wife, Kayellen, created Englewood-based Circles of Color to combat that problem. A membership organization with nine chapters, including branches in Teaneck and Hackensack, it provides a business network with regular meetings where entrepreneurs and business people can meet and exchange experiences.
"A lot of us are first-generation entrepreneurs," Isaiah Jefferson said. "So when you've got that, there are a lot of obstacles."
The organization also tries to promote the "understanding that entrepreneurs are really leaders of your community. It's not your athletes and entertainers," he added.
Donna English, who runs the business with her daughter, Coco Applewhite, gets a sense of that from some of her customers.
"I think that people, because they see me, a person of color, they think 'You own this? Oh my God!' And they want to support it."
She knows she has a way to go, however. Although she has regular orders from restaurants in Hackensack, Rutherford and Edgewater, business at the café has been "a little slow."
She says if she had to do it again, she would have done more networking before opening, and would have "flooded" the neighborhood with marketing pieces to announce, "We're coming, we're coming."
Still, she has no doubt that she made the right move.
"I feel very good about it," she said. "It's not about cakes and pies. It's more about fulfilling that thing, the side of you that thinks – 'I wonder if I should do it.' "
And she offered her advice to others.
"Just do it!"
E-mail: morley@northjersey.com
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