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What’s worse than waiting on delayed Black Friday purchases? Waiting on delayed Black generational wealth!

Remember when Killer Mike had to sleep on a park bench because he could not find a Black-owned hotel during his attempt to buy Black for 72 hours? The Anderson Empowerment Experiment tells a similar Killer Mike tale about a family trying to buy Black-owned for one year, only to realize how few Black-owned businesses existed. It took them months to find a Black-owned gas station, dry cleaner, grocery store and general retailer for primary home, hygiene products and kid clothes.

Think about all the money you spend; think about your expenses (mortgage, rent, car note, insurance, groceries, pharmacy, cable, phone). Are there Black-owned alternatives for all of your expenses? If there are, are you aware of them, do you know where to find them, are they easy to find and do you currently support those Black-owned alternatives?

We have initiatives that are helping to make Black-owned shopping easier, such as SHOPPE BLACK, Black Wall Street and Buy from a Black Woman. And although these efforts are great, they're still not enough.

Your Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday were not Black enough. Here’s why:

“Black buying power is expected to hit $1.5 trillion by 2021. But only three percent of that buying power is spent at Black-owned businesses.”

We’re in this weird space where Black entrepreneurs lack the capital they need to launch or scale their business, and Black conscious consumers want more Black-owned businesses to support. But still, these two groups have yet to align.

The Black economic revolution we’re dreaming of requires an increase in Black entrepreneurship and Black conscious consumerism, but you can’t have one without the other. Both have to coexist and be in alignment.

“If you have not accumulated wealth, starting a business is much harder for you. The less money you have saved, the less money you have to bootstrap your business. The less money you have to collateralize a loan. In 2016, white families had a median net worth of $171,000, compared with $17,600 for Blacks”

The reason for the lack of Black businesses stems from an overall lack of money available to start them and the lack of consumers who spend money on Black-owned businesses. I lived the lack of capital struggle during my first entrepreneur journey. During that journey, I met many amazing Black founders with businesses bigger and better than mine, also enduring this same lack of capital struggle.

It’s hard not to feel defeated every time you see that “no capital for Black founders” headline. So I made the decision to put my first startup on pause. For me, it was a "which comes first, the chicken or the egg" decision, or in this case, my startup or funding for Black founders. I could push on with my first startup and secure the bag for myself and my startup, or I could take another path of securing a bigger bag for every emerging Black startup. I picked the latter and pivoted to create a crowdfunding platform and incubator for Black founders. We launched our first beta, Black 2 Crowdfunding incubator cohort, which is currently going on now. Our incubator participants and our crowdfunding platform go live in January 2020.

We need all hands on deck (allies included) in creating solutions that will increase Black ownership and Black wealth. Here are a eight action steps you can start right now to prevent Black wealth reaching zero by 2053:

1. Practice Black Conscious Consumerism

Be an agent of change who considers the Black impact of your buycott and boycott actions.

2. Be a Black Entrepreneur

Side hustle or full time hustle, all Black-owned entrepreneurial hustles matter! Jump in and join us, your legacy is depending on it, and your ancestors are judging you.

3. Do Your Black-Owned Due Diligence

Yes, go that extra mile and do the extra research to find Black-owned alternatives to everything you consume. Find them and support them with your dollars.

4. Include shop and invest Black in your budget

Hold yourself accountable to a specific percentage of your spending budget going towards Black-owned business.

5. Give Black

By the way, Black philanthropy endures the same capital struggle as Black entrepreneurship. Seek these organizations out and support them. They support issues that affect us. Failing to support them means you don’t want our issues resolved.

6. Mentor Or Advise A Black-Owned Business

We have so much Black excellence and expertise amongst us. That intellectual currency is priceless. Share your intellect and expertise with Black entrepreneurs so they can grow their intellectual capital.

7. Encourage Black Founders To Crowdfund And Support Their Crowdfunding Campaigns

Black founders struggle in asking for what they need, especially when it comes to asking for monetary support. Let’s change our “Don’t ask me for [blank]” narrative to “How can I help you and your business grow?”

8. Make all Fridays “Black Friday”

This Killer Mike call to action is great! It’s where we all (allies — non-minorities — included) make an effort to invest in Black-owned businesses.

If you’re about this Black conscious consumerism life, we’re getting all the stakeholders together to take action, join us here.

And before you leave, tweet this:

When Black entrepreneurship and the spending power of Black consumers align, the economic future we want becomes possible.

Renee King

Writing since December 2019 · 1 story contributed