“Everything that you need to make your business successful, everything you need to empower yourself, everything you need to grow and be all that you want to be is already in your neighborhood,†filmmaker and Atlanta-based entrepreneur Tyler Perry advised a packed house at the Woodruff Arts Center’s Rich Theatre during his keynote address at the Atlanta Urban Entrepreneurship Forum on July 29.
The event, which included a live pitch contest worth $10,000 from 100 Urban Entrepreneurs for three lucky startups, was part of an ongoing national series being presented by the White Office Business Council and the White House Office of Public Engagement to jumpstart entrepreneurship across the nation, especially among African Americans. Michael Blake, Associate Director for the White House Office of Public Engagement and Deputy Associate Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, has been at the forefront of the initiative.
In a press conference with Perry and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed following Perry’s address, Blake spoke to the vital importance of entrepreneurship to the African American community by emphasizing the importance of entrepreneurship to the nation as a whole.
“The numbers don’t lie,†he stressed. “Two-thirds of businesses are small businesses in this country. More than half the jobs are coming from small businesses. Eighty-four percent of the population now is in urban America so the only way that we are going to be able to accelerate and grow as a country is by urban entrepreneurs being successful, and the only way we can help it be successful is by providing access to resources and access to capital,†he said, underscoring the significance of the Atlanta effort and others.
Earlier, as Hollywood’s multi-million dollar man addressed the crowd as “Tyler Perry, the urban entrepreneur,†he tagged Atlanta as a key place for other entrepreneurs to realize their dreams. When Perry left his native New Orleans to attend Freaknic years ago, he
found more than a party. Awed by the many successful African Americans he encountered, Perry saw Atlanta was his “Promised Land,†and decided to join them. The rest, as we know, is history.“Mr. Perry’s model is instructive beyond entertainment because what he did was dominated the space in his own community and then expanded that platform,†noted Mayor Kasim Reed in exclusive conversation with BlackEnterprise.com.
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According to numbers taken from the Survey of Business Owners: Black-Owned Businesses: 2007, which is compiled every five years, metro Atlanta saw a 99 percent increase in black businesses from 2002 to 2007. In 2007, there were more than 127,000 black-owned businesses as compared to 64,000 in 2002 in the metro Atlanta area.
“More than 75% of the nation’s GDP is generated in cities,†shared the mayor. So, for him, “the urban entrepreneur is really the future if America’s economy is going to continue to grow.â€
That’s why the Howard University alum, who won a tightly contested race that ended in a run-off election on December 1, 2009, has kept his eye on expanding entrepreneurship opportunities even as he has dealt with immediate crises such as pension plan reform and the headline-grabbing Atlanta Public School cheating scandal.“Everything we’re doing today is about where I believe that the country is going and that the world is going and [I’m] positioning Atlanta at the center of that activity,†Reed noted regarding the importance of his administration joining forces with the White House for the Atlanta Urban Entrepreneurship Forum.
“In being a part of initiatives like today,†he said, “we are raising the level of interest and awareness regarding minority and women contracting opportunities with the city.†And that level, he noted, is substantial.
“Despite the fact that there are more minority business owners in the state of New York, no municipal government in the United States of America does more business by percentage of their budget and operations than the city of Atlanta does,†he boasted.
That precedent set by Atlanta’s first black mayor Maynard Jackson is one that Reed is committed to expanding. In addition to his continued support of the motion picture and television industry, Reed is eyeing a Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship where 20 women entrepreneurs will receive free office space and office resources such as computers and phones for 20 months because he believes “women haven’t benefited enough.â€
The Atlanta native is crystal clear about his mission: “I want to make sure that, when I’m done being mayor, that the number of people that I helped has increased and that we had a program that was robust and fair and that we created a new cadre of entrepreneurs.â€
For more information on opening a business in Atlanta, visit atlanta.gov
For more information on 100 Urban Entrepreneurs, visit 100urbanentrepreneurs.org