So, you want to be featured on the pages of Black Enterprise magazine? In fact, it’s been your life long entrepreneurial dream to make the cover. Join the club–every black entrepreneur shares that aspiration. At least it seems that way to me and other members of the editorial team of Black Enterprise. As I’ve already said, the first installments of this blog series will focus on small business owners who aspire to one day see themselves on the pages of Black Enterprise. Here are some basic things that entrepreneurs need to know to have a chance at being considered by our editors.
The best person to send information about your company to is Senior Content Producer Carolyn M. Brown, who edits our Small Biz section. Information sent to me or any other Black Enterprise staff will likely be routed to her. Brown is responsible for developing content and providing information to help small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs build and manage successful, profitable enterprises. She is also responsible helping to coordinate Black Enterprise‘s small business initiatives for our other platforms, including our national networking events. For example, Brown is part of the team that plans our annual Entrepreneurs Conference, and the Elevator Pitch Competition and Black Enterprise Small Business Awards in particular.
Each day, Brown and other staff editors receive an abundance of information from small businesses hoping to be featured in the magazine, in the form of elaborate brochures, expensive press kits, URLs to amazing Web sites and even samples of products. (We love the packages from you entrepreneurs in the baked goods industry.) However, too often, these efforts lack key information that we need to know to even consider an entrepreneur and her business for an article. Here’s a brief summary of what we have to know:
What are your revenues? You’ve heard the saying, What get’s measured, get’s done. As a longtime editor at Black Enterprise, I say what gets measured, gets in. If you want us to seriously consider your business as a subject for a story in Black Enterprise, there’s no way around it–you’re going to have to show us your numbers. We’ll expect to see the following information at minimum: annual revenues for the most recent full calendar year and for two to four (depending on how long you’ve been in business) preceding calendar years, along with projected annual revenues for the current calendar year. Yes, we do intend to publish your annual revenue figures.