By Michael Abramowitz
The Daily Reflector
Friday, September 28, 2018
Minority and women-owned enterprises, celebrated all this week in Greenville and nationwide, are important components to a healthy economy that must be nurtured and developed with equal interest and opportunity, civic leaders said at a Thursday luncheon.
The City of Greenville and Greenville Utilities Commission hosted the annual celebration known as Minority Enterprise Development (MED) Week with several events that showcased the diversity of business ownership in the area, led by Ferdinand Rouse, Greenville’s minority and women’s business enterprise coordinator.
MED Week began in 2010 with limited resources, a few community partners and a small budget, initially organized to highlight minority-owned business opportunities with city government for projects like street repaving, construction, building repairs and other professional services, Rouse said at the luncheon held at the Martinsborough on Evans Street. More partnerships were added and strengthened during the years since, allowing the program to expand within the city structure.
“This year, the program focused more on smaller independent businesses, such as private financial services, barber shops and beauty salons, dining, shopping and other retail establishments,” Rouse said.
“We want to be sure that everyone who wants to start a business in Uptown Greenville and other parts of the city have the necessary tools and information about permitting, zoning, business plan competition and changes the city might be making about land parcels for sale or rent,” he said.
Greenville city leadership has been working to expand contract bidding opportunities for minorities, including small contracts that offer opportunities for small owners to gain valuable experience that can lead to larger projects, including opportunities with other cities, Rouse said.
“We have a large and growing contingent of minority and women-owned businesses now in Greenville, enough to have created a business directory of HUB-certified (Office of Historically Underrecognized Businesses) firms the city can contract and work with,” Rouse said. “The new directory includes all minority businesses available to the public as well.”
The directory includes 565 minority and women-owned businesses operating in the Greenville city limits and extra-territorial jurisdiction, Rouse said.
“Even I didn’t even know there were that many until the directory came out, and that probably just scratches the surface,” he said. “The number grows every day.”
Conversations conducted throughout the week in several platforms, including social media and a live panel discussion, addressed the issues, opportunities and challenges of new and prospective business ownership.
Attendees at City Hall on Tuesday learned about business development resources and gained insights into getting connected in the business community.
Thursday’s luncheon featured keynote speaker Elizabeth Basnight, manager of the Entrepreneurship Technical Assistance Program (E-TAP) at the NCGrowth Center, an arm of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC-Chapel Hill. The center helps businesses and communities create good jobs and equitable opportunities for their people.
“It’s important to help all North Carolina businesses, but minority and women business owners don’t necessarily get the same level of support in other ways,” Basnight said. “NCGrowth has a core value of inclusion and diversity, making sure everyone has a seat at the table to represent an area’s demographics. An economy in which everyone is successful and lifted up is much more robust.”
Tonight, the Greenville Museum of Art will host a networking event in collaboration with the Young Urban Professionals organization of Greenville. Information about wealth creation and entrepreneurship will top the event list.
“New and prospective entrepreneurs will be able to meet in an informal setting with a diverse bunch of professionals in the city who have been through some of the things the younger people might be going through,” Rouse said. “They can get tips on resume building, wise investing, professional conversation and personal presentation and some other things they don’t get a chance to talk too much about.”
Proclamations recognizing MED Week were read at the luncheon by Greenville Mayor P.J. Connelly and a representative of North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.
"This year, the program focused more on smaller independent businesses, such as private financial services, barber shops and beauty salons, dining, shopping and other retail establishments"Ferdinand Rouse, Greenville’s Minority and Women’s Business Enterprise Coordinator [kislideshow kirotate="true"][kislideshowslide kiimageurl="https://ncgrowth.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Minority-and-Women-Business-Owners.jpg" ]Elizabeth Basnight, Manager of the Entrepreneurship Technical Assistance Program (E-TAP) at the NCGrowth Center[/kislideshowslide][/kislideshow]