Initiative aims to recruit black entrepreneurs

While attending Wichita State University in the early 1980s, Debra Lynn Washington and her tired fingers had an epiphany.

“I was typing papers for the entire football team back in 1982,” Washington said. “Eventually, I thought ‘Hey, if I’m going to do this, I might as well get paid for it.’ ”

Not long after, what is now known as Deb’s Creative Services was born. Washington has run the graphic design and professional document company out of her home as a second job for more than three decades, long outlasting the WSU football program in the process.

Washington is one of about 30 African-American entrepreneurs – or those interested in becoming entrepreneurs – planning to attend an event on Saturday called “Create Campaign,” an initiative of the Entrepreneurship Task Force, which was born of the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Council.

The goal of the event and the campaign, said task force co-chair Gary Oborny of Occidental Management, is to assist interested parties in Wichita’s black community in pursuing entrepreneur-based ideas and expansion.

“We want to expand the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem in Wichita,” Oborny said. “The African-American community is one part of that ecosystem where there is room for growth.

“It’s not easy to start a business, but there are resources available to help people along, and we want to get that message out.”

Saturday’s event, at WSU’s Rhatigan Student Center, will include speakers and “information resource vendors,” who will describe various services available to those interested in entrepreneurship projects.

Though Create Campaign co-chair Christina Long, herself a local small-business owner, said the initiative won’t directly provide monetary resources or grants, she added that it will be a good way for budding entrepreneurs to learn about national organizations like the Business Consortium Fund, a nonprofit and minority-focused lending institution; the Mountain Plains Minority Supplier Development Council; and, more locally, the South Central Kansas Economic Development District and Kansas Department of Commerce’s Office of Minority and Women Business Development.

“The campaign offers a sustainable framework to help strengthen African-American businesses as part of current economic development growth strategies,” said Long, who owns her own graphic design and communication services company. “Through the campaign, business leaders and service-providers are able to more intentionally connect resources, programming and the transfer of knowledge to help entrepreneurs grow more viable businesses, businesses that provide good jobs and contribute more significantly to the local economy.”

Black-owned businesses

Partly due to the fact that many businesses are proprietors who may not be registered with the Secretary of State’s Office, Long said, it’s hard to get an exact read on how many black-owned businesses there are in Wichita.

According to U.S. Census Bureau numbers, just more than 6 percent of the roughly 2.9 million people in Kansas are black, though only about 2.4 percent of the state’s registered firms are blacked-owned. The minority-owned business numbers were last released in 2007 and are scheduled to be updated by the bureau later this year.

While opinions of why there seems to be a disproportionately low amount of black-owned businesses in Kansas – and, many suspect, in Wichita – are plentiful, the general consensus seems to be that the city can improve in the area.

“I think most people in the African-American community don’t know about resources that are available,” said Marquetta Atkins, a Wichita professional looking to possibly start her own side business making T-shirts.

“A lot of small businesses are passed on to children from their parents. Because of what we went through through the years as African-Americans, there weren’t nearly as many businesses that were black-owned to passed down to the next generation. It makes a difference. It was harder for our parents.”

Wichita resident Brandon Johnson, who is co-founder and executive director of local social outreach organization Community Operations Recovery Empowerment, said improvements can be made in the area that Create Campaign is focusing on.

“As far as entrepreneurship and people of color, we’re behind,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of work that can be done. I believe there are resources out there and available, but I don’t think they’re marketed very well to the community.

“Some prominent business leaders in Wichita haven’t spent much time in areas like northeast Wichita or visited businesses on 13th Street or Central and 21st. Some of that is starting to change, though. (Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce CEO) Gary Plummer has been visiting some of these areas lately and that helps.”

Like Oborny, Plummer said the more interest in the Create Campaign, the better off the city’s business community will be.

“The Chamber applauds the efforts of Christina Long, (campaign co-chair) Kyle Williams and other members of the team for developing an outreach to African-American business start-ups,” Plummer said. “We support the Create Campaign because it will engage a traditionally underserved part of the community and grow jobs for our region.”

Washington said she’s looking forward to attending Saturday’s event, adding that she is tentatively planning on working her document business full-time once she retires from her day job with the U.S. Postal Service, which could happen later this year.

“I don’t know exactly what to expect (on Saturday), but if this helps more people develop their ideas, I think it could be a really good thing,” Washington said.

“I tell people that if they want to start a business, they have to make themselves visible and they have to network – meet people, get business cards, get on social media. It takes some work, but it can be done.”

This story was originally published July 22, 2015 at 7:23 PM with the headline "Initiative aims to recruit black entrepreneurs."