BusinessTN

It’s not a complete mystery why ethnic groups tend to cluster in certain industries. Cultural habits, family traditions and value systems were big reasons why, for example, early in the past century Jews were over-represented in financing businesses and Germans became America’s brewmeisters. More recently, Indians have enjoyed huge success in the lodging industry. In other words, the habits of one’s parents and grandparents mean that the cobbler’s child, though perhaps shoeless, is more likely to enter the footwear industry than the kid next door.

Recognizing the impact that cultural exposure to commerce and entrepreneurship can have, the Greater Nashville Black Chamber of Commerce will launch next summer Entrepreneur Academy. Sort of an intensive Junior Achievement, the program introduces African-American middle school, high school and college students to the thrills and challenges of starting a business. Drawing up business plans and securing funding are two of the experiences students learn from black executives and entrepreneurs.

“We want to create the next Tony Cebrun, Sam Howard or T.B. Boyd,” Jerry Maynard II, the recently elected chairman of the Black Chamber, says in reference to former managed care organization owners Cebrun and Howard and Citizens Savings Bank & Trust Chairman Boyd, who also leads R.H. Boyd Publishing.

These three defied the more traditional African-American business path to such lifestyle companies as small restaurants, markets and hair salons. That’s a good model for college students, who need to be aware that opportunities exist in a variety of industries, including high growth businesses that venture capitalists are interested in, counsels William Latham, director of Tennessee State University’s Tennessee Small Business Development Center. To that end, the center brings together young people and black entrepreneurs, enters the students in an annual business plan competition in Atlanta and increases their exposure to business in general.

“Once the students are seeing it and studying it, being part of a high growth business becomes part of their psyche and they say, ‘I can do that,’” Latham says.

Latham also applauds the Black Chamber’s emphasis on teaching African- American business owners how to bid for and secure government contracts. While Latham’s group offers 30-day training courses on preparing contract proposals, Maynard says the Chamber is encouraging black entrepreneurs to engage in the political system. “If you’re not out there participating in the political process, you’re at a disadvantage” in winning government contracting, he says.

Additional initiatives Maynard has in mind for the six-year-old Chamber include educating black businesspeople about venture capital and other financing alternatives to banks, bridging the gap between local African Americans who have private wealth and entrepreneurs who need capital, forming relationships with majority-owned businesses, and teaching young people the importance of deferred gratification so that they save money and keep good credit.

“Jerry brings great energy to this community with his passion for educating and empowering people,” says Sharon Hurt, executive director of the Jefferson Street United Merchants Partnership (JUMP), a group working to revitalize life and commerce in an area once renowned for the vibrancy of its African-American community.

Thirty-seven-year-old Maynard—an attorney by training and former executive with Meharry Medical College who now runs a construction consulting firm for churches and not-for-profits—says he expects the Greater Nashville Black Chamber of Commerce will successfully “promote good growth that is appealing to all sectors while maintaining the cultural flavor of Jefferson Street.” If he’s right, then greater numbers of African-American Nashvillians will grow up in homes where conversations about nurturing growing businesses are standard fare at family dinner tables. And as America’s ethnic experience has demonstrated, that’s the real key to community-wide economic development.