Black chamber to launch new programs to support local businesses
19th January 2021 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
Although this past year has been challenging, Universal Printing is holding its own.
After 10 months of economic downturn caused by a global pandemic that has placed a strain on businesses large and small, the New Orleans East-based commercial printing company has avoided laying off any of its five-person staff, said manager Psytia Jordan, noting the only change manpower-wise was reducing one employee’s hours.
Jordan said the business, which produces digital printing of paper products like posters and business cards, has suffered from the drop in demand for print jobs for social gatherings like graduations and funerals. In addition, the inability of employees to meet potential clients face to face has also added threats to the bottom line.
But by using creative working schedules and staffing arrangements, Jordan and her Black-owned business is soldiering forward, despite the financial challenges posed by the pandemic. However, she said a lack of support from city government and other economic development agencies continues to cripple local Black-run companies, especially in New Orleans East.
“We’re holding our own,” Jordan said. “But right now, the city of New Orleans is doing a disservice [in the community]. There’s been no economic development in the East.
“It’s been a challenge,” she added, “but with everything we’re getting [business-wise], we’re making [business] happen.”
But entering the New Year, one organization that’s re-dedicated itself toward supporting and growing local businesses is the New Orleans Regional Black Chamber of Commerce, which is launching new programs and redoubling its efforts at local commercial and economic development.
LaVerne Toombs, the NORBCC’s new executive director, told The Louisiana Weekly that the chamber’s fundamental goal is to provide local businesses with the tools they need to strengthen their bottom line and repair any financial damage caused by the pandemic.
The first major effort being started by the NORBCC is a city-wide survey of chamber members to assess the state of the Black business economy locally.
“What we want to know from membership is what their needs are,” said Toombs, who has more than 20 years of experience working with various funding organizations like governmental agencies, non-profits and PR and marketing companies. “We believe this survey will be very useful to us to address the needs of Black businesses in New Orleans.”
She said the previous leadership of the chamber had already begun the assessment process, which, when finished, will provide the chamber with the data and financial details it needs to approach local banks and other funding institutions. Toombs said that by working directly with banks, the NORBCC and its members can improve the chances of local Black-owned businesses receiving loans, grants and other financial funding that previously might have been held back.
Toombs said financial institutions have an established pattern of denying loans or the extension of credit to the local Black community, but the survey will help hold the lenders’ feet to the fire to provide fairer financial support to African-American businesses.
“We want the conversation to be a little deeper,” she said. “We want to know why [businesses] were denied loans. Hopefully we can work with financial institutions to find out what the problems are and work with them to find a solution.”
The NORBCC also encourages members to open relationships with smaller, more community-focused financial institutions, such as credit unions, that have more lenient requirements for loan approval or offer locally-focused programs such as micro-loans and grants.
“There are a whole lot of institutions out there our businesses aren’t aware of,” she said. “We want to bring awareness to our businesses about other options out there.”
Toombs noted that the neglect from financial institutions cripples more than just individual businesses.
“This problem isn’t only with Black businesses, but with Black communities,” she said, adding that the financial industry needs to be sympathetic to the unique challenges faced by Black-owned businesses and the neighborhoods and populations those businesses serve.
“We need small-business lenders to understand the local communities and disadvantaged groups,” she said.
In addition to working with financial organizations like banks and credit unions, the NORBCC is cultivating existing programs or developing new ones with several local higher-education institutions, including SUNO, Tulane and Loyola.
“Every little bit helps,” Toombs said.
Besides making Black businesses more appealing as loan candidates, the chamber wants to recruit local financial experts like CPAs and bank-loan officers to provide logistical support to individual businesses in their day-to-day functions, such as filing taxes and accounting.
“Some of our businesses need hand-holding,” Toombs said. “We want to find resources [like experts] and connect them with local businesses to support them.”
Toombs had somewhat harsh words toward local governmental officials, whom she feels have failed to provide area businesses with needed support from the public sector. That neglect has often crippled small Black commercial ventures.
“The government can do much more,” she said. “Small businesses are the backbone of the economy, and [governmental bodies] don’t really appreciate small businesses the way we should. As a chamber, we need to be assertive with the government at all levels.”
That includes preparing local businesses to apply for federal financial-support programs that were established and continued by Congressional legislation passed to provide nationwide support to small commercial ventures during the pandemic, beginning with the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Toombs said minority-owned businesses have often been shut out or ignored by the PPP program.
“I’m hoping the PPP criteria will also be applied in the second round [of federal pandemic relief], especially with [debt] forgiveness,” she said. “Hopefully more Black businesses will be able to apply.”
In general, Toombs hopes the chamber can be part of the long economic recovery from the pandemic and the challenges, business and otherwise, the public-health crisis has caused.
“I really believe 2021 will be a good year,” she said. “Strained businesses will recover, and we’ll be here to help small businesses, especially Black businesses, find the resources and support they need.”
In addition to appointing Toombs to her new position, NORBCC members in December selected the organization’s new board of directors, including: attorney Rubi Brown (Transcendent Legal), Stephanie Chambliss (P.J.’s Coffee – New Orleans East), Arlanda Williams (AJ Williams Consulting), Inez Jordan (Ochsner Health System) and Karl Weber (Atmos Energy).
This article originally published in the January 18, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
