Grounded in the belief that entrepreneurship is one of the best routes to economic development, organizations such as the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women?s Clubs (founded in 1935) and the very young National Association of Black Female Entrepreneurs (established in 2010) are redoubling efforts to develop and sustain businesses owned by Black women. NANBPWC projects, such as the Power of Our Dollar$, address the difficulty in accessing business capital, accumulating personal assets, real property holdings, estate planning and retirement strategies. On Jan. 9, NABFE posted on its Facebook page a list of business imperatives for 2012 that effectively establishes a blueprint for success. It includes:
? Develop the ability to see the needs and wants of others;
? Find a market gap;
? Become a service and quality fanatic;
? Offer your original investors the chance to profit in a big way;
? Use the telephone constantly for acquiring all kinds of information;
? Hire the best people and generate entrepreneurial excitement;
? Charge enough, meet problems head one, collect your money up front;
? Develop a strategy that helps your customers grow, improve or profit;
? Constantly aim to become the dominant company in your industry;
? Maintain honesty and integrity always and in all dealings;
? Accept no freebies, government grants or subsidized loans;
? Be generous to employees with wages, profit-sharing and benefits;
? See your company as national, rather than local or regional;
? Develop tenacity and perseverance to survive days and nights of anxiety;
? Manage your company for constant mistake avoidance;
? Win your customers back again and again;
? Apply a fail-safe range of management checkpoints and controls;
? Constantly seek to pay minimum taxes, but always stay within the law;
? Diversify into those areas that fit and supplement your existing business;
? Find something worthwhile to do with the money you earn;
? Sell your company or service only when you are no longer excited about what you do.?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ? Salome Kilkenny
