Access to capital and the comparatively low earnings and small size of many black-owned companies are among the issues being discussed this week at the fourth annual California African American Business Summit at the Irvine Hyatt Regency in Orange County. The conference held in Oakland last year and scheduled for San Francisco in 2002 is expected to attract at least 500 African-American entrepreneurs and corporate representatives from throughout the state. Workshops topics at the summit will include the advantages of debt financing and equity financing, using technology and the Internet to increase business, the ins and outs of government procurement, business opportunities in sports and entertainment and financing of projects sponsored by faith-based organizations. We've created jobs for ourselves, but no benefits, no vacations and a lot of stress. So Means will be promoting the formation of alliances and partnerships between these businesses, as well as between small firms and larger companies.
Procurement can be a problem because of a lack of opportunity.
Networking can open our business people up to sources of capital. Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles are the major hubs of African-American business activity in California. The way to move beyond being these micro-sized companies is to form alliances and partnerships. He's upbeat about companies run by African Americans. Many are tech-based companies, with most concentrating on software and telecommunications products.