|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
ENTREPRENEURIALSHIP
Why Minorities Consider Becoming Entrepreneurs
Many people of color think corporate America presents obstacles for achieving their goals, so they strike out on their own.
[Louise Witt, Fortune Small Business]
Cheryl Green never expected to become an entrepreneur. Green, an organizational development executive, helped FORTUNE 500 companies adjust their corporate cultures and strategies to tackle challenges. But about a dozen years ago, Green, who is an African American, realized that she was the one who had to make changes. That's when, after asking her bosses why she was repeatedly passed over for a promotion for vice president, she was told that she needed more education—even though she already had a master’s degree, an MBA and a Ph.D. “Saying I need to go back to school was a pat answer,” Green, who is now in her 50s, says. “It was a polite way (for them to tell me), it’s not going to happen.”
So Green decided she wasn’t going to stay in the corporate game. “That was my wake-up call to get out of the corporate environment," she says. "I wasn’t going to jump through hoops and do tricks for people who can then say no… Their ceiling for me was a lot lower than the one that I viewed for myself.”
Green spent a few more years at big companies picking up more marketable skills, then she set out on her own. Five years ago, she opened Green Resource Group, a consulting company in Bethesda, Md., that advises major corporations on how they can better promote diversity in their workplaces.
While many companies do go out of their way to hire minority employees, Green says because people of color often aren’t included in informal communication channels, or are simply overlooked, they don't always have the same opportunities for advancement as white employees. “Executives see a shortage of talent, because they’re not finding people like themselves, people who look like them and who have had the same career paths or the same experiences,” she says.
If minorities don’t think that their contributions are being adequately recognized, that may prod them to start their own businesses. “If you’re an entrepreneur then you can control your destiny,” says Green. “The money you make is the result of your efforts. You may be testing yourself and testing your limits, but you’re not having those limits imposed on you.”
At least one study suggests that minorities are more likely to consider owning their own business than whites. The 2002 study, called The Entrepreneur Next Door, published by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which promotes entrepreneurial scholarship, showed that African Americans were 50% more likely to try starting a business than whites. Hispanic men were 20% more likely to try to start a business than white men. The percentage of Hispanic women who try to become business owners is about the same percentage as white women, but lower than black women.
“Minorities tend to be much more interested in forming businesses than whites,” says Robert Litan, vice president of research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation, based in Kansas City, Mo. Even though the study didn’t explore why, Litan says one explanation may be the “glass ceiling problem.”
Still, becoming an entrepreneur is not without problems. Even though many people of color contemplate owning their own business, many never get their companies off the ground. Or if they do, their businesses often remain relatively small. In June, the Boston Consulting Group released a study, The New Agenda for Minority Business Development, which concluded that many minority-owned businesses don’t evolve into high-growth ventures, typically because their owners rely on personal debt and family loans rather than tapping into other capital sources, such as bank loans and equity markets. With government set-aside programs being cut back, the study suggested many ways to promote minority entrepreneurs, including encouraging corporations to place a greater emphasis on working with minority-owned businesses.
Green thinks there will be more minority entrepreneurs in the future, as more role models are created. “In my generation, there were few entrepreneurs who were striking out on their own. For people in their 20s, that number is increasing. The Internet opened up opportunities where you don’t have (to have) a lot of money to build a brick-and-mortar business. And you don’t (necessarily display) race and gender online, so you have a much more level playing field.”
While Green is working with corporations to help them retain and promote minority employees, she also recognizes that entrepreneurship can be an exciting option. “That’s the good news about corporate defection,” she says. “ You’re leaving something, but you’re also going toward something that you’ve dreamed about. You’re following your own path.”
Louise Witt is a writer based in Hoboken, N.J. She has written extensively on small business and entrepreneurship.
|
|
|
|
|
|
