Black Business Ink Magazine, Winston-Salem, NC

July 2004

Raleigh Business and Technology Center:

Setting the Pace for Southeast Raleigh’s Revitalization

By J. L. Reid

It’s no secret that big business – the kind conducted beyond neighborhood barbershops, soul-food restaurants, funeral parlors, or other traditionally black-owned businesses that dot the landscape along Martin Luther King Boulevard in southeast Raleigh – is often done behind closed doors.

Whether those doors are figurative, like the cliques and “good old boy” networks that have historically controlled access to the American business elite, or literal, like the heavy doors barring entrance into corporate boardrooms – the end result is the same: Access to what lies behind those doors is carefully passed from one privileged hand to another.

Terri Pullen, vice president of Pullen Construction, like most minority business owners, is painfully aware of who stands behind those closed doors.

“A lot of times it’s African Americans who are left in the dark about how to do certain things for their businesses,” Pullen says. Those “certain things” include basic business practices, effective marketing and networking, and access to local and state government procurement contracts.

A 16,000-square-foot virtual business incubator, known as the Raleigh Business and Technology Center and located just southeast of downtown, administers a master’s degree-level program called Pacesetters that the center’s supporters hope will provide Pullen and other small businesses keys to unlock doors that have historically barred their entry. During the nine-month Pacesetters program, business owners have access to the center’s conference rooms, library, computer laboratory, Internet service and audio-visual equipment. But, more importantly, they have access to decision makers in mainstream business.

“A great disparity’

In many black urban communities there are empty, often run-down buildings that once housed successful businesses. In the worst residential areas, homes are substandard because people lack access to funding sources for renovation and upkeep. Southeast Raleigh isn’t much different in this regard, according to Robert Robinson, executive director or the RBTC.

“There’s a great disparity between some of the positive things that are going on in Raleigh and what’s happening right in (our) backyard in southeast Raleigh,” says Robinson.

A 2001 study by Hammer, Siler and George Associates, an independent economic development consultancy commissioned by the Raleigh City Council to study southeast Raleigh, suggests that “many customers are reluctant to patronize businesses in neighborhoods that are perceived as being run-down.” Robinson sees this as a problem facing minority-owned businesses, since predominantly black District C is responsible for the lion’s share of the city’s negative statistics.

Dr. James West, a Raleigh city council member for District C and who serves as the mayor pro tempore, focuses on another trend cited in the independent report. “Because of changes in society people have become somewhat apathetic,” he says. “That is what the Hammer, Siler and George report says, that people are very apathetic. They feel that the city isn’t giving them an equal opportunity.”

To remedy this problem, West believes that the city needs to reinstate citizenship in some of the areas, such as southeast Raleigh, where people have had difficulty and challenges.

In response to recommendations in the study, the city council created the Southeast Raleigh Assembly to enact and oversee steps for economic development. This called for the creation of a development entity to carry out housing and economic development activities; a 10-year, $100 million fund-raising campaign for housing and business development; and the creation of a virtual business incubator program. The report suggested the RBTC as the perfect agent to foster business training and support via an incubator program. Today, the RBTC is believed to be the only business incubator in the state geared toward the development of black-owned businesses.

Robinson sums up both the report’s goals and the Pacesetters’ initiative in one word: jobs. “The best way we thought we could (create economic development) was to make emerging businesses stronger, and then give them the tools and the capacity to grow,” Robinson says. “By growing, they would create new jobs. So one of the demands we place on the (Pacesetters) program participants is to hire employees that live in the southeast Raleigh community.”

‘Treading water’

The Pacesetters program, which graduates its second class later this year, was ostensibly created to produce new employment opportunities in southeast Raleigh, but its participants are also given a practical course in business fundamentals. Before being admitted into the program, each participant has to submit a business plan and undergo an intense screening interview session. Each of the 21 business owners in the current class has committed to the nine-month program that meets for three hours each Thursday. The fact that each of these businesses, as required by the program, has been established for at least two years doesn’t dissuade interest in the program.

‘Solving their own problems’

“You can always learn something new,” says Pullen, a 2004 Pacesetters enrollee. “There is a variety of things that can be taught to people who are already in business.” Robinson and the other program coordinators actively invite state procurement officers, city officials, bankers, lawyers and consultants to meet with the class. The program, which is funded in part by a $150,000 service contract from the city, is taught in 27 modules that, according to Robinson, are closely equivalent to the requirements in a master’s degree program.

For 2003 Pacesetter Charles Wilson of Intellus Inc., a technology and IT asset management firm, the program forced him to look at his business with renewed scrutiny.

“We were treading water at that point,” says Wilson, “and we needed to go back and look at our business fundamentals. That’s what the program did. It forced me to go back and look at my business plan, and it forced me to look at my strategic action plan.”

The weekly courses also helped Wilson re-learn the importance of marketing and financial management.

Since submitting a business plan is integral to the enrollment process, learning how to fine-tune those plans is a major benefit of the program that participants enjoy.

“I think a well-improved business plan that is being implemented and bearing fruit from its strategies would be a measure of the program’s success for me,” says Kimberly McClain, a 2004 Pacesetter who owns web development firm E-Artronics.

To help business owners develop realistic plans, the program pairs Pacesetters class members with a counselor. “If you have questions regarding research for your business or marketing, then you can go to your counselor for help. I love that,” Pullen says.

Both Robinson and West believe the Pacesetters program can help strengthen southeast Raleigh’s community, in addition to providing economic relief to the area. “The program not only deals with the fundamentals of business expertise, but it also deals with leadership skills,” Robinson says. “This is a secondary benefit to the southeast Raleigh community.”

Robinson goes on to say that there are many community-based organization that need business leaders on their boards, steering committees, and as members.

West added: “This Pacesetters program is basically getting the community to a point that (community members) can re-engage with each other and start solving their own problems. We hope to get everyone in southeast Raleigh engaged. Then power will pop up from the community base, and we’ll (be able to) organize around it.”

Establishing common ground

Just as the Pacesetters’ business training goes from the classroom to real-world businesses, a renewed awareness of community bond also starts in the classroom. “There’s ground that we as business owners have in common,” McClain says. “(However) being minority business owners, there are some specific areas that we can address and tackle as a group. If you have something in common with anyone, it’s always an advantage. You can build on it, which I think we have.”

Kevin Howell, a current Pacesetter and owner of Sterling Bookkeeping and Payroll, has a more personal take on building from common ground.

“It’s like in the church that I attend. We didn’t know how many business owners were there. Suddenly we looked around and there were over 400 businesses in our church that we didn’t know about,” Howell says.

“It’s like that with Pacesetters,” he adds. “We have a lot of businesses in the southeast Raleigh community that don’t even do business with each other, and if we don’t do business with each other we can’t hope to build our community.”