Don’t miss a moment! Log on to BlackEnterprise.com/events to see the live stream of the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference BE 100s Awards Dinner now!

Tune in to the livestream of today’s session at 1:45pm CST on “Mastering the Search Engine for $$$.” Click here to watch!

The workshops, to be led by a staff of Google experts, will provide one-on-one consultation with Entrepreneurs Conference attendees, including businesses looking to launch new websites, as well as companies looking to optimize already established websites for their businesses. Among the valuable assets entrepreneurs will gain from the 1-hour workshops are online tools and training from Google team experts, as well as custom search engine optimization (SEO) strategies for their businesses. Topics covered by each workshop are as follows:

Grow Your Business Online

• Learn the basics of how other people find your business online, with methods like SEO, web analytics and more.
• Run your business more efficiently with online tools, including applications for improving collaboration and communication.

Promote Your Business Online

• Attract customers down the street or across the country with online marketing tools like Google AdWords and AdWords Express.
• Learn to focus your marketing efforts and budget for your target audience.

The workshops and free consulting services being delivered by Google, a conference sponsor, are exclusive to registrants and will be delivered on a first-come, first-served basis, with limited consulting slots available. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity access the insights of Google Inc. Global Diversity Program Business Development Manager Chris Genteel, a speaker/presenter of this year’s Entrepreneurs Conference.

Google is among the major corporations looking to do business with you at the 2012 Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference + Expo hosted by Nationwide, May 23-26, at the Hilton Chicago Hotel in Chicago, IL. Search and follow the hashtag #BEEC2012 on Twitter for the latest updates on conference speakers and sessions. Expect innovative sessions, high-powered speakers, and an early peek at the products, trends, and services you’ll need to stay ahead of the curve. To register and find out more, visit www.blackenterprise.com/ec/

Log on to BlackEnterprise.com/events to see the live stream of the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference. We’ll bring you select sessions from the conference and interviews with panelist, attendees and your fellow entrepreneurs.

See our schedule below and be sure to tune in!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

8:15 am – 8:30 am: Opening Remarks with Black Enterprise President and CEO Earl “Butch” Graves Jr.

8:30 am – 9:15 am: One on One Conversation with Tavis Smiley

9:30 am – 10:45 am: Social Media X Factor: Take Your Business Marketing Strategy to the Next Level

With strategies and best practices you need to optimize your business development, this session will ensure that your social media strategy is about to get an upgrade!

12:30 pm – 2:00 pm: Small Business Awards Luncheon featuring a one-on–one conversation with world renowned chef, Marcus Samuelsson

7:30 pm – 9:00 pm: Going Up! The Elevator Pitch Competition is Back (Hosted by PepsiCo)

Entrepreneurs bring their best 60-second business pitch and go head-to-head with fellow attendees to compete for a $10,000 grand prize, plus an 8-week mentoring workshop with The CASHFLOW!

Friday, May 25, 2012

9:15 am – 10:30 am: Sourcing Capital for Your Tech Startup

Amazon and Facebook are online institutions, but they began as startups. This session, led by tech experts and entrepreneurs, will tell how to raise money from venture capitalists, angel investors, and other funders to get your company where it needs to be.

1:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m: BE Small Business Success™ Boot Camp—Mastering the Search Engine for $$$ (Facilitated by Google)

When customers Google the service or product you offer, will they see the name of your business pop up? If not, you’re losing potential sales by the thousands.

3:15 pm – 4:15 pm: BE Small Business Success™ Boot Camp E – Mobile Marketing

It’s time to make mobile work for your business!

8:00 pm – 10:00 pm: BE 100s Anniversary Celebration & Awards Dinner (Hosted by Dell)

Are you ready to swim with "sharks" like FUBU Founder Daymond John?

How do you ensure that what you say is a turn on and not a turn off when meeting a potential angel investor and ensure that you get a second “date” or opportunity to close the deal with a written check in hand? Today, at the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference + Expo in Chicago, Daymond John, founder and CEO of the urban clothing line FUBU, co-star of ABC’s Shark Tank and CEO of Shark Branding, will help shed some light on the “courtship” between entrepreneur and investor when he helps kick-off the opening event, “Equity Date With An Angel.” John will be joined by Timothy Reese, co-founder of the Minority Angel Investor Network and managing partner of Forge Intellectual Capital.

Timothy Reese, co-founder of the Minority Angel Investor Network

The successful “shark”—who guided FUBU to $350 million in revenues in 1998, placing it at the same table with such designer sportswear labels as Donna Karan New York and Tommy Hilfiger—will be on hand to hear business ideas, critique speed-date like pitches, and give tips on how best to jump-start a business venture.

John is also embarking on a new business mission—to head to Silicon Valley. “Tech companies excite me,” he says. “I want to bring all of my celebrity friends along with all of my marketing, lifestyle and branding knowledge and dig deep into technology,” adds the ambassador for Shopify.com, where any entrepreneur can easily and readily set up a professional e-store. So, “I have been aligning myself with a lot of tech companies that make life easier for entrepreneurs.”

Select participants of today’s “Equity Date With An Angel” session will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with a private investor during our business coaching sessions held throughout the conference.

John and Reese are among the accomplished entrepreneurs who will share their success secrets at the 2012 Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference + Expo hosted by Nationwide, May 23-26, at the Hilton Chicago Hotel in Chicago, IL. Search and follow the hashtag #BEEC2012 on Twitter for the latest updates on conference speakers and sessions. And go to www.blackenterprise.com/ec/ to see live stream of select EC events.

(Image: ThinkStock)

There is no one given industry or type of business that will render any entrepreneur riches beyond his or her wildest dreams. However, there are niches to be found throughout any market and during any cycle of the economy. The annual Black Enterprise Small Business Awards recognize those entrepreneurs who have found their niche, possessing the right strategy and skill to eventually grow their small enterprises into sizable entities within their industries. The winners of the 2012 Small Business Awards will be announced at the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference + Expo hosted by Nationwide, May 23 to 26 in Chicago.

This year we broadened our Innovator of the Year criteria to include early stage emerging companies that have been in business at least two years and have at least $250,000 in revenues. Our nominees run the gamut from entrepreneurs who are high-tech innovators to those running age-old businesses with a modern twist to entrepreneurs with socially conscious enterprises.

In preparation for the Small Business Awards, BlackEnterprise.com is giving you the chance to weigh in on this fierce competition by voting online for who should win in each of the four categories (Innovator of the Year, Family Business of the Year, BE Next Award and Teenpreneur Award). Scroll through the next few pages to see who our 2012 nominees are and cast your ballot to decide who the People’s Choice winners are. Your choices will be celebrated at the Black Enterprise Small Business Awards Luncheon hosted by Ariel Investments on May 24 at the Hilton Chicago. The power is in your hands. —Carolyn M. Brown

Click here to continue reading…

by Alfred Edmond Jr.

The best environment for profitability is one in which everyone is making money. (Image: Thinkstock)

One of the keys to the success of your business is the economic vitality of the market it operates in, whether that is defined by geography (for example, the Atlanta metro area), industry (home improvement), culture (hip-hop) or demographic (new mothers). The better the businesses in proximity and/or related to yours are doing, the more likely it is that there are people and companies with the financial resources to spend money with you. All things being equal, the best thing to do to improve the number and quality of prospects for your business is to help those around you to grow theirs. In fact, smart entrepreneurs go out of their way to help enrich those around them. Who wants to serve a market full of cash-strapped customers and struggling businesses?

This principle is at the foundation of why our Chairman and Publisher Earl Graves Sr. founded Black Enterprise in the first place more than four decades ago. We exist to help you build wealth in your businesses, careers and personal finances, in order to increase your value as an audience to advertisers, from whom we derive the lions share of our company’s revenues. Simply put, if you don’t prosper, we can’t either. And the reality is, as spelled out in Gary Vaynerchuk’s book The Thank You Economy, that’s true for all businesses and their customers—including yours.

Events that bring entrepreneurs together such as the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference present a great chance for you to practice not just looking for business opportunities for yourself, but creating them for others, thus increasing the value of your business as well as your personal brand. In fact, the most valuable element of the conference is that it may be the only time of the year you get to spend two, concentrated days with entrepreneurs—more than 1,000 people who think just like you do, who understand where you are because they’re there, or have been there, too. To establish yourself as a valuable asset them, and thus strengthen your own prospects, here are 7 key ways to create business opportunities at the Entrepreneurs Conference:

• Spend money with them.

Just remember the unofficial motto of the Entrepreneurs Conference: “We didn’t come here to just talk about business. We’re here to do business!” If you like or need what they are selling, the price is competitive and the quality is good, why not spend money? Everyone who knows me knows how much I hate hook-ups. The best way to support other entrepreneurs in your network is not to expect them to provide free products and services, but to actually purchase from them. If they choose to give you a “friends and family” discount or an occasional freebie, okay. But their businesses need sales growth, positive cash flow and profits to thrive, just like yours does.

• Endorse their products and services.

If you are connected on LinkedIn, post a recommendation to their profile. If you have a positive customer experience, share it with your contacts in every way you can, including via e-mail, social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook and, of course, by word of mouth. Send them customers every chance you get. Of course, it’s hard to make a referral if you haven’t been a customer yourself (see previous tip).

• If you can’t get a contract, pass it on.

We come across business opportunities all the time that we are denied or choose not to pursue. Often, we know of another business that would have a shot at that opportunity or would want to pursue it. All they need is for us to tell them about it, and share any information we might have that could give them the edge. The next best thing to you getting the business is someone you know getting it—with them knowing that they have you to thank for it.

• Share intelligence.

Information is valuable currency, but like all other forms of wealth, it is of no worth if it is hoarded. So if, for example, you discover that a major corporation is looking to expand its pool of minority vendors, what’s the point of keeping it to yourself? You’ll increase your value in the eyes of both the corporation and your fellow vendors and aspiring suppliers as the source of information that helps everybody achieve their goals. That will bring a much bigger payoff than the contract you may or may not land if you keep the information to yourself.

• Actively recruit new business owners into the fold.

This is especially vital for younger entrepreneurs in need of support and guidance. Help them to make the connections and find the customers they’ll need to thrive. The promising young business owner you help today could be your most loyal—and biggest—customer tomorrow.

• Recycle business cards.

No, I don’t mean putting them into the recycling bin (although that’s not a bad idea, once you’ve entered card info into your contacts on your smartphone or tablet). Before tossing out the ones that seem to have no value to you, consider whether you’ve met others who could benefit from those contacts. For example, you may not be in the market for a public relations consultant, but you may have met someone at this morning’s networking breakfast who is. Pass on the contact info for that great PR maven you just met, but can’t hire.

• Play matchmaker.

Don’t just network for yourself. Go out of your way to connect people with others. In other words, in addition to looking out for your own interests, listen out for what those around you are looking for. Everybody at the conference has a piece of the puzzle. The more people are able to connect with others with pieces that match theirs, the greater the return on investment for attending will be for everybody. So go out of your way to make introductions, both at the conference and after, including via social media.

Now, I’m not suggesting you do all of these things for everyone you meet. You have not only the right to be selective about which entrepreneurs to embrace and support, you have the obligation. After all, if you recommend a business that cuts corners on quality or has surly customer service, that reflects poorly only you and your brand. And you certainly shouldn’t spend money or do business with anyone who does not give you your money’s worth for any reason. Go out of your way to find entrepreneurs of the highest professional caliber, running quality businesses that you can proudly endorse and patronize without hesitation. (And by all means, be sure you are that kind of business owner, with a company of like quality.) Once you’ve found fellow entrepreneurs who meet or exceed that standard, do everything you can to help them to succeed. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how much goodwill and support you can generate once you establish yourself as a goose who delivers golden eggs for others.

Not everyone whose back you scratch will be able—or even willing—to scratch yours. Don’t worry about that; that’s not the point. It’s not about quid pro quo. It’s about creating a network of successful businesses to be a part of. Your association with that network alone will create a healthy environment for your own business, assuming that it is truly viable, to grow. Your goal is not to obligate others to do things for you. It’s to be recognized as a key contributor to the success of the entire network. (When it’s done right, that’s what social media is all about.) Once that happens, others will want you to succeed, too. At least the smart ones will. After all, it will be in their own best interest.

Remember, a market can’t be fertile for you and a desert for everyone else. Be known for helping others to thrive, and your own venture will be more fruitful. By going out of your way to sow seeds of opportunity for the others, you could reap a rich harvest that will sustain your business long after the event ends.

Small business is BIG BUSINESS at the 2012 Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference + Expo hosted by Nationwide, May 23-26, at the Hilton Chicago Hotel in Chicago, IL. Expect innovative sessions, high-powered speakers, and an early peek at the products, trends, and services you’ll need to stay ahead of the curve. To register and find out more, visit www.blackenterprise.com/ec/