March 18, 2016
New Mobile App to Harness Capacity of $1.3 Trillion Collective Buying Power of the Black Community
Are you looking for black-owned businesses to buy from in your neighborhood or when traveling across the United States? Well, there’s an app for that.
[Related: 5 Questions You Should Ask Before Creating an App For Your Small Business]
WhereU Came From is the premier and reliable black business directory app for Apple and Android devices offering a local business search with real-time listings of black-owned businesses across various categories, ranked by people using the app.
Created by Atlanta-based, social entrepreneur Dr. Dionne Mahaffey, the app merges technology with the need to handle poverty, crime and other social ills in the African American community by focusing on economic development and job creation. Her company, The CPAI Group, also launched The Loyalty Stamp, a mobile rewards app, last year.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 2.6 million black owned businesses in this country.
“While the growth is encouraging there is still a lot of work to do to increase the profit of these black businesses. Gross receipts for all minority-owned firms are still well below the average gross receipts for non-minority-owned firms,†Mahaffey said.
A huge problem is that despite a collective buying power of $1.3 trillion dollars, very little of that money stays in black communities or is spent on black-owned businesses.
Currently, a dollar circulates in Asian communities for 30 days, in Jewish communities approximately 20 days, white communities 17 days, but in contrast, a dollar circulates in the black community only six hours.
Just 2 cents of every dollar an African American spends in this country goes to black- owned businesses. If higher income black consumers spent at least $1 out of every $10 with black-owned businesses it would generate one million jobs for African Americans.
“It will take all of us across all socio-economic statuses to build black wealth. We’ve got to invest in our own community. For us, community can’t be limited to where we are domiciled, since many of us live in non-black neighborhoods. When we start to embrace the diaspora-view that our community is wherever we find our people, then we will be more inclined to support one another, even if it means taking a long drive,†Mahaffey continued.
The WhereU app is here to help make it easier to ‘buy black,’ from house cleaning, plumbing, catering, lawyers, doctors, graphic designers, restaurants, beauty salons and more, the app’s referral and location-based system helps you start your search among the most trusted black professionals and businesses.
“Our development team has added several thousand businesses for the app launch. However, we’d love to include as many of the 2.6 million black businesses in the United States as possible,” she concluded.
Business profiles can be submitted from the web-site or within the actual WhereU Came From app. The app can also help majority, non-black corporations meet their diversity objectives by finding minority businesses to support.
Additionally, the website, WhereYouCameFrom.biz will feature entrepreneurs’ stories, offer narratives on wealth building and other topics relevant to black-owned business owners and consumers. The company also plans to hold conferences and pop-up shops across the country to promote black entrepreneurship.
Some of the unique app features include:
– Â Access to the top 10 most referred pros and businesses under a category, even without Internet connection
– Â Ability to find the pro nearest you through geo-location technology
– Â Reliable listings with verified contact numbers
– Â Easily refer trusted pros to friends and family through the referral function
For more information, visit www.WhereYouCameFrom.biz
About The CPAI Group, Inc. –Â CPAI has been a leader in innovation for over two decades. Since 1999, the company has launched technology initiatives commercially and for private clients in the sports and entertainment sectors.