This week on The Urban Business Roundtable, UBR Executive Producer TaQuoya Kennedy speaks with Frank Kendrick and Tim Jackson, the business partners behind NuJak Companies, winner of the 2010 Black Enterprise Small Business of the Year award. NuJak, founded in 1992, provides construction management, general contracting and real estate services.
WATCH: NuJak Companies Entrepreneur of the Week profile on the Black Enterprise Business Report
Based in Lakeland, FL, the epicenter of the Sunshine State’s high tech corridor, NuJak specializes in the design and construction of commercial facilities, including those for religious, educational and financial institutions. NuJak implemented an extensive technology enhancement strategy that resulted in savings of about $150,000 per year. Kendrick and Jackson share how as fraternity brothers and buddies from college, they came together to pool their skills, knowledge, talent and capital to create one of Florida’s fastest growing Black-owned construction firms. In addition, Kennedy will speak with them about what it take to create and maintain a successful business partnership between friends.
Also on this week’s edition of The Urban Business Roundtable, contributor Renita Young speaks with Gerald Grant Jr., director of financial planning for AXA Advisors‘ South Florida Branch and author of Bold Moves to Creating Financial Wealth. Named Banker of the Year by the Miami-Dade Urban Bankers Association, Grant explains what he’s found to be the key difference between wealthy and non-wealthy people, while sharing proven wealth-building tips.
My “Alfred’s Notepad” commentary shares some of the key elements of a great elevator pitch for your business. This information will be very useful to entrepreneurs who intend to enter the 2011 Black Enterprise Elevator Pitch Competition for a chance to win prizes, including $10,000 in capital for the best business pitch. Finalists will earn the chance to deliver their pitch at the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference, slated for May 22-25, 2011 in Atlanta. The deadline for contest entries is March 31, 2011. Once again I’ll also be sharing a special discount code that will allow UBR listeners to knock more than 50% off of the cost of registration for the Entrepreneurs Conference, if they register by February 12. (That’s next week, folks!)
In addition, every week on UBR, you’ll get motivation and inspiration from author and entrepreneurial icon Farrah Gray, a weekly wrap-up of business news from USA Today Business Correspondent Charisse Jones, our Patient Investor Report from Ariel Investments and key economic intelligence for small business owners from our UBR Economists Derrick Collins and Rasheed Carter.
If you have a question you want answered or a topic you want addressed on The Urban Business Roundtable, send me an e-mail at edmonda@blackenterprise.com or to me at Twitter or Facebook.
Alfred Edmond Jr. is the senior VP/editor-at-large of Black Enterprise and the host of the Urban Business Roundtable, a weekly radio show, sponsored by Ariel Investments, airing CST Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. on WVON-AM 1690, the Talk of Chicago. You can also listen live online at WVON.com. Check back each Wednesday for The UBR Morning Post, which features additional resources, advice and information from and about the topics, entrepreneurs and experts featured on the show.