• News

by Derek Major

April 27, 2020

Public Companies Raided Paycheck Protection Program For Coronavirus Funds

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More than 200 companies applied for funding from the Paycheck Protection Program that was billed for small businesses.

According to CNBC, data analytics firm FactSquared said public companies received more than $860 million from the PPP. The program was designed to help small businesses stay afloat during the coronavirus outbreak.

However, the program ran out of $350 billion in less than two weeks as major hotel and restaurant chains received funds.

More than $120 million went to three public companies affiliated with Texas hotelier Monty Bennett. One of Bennett’s companies, Ashford Hospitality Trust, applied for $76 million in 117 separate loans. Ashford has already announced it will not return $69 million it received.

“Media concerns over our receipt of PPP funds are misplaced. The PPP program was specifically designed to help companies like ours as part of the national objective of shoring up businesses and getting people back to work,” the company said in a statement.

Ashford added it will use the funds to protect jobs after furloughing or laying off more than 90% of its workforce.

After substantial backlash from small business owners and lawmakers across the country, the SBA changed the requirements. Now, large public companies “with substantial market value and access to capital markets” aren’t eligible and that firms that already tapped the fund had two weeks to return the PPP money.

Since then, Shake Shack, Potbelly, and 11 other companies have returned $98 million they received back to the PPP.

Another issue with the PPP is reports of banks including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America giving better treatment to bigger companies. 

According to some small businesses, bigger companies received better treatment than small mom-and-pop businesses, leading to allegations that lenders unfairly prioritized some clients.

Congress added $310 billion to shore up the PPP, and demand is expected to be high when it reopens Monday. The Small Business Administration also told lenders Sunday that it would place entries into its loan portal and capped any single bank to 10% of the dollars in the program.

• Entrepreneurship

by Dana Givens

April 27, 2020

How Black Travel Entrepreneurs Are Adapting To The COVID-19 Pandemic

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The travel industry has come to a complete halt since the start of the COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, pandemic. Airlines, hotels, and other companies within the travel sector have had to change their business strategies overnight, figuring out ways to navigate during a public health crisis that has caused numerous countries to shut down their borders. It is estimated that total spending on travel in the U.S. is projected to decrease by 31%, six times greater than the impact of the 9/11 terrorist attack.

While U.S. airlines are expected to receive $9.5 billion in federal relief to save jobs, many entrepreneurs have had to adapt to a new reality especially with travel being restricted for the foreseeable future. Some countries are lobbying to reopen their borders with new travel policies to restart the economy but those deals are still a long way off.

For entrepreneurs like Evita Robinson of Nomandess Travel Tribe, the pandemic means re-prioritizing rather than changing gears completely. “I can’t say that NOMADNESS’ to-do list has been gutted. For us, the order simply changed,” said Robinson in an interview with BLACK ENTERPRISE.

“Curating trips and AUDACITY Fest is very, in person, centric. What this time grounded has given us is the ability to finally execute on the content pieces we were previously brainstorming out. Reaching out to the larger travel community professionals in our demographic, being a source of help, and amplification of whatever efforts they have pushing forward. We’ve always focused on innovation and creativity in travel. This hasn’t stopped.”

Well, the pandemic may be curtailing any travel plans for 2020, the black travel movement is far from over. Some entrepreneurs believe that this phase will lead to new innovations within the sector and will change the conversation but not the desire to travel. In a recent study by Piplsay, 46% of Americans plan to travel post-lockdown and 42% are planning a leisure trip.

“Travel will change drastically as a result of COVID in both good and bad ways,” says Martinique Lewis, a travel consultant and entrepreneur to BLACK ENTERPRISE. “I think the black travel movement will come together to help those black-owned businesses globally recover as much as possible. Influencers and black media will be instrumental in setting the narratives as they will be the first responders as where we could and should go post [COVID-19].”

• Entrepreneurship

by Jeffrey McKinney

April 27, 2020

National Business League Rolls Out $1.8 Million Platform To Help Connect Black Businesses With Technology Amid COVID-19

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The National Business League Inc. (NBL) will use a new $1.8 million technology platform to close the digital divide for black-owned small businesses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Calling itself America’s oldest and largest trade group for black businesses, the NBL launches the new technology on April 27 with several major initiatives. Those actions consist of digitizing the 120-year-old group’s entire operations online, including adding a new website and mobile app.

The NBL will obtain the use of live streaming and social media platforms, online virtual education and entrepreneurial training, and other services to shut the technology gap for black-owned businesses.
At the same time, Dr. Kenneth Harris, the NBL’s president and CEO, says the digital solutions platform will help black businesses transition and compete in the technology age.

“The revolution will not be televised; it will be digitized,” Harris says.

He says the platform is available to all black small businesses in America and throughout the Pan-African Diaspora. He pointed out black businesses specifically will gain access to a global black business-to-business directory, a worldwide sourcing tool for government, public, and private sector contracting and procurement opportunities along with a capital portal for business financing.

“Due to the severity of the coronavirus impact on black-owned businesses, the NBL and technology investors developed the league’s digital solutions platform to assist the federal government, major corporations, and traditional lenders to ensure resources and opportunities reach underserved small businesses in America.”

Indeed, the NBL seized the technology courtesy of several national technology firms that raised and invested over $1.8 million to develop the platform for the Detroit-based association.

Among the top investors were Computech CXL, a minority business enterprise (MBE) technology firm with annual revenue of $80 million, and MPS Group, a manufacturing firm with $120 million in annual revenue. MPS Group has appeared on the BE 100s, a listing of the nation’s largest black-owned businesses. Computech CXL and MPS Group led a group of many other technology firms that invested and helped build the platform, including CatalystXL, Locostation, and Naranjo Designs.

Gregory A. Cheesewright, president and CEO of Computech CXL, talked about why his company was an investor. “It is Computech CXL corporate responsibility to ensure the gap is closed for MBE’s marginalized by the digital divide, the core reason behind our organizations vested digital solutions partnership with the NBL.”

MPS Group Chairman Charlie Williams added, “It is an honor to help launch the National Business Leagues 120-year-old legacy founded by Booker T. Washington into the technology age, as the nation’s premier digital solutions provider for black businesses throughout the globe.”

The NBL’s Harris says the platform will be used to assist and measure the public and private sector, federal government, and banking industry as a pipeline to engagement with the black and minority business community.

He added with black-owned businesses being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, the NBL digital platform will help these entities connect with the government and lending institutions virtually throughout America to efficiently participate in the CARES Act rollout.

Harris says there are more than 2.6 million black-owned businesses in the United States that will be disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus economic crisis. “It is the NBL’s mission to support these businesses,” he says.

Founded in August 1900, the NBL says it’s the nation’s first and largest nonprofit and non-partisan black business professional trade group. It has over 120,000 members nationwide, with regional offices in Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC., and more than 360 local league chapters nationally. The NBL says it provides access to 2.6 million black businesses in the United States.

Hip-hop media mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs announced the launch of Our Fair Share, a platform to help minority entrepreneurs and small businesses access much-needed funds brought on by the economic devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“COVID-19 is devastating our communities and without access to stimulus funding we risk losing critical businesses that create jobs and help build opportunities and wealth in our communities,” said Combs in a written statement. “I created Our Fair Share to help entrepreneurs play on an even playing field and give them a chance to survive with the hope to thrive.”

Due to the initial round of the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP) dollars being disproportionately given to those with the right connection rather than the businesses with the greatest need, Our Fair Share was created. This initiative will help minority-owned companies learn about the PPP and help get them connected to approved Small Business Administration (SBA) lenders that can process applications for these potentially business-saving loans.

Combs also announced a partnership with the National Bankers Association, the trade group representing minority-owned financial institutions. The association will connect minority-owned banks and financial technology companies to the Our Fair Share platform and enable these banks to originate PPP loans from applicants that utilize the site.

“It is inspiring to see a cultural icon like Sean Combs partnering with minority banks and others to ensure economic opportunity for minorities in this program”, says Kenneth Kelly, chairman of the National Bankers Association. “Our leaders in economics, politics, and culture must unite because the COVID-19 healthcare and economic impacts on our communities are interrelated. We can help our communities weather this storm if we work together.”

The applications are connected to these approved PPP lenders: The Harbor Bank of Maryland, based in Baltimore; Liberty Bank and Trust, based in New Orleans; Carver State Bank, based in Savannah, Georgia; and Lendistry, an online small business lender based in Los Angeles.

Combs has also extended an invitation for major financial institutions to partner with Our Fair Share.

“Minority businesses have always struggled to access the capital they need to thrive. Now is the time to show commitment to the communities being hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. I look forward to working with the institutions that want to help,” said Combs.

For more information, visit www.ourfairshare.com.

• Technology

by Derek Major

April 27, 2020

African Venture Capital Director Launches Cryptocurrency Exchange

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Yele Bademosi, a director at the venture capital arm of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, is launching Bundle, one of six African startups the crypto exchange is now funding in Africa.

According to Forbes, the startup is being run by Africans in an effort to get residents of the continent to use cryptocurrency, not as an investment vehicle, but as a global means of exchange. The idea basically makes Bundle, a social payment app, similar to Venmo or Square’s Cash App.

Bundle lets users send, receive, and spend bitcoin and Nigerian naira, the country’s main currency. Bundle will also let users spend Binance coin, the exchange’s native cryptocurrency, which has been doled out to loyal and active traders using its crypto exchange. Eventually, Bundle users will be able to spend and save Binance U.S. dollars, stablecoins backed by U.S. dollars and regulated in the U.S.

“Regardless of your geography, you should have access to the best financial services. And unfortunately, your geography today defines the quality of financial services that you have,” Bademosi told Forbes. “The same way the internet created freedom of information, I think blockchains create freedom of quality of financial services.”

Bademosi, who grew up in Nigeria, bought his first bitcoin in late 2017 and became hooked on cryptocurrency as its price fluctuated wildly. That led him to Binance and in late 2018, Binance published a 10-point thesis on why it was dedicated to Africa and launched a subsidiary in Uganda.

Bademosi said one of the biggest reasons Binance got involved in Africa is due to its potential in cryptocurrency.

“For me, blockchains are as big as the internet,” says Bademosi. “And can you imagine Bill Gates or Larry Page or Mark Zuckerberg coming to Africa less than one year after the company was started?”

Under Bademosi, Binance has invested in six African startups, one from South Africa, one from Kenya, one from Ghana, and three from Nigeria, all serving different aspects of the continent’s growing crypto economy. Lagos-based Yellow Card allows users to purchase bitcoin without a bank. Flutterwave is the same fiat-to-crypto bridge that lets Binance customers buy cryptocurrency with naira.

Bademosi isn’t the only one trying to give Africa a foothold in cryptocurrency. Musician and producer Akon is in the process of developing a cryptocurrency for Senegal and is working to provide electricity for 600 million Africans.

Summer is on the horizon and that also means the return of harmful UV rays that can damage your skin. While many within the black community may believe the myth that darker skin tones cannot get skin cancer, studies say otherwise. Even though darker skin tones are less likely to contract the disease in comparison with those with fairer skin, your skin can become permanently damaged and you may not be able to see early signs of cancer until it’s too late.

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, people with darker skin tones often do not receive a diagnosis until the cancer is in its later stages. This tends to be because the symptoms are harder to recognize. There are also limited options for sunblock that works well with dark skin. One entrepreneur decided to take matters into her own hands and created a product that protects our melanin.

Shontay Lundy founded Black Girl Sunscreen after becoming frustrated with the limited options for women with her skin tone. “[I started this company] because I am a woman of the sun and couldn’t find a sunscreen that would rub evenly into my complexion without leaving the tell-tale white residue,” Lundy told BLACK ENTERPRISE.

In 2016, she launched the brand based out of Miami. She continued on to say that the mission for her brand is “to educate and empower women of color to protect and nurture their skin no matter what shade it comes in while making them feel good and look good while being protected in the sun.”

Since its launch, Lundy’s sunscreen can be found in local beauty supply stores and Target. She credits Ureeka, a platform that connects female and minority small business owners to peers, mentors, and coaches, for helping her start and expand her brand.

“Ureeka has helped me personally level-up, which in turn helps Black Girl Sunscreen level up. Most recently, I entered an investor-pitch competition and Ureeka helped me prepare for the conversations,” she explains. “Before consulting Ureeka, I honestly didn’t know how to put together an investor deck or answer the ‘hard’ questions an investor may have. Within a couple weeks’ time, I had an investor deck put together, and was prepared to sit at the table with individuals that were ready to give capital so my business could get to the next level.”

 

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A post shared by BlackGirlSunscreen (@blackgirlsunscreen) on Apr 15, 2020 at 9:03am PDT

• News

by Moguldom

April 27, 2020

Orleans Parish Had Highest Per-Capita COVID-19 Death Rate By Far Of U.S. Counties

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Residents in Orleans Parish are dying of COVID-19 coronavirus at an alarming rate. It has the highest per-capita death rate of all U.S. counties, according to NOLA.com. The report states that one out of every 10,000 residents had succumbed to the virus.

That death toll is even higher that New York’s Richmond County – commonly known as Staten Island – which has the second-highest death rate. It is not a close second, however, as Staten Island only has half the amount of deaths as Orleans Parish.

Experts predicted New Orleans was on track to become the next coronavirus epicenter, reported Reuters. Since the city didn’t have its first official diagnosis until March 14, its numbers mark the highest growth of coronavirus cases. The fast rates of infection in Big Easy can hit the rest of the South hard.

Dr. Rebekah Gee leads Louisiana State University’s (LSU) health care services division and was the state’s former health secretary. She said Mardi Gras could be to blame for the alarming outbreak.

“Mardi Gras was the perfect storm, it provided the perfect conditions for the spread of this virus,” Gee told Reuters.

Other health experts share Gee’s theory, meaning they believe the coronavirus had already begun infecting people in the states sooner than initially thought.

Susanne Straif-Bourgeois is a professor at LSU Health Sciences School of Public Health and an expert on pandemics.

“I think we have a huge number of undiagnosed people,” Straif-Bourgeois told NOLA.com. “Our model shows it started around Mardi Gras and spread. And we only tested people sick enough to be hospitalized, which means most people were not diagnosed because they might have mild signs and symptoms or [could] be asymptomatic and be contributing to the transmission.”

Add to that the fact that many New Orleans residents experience higher rates of health challenges like obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. and they may be more likely to experience complications that lead to death from the virus.

Harvard University Epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch said testing is still an issue, but noted counting deaths per capita may be a more effective way to determine the size of the pandemic.

Since health experts are still working to find the best way to measure whether a death was due to the coronavirus alone, Lipstick echoed Straif-Bourgeois’ assertion that there were still many undiagnosed cases, even among the fatalities. Due to Katrina, Lipstich said Louisiana may have more effective procedures concerning this.

“We should consider that maybe the testing of fatal cases has been more effective there (in Louisiana) than in other places,” Lipsitch said. “I think a lot of deaths [attributable to coronavirus] have been undetected.”

This article was written by Isheka N. Harrison for The Moguldom Nation.

• Entrepreneurship

by Dana Givens

April 27, 2020

E-Commerce Entrepreneurship Grows as Unemployment Rises Amid COVID-19

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The global spread of COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, has caused a complete shift in our culture and how we do business. Under state governments, many major cities across the country have issued mandatory stay-at-home orders for residents and closed down all “non-essential” brick-and-mortar businesses. Because of the pandemic, over 25 million people have filed for unemployment while many small businesses have been forced to retreat to the internet to stay connected with their customers. The result has created a surge in the growth of online businesses that are thriving in the digital space.

While the viral outbreak has caused many businesses to close their doors, others are learning to adapt to the changing landscape and utilizing digital storefronts and their social media accounts to find new ways to earn revenue through the pandemic. According to reports from Adobe Analytics, the U.S. e-commerce industry has seen an overall 25% increase in sales just in the month of March. Other services like delivery apps, virtual workshops, and digital services have also experienced an increase as well due to the viral outbreak.

Reports also show that pickup orders are also on the rise with the number of purchases shoppers have bought online and picked up in-store increasing 62% year-over-year during February and March 2020.

While consumers have been shifting their purchasing more to online from stores over the past few years, the pandemic has accelerated this shift. Adobe Analytics did not provide comparable year-over-year online sales, but the data collected does show for the first quarter of 2019, online sales increased by 11.9% year-over-year, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

“U.S. consumers are turning to e-commerce more during the COVID-19 outbreak due to the fact that social distancing measures and shelter-in-place orders have made online shopping more convenient or, in some cases, the only way to get the goods they need,” Taylor Schreiner, director of Adobe Digital Insights said to Digital Commerce 360.

Schreiner explains that the elevated levels of online shopping in the U.S. will likely continue as long as shelter-in-place orders remain in effect.

“The big unknown is whether consumers who become used to more online shopping will stick with it, even when social distancing measures are removed.”

• News

by Derek Major

April 26, 2020

Poll: 70% of Americans Want The Government To Focus On Public Health In Coronavirus Response

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A poll released earlier this week showed the majority of Americans want the government to focus on public safety instead of profits in the coronavirus response.

According to Forbes, the poll, released Thursday by CBS News and YouGov, showed 30% of people surveyed said the government’s priority should be restarting the economy. The poll fell mostly along partisan lines with 91% of Democrats and 69% of Independents favoring focusing on public health. Fifty-two percent of Republicans say the economy should take precedence.

Anti-quarantine protests have taken place in several states including Colorado, California, and Michigan. However, the poll showed little public support. Less than 25% of the poll’s respondents said they support the protests, and less than 10% think that Trump should encourage them. The protests initially had the support of President Trump, but even he’s changing his tune. Trump criticized Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s plan to reopen businesses on Wednesday.

Less than 50% said they would be comfortable going to work and less than 15% said they would attend a large entertainment or sports event. However, 54% of respondents are getting cabin fever saying they would be willing to visit their friends.

The numbers are an indication that although Americans are hurting financially, they want the government to choose people over profits. More than 20 million people are currently unemployed and many Americans have said they already need another relief payment.

A Politico poll conducted last week showed 81% of Americans believe the country “should continue to maintain social distance for as long as is needed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, even if it means continued damage to the economy. Just 10% of Americans believe they “should stop social distancing to stimulate the economy, even if it means increasing the spread of coronavirus.”

Since the outbreak began, President Trump’s response has been repeatedly criticized with some describing his response as erratic at best and dangerous at worst.