co-chair, Minority Enterprise
Development Week.
According to a new U.S. Census report, as the country’s population grows 50 percent to 394 million people in 2050, minorities will compose nearly 90 percent of the increase.
After 2050, minorities are expected to actually surpass the non-minority population, and in Rhode Island over the next 25 years the minority population is projected to rise to between 25 percent and 49 percent.
What does this mean for business?
It means “there will be no dominant minority,” said Cheryl Watkins Snead, co-chair of this year’s annual Minority Enterprise Development Week — “New Horizons: The Emerging Minority Marketplace” — which begins today and will run through Friday.
Therefore, she said, businesses that prepare now for an increasingly diverse customer base and workforce will be the winners of the future, a pronouncement that’s echoed by U.S. Commerce Secretary of Commerce Norman Y. Mineta.
“Both Fortune 1000 and minority businesses need to pay attention to the consumer purchasing power that will result from (minority population) growth,” Mineta said.
While “minority enterprise” is often considered as the Rhode Island law that tries to award minorities a minimum 10 percent of state contracts, its real meaning, Snead said, “should not be delegated to Affirmative Action” quotas that present a false view of what’s really going on in the marketplace.
“I don’t want to be limited to only going after a 10 percent piece of the pie,” said Snead, a woman, a minority and president and chief executive officer of Banneker Industries, Inc. a $1.7 million supply chain management services company in Lincoln she started in 1991. “I want to be valued by what I do, not who I am.”
According to a U.S. Census report commissioned by the Minority Business Development Agency, every minority group is going to represent an increasing share of the U.S. population over the next 50 years.
While blacks, representing 13 percent of the total population in 1995, will increase to 15 percent in 2050, Hispanics will become the most populous minority group by 2010, reaching 97 million in 2050 and exceeding the black population of 61 million, including black Hispanics, by 50 percent.
This faster growth of minorities will lead to a substantial decrease of the proportion of non-minorities, a 21 percent drop from 74 percent to 53 percent in 2050, according to the report.
Buying and earning power of minorities is also expected to increase substantially over the next 50 years as the national economy grows, minority populations increase and income disparities diminish between minorities and non-minorities.
According to another MBDA Census report, current minority buying power is about $1.3 trillion and is projected to grow to at least $4.3 trillion and as much as $6.1 trillion by 2045.
Minority children aged five and under will exceed non-minority children in the United States by 2030 and the minority percent of total population will increase in every state.
As a result, by 2025, the number of states with less than 15 percent minority population will decline to 11, with most of those in the Midwest and Northeast.
Rhode Island, according to Census projections, along with Massachusetts and Connecticut, will grow from a less than 15 percent minority population in 1995 to between 25 percent and 49 percent in 2025.
Minority population in 2025 will exceed the non-minority population in five states — the District of Columbia, Hawaii, New Mexico, California and Texas — and minorities will represent one quarter of the total U.S. population.
Planning ahead
Because today (Jan. 15) is a holiday and many businesses are closed, MED Week will begin its celebration at the Martin Luther King breakfast at the Providence Convention Center, sponsored by the R.I. Ministers Alliance.
A Congressional Breakfast will be held tomorrow, Tuesday, at the Benjamin Chester Theater, 175 Main St., Pawtucket, that will give local minority business leaders and advocates a chance to discuss developments in Washington that affect them.
U.S. Congressman Patrick Kennedy will lead an e-commerce panel from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. that focuses on government funding in research and development and how businesses can protect themselves and customers on the World Wide Web.
From 2 to 4 p.m. there will be a seminar on strategies to prepare for the changing marketplace as described above from the Census reports. Cost for this workshop is $10 and includes refreshments.
Wednesday is “Celebration Day,” beginning with a free Business Exposition and Networking Reception at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet in Cranston from noon to 6 p.m., featuring at least 40 booths staffed by minority and women business owners.
There will also be from 10 a.m. to noon an 8(a) Certification seminar that explains various contracting opportunities for small businesses.
An awards dinner will be held at 6 p.m. featuring the announcement of annual SBA awards and special guest Fred P. Hochberg, deputy administration of the U.S. Small Business Administration. As son of catalog queen Lillian Vernon, Hochberg is expected to share his experience growing up in a “kitchen table” business that eventually became an empire. Banquet tickets cost $25.
On Thursday MED Week will host a Business Basics seminar from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Newport County Chamber of Commerce, 45 Valley Road, Middletown. Topics will include writing business plans and developing financial reports. Cost is $10.
Then on Friday, it’s “Women Mean Business Day” from 8:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. at the Providence Marriott sponsored by Fleet’s Women’s Entrepreneurs’ Connection. Topics will include evaluating credit, financing, legal issues, marketing and access to venture capital. Registration costs $20 and includes breakfast.
For more information on MED Week, call the R.I. Small Business Administration at 528-4539.
For information on the MBDA Census reports visit www.mbda.gov.
