App promotes black-owned businesses
Midway through his May 23 presentation on Around The Way, the smartphone app that lets consumers find nearby black-owned businesses, company cofounder Eric Hamilton offered an example of the GPS-driven software”™s success that surprised even him.
“We have listings in Alaska,” he said of the high-tech effort to keep dollars circulating in the black community. He tapped his smartphone to make the point. “Let”™s say you are going to Alaska and are looking for some place to stay and you want to support a black-owned ”¦ and here it is. We have a bed and breakfast outside Anchorage. No, wait. We have two: Glacier Bear Bed and Breakfast and Sheep Mountain Lodge.”
The implication was clear: If black-owned inns are signing on with the app in snowmobile-themed Alaska, with less than 5 percent of its residents black, imagine what it could do in Westchester and Rockland counties.
Hamilton spoke at the invitation of African-American Chamber of Commerce for Westchester and Rockland Counties Inc. at the New York Power Authority building in downtown White Plains and will speak again at the chamber”™s “10 Most Influential Blacks in Business” awards reception Thursday, June 13, at Westchester Manor, 140 Saw Mill River Road, Hastings-on-Hudson.
About 20 business people braved lightning, downpours and accompanying traffic jams to attend.
The chamber partnered with the Washington, D.C.- based U.S. Black Chamber Inc. for the app”™s regional rollout. Regional African-American chamber president and CEO Robin L. Douglas also is on the national board of directors.
The service has been up five months, with its regional rollout now in progress, and has attracted 15,000 businesses nationally. It is free for businesses to enroll ”“ the app is self-guiding ”“ but for a fee of “about $90 per year” a company can engage in so-called search engine optimization and appear at the top of the search list.
“It”™s like a Yellow Pages in your pocket, but a Yellow Pages for African-American businesses,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton acknowledged some might see Around The Way”™s mission as a form of reverse discrimination. He counters by noting this is only the first app. This summer the Brooklyn-based business intends to debut apps targeting Latino- and women-owned businesses. After that, Hamilton ”“ a Michigan State alumnus ”“ looks to embrace his passion for higher education by launching a college-themed app to translate alumni loyalty into loyalty for alumni businesses. No surprise, “We”™re working with Michigan State now on this.
“We want to be inclusive of everybody, to embrace the passions of niche markets,” he said.
Businesses on the app are now limited to brick-and-mortar. It runs by an honor system ”“ there”™s no vetting of genealogies ”“ instead relying on users to monitor truth in advertising, as other social media sites like Yelp do.
A problem with incorporating home-based and web-based businesses is the GPS feature.
“You might not want people coming directly to your house,” Hamilton said. The working solution is to accept home- and web-based businesses with contact information and to group them in neighborhoods. “That would enable someone who”™s selling clothes out of their apartment ”“ a person who cannot now afford a storefront, maybe just getting going ”“ the opportunity to meet with customers at a nearby convenient place.”
The Westchester-Rockland African-American chamber represents 300 businesses. Calling the app “a great opportunity,” Douglas said: “There”™s a real incentive to get on board with this.
This evening”™s event highlights the need for businesses to learn about other businesses and work with them.”
The app offers nine goods-and-services categories. Barbers and salons proved instantly to be the most popular category, with professional services ”“ “the person who owns the State Farm office” ”“ gaining numbers daily.
“Businesses will do anything to micro-target customers,” Hamilton said, noting large companies who register bring in all their outlets automatically at no extra charge.
Hamilton lives in New Jersey. His partners in the venture are Brooklynite Janine Hausif and software engineer Sian Morson.