Launched during Black History Month and during the pandemic, this directory highlights all Black-owned local businesses across all types of categories including art, catering, creative services, health and wellness, restaurants and spas, etc available as an interactive PDF.
The struggle for small businesses reached a critical point during the time of Covid-19 which added to the already difficult business environment. These challenges hit Black-owned businesses especially hard. According to CBS news, an estimated 90% of Black-owned firms were either ineligible for pandemic related support money or denied loans. The reason behind this is, “these small business owners are less likely to have relationships with commercial banking,” so when they want to apply for a loan, the time frame required to establish a relationship, qualify and apply for a loan often requires too long a wait time, explained Suruchi Sheth, Producer at Digitas Health.
How the Directory Started
According to Tiffany Ford, Senior HR Generalist at Razorfish Health, the Directory started as a holiday guide as part of an event, “that highlighted Black owned businesses in the Philadelphia area.” But the holiday event went virtual as the pandemic raged. This not only placed further stress on already struggling businesses, it also underscored the deep need for a wider, ongoing effort to help consumers recognize and support local Black-owned businesses. Ford wanted the directory to address the questions, “What can I do? What kind of personal impact can I make?”
Philadelphia was the perfect city to launch the first of what is hoped to be many city guides. Sheth noted that, “One out of five small businesses in Philadelphia are owned by people of color. It’s a big part of what shapes Philadelphia.”
Marketing the Directory
As far as the marketing rollout for the guide, is concerned, “Publicis has an internal platform for all of its employees called Marcel which is all encompassing, a network platform that we use, accessed by every single Publicis employee across the globe. We’ve been highlighted there,” Ford stated. This gave the directory an enthusiastic global presence. Additionally, “Publicis has a Philadelphia presence and has highlighted their social media platforms such as Instagram and Linkedin.”
“We (also) published it on a website called Issuu … and when you upload a PDF to that site, it turns it into this cool online magazine where you can open up the link and flip through the pages. Because it’s on Issuu anyone can access it anywhere,” stated Sheth.
Advancing Change
All of this would not be possible without the efforts of the VivaWomen of Color Business Resource Groupe (BRG). “We launched in 2014 with two chapters in New York and Chicago and it has since grown to more than nine chapters across the country including Philadelpia,” noted Arnetta Whiteside, Director, Multicultural Research and Knowledge Management, Publicis Media Cultural Quotient & National Co-Lead, VivaWomen of Color. The group itself was created to form a network for women of color to help break down silos and create a sense of community at the agency and within the advertising industry. “Our programming centers around four core pillars – Holistic Authenticity, Professional and Leadership Development, Internal Organizational Impact and Advocacy and Community Service and Outreach,” she explained. Ford added that the BRGs have had great impact in Publicis and, “are really influencing the company.”
Next Steps
The plan for the Directory going forward is focused on expansion. Ford explained that, “We would love to have other editions of this and update them seasonally because we know that as things start to open up businesses will start to open up as well as new offerings from existing businesses.”
“It is not one and done,” added Sheth, “Because it’s an interactive guide, people can come back to it.” The Directory, “was a big passion project for us. With so much negativity going on in the world and so much stress … this guide brought a boost of positive energy into our lives and motivated us to many other things,” she concluded.
This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com
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