I recently took at job at a service provider providing network needs to small/medium business. I notice that other racial groups spend money and actually have a IT budget to take care of there needs. I was working with one of my friends on some side work in PG county and I noticed the lack of it in black owned business. Is this just something we are missing? Or do we not understand the need for it or have the money for it. I'm looking for some insight on brothers who run there own compaines and have several employees
IT needs in the black community
- Thread starter MasterKey
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sub'd, I'm interesting in starting up a consulting firm next year or so so I'll listen for jewels here
Haha, black peple invest in IT? Puhlease. Think about it...how many you know take credit cards?
How many open on time?
How many send out regular newsletters to customers?
How many have coupon codes to use online?
How many have a barcoded or RFID entry system?
Black people and IT is like a dog and water. Only venturing in when absolutely necessary.
How many open on time?
How many send out regular newsletters to customers?
How many have coupon codes to use online?
How many have a barcoded or RFID entry system?
Black people and IT is like a dog and water. Only venturing in when absolutely necessary.
I don't know about the black community per se but I can address the general assumption why people don't invest in IT infrastructure. IT solutions are generally high up-front cost, low TCO and produce appreciated savings over course of time. But it takes long term planning to see the fruits of that labor. Most businesses, especially SMBs, are short sighted to say the least. That is one of the reasons why majority of businesses fail less then three years.
Are black-owned business more myopic than their counterparts? That's a different discussion for a different day.
Are black-owned business more myopic than their counterparts? That's a different discussion for a different day.
I have been in IT since 1990 and I agree with all of yall that the Black community has no sense of the advantages of IT. I own my own business for 5 years and do consulting and contracting for local companies and also for IBM and HP along with others. when I walk in to white businesses they all ask me where I got my training. It's as if I shouldn't be there. Black on the other are only concerned with getting a deal on the low. It is dispicable that most of our youth and parents are only interested in bootleggin music and video crap. When I offered to start training classes nobody seems interested. Now I am sub teaching in the High School because people don't want to pay me industry standard pay. Best Buy gets 12O dollars for a network install, and folks run to me and want me to do it 50. And when I hired a guy to work for me, and do some network jobs for medical offices, dentist and some mortage companies, he just cculdn't wait to go after hours and do the work for 25 and 30 dollars when they should be paying a minimum of $65 and hour. White folks don't trust us with their information and that's why we are barely getting high level consulting work. We have not yet overcome.
Now I am sitting here with MCP, A+ and IC3 certification and fresh M.B.A from a Private White University not far from where I live. I have no criminal record and very active in the Pentecostal church. But I have found that I probably will not get a decent job after closing my business here just outside Memphis Tennessee. I am trying to relocate to Dallas but don't know anybody down there. My GPA was 3.87 with my MBA and it seems intimidating to people when I go to job interviews. Maybe I should not mention my MBA and just take a computer tech job somewhere. Any suggestions or leads out there? I don't advise anybody to start an IT company unless you in willing to work for less than half of what everybody else is paying and then deal with employee theft, cause not many white guys will work for you. Its a d*** shame that we have to deal with all this in the United States of America.
Agreed. White clients do not want you to have access to inside info.
On the other hand, I've noted that a few female friends (sisters) who work in freelance accounting situations are trusted with full disclosure by their white employers. My thinking here is that they don't see these women as a threat. The sisters are not entrepreneurial and don't intimidate their clients in the least...
Or it could just be the nature of the accountant/client relationship.
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To the brother who said a beauty salon in NYC did not value IT.
DAMN RIGHT they don't. I know one where the 'manager' routinely makes his own jacked-up web pages complete with typos, fucked up layout, and no back end to capture customer data. A fucking waste... Yet this same cat will post unfocused ads in the paper and participate in the business improvement district for thousands of dollars a year with little return. And no, they don't open on time, keep clients waiting hours, don't take credit cards to book for appointments, etc, etc, etc.
I'm in the process of trying to school a sister who is starting a small salon in how to set up an Excel spreadsheet to properly estimate/control costs (prelude to quickbooks) and the value of customer data...
I don't see why. I can get a SMB up with Email(hosted) VOIP, VPN services for a good price. I got brothers who can do web development for you and some who can even do programming and make custom brewed apps if you need them. The problem is nobody wants to pay and we have to elsewhere to work.
What you need to do is move to a "tech" city. My long term plan was go to a city where IT was not only appreciated but at the cutting edge, so I picked up and moved to Seattle four years ago and been very happy here. I, also, didn't know anybody here but Seattle has a very meritocracy based business landscape. Skills and education will get you a long way here. With numerous start-ups and contract work from the big boys (MS, Amazon, Boeing, etc), I'm sure you can plant and root yourself quite easy.
BTW, don't ever hide or apologize for your education! Last time I checked, Seattle had the highest concentration of college grads at around 52% (National average hovers around 20%). You almost need a grad degree to get that ahead around here (I'm currently pursing my MBA), so you'll be right at home.
If you must stay in Texas, I'll suggest Austin first and Houston second.
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2009/05/11/daily7.html
I get the feeling that you want to see racism. You're not giving your friends enough credit. What's more plausible is that they are professional, trustworthy and probably damm good at their job and that's the reason for their employment.
I hired a lot of contractors and freelancers and part of my bonus is measured on my projects' success. I don't care if you're white, black, green, purple, pink -- if you kick ass, I'll hire you every time. I don't know about you, I care about money. So does a lot of people, including those "whites" you're talking about.
What are you going to be focusing on. I have a CCNA CCNA Voice, CCNP and Almost done with the CCVP(will be CCNP Voice by the time I'm done). I'm sure I can do some deals with your remotely if you can get in the work. I work from home most of the time, so I can work multiple projects at one time.
Honestly I am hoping to position myself to go where the work demands but my target is 5 - 8 techs on remote staff to do most of the work so I'm sure we will get together on something. So PM me so we can talk about things, you know im not on that BGOL BS over here.
Memphis is a very Black/White town. They are very segregated there. I can clearly see why you said whites don't do business with blacks. You should consider moving to Charleston SC. Boeing just moved here from Seattle and the town is booming. The economy is growing fast. Plus Boeing is causing a bunch of other small companies and contractors to move here. Boeing sort of fucked up moving here because they wanted to pay lower wages, but they didn't realize they would have trouble hiring engineers and other qualified people for positions because of the education difference between people in Seattle and people in the south.
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