‍Famous Amos is giving small Black businesses the opportunity to build more sustainable growth through the “Ingredients for Success” intiative. In honor of Wally Amos, Famous Amos is partnering with the National Black Chamber of Commerce to give $150K in support of these businesses. The money will be split between three winners. Roby Mercharles is serving as one of the judges on the panel for this initiative. Mercharles is VP of partnerships for the economic development program created by the NBCC, the American Dream Fund and Marketplace and is giving insight on what they are looking for.

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What are some key ingredients to business success?

I’ve had the pleasure of working very closely with hundreds and thousands of Black businesses through the NBCC. With them, I was working to manage one of their programs called the American Dream Fund and Marketplace. It was created directly after COVID to catalyze the recovery from the pandemic economic damage. I’m fortunate to have seen what’s been working in the community. That being said, starting a business and being a business owner really requires you to be an analytical thinker. It requires you to be organized and to keep very detailed records of everything going on so that you can measure your progress.

So, in terms of the first step to success, before recommending looking into how to start your business, or getting your licenses, getting your insurance, any appropriate insurance, I’d recommend that you establish a business plan. This is something that you will hear all around. A large percentage of businesses who start up with a business plan, eventually reach success. I recommend you guys establish this as a as a tool to, number one, identify who your market is, what your market position is, who the competitors in your market are, and what strategies are they employing. What operating budget are you going to need in order to get your product or your service out there?

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What are some key ingredients to business success?

If you are starting from scratch, I would implore you guys to look into resources like Fund Black Founders, who is bridging the gap between early stage funding. The idea is specifically for Black founders. Really, that’s I implore you guys to consider and take a look at. That’s also a very important part of your business plan. So if you have your business plan, you have an idea of what startup capital you need.

Firstly, I suggest that you guys leverage the tools most accessible. That would be the the internet, there are hundreds of reports and tools that you can access for free to review and get a better understanding of what activities are going on in your specific niche. So, just running a quick Google search would bring you a long way. Next, I would say that you rely on your resources. This is going to be one of the steps to success.

There are many resources that you can engage that are focused on the economic development as it pertains to the business community. I would also incentivize you guys to rely on them as mentors of sorts. Get a better understanding of what they have seen because they’ve seen it in volume. Go to networking events and set up an intro call so that you can learn about the processes. The procedure is learned by what the best practices are, so that you’re not starting from scratch.

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