A recent article in the Philadelphia Tribune revealed depressing numbers related to black business growth.
“Every five years, the U.S. Census does a survey to determine how many businesses there are in this country, who owns them, how many persons they employ, and what their annual revenues are. The figures for 2007, while lauded for the increase in the number of Black-owned businesses, revealed decreasing revenues for Black businesses, relatively few employees, a vast majority of them in the service industry.
The article goes on to say that the average gross receipts for Black firms as a whole fell 3 percent, from $74,000 per firm in 2002 to $72,000 per firm in 2007. And that 67 percent of black businesses had annual receipts of less than $50,000.
Read more here.