The Black Marketing Initiative aims to elevate diverse small businesses and encourage them during and after the pandemic, with the belief that community can positively impact us all.
 

We are currently raising funds to provide black entrepreneurs with a 7-week training, mentoring, and networking program to help them succeed, because successful black entrepreneurs are good for Houston!

How It All Got Started ...

In June 2020, the team behind The Black Marketing Initiative conducted a campaign called "The Community Checkup" to check on small businesses in their community during COVID and see how they could help. They surveyed 226 small, mostly Black-owned, businesses. The response was overwhelming: At least 100 of these businesses needed business support and marketing services to survive, but could no longer afford them.
 

That Community Checkup influenced the creation of the Black Marketing Initiative, or "#MarketBlack." The purpose of #MarketBlack is to produce a thriving black business community in Houston through marketing and business education and research. Through the initiative, we will increase Black SMB success and sustainability. We believe that by equipping our Black entrepreneurs with the skills, expertise and network to grow their businesses, we can enhance our communities through community ownership and reinvestment, without gentrification.
 

Learn more about the initiative at https://www.BlackMarketingInitiative.com/About.html
 

Why We're Launching This Program: Long-term sustainment of Black-Owned Businesses

1. Win Real, Immediate, Concrete Improvements in Black Businesses.
2. Give Black Business Owners a Sense of Their Own Power.
3. Alter the Relations of Power by diversifying Business Networks.
4. Engage the public by providing Black business statistics collected from our Houston Black Business Census.
    

How We're Helping Black Entrepreneurs: Education, Support, Connection, and Research

1. Virtual training specifically geared toward Black entrepreneurs in Houston
2. Opportunities for Black entrepreneurs to showcase their businesses, gain mentorship, and connect with peers.
3. Small Business Fund
4. Black Business Research and Asset Mapping
5. Video Mini-Series and Documentary
6. The opportunity for Black entrepreneurs to win membership to Impact Hub Houston and gain access to the Impact Hub Global Network

The Black Marketing Initiative is not just about being Black — it is also about the belief that community can positively impact us all. Successful Black entrepreneurs are good for business. Good for community. Good for everybody. Together, #WeAllCanWin!