With its vivid colors, ripe fruit aroma and ability to induce nostalgia, sangria was the ideal place to begin my wine journey. Its sweet complexity makes sangria more than a drink. It’s a new creation from two different worlds that don’t just come together, they create something new. Sangria mixes classic wine with a new, needed flavor — just like my journey as a winemaker. Because let me tell you, as one of two Black winemakers in Indiana, I add a dash of flavor to an industry that doesn’t always jump to embrace diversity.
Sip & Share Wines is a boutique winery producing a diversity of artisanal vegan wines — from Conjure Zinfandel featured in Forbes Magazine to Awaken Sweet White and Abundance Sweet Red, the original sangria poured in mason jars with straws. Out of more than 11,000 wineries based in the U.S., less than 1% are Black-owned, Black brands. Only .01% of winemakers in the U.S. are Black women winemakers. That disproportionate share drove my passion for creating Sip & Share Wines and propels my desire to create a community for Black and Brown wine lovers who are often overlooked and underrepresented within the wine industry.
Historically, winemaking for women, specifically Black women, hasn’t received the attention it deserves. While advancements in equity and inclusion have been made, much work is still to be done. May 5-6, I will speak about my journey and the importance of supporting Black entrepreneurs at the Indy Chamber’s Women in Business Retreat. While we should continue celebrating the Indy region’s progress, there is still work to be done to achieve equity for Black entrepreneurs.
Disparities don’t just color the path of Black winemakers, they can be seen across industries. Black entrepreneurs face a slew of disproportionate hurdles that make it incredibly difficult to launch, scale and succeed in business. Access to capital is the No. 1 barrier Black entrepreneurs face. With a large majority of the wine industry having generational wealth or being self-funded, Black wine entrepreneurs saw a lack of inclusivity. As a result, Black winemakers were not highlighted, celebrated or exposed to the market. But it’s not enough to identify the source of the problem, we must act to solve it. Suppliers have the potential to make lasting changes to ensure the wine industry includes Black and Brown suppliers and distributors. But there must be an incentive to propel inclusivity into action.
By genuinely committing to inclusion through metrics, the small business community can help inspire change. Organizations like Business Equity for Indy (BEI) make Indianapolis a more equitable place for Black entrepreneurs. BEI focuses on increasing the launch, growth and success rates of Black-owned enterprises by facilitating relationships, creating opportunities and positioning suppliers to gain access to new business contracts. How exactly does this get done? By hosting events bringing together Black-owned suppliers to create an inclusive business climate. By building greater equity and economic opportunity for the Indy region’s Black residents and people of color. And by creating opportunities — opportunities like inviting one of Indy’s Black-owned winemakers to provide beverages at events with those suppliers. Join me on May 19 at the Indy Black Chamber of Commerce for the Business Equity for Indy Procurement Roundtable — I’ll see and serve you there!
The best way to create an equitable place for progress requires our community members and organizations to work together as collaborative partners — just like fine wine, brandy and fruit blend perfectly to create a refreshing sangria. Ensuring minority business owners get the resources they need is the first step toward meeting the needs of our Black business-owner community. Our communities, our regions, our wines and our recipes don’t improve over time if we operate the way we always have. Let’s unite, collaborate and create new opportunities and flavors along the way.
Nicole Kearney is the owner of Sip & Share Wines. Sip & Share Wines produces vegan wine and creates community for overlooked wine enthusiasts.
Finding and retaining talent is job No. 1 for the Indiana tech workforce, but the traditional education path is working for only a small %age of Indiana students and employers. Indiana must resolve its issues of access, opportunity and equity if it is to develop the tech workforce that companies must have in the coming years.
Modernizing our educational pathways will be difficult, and it won’t be helped by additional factors discussed earlier on TechPoint Index like the pandemic-induced Great Resignation, the wave of Baby Boomer retirements, and a poorly timed college enrollment cliff that alone were creating a perfect storm of tech talent supply and demand challenges. Our recent research with Fourth Economy and credible economic indicators, clearly show us an Indiana tech talent imperative: We must inclusively grow and develop the state’s tech workforce to 230,0000 workers by 2030.
To meet this imperative, we must correct generational imbalances and inequity by creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce. To do that, we must change mindsets and cultures. We must overcome obstacles along the talent pathway from our youths’ earliest exposure to training and education, to hiring and onboarding, and to supporting and advancing mid-career professions. We must modernize talent pathways and provide new talent on-ramps for candidates from underrepresented groups.
The tech industry nationwide has long grappled with an overwhelming lack of diversity among employees, executives, venture-backed founders, venture capital firms and board members. Despite recent efforts to increase diversity throughout the industry, tech still remains predominantly white and male. Participation rates in the tech workforce make this starkly clear:
Latinx workers represent only 3% of the overall Indiana workforce while constituting 6% of the Indiana population.
Black workers comprise just 7% of the Indiana tech workforce, while making up 10% of the Indiana workforce
Women currently comprise just 28% of the tech workforce in Indiana, while women make up 48% of the overall Indiana workforce.
The data is as clear as our imperative.
Indiana’s participation rates in its overall workforce reveal the progressive impact of discrimination and the blocks to opportunity. Tracking the progression of minority students over the prior decade shows this clearly.
Back in 7th grade, 19.6% of current college-age students in Central Indiana were Black or African American and 14.3% were Latino or Hispanic. Looking at Ivy Tech Community College enrollments in Central Indiana, 18.2% of enrollments are Black or African American and 8.6% are Latino or Hispanic. Yet, looking at software developers in Central Indiana, only 5% of developers are Black or African American and only 2.1% are Latino or Hispanic.
From middle school into the workforce, barriers and lack of access progressively reduce the participation rates of women and minorities in the tech workforce. This pattern shows that there are breakpoints all along the education and talent pathway and shows just how much work needs to be done.
One of the challenges to developing a more inclusive and diverse tech workforce comes from the fact that the initial on-ramps into most tech roles have been uni-dimensional. As with most professional fields, tech has used university degrees and credentials as the primary educational pathway and gatekeeper to jobs in tech.
As a result, the many systemic, unconscious and sometimes deliberate barriers to college enrollment and attainment for underrepresented groups have served as participation limiters for minorities in tech and tech-enabled roles.
Data from the Indiana Commission on Higher Education shows that 23% of Hoosiers complete a college degree on time, but only 11% of Black and Latinx students complete a degree on time.
At the same time, the tech workforce increasingly requires a higher level of training and specific technical competency.
Indiana’s post-secondary attainment patterns mirror national trends. Over the past several decades, racial and ethnic disparities in higher education enrollment and attainment have increased, along with gaps in earnings, employment, and other related outcomes for communities of color, according to the U.S. Department of Education report on “Advancing Diversity and Inclusivity in Higher Education.
The share of the population with a high school diploma has risen over time for Hispanic, Black, white and Asian adult U.S. residents, the gap in bachelor’s degree attainment has increased for both Black and Hispanic adults compared with white adults. Specifically, the gap in bachelor’s degree attainment has doubled, from 9% to 20% for Hispanic residents since 1974 and from 6% to 13% for black residents since 1964.
The participation of underrepresented students of color decreases at multiple points across the higher education pathway including at application, admission, enrollment, persistence and completion. As the report notes, “a smaller proportion of Black or Hispanic high school graduates than White graduates enroll in college, and more than 80 percent of Hispanic, Black and Asian students have a gap between their financial need and grants and scholarships, compared with 71 percent for White undergraduate students.
“Degree completion rates are lower among Black and Hispanic students than White and Asian students. Nearly half of Asian students who enrolled in postsecondary education complete a bachelor’s degree, compared with fewer than one in five Hispanic and about one in five Black students.”
Nationally, research shows that 10 out of 16 million Black workers currently active in the labor market possess relevant skills obtained through routes like military service, certificate programs and community colleges that qualify them for higher-paying jobs.
Yet, when it comes to accessing well-paid, family-sustaining career opportunities in the tech sector, these high-potential candidates are left sitting on the sidelines. Research shows that when an employer requires a bachelor’s degree screen for a job, they screen out 70% of Black workers. In fact, nonessential degree requirements exclude two-thirds of all adults in the U.S., regardless of race, from securing a job that pays a family-sustaining wage.
Jeff Ton, an Indianapolis-based and nationally recognized expert on technology and business leadership, says these barriers persist through the hiring process and into minority career experiences.
Jeff Ton
“We have a talent gap in tech with more jobs than people to fill them. We have to expand the funnel to bring in more diverse professionals,” he said. “This is not just a hiring problem. This is also a retaining problem. Our diverse colleagues are not staying. They are leaving because they don’t feel included, they don’t feel seen.”
One way Indiana is widening the traditionally narrow pathway to tech is a collaboration among the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, Ascend, EmployIndy, TechPoint, Conexus and other organizations called the Modern Youth Apprenticeship Program. This effort provides expanded opportunities for Indianapolis high school students to learn about tech careers, gain necessary skills, and follow new pathways into success following graduation.
Another is the nationalOneTen coalition, which launched in October 2020. OneTen has a bold goal of hiring 1 million Black Americans without degrees into family-sustaining, livable-wage jobs in 10 years. OneTen encourages signatories to embrace a “Skills First” hiring philosophy for at least 5% of their jobs; build apprenticeship programs as a way to train this targeted talent to prepare them for the available jobs; and re-credential existing jobs to open more opportunity for the targeted community.
In April, Eli Lilly and Company launched Phase 1 of its Skills First agenda by launching a Professional Apprenticeship Program. This program aims to train individuals without a four-year degree and offer them permanent jobs at Lilly. The first 10 apprentices work in Human Resources and Lilly Research Labs. The second apprentice cohort begins in August, with 15 additional apprentices working in various company departments. This program offers the opportunity for underrepresented groups to be able to close socioeconomic gaps.
This spring, Lilly in its second Skills First program, called Technical Pathway Program, focuses specifically on IT skills enabling outcomes for various capabilities across the Information and Digital Solutions (IDS) function. IDS is made up of traditional IT, Advanced Analytics & Data Science, and Digital Health positions. Its goals are to:
Enable new entry level pathways to jobs in IDS at Lilly through intentional training and development, wrap around support, and a focus on skills development;
Partner with a talent developer to develop a diverse pool of workers experienced and/or certified within required skill sets to work in the Indianapolis area; and
Hire qualified individuals into a training program with the pathway to professional careers at Lilly.
TechPoint member Salesforce launched its Talent Alliance to directly address the diversity gap. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff notes “Salesforce is committed to empowering people from every background with the skills they need to build careers and thrive in the digital economy.”
The Salesforce Talent Alliance connects employers to Salesforce candidates and brings new talent into the ecosystem, emphasizing building a diverse workforce that reflects society around the globe. Salesforce partners commit to hiring new Salesforce professionals and incorporate inclusive hiring practices. Employers are connected to certified minority candidates through workforce development groups, educational institutions, and career changers through LinkedIn and career fairs. Job seekers are trained to become Salesforce-certified professionals, with an emphasis on underrepresented groups in tech including Black, Latinx, Indigenous, multiracial, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, veterans and military spouses with the goal of building a more diverse, inclusive and equitable workforce.
Early stage companies in the Indiana tech ecosystem also recognize the value and importance of anchoring on diversity. Darrian Mikell, co-Founder of Qualifi, says diversity is one of his company’s strategic advantages. Having diversity is hard-wired into Qualifi’s DNA and its operations, he said.
Darrian Mikell
“Diversity is integral to who we are as a company and we truly see it as a differentiating factor to our success,” he said.
The early successes of TechPoint members show that we can overcome our diversity challenges. Straight-forward steps like skills-first hiring can make a major impact. National research and local experience demonstrate that skills-based hiring is five times more predictive of a person’s future performance than their education, and two-and-a-half times more predictive than their prior experience. Skills-based hiring diversifies talent pools, accelerates the hiring process and increases the likelihood of retention.
Job descriptions that use gender-neutral language lead to 42% more responses and a two-week faster hiring time than those that use masculine language (e.g., assertive, dominant, competitive). Women tend to apply to jobs only when they meet 100% of the job requirements, while men will apply if they meet 60%. Similar gaps exist for candidates of color. And, workers who strongly agree that the job description was a good reflection of their job are 2.5 times more likely to be engaged as an employee.
There are many barriers to overcome to achieve the imperative of developing a workforce of 230,000 by 2030. Fortunately, Hoosier tech leaders and entrepreneurs are innovators and barrier busters.
TechPoint is taking the lead to ensure that Indiana’s tech community works together for the greatest impact and that we identify and address diversity gaps, and we are encouraged by initial actions, response and support.
Please continue to let me know if you know of other programs we can support or promote or if you have additional ideas.
Dennis Trinkle is executive vice president of TechPoint’s Talent Programs and Pathways.
During the summer of 2020, when racial tensions reached a tipping point in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, Indy businesses were called to act. Through Business Equity for Indy’s Procurement and Participation Task Force, we have been able to align our sights on increasing the launch, growth and successes of Black Business Enterprises — and the first thing we ask our companies to acknowledge is that a diversity goal must be elevated beyond executive leadership or business unit and instead set a vision for the entire organization.
Companies that have signed up for the Procurement Roundtable, an ongoing workshop hosted by the Procurement and Participation Task Force, have made a commitment to adopt eight national best practices to increase supplier diversity. While all eight of those best practices play a critical role in supporting Black businesses, there is one that has the potential to transform a goal of equity into a valued, company-wide commitment to diversity: Prioritization of diversity goals and metrics on the highest level of corporate scorecards.
In response to the summer of 2020, we have seen many companies add new roles that oversee diversity, equity, inclusion, or some combination of the three. While this approach acknowledges that greater resources are needed, singlehandedly, it does not reflect a spirit of equity or demonstrate a true priority. When done right, companies who invest in inclusive practices are those that are committed to improving their business to ensure all employees, and the enterprises they do business with, have the same access to resources, training, support and success. Furthermore, companies that make a substantial and sustainable commitment to equity often experience an improvement in key metrics that can include:
Recruitment of greater, more qualified, and more diverse talent.
Access into diverse markets.
An increased bottom line across the organization.
An investment in equity is not to be taken lightly. The Procurement Roundtable was created to support companies interested in developing a robust supplier diversity program regardless of the inroads they have made to date. If we are to be genuine and authentic as advocates on the road to equity, we must invest in demonstrating that commitment. After George Floyd was murdered, companies came out with all kinds of public statements about their support for diversity, equity and inclusion. Still, the most important statements are those that demonstrate an investment in people, communities and strategic business partners. The upcoming Procurement Roundtable, free for businesses to attend, helps participants gain tools, coaching and exposure to national expertise to help begin building a program that fits your company’s needs.
Reggie Williams
Having coined the phrase “supplier diversity” in 1985, Reggie Williams, CEO, Procurement Resources Inc., comes alongside Procurement Roundtable participants with a focus on collaborative engagement. A fundamental element of this expertise is his ability to generate a broad-based consensus that engages internal stakeholders. With three decades of exposure to best practices across various industries, Williams leverages lessons learned to guide the development of your company’s strategy on supplier diversity.
As Williams often advises, there are many ways companies can demonstrate a commitment to supplier diversity, not the least of which is funding a process that seeks to make change by creating opportunity and competitive access.
Supplier diversity will only be effective when there is an investment in the outcome of the process. Companies that join BEI can demonstrate this not just by participating but by investing. An investment might look like:
A. Implementation of supplier development and mentorship. Companies can mentor two or three suppliers annually and create greater capacity among minority suppliers — particularly in procurement categories that they purchase.
B. Assist suppliers in generating joint venture opportunities for minorities to buy from minorities and for minorities to invest in their communities.
C. Finally, we must collectively double down on our investment to a brighter, more diverse tomorrow because of initiatives like BEI. This is a foundation to realize better business, better opportunities and a better tomorrow for all members of a community. Additional funding of BEI will result in opportunities for small, minority, Black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian American and women-owned businesses to participate in the economy that they have played a pivotal role in creating.
If you represent an Indy business interested in making an investment in equity, we invite you to learn more and register on the Business Equity for Indy website.
Stacia Murphy is director of equity, outreach and strategic partnerships at Indy Chamber, and Reggie Williams is CEO of Procurement Resources Inc.
Indiana Black Expo (IBE) Black Training Institute received a $300,000 grant from the KeyBank Foundation. The grant is part of a $40 billion National Community Benefits Plan to help eliminate racial disparities that exist for African Americans and other underrepresented and disadvantaged individuals.
The IBE Black Business Training Institute plans to stimulate the African American business community in Central Indiana by helping create more businesses led by Black entrepreneurs. Through this program IBE hopes to accomplish three goals:
Strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem to encourage personal development and increase peer resources for Black business development
Increasing the number of procurement opportunities for minority-led small businesses
Increasing Indiana business owners’ access to the best available talent from the Black and minority community
IBE will offer a 10-week business management program for two cohorts of 25 business owners in Central Indiana. Training will begin in the spring for the first cohort, and the second will begin in the fall. Those who attend will learn practical business skills for small business owners.
Life isn’t always black and white. We don’t only answer yes or no questions. And rarely are we faced with only wrong ways and right ways to do things. But when it comes to building skills to produce winners on a wrestling mat and in life, there is only one way: the Wright Way. For over 10 years, my wife and I have owned and operated Wright Way Wrestling, a business initially started to coach wrestling and train physical disciplines to create better athletes. Today, our business has become so much more.
I was first introduced to wrestling when I was 5 years old. My father, Timothy Devail Wright, was coaching college wrestling in the Quad Cities at Augustana College. That college gym is my first memory of wrestling, and since then, my dad has been my biggest inspiration. I wanted to be great, just like him. I went to Iowa Central College, where I was a two-time All-American, national finalist and furthered my career at Grandview University. There I was two-time All-American, two-time national champion and undefeated in my division. But when I transitioned to coaching, I found my passion.
Through coaching, I am able to provide the same inspiration my father provided me in a sport where I didn’t see many people who looked like me. Wrestling isn’t considered common in minority communities, especially in Indiana, where basketball reigns king. We’re looking to change that using Wright Way Wrestling as a platform to develop strength and confidence, create championship mindsets and build character.
All children need to be taught how to navigate life, but African American children require experiences to both overcome societal obstacles and to realize their potential. Capabilities develop through interactions that shape children’s physical, social and emotional development, and all too often, African American children in low-income communities face obstacles to education that restrict them in most areas of their adult lives. Research has shown the importance of long-term consistency in expectations, high-quality instruction and social support for children. Without access to stable development opportunities and social learning comes a certain amount of volatility and often, an inability to reach one’s full potential.
In his song, “Immortal,” J. Cole expressed it best: African American people are told to “sell dope, rap or go to [the] NBA.” We accept the challenge. Wright Way Wrestling is more than wrestling — we aim to give underprivileged youth opportunities and allow individuals to gain life skills and coping mechanisms from the sport. We offer post-graduate athletes, veterans and coaches a place to get back into the sport, whether for recreational, therapeutic or health purposes. We are committed to developing partnerships with those whose mission closely aligns with ours to better serve a wide variety of individuals.
With four children of our own, my wife and I see firsthand how this sport can bring people together. My 5-year-old son is already hitting the mat and so is our daughter. We also work with other father-son duos, and it is beautiful to see their connection flourish in the ring — just like it did for my dad and me. Wright Way Wrestling continues to highlight the diversity and accessibility of the sport through moments of connectivity.
I always knew I would make a living from this sport that I love so much. Through the will of God, I was granted an opportunity to create a business with my craft to feed my family, live out my passions and give back to the community that helped build me.
Wrestling truly is for everyone. We’re currently working to grow and diversify the sport to provide opportunities for boys and girls of color, African American children, multicultural children, fatherless kids and beyond. We want people in our program to recognize that no matter where we started, or what barriers we face, we all stand as equals on the mat.
Brandon and Emily Wright are founders and owners of Wright Way Wrestling.
Standing on your own two feet is how you support yourself. We rely on our feet to stand, walk, run and so much more, but are we always providing them the support they need? We Heel the Sole Podiatry provides high-quality, comprehensive foot care for the senior community — a community that requires support and help from people they can relate to. Especially for seniors of color, it’s critical that they’re able to access the quality care they need from health care professionals who look like them.
Jerwana Laster
The aging minority population has inferior access to health care and receives lower quality services than the general population throughout their lives. This creates an evident disparity of more chronic medical conditions, which worsen over time, and leads to earlier deaths. Health education can be tied back to susceptible seniors of Black, brown and Latino descent being deeply distrustful of our government and health care institutions.
I wasn’t fortunate enough to grow up with either set of my grandparents. The knowledge and history passed down in Black families is vital to making sense of the world. Especially in the Black community, we face impediments to health care access, community health challenges and a lack of representation of health care professionals who not only look like us, but they better understand our unique needs. We Heel the Sole Podiatry was built out of a desire to provide quality and critical health care by the Black community, for the Black community and the community of seniors as a whole.
From the desire to start on my own and separate We Heel the Sole Podiatry from the “big” health care competitors, I strive to create an environment where patients feel like family — with trust being at the core of that patient provider relationship. Getting to know my patients and hearing their stories is a treat. Providing their bodies with the support they need is why I started my own practice, and I’m grateful for the trust they invest in me to help meet their health care needs.
But last year, my senior patients were not the only ones who needed support. I needed it. In March 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal regulator for nursing homes, restricted all visitation in response to the coronavirus, except in end-of-life situations. The senior community I saw was no longer accessible. Their doors were shut, and I was doing everything in my power to keep mine open.
When I discovered the Indy Chamber, I knew I needed the help and expertise of a team that knew all about business and the community at large. The Indy Chamber’s Business Ownership Initiative (BOI) team immediately referred me to the Rapid Response Loan program, where I received funding critical to my business’s survival. In addition, I was set up with business coaching and free webinars that helped answer questions and ease the financial depletion the pandemic caused my business.
I am here to serve and support the senior community. BOI allowed me to continue providing non-invasive, preventive podiatry services to a population in need at a time when they struggled to access quality care. We Heel the Sole has been able to participate in programs and grants that have changed the trajectory of my business, all because I took the time and initiative to connect.
BOI continues to connect me with resources and programs that have created an abundance of networks throughout the city of Indianapolis and the entire state. I didn’t know these opportunities existed prior to reaching out to the Indy Chamber.
My feet establish my voice and place as an entrepreneur in Indiana, and they led me down this path, which is one of the best decisions I have made to date as a small business owner. One day soon, I will say I am a big business in Indiana because of this support.
Dr. Jerwana Laster is owner of We Heel the Sole Podiatry.
As an entrepreneur, everything often falls on you. The hours you work, the rates you charge, when you accept new clients and, ultimately, the sacrifices you make for your business, career path and calling. Since launching my business, Harris Consulting LLC, in 2018, I’ve realized that entrepreneurship is an industry where there is no work-life balance — and that’s during normal times! Like many, I couldn’t have predicted how the business landscape would shift nor how I would weather that shift during the pandemic.
Tiffany Coker
I am an experienced mobile notary licensed in the state of Indiana. My work includes running background checks, taking fingerprints, offering legal courier services — anything that needs a legal signature. With a background in human resources, my skill set includes the management of many things related to employment; think hiring, employee compensation, labor law, retirement and nearly everything in between. However, during my tenure in HR, I quickly realized I wasn’t passionate about the work. I started to dream of a career path that would enable others. One that would help individuals secure a job at an organization and achieve ongoing credentials and certifications they need to progress. According to a recent Business Equity for Indy’s Learning and Talent taskforce report, college enrollment for Black students in Indiana plummeted by 12 percentage points over the last decade — from 62% in 2007-2008 to 50% in 2018-2019. This means that 50% of Black students are going from high school into the workforce — many without the proper job exposure, job training, education or certifications to find gainful employment that leads to a successful career path.
With a clear problem in front of me and the conviction to believe I could make a difference, Harris Consulting was ready to open our doors. However, I wasn’t prepared to put my business in motion as the rest of the world halted abruptly. When the pandemic arrived, it brought unique challenges for many small businesses like mine — problems that are shifting the paradigm of how we work and what a work environment looks like, and once again, my experiences are reshaping my business.
Times are changing, and with change comes innovation, specifically as it relates to remote work. Harris Consulting is in a position to help ease the burdens of large companies, corporations and business entities that are struggling to define their “new normal” in the workplace. We’re able to bring our expertise to our clients as we define their pain points, explore possible solutions and work to ensure that organizational culture and efficiencies aren’t sacrificed in solutions. For some clients, solutions look like hybrid work models. Others they don’t — but we ensure our recommendations help strengthen companies and set them up for greater resilience in the foreseeable future.
As I navigated the pandemic, my workload increased dramatically. I had to slow down my advertising, which I never thought I would say! I needed help. I need workers. And as an entrepreneur, I wanted to hire the right people for Harris Consulting. But since the pandemic arrived, demand is surpassing supply. I had so many questions, and thankfully, I had heard about the support offered by Indy Chamber and their Business Ownership Initiative (BOI) program. BOI allowed my small business access to free, one-on-one small business coaching, the professional access to training documents needed and, most importantly, compassion and empathy.
When I began working with BOI, I wasn’t sure if my business would be able to survive these trying times. Fortunately, today I can say Harris Consulting is a place where I got on my feet again. A lot of that was made possible by the time, care and effort my BOI coach gave to me. My business coach, Ms. Emily, came into my life and helped me find my light. She helped keep me afloat during COVID, and now she’s helping my business expand. I cannot recommend this service enough to a small business at any stage of life.
As entrepreneurs, we’re so used to giving our all and making things happen no matter what. But we all need help. And BOI is there to provide that support to us individually so that we can launch, grow and scale to help our neighbors and community.
Giving people a second chance is woven into the fabric of our country. However, as nice as a clean slate sounds, it’s often difficult, if not impossible to get a second chance after incarceration. As a Black man, and a man who was formerly incarcerated, I am intimately aware that injustice comes in multiple forms; some systematically, because of the hardships I faced, and others socially due to the color of my skin.
Montez Williams
Entrepreneurship was my tool to rising above discrimination and creating my own path to opportunity.
Entrepreneurship may be lonely, but fortunately for me, it was never a path I had to walk alone. In 2016, I received my horticultural degree. I have always thrived on being creative and educating people. That is my niche and my calling. However, when I was released from prison in 2017, I was just trying to figure out a way to get employed. I wasn’t the only one.
Around that time, in 2018, the unemployment rate for formerly incarcerated individuals was more than 27%. According to an analysis by the Prison Policy Initiative, that’s higher than the total U.S. unemployment rate during any historical period, including the Great Depression. I needed a job that paid a living wage, aligned with my passion for educating people and working outdoors and helped me find fulfillment that would help me change my life’s trajectory.
At the time, I had enough money to buy a lawnmower and a weed wacker, and those became the tools to my future. My humble business began when I cut grass on the east side of Indianapolis, but I needed help. I had a vision for the type of work I wanted to be doing and a hope that I could help others, but I had no idea I could create a pathway to opportunities through my community.
Lucky for me, my current, savvy business manager and grandmother was scrolling the internet and saw an ad for a program that helps formerly incarcerated individuals start their own business. It was the support and community I needed.
Through the Indy Chamber’s ReEntry Entrepreneurship Development Initiative (REDi) program, I began to pitch my business and learned the basics of starting a business. One-on-one coaching taught me cash flow, market research, customer relations and exposed me to tools that helped me create, launch and grow my business. Above all else, REDi taught me how to transform my knowledge and passion into a profit.
The REDi program focused on starting a business, but it did more than that; it genuinely felt like training and resources that were tailored to me and my experience. The experience was foundational in my career and life. Entrepreneurship allowed me to rise above the systemic discrimination in the job market. I was given resources and attention to rise above the stigmas associated with my background to create a path to economic opportunity.
My REDi coaches and community have helped me with everything that makes a business run. I’m lucky enough to have created more than a landscaping company — instead, I’ve built an organization with a mission.
A.C.E. is not only my nickname but my mission. A Child’s Environment is where opportunities, good and bad, present themselves. I want to be that good opportunity, the opportunity that provides money through work in the community, the opportunity to invest time in growing skills and the opportunity to plant seeds and be around to watch them grow.
I was serious about my passion for helping people and leaving my community better than I found it. If you are serious about what you’re doing as an entrepreneur, REDi will help you take advantage of every resource available. Being immersed in an entrepreneurial ecosystem keeps your ideas sharp and pushes you to continuously improve.
If you know your worth to this community and have the desire to prove how valuable you are to the workforce and city, REDi is where you need to be. The next free five-week REDi class will start on Feb. 1. Applications are now open. Click here to learn more and apply. For assistance applying offline, contact Neil Metzger at 317-464-2232.
Montez Williams is owner and founder of the A.C.E., A Child’s Environment, Project.
Improving the quality of life for everyone means taking equitable measures that allow everyone to participate in the economy. In order to praise our city as a place where basic needs are met, and people can thrive, it’s vital we take actionable measures to advance inclusive entrepreneurship. As the director of Equity, Outreach, and Strategic Partnerships for the Indy Chamber, it is my responsibility (not to mention my own personal mission) to assist disenfranchised communities in solving problems of equitable access to business capital. Businesses are an extension of our community, and we have reached a rare moment of opportunity as corporations take a fundamental role in our fight for equity.
Stacia Murphy
Business Equity for Indy (BEI) celebrated its first year and launched its website in late October 2021. BEI is a joint effort of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, the Indy Chamber, in collaboration with the Indianapolis Urban League to grow a more inclusive business climate and build greater equity and economic opportunity for the Indy Region’s Black residents and community members of color. BEI consists of a collaboration of organizations and business leaders coming together to make Indianapolis a more equitable city, focusing on public policy, health care, learning and talent, hiring and promoting, and procurement and participation.
Our goal is to have 100 companies and institutions sign the BEI Procurement Roundtable pledge, a commitment to advancing equity in our city. By signing the pledge, businesses are committing to making a more equitable Indianapolis over time. To date, 15 businesses have signed the pledge, and you can learn more about those companies at businessequityindy.com. The pledge is not a checklist that needs to be met before signing your name, instead, it’s a commitment to take meaningful action to address the issues of racial inequity and justice in Central Indiana and, ultimately, to advance Black-owned businesses. McKinsey and Company estimates that investing in Black-owned businesses is one vital way to help close the racial wealth gap and lead to $290 billion in our economy.
To truly advance and invest in Black-owned businesses and businesses owned by a person of color, we need to start looking at revenue-generating opportunities in addition to other access to capital ideas or within the access to capital conversation.
Indianapolis currently ranks 55th out of 85 metropolitan cities in the number of Black-owned businesses. For businesses of any size to grow in scale, one of the most sustainable ways is through multiyear contracts, whether it’s with governmental, corporate or institutional customers
Black-owned businesses tend to earn lower revenues in most industries and are overrepresented in low-growth, low-revenue sectors such as food service. Black entrepreneurs might also lack access to the networks and relationships that could help them earn multiyear corporate contracts. BEI Procurement Roundtable provides resources like peer-to-peer networking, quarterly opportunities to share best practices and learn from leading organizations in supplier diversity, and access to resources to identify local, diverse suppliers with the capabilities to meet their business’ needs.
Supplier Diversity Programs are designed to develop and foster strategic supplier relationships with companies owned by one of several diverse categories. According to the 2021 State of Supplier Diversity Report, less than six percent of corporate spending is done with diverse, disenfranchised businesses. Those categories of owners are defined in the following systematically disenfranchised minority groups; Black or person of color-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, LBTQIA+-owned, and disabled-owned meaning over 94% of supplier spending is done outside of those categories.
BEI is positioning Supplier Diversity Programs for success by removing barriers in Indy’s corporate community and capitalizing on the power of businesses seeking to change and sustain business practices. Our procurement roundtable discussions work toward supporting and standardizing more equitable processes and make these programs more widely adopted. A more equitable business landscape can mitigate the effects of systematic obstacles for Black business owners.
An investment in Black business owners creates equitable access to resources and opportunities. BEI is shifting mindsets by prioritizing actions that improve access to jobs, small business opportunities, education, health care, and public policy advocacy.
As leaders in this community, we must hold one another accountable for creating short- and long-term change. Please join us in our pledge by visiting businessequityindy.com and start sharing progress toward a racially equitable Indianapolis.
Stacia Murphy led the coordination of Business Equity for Indy Procurement Roundtable initiative and is the director of Equity, Outreach, and Strategic Partnerships with Indy Chamber.
