The National Black Church Initiative consists of 34,000 African American churches. Within those faith-based communities there are more than 50,000 small businesses. Small businesses are the engine of our nation?s economic life. NBCI?s objective is clear; we plan to organize them, educate them and empower them by providing information material and seminars free of charge. We will provide them with the latest information on how to grow their business by accessing different avenues of capital. NBCI will emphasize the traditional routes of government assisted small business programs, but we will also introduce these small businesses to creative financing, targeted marketing, how to sustain and maintain cash flow, and how to create an effective business plan that is implementable.

The crisis of small minority business has always been the lack of capital, the lack of qualified man power and the ability to sustain cash flow and market share. NBCI?s program will help small businesses overcome these traditional problem areas through its innovative seminars concerning these situations. We will introduce creative techniques and strategies. For instance, instead of getting a loan at a traditional bank, NBCI will educate small businesses on how to search for likeminded small business in order to combine their revenue and get capital for their individual businesses. This could be seen as a limited partnership between these two businesses. NBCI also wants to look among our congregation members as potential investors in these small businesses. NBCI?s network of churches represents about 11-15 million individuals and NBCI believes it can search within this population for investors on behalf of our congregational-based small businesses.

The local chamber of commerce in each small businesses community doesn?t necessarily meet the needs of these businesses. This is because they are too small and undercapitalized. However, we plan to utilize the tools of the local chambers on behalf of these small businesses. We hope that such an alliance between the local chambers and these congregational-based businesses will strengthen ties between the two organizations. Many of our small businesses are home-based businesses with only one employee and a possible volunteer, who is usually a family member. We will also provide information on regulations on how to properly license your business and when and how to properly report revenues to the IRS. NBCI will also educate businesses on tax breaks that they can r eceive. The ideal of this initiative is to provide actionable information to individuals who have small businesses in our congregations to fully take advantage of city, state and federal regulation that will help them maximize and strengthen their businesses.

The primary reason for looking within our congregations to aid our small businesses has to do with the potential of those small businesses helping to solve a stubborn problem that continues to plague the African American community. This problem is the crisis of the Black male. Because of their sociology, their lack of education and the stereotype of the Black male as a criminal agent, Black males have great difficulty in finding employment and their very best hope lies with the small businesses in NBCI?s communities and congregations.

This is an exciting initiative that will revolutionize Black small businesses in church-based settings. The goal is to help them grow as a company and become an ethical agent of help to the Black church. As a result of this income will grow, families will stabilize and communities will come together. In other words, we will create a revolutionary bartering system based on the dollar in our churches that is governed by our own Christian ethics. We will also not hesitate to use this coalition of Black business people to fight for their right to be a part of the American capitalist system. If Washington offends us, we will stand up.