Last Thursday I attended a seminar called "Economic Development Issues and Corporate Suppliers." It was very interesting, and I learned a lot of things about various aspects of entrepreneurship. Going to this seminar also intrigued me to do some research, where I proudly discovered that in the past decade, the number of minority-owned firms has increased. Although I was very pleased with this accomplishment, it also came apparent to me that there are still challenges which minority business owners face. This was the main issue of discussion at the seminar.
             The panelist in this seminar represented various companies, such as, Cox Communications, All State, and UPS. It was debated whether it was more important for a company to make money, or for them to support black businesses. The representative from All State stated that their company simply would not increase their funding to minorities, until they felt that they would benefit from doing so. Cox Communications was another example of a company which failed to provide proper funding for minorities. Although they say they are trying to find a way to make partnerships with minority based companies, they have failed to reach their goal of spending at least 10% in minority based companies. I was surprised to find out that UPS is actually an example of one of the companies with the best supplier diversity programs.
             At the seminar, I learned that minority entrepreneurs need to improve their education in business skills, and also gain access to start-up capital. Various ideas about how they could accomplish this were brought up at the seminar. The government, specifically the U.S. Small Business Administration, has actually developed a series of programs designed to help minority businesses. They try to reserve a percentage of their budget to work with minority firms.
             There is a greater need to increase entrepreneurial opportunities and education for potentia...