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The Great Economic DivideThe National Urban League is working to close the equality gap between black and white Americans. Its top priority in 2011: jobs, jobs, jobs.To tackle near-record high unemployment for African Americans, the National Urban League unveils a call-to-action plan. The Multiplier Effect: A business coach at the NUL is helping Lonnie Grayson lure new clients to triple his consulting business revenue. (Excerpt from this week's Time Magazine) |
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To tackle near-record high unemployment for African Americans, the National Urban League unveils a call-to-action plan.
LONNIE GRAYSON had racked up years of experience as an engineer when he started his business, Environmental & Safety Solutions Inc., in Cincinnati in 2002. But, having spent his career working for corporations, he was new to full-time entrepreneur- ship. About five years into running the business, he realized he needed advice on how to grow his firm, which helps both public and private clients comply with environmental and safety laws. |
Through the local African Ameri- can Chamber of Commerce, Grayson learned that his local Urban League af- filiate could help. Grayson soon found himself developing a strategic plan for growing his firm, working with a busi- ness coach from the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati on improving his organizational processes in areas like billing, making sure his firm was struc- tured properly to handle additional customers and ensuring that the com- pany, which offered services in two related areas, was working with clients in a unified way. “New business devel- opment is what we really concentrated on,” he says. |
“There were some specific target markets we wanted to hit.” The advice he got at the Urban League paid off. Grayson reports that he is now in the final stages of signing a contract with the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, worth $2 million per year, for up to five years. That’s linked to becoming a preferred subcontractor on school construction and rehabilitation contracts for another large customer, the Cincinnati Public School District, a project that should be worth about $1.2 million in revenue.
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Click here to read the full National Urban League Time Magazine Insert.
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