Big strides for Urban Chamber

Leila Navidi

Help for small business: The Las Vegas Business Center, a 5,100-square-foot office building at Lake Mead Boulevard and Stella Lake Street in Las Vegas. The center, which is expected to be managed by the Urban Chamber of Commerce, has space for about 10 small companies that are ready to advance toward becoming well-established business entities.

By Richard N. Velotta (contact)

Fri, Jan 29, 2010 (3 a.m.)

Things are starting to look up for the Las Vegas Urban Chamber of Commerce.

On the day the organization had a record turnout for a nationally recognized speaker, it also received word it is on track to manage the Las Vegas Business Center, a 5,100-square-foot office building that will house a “business incubator” to give small companies an opportunity to grow.

“We knew that things were coming together on it, but I didn’t realize (Las Vegas) Councilman (Ricki) Barlow was going to be able to announce anything on it,” said MGM Mirage executive Debra Nelson, who took over as president of the Urban Chamber last month and presided over her first meeting Jan. 22.

After hearing from networking expert George C. Fraser, founder and CEO of FraserNet Inc. of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Barlow announced that the City Council would consider a memorandum of understanding Feb. 13 that would place the management of the business incubator in the hands of the chamber.

The Las Vegas Business Center at Lake Mead Boulevard and Stella Lake Street, just west of Martin Luther King Boulevard, has space for about 10 small companies — mom-and-pop operations ready to take their next step toward becoming solid business entities.

“These are small companies ready to go to the next level,” Barlow said. “It provides office space and marketing for businesses that operated out of homes and couldn’t afford to take that next step.”

Nearly 200 people attending the lunch cheered as Barlow announced the news. Minutes earlier, they were cheering Fraser, who was part inspirational speaker and part revivalist delivering a message Barlow’s announcement exemplified.

Fraser said networking as a race is one way black Americans can bond as an economic power that would build wealth.

But black Americans have erred by putting too much stock in political power.

“We are the only culture in the history of humankind that put political empowerment before economic empowerment,” Fraser said. “And therefore last year, black people in America successfully elected over 9,000 black public officials, and for some strange reason, we are still at the bottom of the educational and economic heap.

“What does that mean? It means you cannot do it by politics alone.”

He said black Americans’ $920 billion in purchasing power would overshadow the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Black America, he said, would be the 13th richest nation in the world if it were a separate country.

“The strength is not in the wolf,” he said. “It’s in the pack. When we demonstrate to each other that we can be better stewards of that which we already have, we will also demonstrate to ourselves and to the world that we are a force to be reckoned with.”

Fraser listed several reasons the black community has lagged behind other people of color. One is that blacks don’t band together to help each other, he said. Another is that they’ve underachieved.

“Very good is not good enough,” he said. “Today, you’re going to have to be amazing. Very good today will get you fired.”

Fraser said he found the difference between “very good” and “amazing” by buying a cell phone.

“A year and a half ago, I went to AT&T and I bought a cell phone made by Motorola and it was very good,” Fraser said. “Six months ago, I put that cell phone in the garbage, waited in a line with 800 people for four hours so I could buy an iPhone, because it’s amazing. I threw very good away and I traded it in for amazing.

“If you are amazing, you will never have to worry about opportunity. Opportunity will hunt you down and grab you by the throat. It’s when you are mediocre and when you are average are when you’re going to have to compete. Basically, most of America is just average. That’s where all the competition is. But if you are amazing, you will have less competition.”

Fraser said black Americans have a tendency to be held back by acquaintances.

“A common trait of most successful people is the ability to remove toxic people and bloodsuckers from your life,” Fraser said. “It’s very easy to say, but it’s very difficult to do. Why? Because most of these people are your family, your significant others and your so-called friends.”

Fraser said he’s optimistic about the Las Vegas Urban Chamber because it has good leadership.

“Debra Nelson is one of those people who I was referring to as ‘amazing,’ ” Fraser said in an interview after his presentation.

Many organizations with good leadership fail because they don’t to have a succession plan in place.

“It’s not enough to have amazing leadership,” he said. “You also have to have somebody to pass the baton to.”

Fraser applauded Las Vegas-area ethnic chambers of commerce and their willingness to work together. Representatives of the Latin Chamber of Commerce and the Asian Chamber of Commerce were present at the Urban Chamber’s event. Fraser said that willingness to work together builds an even more powerful network of people with a common goal.

“In a market-based economy and a democratic capitalistic society, the only color that really matters is green.”