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| Media Release |
BUILDING A GENERATION OF BLACK ENTREPRENEURS
AUBURN, MARCH 8, 2000---Success appears to come naturally to former Auburn football standout Byron Franklin, who, since his days at Auburn, has excelled as a professional football player, businessman and civic leader.
Franklin attributes his success to two factors: actively seeking role models and mapping out a lifetime plan and sticking with it.
"What I’ve always done in my life is find people I perceive as successful – people I hold in high regard," says Franklin, an Auburn University trustee who, in addition to owning his own business, serves as public relations director for Buffalo Rock Distributors.
Role modeling is an approach Franklin sees as crucial in the lives of many young people – especially African-American youths.
"I think the problem with kids is they lack role models," Franklin says. "They need to see somebody doing it the right way.
"Many young people see the popularity of stars and musicians – even top business people – and think it’s a one-step process to fame and fortune," he says. "They don’t realize the hundreds of steps that lie in between."
That brings up the second factor Franklin deems essential for business success: mapping out a plan and sticking with it.
"Kids need to understand the importance of setting lifetime goals," says Franklin, who stressed the importance of this issue as the keynote speaker at the recent Youth Entrepreneurial Summit, an annual program aimed primarily at aspiring African-American entrepreneurs.
In addition to inviting Franklin as the keynote speaker, the summit featured other outstanding Black entrepreneurs and introduced youngsters to the challenge of seeking loans, managing bank accounts and buying insurance.
"When you think about it, it’s a lot like athletics," Franklin observes. "In life as well as athletics, you map out a plan. You tweak with it in the course of practicing and drilling and, all of a sudden – boom! – it pays off."
This approach, he believes, is a crucial skill African-American youths must acquire to assume leadership roles in the emerging global economy.
With such goals firmly in mind, 4-H educators throughout Alabama are teaming up with public schools to provide entrepreneurial training to African-American young people throughout Alabama. In addition to serving as a co-sponsor of the annual youth summit, 4-H also provides technical assistance to public schools interested in enhancing classroom teaching with entrepreneurial instruction.
Partnerships with public and private sector organizations have played a vital role in such programs, says Montgomery County Extension Agent Yvonne Thomas, who has been involved with entrepreneurial programs from the beginning.
Thomas cites the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce as playing a key role at the summit by providing youngsters with valuable links to community-based business resources. As she sees it, such partnerships are likely to play an even more valuable role in the future.
One of the most successful school-based programs is operated by Vicki Portis, a 10th grade English teacher who worked with math teacher Sandra Hawkins to obtain grant money to establish a program at Lee High School in Montgomery.
Portis sees the program not only as a priceless way to build character and personal initiative but also to teach English skills.
"What started all of this was a student who asked me why he needed English," Portis says.
"My first impulse was to say, ‘in order to pass my class,’" she recalls with a chuckle. "But then it occurred to me that a better way to approach this was to show how English skills related to life."
Portis believed an entrepreneurial training program would be an effective way to show how English skills prove useful in everyday life.
She and Hawkins received funding from Alabama Power Company, which enabled them to provide loans to various students eager to start a business. In addition to coming up with an initial idea for a business, students were encouraged to work up a business plan.
Two students, who are already using the skills acquired through the entrepreneurial program, are Lee High senior Louis Christopher III and sophomore Lazarius Baswell. The two have started their own clothing line, known as "5-6-7," which they hope initially to market to flea markets throughout the Montgomery area and ultimately in Atlanta.
"We want to be able to run a major clothing line nationwide – maybe even worldwide – in the future," Christopher says. "We’re starting off with t-shirts because that’s the easiest thing to do, but we eventually want to branch out into other clothing lines as well."
Currently, the two students are drawing their designs on computer and using iron-on print sheets to paste them onto t-shirts. However, they soon hope to make enough money to buy a print machine, which will help them increase output severalfold.
"It (the hands-on experience offered during the training) teaches you the business," Baswell says. "Some people think all you have to do is jump in. This training shows you the obstacles you have to overcome in order to build a business."
Portis says helping kids understand the obstacles involved in starting and running a business is a key component of entrepreneurial training.
"A person who starts a business at my age really has no room for error," Portis says. "One mistake could put you out of business. So, if we can reach people at an early age, there’s a good chance they can develop the experience to avoid these kinds of problems."
As a black entrepreneur who has experienced his own share of setbacks, Franklin says he wishes training had been available when he began building his career.
"Entrepreneurial training helps kids understand there is a process involved in success," Franklin says. "It’s a path that involves hundreds of steps – even a few backward steps – along the way."
SOURCE: JIM LANGCUSTER, Communications Specialist, Alabama Cooperative Extension System (334) 844-5686
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CUTLINES
More than 400 high school students
from throughout Alabama recently attended the Youth Entrepreneurial Summit
in Montgomery.
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Lee High School senior Louis Christopher
III (left) and sophomore Lazarius Baswell discuss marketing opportunities
for their new fashion line with Vicki Portis, an English instructor whose
entreprenuerial training program enabled them to start their own business.
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Participants in the Youth Entrepreneurial Summit take part in "Welcome to the Real World," a hands-on real-life simulation that enabled them to explore career opportunities and explore lifestyle and budgetary choices similar to those adults make daily.