Black Business Expo slated for this week: exhibition/workshops aim to help black entrepreneurs.

Black Business Expo slated for this week

Exhibition/workshops aim to help black entrepreneurs

Debbi Lewis' Inglewood-based marketing firm Lewis & Lewis mostly conducts business with mega-clients such as Pacific Bell and Federal Express.

But as an African-American entrepreneur, she still finds time to keep in contact with the local black business community because she's reaching out to help and target, as potential clients, minority small businesses.

That's one of many reasons why Lewis, for a second consecutive year, will be an exhibitor and a workshop speaker at the third annual Los Angeles Black Business Expo April 27-28 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

"It (the expo) absolutely increases my visibility in the African-American community," said Lewis.

And as a result of this year's event, Lewis said that she has already secured six additional clients.

As an exhibitor, Lewis will be among some 250 entrepreneurs to display their products and services at the Black Business Expo.

"This year I will be unveiling a business improvement video tape service," she said. The tapes are "specifically for the non-MBA small business (owner)" and encompass effective, economical approaches to advertising, accounting and creating a business plan for a start-up venture.

One tape, Marketing 2000, gives entrepreneurs tips on what steps to take now to market products or services in the future -- a theme which Lewis will be addressing in an expo workshop. Another topic on which she will speak is recessionary marketing: "There's many things that we (entrepreneurs) can do to stay visible during these periods (of recession)."

Among other speakers at the workshop are authors George Subira, self publisher of "Black Folks' Guide to Business Success," and Chin-ning Chu, who wrote "The Chinese Mind Game -- The Best Kept Trade Secret of the West."

Lewis is also working on the expo's six pre-promotional workshops which are for the exhibitors.

"We (workshop speakers) help them to focus (on) why they're participating in the show," she said.

A post-promotional workshop is also scheduled to help the exhibitors follow up with ideas and leads that they may get during the show, Lewis said.

Since the first expo was staged in 1989, the event has mushroomed to 250 exhibitors from 50 at the outset, and into the Convention Center from a local hotel.

And, at the first expo, Bellflower-based Bradford Funding Mortgage was an exhibitor, but now is a co-sponsor with Atlantic Richfield Co. in Los Angeles, The Los Angeles Sentinel and Los Angeles-based Realty World-Rainbow Estates, according to Expo Director Barbara Lindsey.

Also the expo's founder, Lindsey said she got the idea for the event because of the minor exposure that minority entrepreneurs usually get.

"The important thing is that we might want to use the services of African-American businesses but if you don't know where they are then you can't use the services," she stated.

Significantly, the theme for this year's expo is: "Together we can make a difference."

"We want everybody to know about these businesses," said Lewis.

Particularly, Lindsey would like to see that African American youth attend the expo so that they can be inspired by the entrepreneurs.

To ensure the event's attendance by black youth, the expo will give out complimentary tickets at high school and college campuses, the Los Angeles Job Corp. and at some churches.

"We (the expo) need to teach them to be entrepreneurs. We want them to see that there's an alternative," she said.

But, the president of Lindsey Associates in Inglewood, a promotional company for speakers, insists that the expo does not exclude non-black businesses but any entrepreneurs are welcome to participate.

"We are inviting a lot of Asians (businesses) to the expo," Lindsey said. "We're just excited that it's a business expo."

The only reason any entrepreneurs might be excluded is if they don't know enough about what they're selling to properly "focus" on the venture, Lindsey said.

That's why Lindsey said she talks to each prospective client to know exactly if their business is "focused" enough to be an exhibitor.