While 22% of New York City’s population is Black, only 2% of businesses in the city are owned by Black people. This is why New York City considers the lack of Black entrepreneurship an urgent issue to address. The City called on Breakthrough to help them.
To address their needs and to understand how to better support Black-owned small businesses in New York City, we are using one of our most effective methodologies. This methodology involves
- A review of secondary research and literature on the topic
- Discussions with client experts on the topic
- Interviews with subject matter experts and target customers/constituents who understand and articulate their needs, wants, aspirations, and perspectives
With this information, we designed and built a survey to collect and analyze quantitative data.
One of the activities designed to engage New York City Black entrepreneurs was a kick-off event on September 10 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
For New York City, Breakthrough has engaged with Black entrepreneurs and business owners, as well as with entrepreneurs and business owners of other ethnic backgrounds to generate a profile of a control group for comparison.
Click here to read the BE NYC report.
Click here to visit the New York City Department of Small Business Services website to learn more about the Black Entrepreneurship Initiative BE NYC and see the Agile survey that tests concepts for possible NYC SBS programs. Or click here to watch the video on Black Entrepreneurs in NYC.
An Agile Approach
Our process—at both the qualitative and quantitative stages—includes testing concepts for a new offering (a new product and/or service). We test concepts early by describing to target customers concept elements or parts of a final solution, and presenting target customers with descriptive phrases, before the concept’s launch. This approach to survey design is based on Agile principles, wherein we test before anything is built. In this way, we can ensure our final solution meets the needs of the target customer or constituency.
Following the survey, we explore in greater detail the responses of Black entrepreneurs and business owners to elements of the concepts in order to generate recommendations to the New York City Department of Small Business Services.
New York City has recognized that our process is going to deliver this critically important information. Breakthrough was chosen to be part of this project because of the way we approach problem-solving. We are proud to be part of this critical initiative. BE NYC has the potential to set the standard for other cities across the nation as they all work to fully engage the Black community in growing the U.S economy.
For clients who want to introduce new products or services, we deliver a market-driven solution. We go out to the customers our clients want to serve, and collect and analyze data in order to generate the description of the features our clients should offer; how to motivate their target customers to buy/engage; the price customers will pay (when appropriate); and how customers want to receive the offering. With this information in hand, our clients can make fact-based decisions about how to drive their business growth.
