1) What is your name and what is the name of your company?Tre Baker, co-founder of Ujamaa Deals, a daily-deal site for black owned companies.2) Why did you start this company and how does it serve the public interest?We wanted to combat the chronic economic depression in the Black community by more effectively harnessing the almost $1 trillion worth of Black buying power, less than 10% of which is currently spent with Black-owned businesses. Black businesses are much more likely to hire Black employees than non-Black-owned businesses, so the easiest way to decrease Black unemployment is not begging white corporations for more jobs or a jobs bill from Washington, it is to spend more money with companies we own so that they can hire more people that look like us. We can’t keep relying on others for our financial well-being.3) You won a major award for your business idea. Can you tell us about that?
Yes. We won The 100 Urban Entrepreneurs Business Pitch Competition down here in Atlanta. It was a great event where entrepreneurs all over the region came to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges and the audience. It was kind of like Shark Tank meet Apollo. However, if a pitch was bad, the won’t boo you. It was a lot of fun and we won $10,000 to get the business launched. 100UE is such a great organization that has provided valuable mentorship and financing towards our company. Anyone looking to start their own business should definitely look into them.
4) What can people expect if they sign up for Ujaama Deals?By signing up for Ujamaa Deals you will receive daily discounts from great Black-owned companies with quality products and services. But daily deals is only the beginning, we plan on expanding into several areas that will be key to Black economic empowerment implemented by Black people and not reliant on any government or corporate assistance. We have the resources in our community TODAY to solve all of our problems. We just need to organize those resources, and our company will help accomplish this. So it’s really much more than the daily discounts, it’s a small part of the larger mission of Black economic empowerment. And that’s what you’re supporting when you sign up.5) Do you have any advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?Find a need and fill it. The best business ideas are solutions to problems. The bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity. But don’t just pick something because you think it will make a lot of money. Start a business that you’re passionate about. Sometimes being an entrepreneur can be tough, and if you’re only in it for the money, you won’t have the internal motivation necessary to make it through all the ups and downs. Then once you decide on a business idea, seek professional advice and mentoring from people who are doing what you’re trying to do. Most likely somebody has done something similar to what you’re doing; rather than trying to learn everything from scratch, you can learn from that person what worked and what mistakes to avoid. Don’t try to do everything yourself and spend a lot of time trying to overcome your weaknesses. If you’re not a good sales person, don’t waste time trying to be the best sales person when you have an entire company to run. Just bring in someone that is good at sales and keep it moving.6) Is there anything else you’d like to share with our Your Black World audience?If the past 40 years since the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement have taught us anything it’s that we can’t continue to rely on other people to be doing what we could do ourselves. Nobody has our best interest at heart more than we do. There is no political and social power without economic power. We’ve had countless Black politicians elected to office, and we have seen that these politicians are just as loyal to corporate interests as white politicians because politics has a symbiotic relationship with economics. One system cannot exist without the other. You cannot have power in one system without power in the other. So we can complain about corporations controlling everything, or we can start owning and controlling the corporations and make sure that they behave responsibly. We can complain, or we can take action. Those that complain will continue to suffer and hold us back; those that take action will be the ones that move us forward. The next movement must be for economic self-determination and independence with a cooperative focus. The next unifying imperative for the Black community MUST be Economic Empowerment.To sign up for the email newsletter for Ujamaa Deals, please click here.
