LAKEWOOD, Wash. — In Lakewood, the Fifth Annual Black-Owned Business Excellence (BOBE) Symposium is in full swing.
The three-day event includes panel discussions and networking opportunities. Its goal is to inform, encourage, and uplift Black business owners, an effort Intentions Juice and Smoothie Bar owner Marquita Evans is happy to support.
“It ignites a fire in you!” she says. “You’re amongst like-minded individuals, which, for me, is exciting!”
Evans started Intentions in Tacoma in 2020.
Since then, she’s expanded to Seattle and is looking to open another Tacoma location.
Evans is proud of her progress, but she admits that many entrepreneurs like herself miss out on vital information that could help their businesses flourish, or systemic discrimination discourages some from seeking that information.
According to McKinney and Company, Black-owned Businesses have a survival rate of only 4% after three years, compared to 45% for non-Black businesses.
“It’s been an experience in the sense of, we don’t know what we don’t know,” Evans explains. “We’ve been placed in this space where it’s fearful to have loans or dealing with your credit, or things of that nature, when that’s the actual way for us to grow.”
Jenefeness Franke says that need inspired her to help create the symposium.
Franke helped establish the Black-Owned Business Excellence organization in 2019.
She says the need became even clearer during the pandemic when many Black businesses were left behind as the government gave out financial assistance to businesses.
“Our businesses weren’t getting the money,” Franke said. “Not only were we not getting access, we were getting denied because we didn’t have a certain structure that we didn’t even know we needed!”
DeiMarlon Scisney runs multiple platforms that focus on tech strategies and gathers data on the state of Black businesses in Washington state. Scisney says he’s noticed an interesting phenomenon in Seattle: while vital resources exist, they’re often not easily accessible.
“Yes, there are resources out there, there are non-profit organizations, there are entities that really pioneer within providing opportunity for Black businesses,” he remarked. “But oftentimes in Seattle, what I’ve come to realize is that things are very siloed.”
Scisney says BOBE’s symposium offers a rare opportunity to break through that and encourage collaboration among Black entrepreneurs.
"When we come together and really hone in on the central issues, that’s where the impact comes in,” he said.
Franke hopes that collaborative spirit will continue to grow as time goes on.
“We’re the gate openers!” she proclaimed. “We’re going to get the education out there, we’re going to get the resources out there, and there will be no excuses in our community!”
Meanwhile, Evans says she’s excited that she’s found a place where she can now pass on what she’s learned and gather knowledge herself to take her business to the next level.
“I’ve been an entrepreneur for 16 years, and this is the first time I’ve been to something of this nature,” she said. “It’s a space that’s created for us, and for us to grow, There’s nothing to lose in coming into these spaces, it helps you grow, not only as an individual, but as an entrepreneur.”