YOUNGSTOWN Providing spark for minority business
Youngstown State University wants to buy more from minority vendors.
THE VINDICATOR
By JOHN SKENDALL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Helping local minority businesses succeed was the purpose of a seminar Thursday at Youngstown State University.
Jump Starting Minority Business in the Mahoning Valley, was put on by the Minority Business Enterprise Supplier Coalition, which is composed of YSU representatives and volunteers from local businesses.
The second annual seminar provided local minority business owners with the opportunity to hear speakers and participate in discussions about how to expand their businesses to the benefit of the community.
Junior Carmella Williams, YSU student who serves on the MBE coalition, said minority businesses are under-represented in relation to the area's minority population.
Williams said she wants to see more minorities in the business field to be owners instead of employees.
Also, if the program can increase local business, minority graduates will not have to leave the local market to find work. "People don't see jobs, so they leave Youngstown," Williams said.
As a result of last year's seminar, one vendor got a contract with YSU. Williams said she hopes more will get contracts this year.
University's goal
YSU professor Rich Delisio, director of materials management and an MBE coalition member, said the university hopes to increase the percentage of purchases it makes from minority firms. Between 7 percent and 8 percent of YSU's vendors are minority businesses, Delisio said. The Ohio state quota for minority vendors is 15 percent.
One presenter at the seminar, Homer Warren, professor of marketing, said it's important to have minority vendors in a community.
"Independence demands that people have control of their resources to be a powerful and independent group," he said.
The more minority vendors there are supplying goods and services to corporations, the more minorities feel they have control over their own destiny and do not become depressed, anxious and disenfranchised, he said.
The MBE coalition meets twice a month to discuss minority small business issues.