Q&A; : Black Entrepreneur Finds Path to Success

Frank Holoman, 57, Inglewood- and Crenshaw-area restaurateur.

Claim to fame: Entered restaurant business in 1985, when he opened his first Boulevard Cafe in Santa Barbara Plaza shopping center, the largest concentration of black-owned businesses in Los Angeles; has since opened two more Boulevard Cafes in Inglewood, and another Crenshaw eatery, Ebony Mexicana; also publishes Holoman’s Black Achievers, a monthly newspaper focusing on black success stories.

Background: Born on a family-owned farm in McCaskill, Ark., he graduated from Washburn University in Topeka, Kan., and moved to Los Angeles in 1959. He became administrative assistant to Assembly Speaker Jesse M. Unruh and was elected to Unruh’s former Assembly seat in 1972, representing the Inglewood area. His political career ended two years later when he tried to move up to a state Senate seat and was defeated by Nate Holden, now a Los Angeles councilman.

Q: Your restaurant business is often described as a success story. But your experience in business has not been the norm for many black entrepreneurs. Nationally, blacks make up 12% of the population, but own only 3% of the businesses, and those businesses account for only 1% of all sales, according to Census Bureau figures. What are some of the major stumbling blocks?

A: Undercapitalization is one of the main reasons why most businesses fail, and blacks have a harder time getting financing. Even if you have excellent credit, the banks don’t want to lend you money. You don’t have Uncle Joe or Uncle Pete to co-sign for you. Times are hard now, and whites are finding it difficult to get business loans, so it’s almost impossible for blacks.

Q: Aren’t there government programs to support small businesses?

A: Not enough. Black businesses in this country are catching hell, and one of the keys is money. I was reading in the paper that the government was (considering) guaranteeing $10 billion in loans to house Soviet Jews in Israel. Think of what $10 billion in loan guarantees could do in this country. That is some of my money--and I can’t get government money.

Q: But at the same time, immigrants are opening up businesses at an incredible rate, particularly in black communities. Why are so many foreign-born entrepreneurs doing well while many blacks, even in their own neighborhoods, are struggling?

A: (Immigrant entrepreneurs) have more financial support, resources. Many of them were business people in their own country. So they are used to doing business. And they know how to pool their money to form cooperatives and associations, something we don’t do as well. They have the financing and they have the ability to hang in there and take the risk. Many also have the work ethic where they are used to putting in 12 to 14 hours a day, whatever it takes to succeed through tough times.

Q: There are many Korean-owned businesses in the Crenshaw community. For some this has been a source of tension. What has been the economic impact?

A: What it means is that basically the money turns around once in our community and then it leaves. These merchants don’t shop in our community and they rarely hire outside family and friends.

Q: Are you blaming Korean merchants for the failure of black businesses?

A: You can’t blame them for moving in and filling a void. I do blame those who do business here and don’t hire our people or contribute to our social organizations. That I blame them for. But I blame us even more for letting this happen. In many ways we are our worst enemies.

Q: What do you mean?

A: Our minds have been brainwashed to think that if it’s black, it’s not good. The ice isn’t as cold if it is black ice. Now many of our people are getting away from that. They will support you, but you have to hang in and prove that you have something to offer. Black businesses have a responsibility to provide better services and products to the community--and at the same time black consumers should seek out black businesses to support.

Many black businesses only get one shot in their community. If the food isn’t right or the service isn’t good, people don’t want to shop there. There isn’t a restaurant in America where something doesn’t go wrong sometime. We have to be more supportive, reach out to each other more.

But we have a lack of confidence in each other. It takes time to get it right, but time is a luxury most black businesses can’t afford. There are successful black businesses everywhere. Lawyers, doctors and others. But more has to be done to encourage young people to get into business, to become better risk-takers. To succeed in business you have to be willing to take risks. More young people who are going to college need to look at business as an option.

Q: How did you get into the restaurant business?

A: I had never been in the restaurant business, but I felt it was something I could do. This restaurant (on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard) was once a Muslim place and it went under, and then an African guy bought it and it also went under. I remember thinking I could make it work. Everybody told me it couldn’t be done, that the restaurant business is too tough. It costs too much money. But my wife (Diane) and I did it anyway. We opened in 1985 on Mother’s Day. There weren’t many nice places in the community to eat. When the majority (white) community moved out, most of the restaurants moved out with them. There were not a lot of nice restaurants in this area that served home cooking.

Q: Was the restaurant an immediate success, or did it take some time?

A: It took more than a year, about a year and four months. When you first open a business, it’s hard to make it a success even if the people are coming in. I didn’t have the proper staff, the food mix was not right. I didn’t have the right mix of people, customers. The good thing is that I didn’t have to live off the restaurant for awhile, but even that caught up with me. Then I had a tough time. I went and made loans from a finance company. I ran up all my (credit) cards. And even that was not enough to capitalize the restaurant like it should have been.

Q: What turned it around?

A: Sticking with it. I’m a hands-on person and I’m here every day. When you walk in, I make you feel like a king. I have a giant ego like most business people and politicians, but you are a king when you come in my restaurant. I serve breakfast, lunch and dinner--basic home cooking. The grits, and the pork chops, short ribs, the fried and baked chicken, the greens and black-eyed peas--all the things that people who are from the Midwest and the South are used to eating.

Eventually I started getting regulars in, and the restaurant began to grow by word of mouth. The regulars brought others. I didn’t do much advertising; people brought other people.

Q: Who were your role models in business?

A: I had none. No one in my family had ever graduated from college or owned a business. My father and mother never graduated from high school. It was an individualistic kind of thing. It was something that was inside of me. I can remember as a kid saying to myself that I wanted to be somebody. I wanted to do something. Even though I didn’t know quite what.

My grandmother was a major influence for me. She taught me a lot on that rural farm in Arkansas. She was a midwife; she delivered everybody. She was the unofficial mayor when dealing with white people. My father had a hot temper. My father once hit a young white guy over the head with a two-by-four who had called him a name. The white folks in the town were threatening to lynch my father. The whites told my grandmother that they would let that incident pass, but if he did something like that again they would lynch him. Well, my father left town shortly after that. He moved to Kansas City, and we moved there a year or so later. But my grandmother made a lasting impression on me. And often today, when I wonder why a boy from a country town wants to strive to do something, I think about my grandmother.

Q: Have you taken any risks that have not paid off?

A: Yes, Ebony Mexicana. I opened that restaurant because I felt that a black could run a Mexican, Chinese or any kind of restaurant as long as you hire good help. The restaurant got good reviews, the food was good. It has authentic Mexican food. The only thing black about it is its name. The problem has been location, location, location. It’s just in the wrong place.

Q: Does the business of owning and operating a restaurant ever wear you down?

A: It’s usually an accumulation of things that the customer never gets to see. People who don’t come to work. This cook didn’t show. This waitress was out sick. This one filed for disability. This one is out on stress. It got to the point recently where I was working seven days a week, 14 hours a day, thinking they were doing this to me personally. My wife and I took a few days off to just think about it.

Q: Are there times when you think about getting out of the business?

A: Yes. But then I walk in the restaurant, see all the people and feel good. Not because I’m making it happen, because they are making it happen and they come here. Black businesses can’t survive unless black people support them, but we have to deserve their support.

People have suggested to me that I would have fewer problems if I set up a restaurant in Beverly Hills. They say if it will work here it will work there in spades. I’m not an altruistic person, but black businesses have to serve this community.

When I was in politics I had a saying that you pay to serve your folks. There is a cost you have to pay to be a black businessman. Sometimes you have to take abuse, and like most things you have to be better.