Man, Wife Organize Black Entrepreneurs : Networking: Couple form alliance to encourage businesses to pool resources and invest in black enterprises.

As consumers, black Americans are a formidable bloc widely courted by certain corporations--Nike, McDonald’s, Philip Morris, for example.

But that, two Irvine entrepreneurs say, is the extent of black economic unity. To try to remedy that, Regina and Oscar D. Wilson, investment consultants for a cable TV company, are organizing the National Alliance of Black Entrepreneurs.

The group held its first gathering--a $50-a-plate banquet--Sunday night at the Hyatt Regency Irvine hotel.

“We need a more aggressive, business-oriented group that will network black businesses on a larger scale,” Oscar Wilson, president and co-founder of the for-profit NABE, said in a recent interview. He noted that other attempts to unite black businesses have had limited success and have not addressed such concerns as the lack of a national economic agenda for blacks.

The Wilsons, who are husband and wife, say that although the black population of Orange County is small, accounting for less than 2% of the total population of 2.41 million, those making up that 2% seem receptive.

“As a whole, the business environment in Los Angeles is more stressful and competitive,” said Regina Wilson, secretary and treasurer of the alliance. “We found it easier to talk to black business people in Orange County. They’re more open-minded about business ventures and more supportive of our cause.”

And Orange County is only the beginning. The Wilsons say they plan eventually to establish NABE chapters nationwide, starting with Philadelphia and Little Rock, Ark., next year.

Working from the organization’s Irvine headquarters, the Wilsons hope to educate, motivate and train future entrepreneurs with the help of scholars and business people. Eventually, they hope to become a means for small, black businesses to pool their financial resources and invest in still other black enterprises.

Although the alliance is setting out just months after the April riots in Los Angeles and during a lingering recession that has resulted in massive layoffs in Southern California’s defense and manufacturing sectors, the timing may be right, one expert said.

In both instances, black enterprises have been among the hardest-hit group, said Hailu Giddey, an adjunct economics professor at Charles H. Mason University in San Diego. Furthermore, fierce market competition from both domestic and foreign companies, combined with the historical inability of black entrepreneurs to pull together capital and other resources, makes survival difficult for them, he said.

“What NABE is doing is addressing the loss or misuse of this shrinking pool of black goods and services,” said Giddey, who is an expert on African-American entrepreneurship. “This is a good starting point.”

Like other black organizations, such as Recycling Black Dollars in Inglewood and the Black Chamber of Commerce of Orange County, NABE will encourage black businesses to buy from each other. It also plans a mentor program, to begin next year, that would pair member-volunteers with black youths between 14 to 25 years old in hopes of encouraging young people to go into business for themselves.

NABE also plans to hold bimonthly seminars conducted by black economists, historians and entrepreneurs on a wide range of subjects such as financial management, economic trends and the history of black entrepreneurship. Next year it will follow the lead of other regional organizations by publishing a national directory of black businesses.

But going further than many other business groups, the alliance hopes to finance the dreams of entrepreneurs by forming a separate financial unit, capitalized by outside investors and investments from NABE members. That unit would provide money for young black entrepreneurs to start or expand their businesses or for established businesses needing a financial boost.

Oscar Wilson said NABE would be a shareholder in the businesses it backs. A board made up of business experts and economists would provide management and financial advice, and the entrepreneur would have the option of buying back the alliance’s stake once his or her company was on its feet, he said.

The Wilsons admit that finding investors during the recession will not be easy. They expect to spend at least three years getting the alliance going, Oscar Wilson said, “contingent upon the rate of growth of NABE and the support it gets from the various black communities.”

The annual membership fee is $50 for individuals, $150 for sole proprietorships and $250 for corporations.

Some of Orange County’s black entrepreneurs said that if the Wilsons can get a pool of investors together, the organization would fill a big void.

“I think this is a good idea,” said Lawrence Cade, president and chief executive of Cade Associates, a Mission Viejo distributor of computer products. “The black organizations that I have been affiliated with have not addressed the issue of financing black business.”

While the idea is good, carrying it out will take time, said Muhammad Nassardeen, president of Recycling Black Dollars, a for-profit organization founded four years ago.

“Most of the things we get excited in doing is when we initially get involved and get started. This wears off after a time,” he said. And with unemployment high, especially among minorities, he said, joining a business group may not be high on the list of business people’s priorities.

Membership at Recycling Black Dollars, for example, peaked at 3,200 in 1990. Since then, Nassardeen said, it has dropped 38% to about 2,000.

But the Los Angeles riots sparked a renewed interest in the organization, he noted.

“Nationally, black people are starting to realize the benefits of doing business with each other.”