Strength and Support : Gay Associations Foster Networking and Increase Clout

By VICKI TORRES

Sept. 10, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Business cards were swapped, brochures pressed into eager hands and one-minute pitches perfected on a recent weeknight as 30 gay and lesbian business owners met over dinner at a North Hollywood restaurant.

“I came to a meeting two months ago hoping to increase my business, but it didn’t work that way,” said David Van Wess, a Tupperware sales executive whose name tag read “Tupper Dave.”

Instead, Van Wess said, he met a computer expert who gave him advice about buying a personal computer, an algae saleswoman whose dietary supplements changed his health, a travel agent who planned his vacation and, oh yes, a woman who did buy some Tupperware.

Van Wess and the others who met that evening were engaging in a crucial 1990s business exercise: networking.

As small businesses have grown nationwide, thousands of associations linking independent and home-based businesses have sprung up. Van Wess’ group, the North Hollywood branch of Community Business Networkers, is one of a growing number of gay and lesbian business associations that flourish not only in urban centers, but also in smaller towns across the country.

San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Tucson and Minneapolis now list such business groups. Houston and Chicago just this year created gay business associations. Meanwhile, the Greater Seattle Business Assn., the nation’s largest with 850 members, is mulling over the creation of a national gay business organization.

“The country is in a state of social change and it’s more acceptable for gay and lesbian people to exist openly,” said Jeff Calley, Seattle association president. “Without that environment, these organizations would have a hard time being in existence.”

Those who join gay business groups cite a number of benefits, chief among them a greater comfort level when doing business with other gay and gay-friendly members and customers.

“A lot of gay people don’t want to talk to a straight agent when they talk about health issues,” said health insurance broker Bill Robinson, a member of Valley Business Alliance, a San Fernando Valley gay business association.

Gay businesses also band together as a way to strengthen the economic clout of the gay business community by keeping gay dollars circulating among gay businesses, Robinson said. The associations allow gay-owned businesses to reach gay customers they otherwise couldn’t, by publishing business directories and providing referrals.

VBA member George Piazzi, co-owner of Dishes a La Carte in Glendale and Los Angeles, said its members make up at least 10% of sales in the Glendale store. Plus, gay customers are extremely loyal and check gay business directories before using other listings.

“Many of my gay clientele come here because of the VBA,” Piazzi said of his Glendale store, which doesn’t operate in a gay neighborhood.

California lists a number of gay business associations, including the country’s oldest, the 22-year-old Golden Gate Business Assn. in San Francisco. The state also has two of the largest, the Greater San Diego Business Assn. and Community Business Networkers, each with 600 members.

CBN began four years ago when Mary Giuliani, president and founder, transferred her previous experience with a women’s networking group to create a regional association. Giuliani hosts meetings in Orange County, Pomona, West Hollywood, Santa Monica and the San Fernando Valley, providing exercises designed to break the ice and get business owners talking to one another.

Most of the other gay business organizations function more casually as gay chambers of commerce focused on one city. They offer the typical mix of social events, dinner meetings and networking sessions, plus appearances by local politicians, who increasingly seek to address the groups. Some publish directories and others are on the Internet.

In San Diego, the gay business group went a step further and secured a $12,000 grant from the city’s Office of Small Business to sponsor workshops on economic development and business planning.

“We recognize that there is a special perspective that our members seek to have elaborated for them, such as what are the barriers to getting a business started if you’re a gay person,” said Reuel Olin, the group’s president. Olin said gay entrepreneurs may feel uneasy approaching lenders or landlords with proposals for a gay-oriented business. Association members serve as role models for would-be entrepreneurs.

San Diego will also host the April meeting of the Western Business Alliance, a loose confederation of 20 gay business organizations from Vancouver to Las Vegas. The alliance, which has a meeting next month in Albuquerque, helps the groups exchange information on the nuts and bolts of running gay business associations.

For Calley, who runs a Seattle travel agency, the continued existence and growth of gay and lesbian business associations translates into more than altruism.

“I would not be here today without the” Greater Seattle Business Assn., Calley said. “It brought in lots of customers.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Making Contact

California gay and lesbian business associations:

* Bay Area Career Women, San Francisco, (415) 495-5393

* Business & Professional Assn. of Los Angeles, (213) 896-1444

* Central California Alliance, Fresno, (209) 265-7717

* Central Coast Business & Professional Assn., San Luis Obispo, (805) 546-9394 or ccbapa@aol.com

* Community Business Networkers, Southern California, (800) 404-4226 or https://www.ccweb.com/cbn

* Desert Business Assn., Palm Springs, (619) 324-0178 or psjim-doug@aol.com

* East Bay Business & Professional Alliance, Oakland, (510) 287-2571 or ebbp.alliance@pclp.com

* Gay & Lesbian business Assn. of Santa Barbara, (805) 568-3995