Meet Robin Reed of Black Chamber of Arizona in Camelback Corridor

Today we’d like to introduce you to Robin Reed.

Robin, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
According to the Small Business Association, more than 627,000 new businesses open each year, at the same time, about 595,000 businesses close each year. In addition, 7 out of 10 new small businesses survive at least 2 years, half at least 5 years, a third at least 10 years and a quarter stay in business 15 years or more. Given these facts, we’re pretty proud of the fact that the Black Chamber of Arizona (BCAZ) is entering its twentieth year of serving its members.

The Black Chamber of Arizona (BCAZ), whose mission is to improve the economic development of our business entrepreneurs and the communities for which we serve, is in itself a small non-profit business. The BCAZ was founded 20 years ago to serve as the corner stone for educational training, resource programs, resources and economic growth opportunities with a specific emphasis on “Business in Action.”

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I don’t know of any organizations who haven’t faced challenges or obstacles at one point or another. The challenges we’ve faced as a Chamber have not only provided the fuel for crafting solutions, but were necessary in that they paved the way for future successes. As a Chamber, we chose to see the obstacles we faced as invaluable opportunities to grow, gain insight and to learn the art of out-of-the-box problem solving. It is this attitude that has allowed us to exist, and to thrive, for the past 20 years.

Please tell us about Black Chamber of Arizona.
The Black Chamber of Arizona (BCAZ) is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the economic development of the business entrepreneurs and communities it serves.

Founded in 1998, we are embarking on our twentieth year. We focus on the following three priorities:
• Providing advocacy, business development and entrepreneur training for our members
• Attracting local, national and international opportunities for Black-owned enterprises
• Offering leadership and advocacy surrounding economic, political and social issues

In 2017, the Black Chamber of Arizona had many significant accomplishments, which included, but were not limited to, the following:
• Purple Gurl’s Popcorn, a Chamber member, became triple certified as a Small Business Enterprise, Disadvantaged Business Enterprise and an Airport Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprise.
• Two Chamber members participated in Arizona Public Service’s Diverse Supplier Training Program, which is a business mentoring program that provides strategic planning and business growth tools.
• A Chamber member completed Salt River Project’s Small Business Leadership Academy, which helps small business leaders build better small businesses. This academy is in partnership with Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business.
• The Chamber participated in Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton’s delegation to Hermosillo, Mexico to discuss foreign trade opportunities. As a result, a Chamber member will participate in an upcoming Hermosillo trade show in March 2018.
• In addition, the Chamber has several members enrolled in ExporTech, a nationally recognized program delivered by the Arizona Commerce Authority, which is designed to help small and mid-sized companies boost their sales revenues via exports.

In addition to these highlighted successes, the Black Chamber of Arizona had several programs, which were successfully delivered in 2017.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Although I haven’t been with the Chamber since its inception, my philosophy is to learn from the past but change your future. Our successes and challenges over the years have led us to where we are today and we, as an organization, believe we are well positioned to make a significant positive impact on our community. That is only possible because of the road we traveled to get here.

Contact Info:

• Address: 2390 E Camelback Road
  Ste 130 / Office 2000
  Phoenix, AZ 85016
• Website: www.blackchamberaz.com
• Phone: 602-307-5200
• Email: info@blackchamberaz.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/BlackChamberofArizona/
• Twitter: @blackchamber_az

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