Ron Busby, Sr. brings business management skills as well as a lifetime of community development experience to the organization. Mr. Busby is a former successful business owner himself, and he has been recognized as one of the nation’s best CEOs. Ron grew his first company, USA Superclean, from $150,000 annualized revenue, to over $15 million in only 10 years. In addition to being an entrepreneur, Ron was a former Chamber leader serving as the Chairman of the Board and then later became president of the Greater Phoenix Black Chamber of Commerce.
Currently, Ron serves on the Pfizer Small Business Council, National Newspapers Publishers Association Foundation Board of Directors, and White House African American Leadership Council. He has also formerly served on the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Council on Underserved Communities.
Ron Busby, Sr. joins 'Forbes Talks' to discuss the process of building the U.S. Black Chamber of Business and the influence of Black media in news.
0:00 Introduction
2:35 Black Broadcasters And Media During The Pandemic
3:56 Ron On The Current Political Climate
4:40 How Has The Economic Energy Changed For Black Businesses?
7:02 Entering The AI Era
8:19 The Attempt To Erase Legacy And African American Stories From Media
Currently, Ron serves on the Pfizer Small Business Council, National Newspapers Publishers Association Foundation Board of Directors, and White House African American Leadership Council. He has also formerly served on the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Council on Underserved Communities.
Ron Busby, Sr. joins 'Forbes Talks' to discuss the process of building the U.S. Black Chamber of Business and the influence of Black media in news.
0:00 Introduction
2:35 Black Broadcasters And Media During The Pandemic
3:56 Ron On The Current Political Climate
4:40 How Has The Economic Energy Changed For Black Businesses?
7:02 Entering The AI Era
8:19 The Attempt To Erase Legacy And African American Stories From Media
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Hi everybody, I'm Diane Brady. I'm here with Ron Busby Sr. who is the founder, president,
00:08 and CEO of U.S. Black Chambers. First of all, welcome. Thank you for joining us here at
00:15 BLK. How did this start? What was the idea that came to you for this?
00:22 It's a great question. Fifteen years ago, I was living in Phoenix, Arizona, running
00:28 the local black chamber. I had a small business, a janitorial service, in a community that
00:34 only had about 3% black population. Our voice was there, but it wasn't very loud as a community.
00:42 We had had some success. My business personally was doing very well. As leading the chamber
00:49 of commerce, we had had some success. I remember, like it was yesterday, I was in my backyard.
00:55 I was praying on a Friday night about, "Man, it would be great if there was just some kind
01:00 of a national organization." I was looking to see what was next for me and my career.
01:06 By that Sunday afternoon, I got a phone call from a gentleman out of California saying
01:10 that they were looking to start a new national or U.S. Black Chamber. I moved to Washington,
01:17 D.C. in March of 2009. What a great time to be going to Washington.
01:22 After the election of President Obama. What did it feel like there? I know people
01:28 who went there and just talked about how it felt like a new day.
01:32 That city was on fire. I had not ever lived in Washington, D.C., or the Northeast for
01:37 that matter. Going there, even without having relationships or really even an infrastructure,
01:44 it just felt like the place to be. I remember, and I tell this story often, it was snow on
01:49 the ground. I was taking a double-decker bus tour. I looked out and saw the license plates
01:56 that read, "Taxation without representation." I thought to myself, "That's who black business
02:02 owners have been historically." Historically, we've done great things in reference to civil
02:07 rights, in reference to education, home ownership. In reference to business acumen, business
02:12 growth, we really did not have anyone carrying our message forward for us. It really felt
02:18 like that was the next leg of this race. We created the U.S. Black Chamber at that time.
02:25 What we still call our five pillars, which are advocacy, access to capital, contracting
02:32 opportunities, entrepreneurial training, and chamber development.
02:35 You just had an acquisition. Yes.
02:37 Why? What has that taken you forward to black broadcasters? What pillar is that developing?
02:44 It really revolves around our advocacy pillar, around our education pillar, and contracting.
02:51 We just got out of COVID-19. When we surveyed our businesses, we lost 42% of all black-owned
02:58 businesses during that period of time. When we surveyed them, 70% said the reason that
03:03 they went out of business was just lack of information. Our information wasn't getting
03:08 to the business owners, weren't getting to our communities in a timely manner for them
03:12 to be able to make good business decisions.
03:14 Do you mean like access to the support that was available, like access to infrastructure
03:20 to continue the business? Is that the sort of thing you're talking about?
03:23 Exactly. The thing about Washington, D.C., there are great programs being developed,
03:29 but they very seldom reach outside of the DMV. They very seldom reach our communities
03:34 where our business is located. What we know is that most people listen to some form of
03:40 radio or TV, and many times it's black-owned media that they get their information from.
03:45 When we said we've got to look at how do we continue to grow our businesses is through
03:51 good information. That's where we partnered with the National Association of Black-Owned
03:55 Broadcasters.
03:56 You talked about the energy in 2009. Talk about the energy now in 2023. A very different
04:04 feel in Washington, different feel in the country. Where are you now as a chamber and
04:10 what you're thinking about?
04:11 Great question. We lost so many of our businesses during the COVID period of time. 78% of our
04:17 firms have reopened. Many of them opened up a third time. We've had some growth. If you
04:24 look at business startup, black businesses have been the fastest growing startup firms.
04:30 Black women business owners are the fastest growing inside of that sector. From our community,
04:36 we have a very optimistic perspective on what the future of black business looks like.
04:41 What about you? I want it like Ron Busby Sr. Because you went to Washington and you felt
04:47 this kind of energy. What are you feeling now? Are you feeling the same energy or has
04:52 it changed?
04:53 I'm always energetic. I'm always seeing the glass overflowing, not just half full. My
04:59 perspective is always one of what do I need to do to continue to move our businesses and
05:05 our message forward. Right now in Washington, DC, as well as around the country, affirmative
05:11 action programs, DE&I programs are under attack. Now my challenge is to take my advocacy voice
05:19 to really fight to make sure that we don't lose the grounds that we've gained over the
05:24 last 50 to 60 years. Many of the programs that have been created under minority status
05:32 are now being attacked and they're asking us to prove the fact that we have been disadvantaged.
05:38 Where in the past, based upon my race, that was enough. In today's environment, that's
05:43 no longer enough. We understand that we've had some success, but if you look at the wealth
05:49 gap, both personally as well as professionally, our communities have not did it, that wealth
05:55 gap at all. And so we'd say now is not the time to remove any of the programs that have
06:01 helped us gain the minor support and growth that we've had across the country.
06:07 So what, tell me about what your priorities are now, the approach you take. Because now
06:11 you've got scale, you've got a hundred chambers, you've got a voice, you're well known. What
06:16 are you doing in this environment? Is it education more widely? Is it educating the people in
06:22 Congress? Where are you putting your energies?
06:25 Great question. We do a little bit of all of those. And that's why the five pillars
06:29 are so important. From an education standpoint for our business owners, we do about 18 webinars
06:35 each month free of charge so that our businesses have the resources, the acumen, as well as
06:41 the relationships that they need to be able to grow. But we also have an advocacy voice.
06:45 That's why we are in Washington, DC. So we're talking to our congressional members. We're
06:50 talking to our senators about the importance of making sure that black owned businesses,
06:56 not just are at the forefront of the conversation, but aren't being left out of the back end
07:01 of the conversations as well.
07:02 So I want to ask you another question because we had a conversation earlier off camera.
07:06 You were talking about digitizing some of the Jets and the publication and the importance
07:14 of history. Talk about that a little bit. What impact do you want to have? What do we
07:21 need to do now to really sort of make sure at this moment in time where we're entering
07:25 a whole new era of innovation with AI and such? What are the priorities that you would
07:31 have us follow?
07:32 I think now is a great time for technology as technology is evolving. What we've got
07:38 to make sure is that black information is included, it is authentic, and is being written
07:44 and told by African-Americans. Our stories are usually just like the lion. And if you
07:51 hear from the lion's perspective, it's always the hunter that has won.
07:55 Yeah, yeah.
07:55 In our case, we're saying we want to make sure that our voices are heard. If right now
08:00 you Google black excellence, or if you go to AI and look up black excellence, you find
08:07 very little information about black business, about black history. You'll find beautiful
08:12 people.
08:13 Created by a bot?
08:15 That are beautiful black people with very little information. So it's important for
08:21 us to digitize the information, our history, so that it can be told as we move forward.
08:28 We know that there's a lot of folk that are trying to remove African-American history
08:32 out of our schools, out of our books. And so AI is going to take a lot of place of that.
08:38 It's going to replace many of the historical places that we've gotten our data and information
08:43 from. So we've got to make sure that it's authentic, as well as coming from black minds,
08:49 as well as historical black organizations, black newspapers, black media.
08:54 Well, you're on your way. You're on your way, especially as you're growing and acquiring
08:59 these new assets. Thank you for joining us.
09:01 Thank you.
09:01 I look forward to continuing the conversation.
09:03 Thank you, Forbes, for having us. We are excited about what you guys are doing in
09:07 reference to digital content. And the U.S. Black Chamber is making sure that our voice
09:12 is going to be carried along with yours.
09:14 Very much so. Thanks again, Ron.
09:15 Thank you.
09:16 Thank you.
09:16 [END]