CUL presentation 091011

Empowering Communities.Changing Lives.


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Empowering Communities.Changing Lives.2

VisionThe Chicago Urban League will be the leader in building strong, sustainable communities by creating opportunities with the power to transform people’s lives.


The vision of the Center is to enable entrepreneurs to train their people, develop business plans, hire and retain talent, and grow their businesses. The objective of each program is to empower its intended audience with the knowledge and skills necessary to grow their respective ventures.

Mission


Entrepreneurship Center including the following:1. Enable the small businesses that they’ve trained to position their

businesses for revenue growth.

2. Help these companies improve their operation effectiveness; essentially increasing their margins and profits. Greater effectiveness should result in the ability for these companies to invest in their people and resources.

3. Develop and strengthen the leaders within these entrepreneurial companies, effectively improving their own skills and enabling other success factors to be achieved.

4. Successful outcomes of these first three priorities will enable these businesses to hire and retain more talent.

5. Developing enterprises that attract revenues to underserved communities.


projectNEXTKnown as projectNEXT, the programs included in the Entrepreneurship Center focus on wealth accumulation through the development of a strong African-American owned business community.


StrategyThe Chicago Urban League is committed to implementing its mission through the well-informed pursuit of the following strategies:

• Ensuring access to quality education that prepares individuals to become lifelong learners and to be competitive and successful in the global economy.

• Preparing individuals for work at all levels in an ever-changing economy, developing engaged citizens, and building strong families.

• Supporting community based investment and growth through facilitating entrepreneurship, business development, and home and real estate ownership

• Advocating for policies and programs that ensure equal participation by African Americans in the economic and social mainstream.

• Enabling individuals to live productive, longer lives by ensuring access to health and wellness education and services.


CUL Departments

Fiscal Year 2012

Employment and Human Capital

Education

Housing

Entrepreneurship

Policy/Multimedia


Founded in 2007, the vision of the EC is to create pathways to bigger businesses, better jobs, and stronger communities by helping entrepreneurs build sustainable business models to grow employment and wealth accumulation.

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The EC Mission• Teaching and modeling best business practices;

• Helping entrepreneurs to enlarge their revenues and profits by providing access to potential clients;

• Empowering entrepreneurs through access to capital and financial institutions;

• Coaching entrepreneurs to execute business strategies with resiliency and excellence; and

• Encouraging entrepreneurs to connect with a community of business leaders and mentors with direct access to business resources.


Planned Events• 4 Business Access and Exchange Forums (nextCONNECTION)

• 3 Alumni Networking Events– Book signing with Chris Rabb, author of “Invisible Capital:

How Unseen Forces Shape Entrepreneurial Opportunity ”


nextSTEP(Start Up-

$100K)

YIEP

nextLEVEL

($100K to $1M)

StrategicConsulting($100K+)

Financial Assistanc

e($100K+)

nextConstruction ($100K+)

nextONE($500K+)

Business Accelerato

r Fund

nextPHASE (Alumni ongoing)

Key Service Offerings• Cradle to maturity strategy– Create “pipeline” of businesses and entrepreneurs


EC Programs and Services

• nextSTEP• nextLEVEL• nextONE• Chicago Contractor

Development• nextCONNECTION


nextSTEP

Educates aspiring small business owners in the preparation of business plans and provides fundamental business and financial literacy through a series of classes and workshops.


Over 2500 individuals have taken classes

nextSTEP


nextLEVEL

An “Entrepreneurial MBA,” this 6-week program is offered in conjunction with Loyola University for small and mid-sized businesses. It combines classroom training at Loyola, strategic business consulting, and business subject matter expert evaluation.


nextLEVEL

Started in FY 11, nextLevel has graduated two classes, a total of 12 companies


nextONEOffered in conjunction with Northwestern University, this is an intensive 9 month program targeting, high growth, scalable businesses.

This type of entrepreneur has set aggressive growth goals for their business and has demonstrated a level of business acumen that makes the growth goals viable and achievable.


nextONE Accomplishments• 59 companies graduated• Employee growth 79%• Revenue growth 122%


Chicago Contractor Development (CCD)

This program is designed to increase the technical, managerial and entrepreneurial capacity of developers, general contractors and other construction professionals through weekly classes facilitated by industry experts focusing on topics critical to success in the construction industry.


• 70+ businesses graduated

• $20 million dollars in new contracts awarded to participants

CCD Successes

• $2 million in new bonding capacity

• Total cycles completed to date 4

• Companies Graduated70

African-American Owned 100%

Woman-Owned 23%


StatisticsChicago Contractor Development Program

Outcome Summary • Business Plans Developed

70• Growth Strategies/Action Plans Developed 70• Marketing Plans & Elevator Pitches Developed 70• Total Bonding Capacity created

$49.75 Million• Averaged percent increase in revenues

8.64%• Averaged percent increase in contract value

44%• Full-time jobs created

12• Part-time jobs created

7


nextCONNECTIONOver four years of operations, The Chicago Urban League Entrepreneurship Center has touched hundreds of businesses creating a strong group for business development and networking.

In FY 12, we are formalizing a structure to provide a central resource and opportunities for collaboration among entrepreneurs and business owners, both existing and aspiring, and the Chicago corporate and institutional communities.


nextCONNECTION

The Chicago Urban League Entrepreneurship Center’s newest initiative nextCONNECTION is a central resource center comprised of an entrepreneurial network of business owners, corporations, government entities, business assistance providers and strategically aligned community partners to facilitate revenue growth, profitability, procurement opportunities, and operational best practices of African-American owned businesses.

Through nextCONNECTION we're connecting entrepreneurs to valuable resources, to opportunities in the public and private sectors, for strategic partnerships and mentoring with large corporations.


Strategic Partnerships• Goldman Sachs 10,000 businesses• Loyola University – Innovation Urban Entrepreneurship• SCORE


Looking Forward

• Assessment– Accenture

• Collaborations – CEC– WBDC– Accion– SCORE

• Advisory Board– Local Entrepreneurs

• EC Annual Report




CUL-EC MetricsIn the National Small Business Association’s 2011 Mid-Year Economic Report, small businesses surveyed reported a 15% net decrease in employees in 2010 compared to 156% net employee increase by the Chicago urban League’s nextONE participants for the same time period. The NSBA survey also indicated overall small businesses achieved a 2% net increase in revenue in 2010 compared to a 132% increase in revenue by nextONE businesses who answered the survey.* Even more startling is the net change in profits of overall small businesses surveyed by NSBA vs. the net change experienced by nextONE businesses in 2010.


CUL-EC MetricsWhile overall small businesses saw a 14% decline in profits, nextONE businesses enjoyed a 383% increase in profits. This last metric which indicates an increase in profits more than twice the increase in revenues shows that the Chicago Urban League’s Entrepreneurship Center by focusing on teaching entrepreneurs best practices and increasing their business acumen is resulting in better run businesses and tighter operations and financial management of these companies even in an environment of slow revenue growth.


CUL-EC Metrics

Overall according to Dun and Bradstreet mall business failure rates increased by 40% from 2007 to 2010 during the years of the CUL-EC. While CUL-EC business failure rate during this recessionary period was just 5%, in conjunction with a 79% increase in revenue and a 125% increase in the number of employees.