The trend holds true even in Utah, where only 0.9 percent of the state's population is black. Between 1997 and 2002, the number of black-owned companies rose 48 percent, surpassing the national rate of 45 percent, according to the agency's Survey of Business Owners. In contrast, the number of all Utah firms grew by 14 percent.
Black-owned businesses earned $188 million in 2002, up 717 percent from $23 million in 1997. The businesses are defined in the report as private enterprises in which blacks hold at least 51 percent of stock or interest.
Still, the number of black-owned businesses in Utah is small - 649 - and represents only 0.3 percent of all Utah firms. And 89 percent do not have paid employees, compared with 75 percent of all Utah firms.
Utah's small sample size means the results have a large margin of error: plus or minus 26 percentage points. Utah's growth rate could be as low as 22 percent.
"With that margin of error, you [can't], with confidence, say there are 649 black-owned businesses in the state. What you can say is the difference between the two surveys shows healthy growth," says Robert Spendlove, manager of demographic and economic analysis in the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget. "That is a promising sign."
Business ownership among blacks is increasing faster than Utah's black population, which grew by 23 percent between 1997 and 2002, Spendlove said.
Michael Styles, the state's director of black affairs, and Stanley Ellington, executive director of the Utah Black Chamber of Commerce, both say the numbers are inflated. They put the number of black-owned businesses at 100 to 150. Both have been identifying and counting black business owners.
"There's tremendous growth right now in black-owned business, [but the Census count] is over-reported," says Styles.
He and Ellington are working to recruit more black-owned businesses to the state and encourage entrepreneurship in the black community. The chamber was organized in February, and Ellington says the group already has 35 members.
Bill Guillory, chief executive of Innovations International Inc., is one of them. A former chair of the University of Utah's chemistry department, Guillory left academia in 1985 to start the Salt Lake City-based human resources consulting firm. The company now has 10 employees, a satellite office in San Francisco and brings in up to $2.5 million in annual revenue.
As part of his business, Guillory helped create a partnership in Dallas that he says has bolstered minority-owned enterprises in the city. The Dallas Together Forum recruited large corporations in Dallas, such as Texas Instruments, American Airlines and J.C. Penney, to mentor and establish partnerships with minority business owners.
That is a program that could work in Utah, Guillory says. He particularly hopes to see more black-owned businesses in the state.
"It would make [Utah] a much richer environment. It would be healthy for the state [and] it would be healthy for black people," Guillory says. "They would discover opportunity here. They have no idea how successful they can be here."
rwinters@sltrib.com
