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Message from the President

I was pleased with the turnout at our December 2016 “members-only” meeting and found the comments you all made very interesting. Tabor 100 has been, a somewhat, underrated “matchmaker” in the community for many years. In the past, there have been many small minority businesses that have grown as a result of their link to Tabor 100. I was pleased to see that Tabor’s legacy in this regard continues as I heard business after business testify to the fact that the connections made at Tabor 100 have generated revenue and that many of you owe much of your success to this organization. Langston Tabor, our founder and aggressive advocate for minority business, would be proud of the organization that bears his name. We had the honor of some agencies in the room touting their connection with Tabor and mentioning some of the member businesses that they have helped. Their continued commitment to our organization is very much appreciated. We also work closely with private firms who have offered untold opportunities to

Tabor 100 members who have and are currently making the best of them. More is needed, especially in light of the most favorable economic circumstances this region has ever experienced. This year we have adopted “Shaping Our Destiny” as our 2017 tagline. Your

business can truly shape its destiny with all the opportunities we currently see and those on the horizon. During 2017, you will have the chance to connect with key people who can help shape your destiny, regardless of your business. The Puget Sound Region is growing faster than any other in the country and is the right place to shape your destiny in 2017. Let me end by suggesting that you consider working with Tabor to help grow your business and its future. We are always ready to incorporate new talent and a desire to make for a better minority business climate in our state. We are doing a lot and all of it is geared to benefit you. I look forward to working with you as we “Shape Our Destiny” in 2017.

Ollie Garrett

February 2017

Every Business Needs a Website

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Pay Attention– Because You Need To

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Providing Equity in Contracting with Local, State

and Federal Government 4

A Dilemma for Small Business-

Getting a Loan 5

Tabor 100 is an association of entrepreneurs and business advocates who are committed to economic power, educational excellence and social equity for African-Americans and the community at large.

“SHAPING OUR DESTINY”

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Every Business Needs a Website and Here’s How To Do It

By Dennis Worrell, WSDOT Supportive Services

At one time anyone who was anyone had a Yellow Pages business listing because it was a marketing decision that made sense. In today’s economy it’s difficult to argue with the reach of even the simplest of websites. If you have never had a website before, don’t worry because

it’s never been easier to do it yourself, and you don’t even have to know how to code. There are four main things to consider when building a website for business: 1) where to host it, 2) how to get a unique domain name, 3) whether or not you want branded email, and 4) how you feel about privacy. Although allowing your customers to make purchases through your site may be a factor to consider down the road, this roadmap excludes that notion in favor of presenting just the basics. The following tips list specific products but does so for the sake of instruction and is not an endorsement of any tools over others. A hosting company provides a place to store a website. A quick web search may return several hundred solutions. They’re basically the same but offer different options. Weebly.com is one option that boasts millions of users, domain name registration, branded email, a privacy option, and drag-and-drop site building tools. They also have a free hosting option but the trade-off is that their company name appears in the name of your website (instead of www.example.com you would see www.example.weebly.com) and they run advertisements on your site that have nothing to do with your business. Branding establishes an online presence and your company’s identity. As of January, 2017 Weebly offers a “Starter” package for $120 if purchased two years in advance. A domain name identifies your website to the world. It should be short, recognizable, and relative to what you do. It may also appear on marketing material like business

cards, line cards, and statements of qualifications. It may take some time to think of a good one so checking through a free site like instantdomainsearch.com before going to a hosting site is time well spent. Weebly offers domain name registration at no cost if you allow them to host it. One way to increase an online reputation is to have an email address that includes “@yourwebsite” as opposed to a generic address like @gmail or @hotmail. You can get branded email uncoupled from a hosting company but an all-in-one solution like Weebly offers it as an add-on through Google’s gmail service. If you are familiar with using gmail, then you can use email through Weebly. The price for a year of branded email is $45. When you register a domain name you also provide your contact information to the registering company

regardless of where you get your domain. This information is then passed to ICANN which stands for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. This organization is responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several

databases related to the namespaces of the internet. Unless you can find a way to keep your information private, it will be discoverable through www.whois.net. Weebly offers a privacy option for $10 a year. If you prefer to have control over how people can contact you, then go with the privacy option. The above process is just one of many options for getting everything from a one-stop-shop. Weebly is one of many other hosting services including popular sites like Bluehost, Squarespace, and Wix. Remember to save all signup confirmation emails as you set up your website. As of January, 2017 getting hosting, branded email, domain name registration, and privacy through Weebly will cost less than$10 a month over a period of two years. Good luck on creating your first website.

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The WA State Legislative Session will have been underway for almost two months by the time you see this article. One of the key Issues they’ll be wrestling with is finally [hopefully] coming up with some decisions around the WA Supreme Court’s 2012 McCleary Decision regarding

the State having underfunded Education; for quite some time, now. Some background context from my previous [December] article: Last October at the General Meeting, I mentioned being in a large room full of people where the Governor stated some key facts about the current state of WA and Puget Sound business climate: 1] there were 58 construction cranes operating in the area [more than SF and NYC combined], and 2] that there were also 50,000 unfilled knowledge worker job openings in WA state. While we do need to address what is to me a disconnect around whether minority and small businesses are getting their fair share of the largess 58 construction cranes and related business growth ought to be moving our way – the current and future contexts also require some thought. Thought about whether we in this State have done a good enough job of preparing our youth to fill more of these positions, the positions that may well be promoting the need for all these cranes and traffic snarls. And, Tabor 100 has been involved in numerous

education projects to improve the education

situation both locally, and within the State. We,

and other minority business organizations, need to

be doing more – and that can only happen with

your participation and engagement. Improve your

own business situation – and also lend a hand to

make things better for our kids. Please contact me,

if you’d like some background and/or some

suggestions on how to get involved. If you want to

work on improving the voice of minority and small

businesses in the Education arena, contact Tabor

member Linda Kennedy:

advocacy@tabor100.org .

There will be the usual hand-wringing in OLY about what to do, how much it will cost, and how to pay for it. The Legislature has been kicking this can down the street ever since the Decision was handed down. Having failed to meet some early Supreme Court deadlines, the Legislature has been fined $100,000 a day for more than a year. But – they don’t actually lose the $$$, so, of course, you still hear them dancing. Yes, these are tough and thorny issues – but they all signed up for the job. Three additional issues are also part of this and in play: 1] Whether the State should take on the task of fully negotiating statewide for teacher’s salaries – rather than the current process done individually and pretty poorly across 295 school districts. Benefits and contracted responsibilities vary widely across the State. If the State is on the hook – perhaps they can actually make some progress on that front, to benefit the kids. 2] Many school districts have a Levy in place to augment what was an underfunded State Education system. Poorer districts [especially rural ones] have had a much tougher time passing levies and raising those needed dollars – which has driven even more inequities into the Education process across the State. 3] Should the Legislature – while they are at it – also consider mandating some better ways to spend the increased dollars than we have in the past? As in leaning into a few aspirational goals or accomplishments in how these dollars will be spent to benefit our children. Some kids need more in the way of support and resources. We know this – so why not leverage the dollars to make certain we achieve better results? (Continued on Page 4)

Pay Attention – Because You Need To

By Kevin C. Washington

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Pay Attention – Because You Need To

By Kevin C. Washington

(Cont. from Page 3) These issues – and whatever the Legislature does – will impact you, your children, plus the educational and economic environments here in WA State. There will be plenty of action within hidden, smoke-filled OLY rooms – but there will also be a lot of public discussions in newspapers, on the NET, and [hopefully] in conversations within business organizations and chambers. One web site you can go to for information, bill tracking and education advocacy action is the one for the League of Education Voters [full disclosure – I’m on their Board]: http://educationvoters.org/ I’ll again urge small and minority businesses and businesspeople to pay attention and to get engaged. The workforce of the future is going to school right now, and that current situation around

50,000 unfilled WA tech and knowledge worker positions is not getting any better. Even those not going into tech need to be strong in the basics and ready for the workforce. ALL businesses are becoming more tech-oriented – this means yours, too. Minority and small businesses need to have their voice in the Education conversations and decisions. Remember that phrase about “if you’re not at the table, then you’ll be on the table?”… Please find a way to stay on top of the issues -- and then find a way to get engaged so your voices are heard. KCW

As Washington State’s source for the certification of small minority- and women-owned businesses, the Office of Minority and Women Owned Businesses Enterprises (OMWBE) strives to provide equity in contracting opportunities with local, state

and federal governments. We have been working to simplify processes and forms to meet our customer’s needs while maintaining the integrity of the state’s certification process. For example, just recently we created a “Short Form” for firms that already have federal certification and for firms applying for both state and federal certification at the same time. By eliminating redundancies, the form was reduced from 19 to 3 pages. Additionally, just recently, we have made communications easier for business owners whom English is a second language. We now have interpretation services in just about all languages and its free.

To be certified by OMWBE as a minority, woman, or disadvantaged business can make a difference. It can increase visibility of your business when pursuing work with local, state and federal governments and provide private-sector companies another opportunity to meet their supplier diversity goals. While certification take time, we are here to help you throughout the process. Don’t hesitate to contact us for additional information or assistance on how to become certified. You can visit us at www.omwbe.wa.gov for specific information on how to become certified as a minority, woman or disadvantaged business. You can also call 1-800-208-1064 and speak directly to a Certification Specialist for personalized assistance. We are here to help. Teresa Berntsen, Director Office of Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprises

Providing Equity in Contracting with Local, State and Federal Government

By Teresa Berntsen

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A DILEMMA FOR SMALL BUSINESS - GETTING A LOAN By Henry Yates

Recent studies from the Wall Street Journal, the Minority Business Development Agency and Census Bureau data show that minority businesses are still struggling to secure adequate funding for their businesses. Regardless, the number of minority entrepreneurs are growing at a rate greater than

the majority population. According to the Minority Business Development Agency, the rate at which minority-owned businesses are being formed continues to rise. The number of minority business enterprises increased 39% between 2007 and 2012* (from 5.8 million to 8.0 million) or more than 3 times faster than population growth among minorities. Regardless, minority businesses fall short in comparison to other businesses’ overall success. One factor that has an impact on the success of any business is access to capital. The rate of small business loans made by big banks still hasn’t recovered from the Great Recession. The ten largest banks lent $44.7 billion in 2014, from a high of $72.5 billion in 2006. There is some good news. According to the September, 2016 Bix2Credit Small Business Lending Index, small business loan approval rates have improved for the seventh time in the last eight months to 23.4 percent, a post-recession high. If you’re a minority business owner, though, the lending environment is even more daunting due to obstacles created by institutional bias. People of color are turned down for loans more often and when they do get loans, they tend to be for far less — and the funds come with a higher interest rate. Loan denial rates for minority firms with gross receipts of less than $500,000 were three times higher than those of non-minority firms. The average loan size for high sales non-minorities was twice as much as for high sales minority-owned firms, and carry a 1.4 percent higher interest rate.

There are things that can be done by a minority business to increase chances of obtaining funding, including providing answers to the following questions: What you need the money for How much money do you need — which should

never be “as much as possible” How long you’ll need the money for How you plan to pay back the loan Check out the “Townsquared” blog and these two blog entries in particular — townsquared.com/blog/2016/12/small-business-loans and https://townsquared.com/blog/2016/06/alternative-funding/ Do not forget to check out those who can give you access to capital that are members of Tabor100. There is also a list of Community Development Financial Institutions that have money to lend. Among Tabor members who are in the lending business are: Craft3, Walter Acuna, wacuna@Craft3.org or 888-231-2170 Homestreet Bank, Tiffany Hockett, tiffany.hockett@homestreet.com or 425-453-7633

For persons doing business in the Rainier Valley area, the Rainier Valley Community Development Fund loans money to businesses routinely. Contact Charlette Black, Business Loan Officer, cblack@rvcdf.org, 206-722-4005.

*most recent year for the US Census This article was written using information from CNBC and Entrepreneur Magazine

George Allen, Coca-Cola

Connie Bartels, City of Bellevue

Angela Battle, UW Business Diversity Program

Adam Bell, NIRDHOST

Rickey Hall, UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity Lance Randall, Southeast Effective Development Norma Rodirguez, UW Office for Faculty Advancement Christina VanMiddlesworth, UW Business Diversity Program Tracy Williams, Murphy Armstrong & Felton

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

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History of Tabor 100

Tabor 100 was formed in memory of Langston Tabor, a Seattle electrical contractor and fiery proponent of economic equality for all. In November of 1998, the Washington State Legislature passed Initiative 200 with 58% of the vote. Initiative 200 (I-200) effectively ended all affirmative action programs in the State for equal opportunity in education, jobs, promotions and public contracting. Langston Tabor, who was a tireless and selfless champion for the advancement of economic equality and close friend of Dave Tyner passed away just a few days after I-200 was approved. On January 15, 1999 Dave Tyner was participating in the annual Martin Luther King, Jr Day march through the streets of Seattle. He talked with fellow Business owner, Donald King of the potential impact of I-200 on minority owned businesses and particularly the negative impact on architecture, engineering, and construction contract opportunities – opportunities that would once again be out of reach to the minority community. Within months, Dave Tyner held several meetings with minority business owners and together they founded Tabor 100. The organization was named to honor of their friend Langston Tabor. You see, this group could vividly recall a business climate that denied entrance to minority business owners. They could recall their own experiences, when they were legally told –No! No to education opportunities; No to jobs; No to contracts and all because of the color of their skin. These leaders were understandably shaken when they were told that Affirmative Action policies were now considered “reverse discrimination,” as the rights of others were being unjustifiably harmed by the goals and policies of Affirmative Action. The anger and disappointment that these minority business owners felt gave birth to what is now Tabor 100. Tabor 100 became an organization where minority owned businesses could support each other in attaining equal opportunity in business; equality in education; and actively participate in the pursuit of economic empowerment and wealth-building. In the intervening years, Tabor has grown to include African-American businesses, civic organizations, government agencies, women owned businesses and minority business owners from all communities, the expansion and influence of Tabor 100 and its member businesses is proof that the American dream is alive and can be influenced by our collective voices. Out of the despair and challenge of the passing of I-200,

Tabor 100 has helped to build and promote stronger WMBE businesses; support business education opportunities for entrepreneurs; and provide scholarships to students in the community. Tabor 100 has established itself as strong presence in the community and is recognized as a premier partnership for WMBE and entrepreneurial owned businesses in the Puget Sound Region. Through the assistance of Dr. William Bradford, former Dean of the University of Washington Business School, Reverend Laverne Hall of the Mount Zion Baptist Church, good friend and business owner Daryl Thomas, and A. Carl Smith, a local businessman whose father's (Sam Smith) long and distinguished political career was dedicated to aiding people to gain economic access, the initial framework of the group was undertaken. In a Seattle Times article Langston Tabor was quoted as saying he doubted his business would survive the end of affirmative action. Tabor Electric was winning government contracts exceeding $1 million annually - the bulk of its revenue. He said builders might not want to work with even a well-known minority businessman without the encouragement of government agencies. Mr. Tabor was inspired to become an electrical contractor while studying in Africa. He saw black engineers and technicians building a major dam and wanted to attempt such projects in the United States. In 1978, he had trouble being accepted in the electrical trade. That's when he opened his business, hired electricians and apprenticed himself to them. Later he made it a point to help young people; if they were motivated, he taught them. In 1993, he attended ceremonies at the White House after the U.S. Commerce Department named his company National Minority Construction Firm of the Year. Born in San Antonio, Mr. Tabor grew up in Berkeley, Calif. He attended Harvard University and the University of Ghana in Africa and earned a bachelor's degree in law and society from Western Washington University in Bellingham, where he also taught. Mr. Tabor died Thursday, November 12, 1998 of a stroke. He was 56. He died a few days after Washington state voters passed Initiative 200, a measure that he openly opposed. The ballot measure ends affirmative-action practices in public contracting, education and employment.

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Thank You to Our Sponsors

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THE TABOR 100 BOARD

President: Ollie Garrett President@Tabor100.org Vice President: Brian Sims VP@Tabor100.org Treasurer: Aundrea Jackson Treasurer@Tabor100.org Secretary: Sherlita Kennedy Secretary@Tabor100.org Membership: Dee Riley Membership@Tabor100.org Education: Kevin C. Washington Education@Tabor100.org Public Affairs: Henry Yates PublicAffairs@Tabor100.org Economic Development: Edson Zavala EconomicDevelopment@Tabor100.org Government Affairs: Jamila Johnson GovernmentAffairs@Tabor100.org Fund Development: Abdul Yusuf FundDevelopment@Tabor100.org Business Development: Anthony Burnett BusinessDev@Tabor100.org TABOR OFFICE 2330 130th Ave. NE #101 Bellevue, WA 98005 425-882-4800 Staff@Tabor100.org Newsletter Editor: Kalea Perry Staff@Tabor100.org

WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO REACH OUT!

UPCOMING EVENTS Feb 25: General Meeting, 10am-12pm at Central Area Senior Center Feb 27: African Community Small Business Workshop, 3-5pm at Rainier Arts Center (Formerly the Rainier Valley Cultural Center) Feb 27: Latino Legislative Day, Olympia, latinocivicalliance.com Mar 1: Hensel Phelps Airport Construction Bid Workshop, 2-4pm at 15355 SE 30th PL., Bellevue Mar 9: Alliance Northwest, All Day at Puyallup Fairground, alliancenorthwest.org Mar 16: Hensel Phelps Bonding Workshop, 9-11am at 15355 SE 30 Pl., Bellevue

COMMITTEE MEETINGS

Education Committee meets after the Tabor General Meeting, the last Saturday of the month from 12-2pm at the Central

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