Black-Owned or Nah? - KOLUMN Magazine

Black-Owned or Nah?: Why These Entrepreneurs Don’t Reveal Their Businesses are Black-Owned
BY TANASIA KENNEY | ATLANTA BLACKSTAR

[mashshare]

[dropcap]In[/dropcap] growing a business, most entrepreneurs adopt key strategies that help them attract and maintain consumers. For Duane Draughon, owner and operator of VizX Design Studios, hiding the fact that his business is Black-owned is the key.

Draughon avoided putting pictures of himself and his family on the company website and introduced himself to potential clients as a project manager, NOT the owner. He even brought on a white insurance representative to carry out job interviews and put together a white sales team.

“I never said I wasn’t the owner,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “If asked, I would admit it.”

Draughon is among some business owners who keep hidden the fact that their businesses are Black-owned, for fear of losing clientele. Preconceived notions that the product or service is solely geared toward Blacks — and racial intolerance on the part of potential customers — could drive business into the ground.

“As soon as you say it’s Black-owned, white people will believe it’s only for Black people, and Black people