blackmattersus.com
Could you please tell us more about Greenwood Avenue?
Elliot Williams
Yes. We started Greenwood Avenue in early 2015 and how it came about is, I’ve always been about the business of empowering Black people throughout our country and in my everyday walk of life, people would always come up to me and ask me, “Do you know of a good Black-owned restaurant, or do you know of a good Black business that sells this and that?” So I figured I would look further into that, and my team and I actually found a void in our local communities where these businesses weren’t given a proper exposure. Businesses that are local, that are right under our noses in our local areas, that the people have no idea that they exist and they provide quality goods and services. So we sat down and did about a year’s worth of research and development trying to see what’s out there in different cities and how they’re representing businesses and we discovered a similar characteristic where most of them fall short. And that is, a lot of the directories list businesses that are no longer in existence. The listings are outdated, those businesses have moved or the businesses aren’t even operating anymore. Secondly, we noticed that some of those business directories listed businesses in my city that we know of, that are in the community but are not Black-owned so that let me know that there could have been a little bit more due diligence in vetting these businesses. So we sat back and realized that these were the main shortcomings of the business directories that were already out there, and we figured we’d create something that would be more of a valuable resource to the people. That’s why we set out to create Greenwood Ave and those are the things that we focused on when building the site, the directory and the platform.
We basically focused on 4 key areas and they are number one; vet businesses to make sure they’re actually Black-owned, and by Black-owned I mean, at least 50% Black-owned. The second thing we would check to see, is if they are still operating and thirdly we would check to see if they are accessible to consumers. Last but certainly not least we made sure that they were committed to reinvesting money back into the Black community, because so many times, we have our businesses that consumers spend money with, but they go out and spend their profits outside of the community. So we wanted to kind of close that leakage and that gap and find ways for businesses to stay profitable while doing business with other Black businesses. For example, I have a feature on a guy here in Dallas that does vertical farming. And what he does with his technology is he grows produce in a third of the time that it takes with traditional farming methods, and it’s all natural, but he uses aeroponic technology which basically uses the plant’s own nutrients and water to grow the plants without the use of soil. So he grows the plants in a rapid rate and he provides fresh produce to local restaurants. I connected him with several Black restaurant owners so they can bridge that gap in doing business with one another and practice group economics within themselves. That’s one way where we help businesses circulate their monies back into the communities. So in a nutshell that’s what makes Greenwood Ave unique, in that we take the time to do research on businesses and make sure that they’re a good fit for what we’re presenting to the people.
blackmattersus.com
You guys are doing a great job supporting these Black-owned businesses. Is Greenwood Ave your first entrepreneurial endeavor? Please tell us about yourself before Greenwood Ave.
Elliot Williams
Well, I was born and raised in Dallas. I went to school for computer technology, I actually got my bachelors in Business Computer Information Systems. After graduating college, I went directly into the workforce and worked for about 13 or 14 years. All the while, I’ve always had entrepreneurial endeavors going on, whether it was with property or being a ticket broker for different sporting events, things like that. I always had a side business. I’ve been programming since I was a kid and I really got tired of the cube life and figured that I wanted something more out of my life so that’s when I set out to just go into these business endeavors full time. And I’ve always had an entrepreneurial background, it’s in my family from generations before me, my family is full of entrepreneurs. So I took that path, I was able to dedicate a 100% of my time toward my entrepreneurial endeavors and I haven’t looked back. I left the office, the corporate life in 2009 and I started on my own, putting my target on my own businesses, and it’s been a great ride. With Greenwood Ave, I would say it’s the most worthwhile thing that I’ve ever done as far business is concerned because I’ve always been a champion for the Black cause and helping our people empower themselves. So I take great pride and great enjoyment in doing that through Greenwood Ave.
blackmattersus.com
So are you planning to go national with this project?
Elliot Williams
Yes we are. What we set out to do first was get a strong foundation locally here in Dallas. But I’m looking to support Black-owned businesses and meet these business owners everywhere because myself and my wife, we travel quite a bit. Whenever we hit the road we’re always looking for Black-owned businesses to support and connect with those business owners and find ways to bring consumers to those businesses. So we currently have Black-owned businesses in Dallas listed on the site, but we’ve been making contact with business owners all over the country. We’re looking for different cities to be represented on the site in the near future, within the next few months or so.
blackmattersus.com
How are people reacting towards Greenwood Ave?
Elliot Williams
We get overwhelming response. People are loving the site, we get a lot of encouraging words with people coming back and telling us they’ve been to all these great Black-owned businesses that they didn’t even know existed, so it’s great. We also have a thriving Facebook community as well, getting Black people engaged with the Black-owned businesses. So overall it’s been wonderful, the amount of feedback we’ve received.
blackmattersus.com
Talking about keeping our money within our communities, there’s this idea going around –and it’s been around for a while – about us Black people creating our own nation within the United States. In a recent interview with one of the leaders of the New Black Panthers, he talked about how we could keep our money within our communities and try to become stronger as a people economically by controlling our own economics. How do you think Greenwood Ave is helping the Black communities keep the money in the communities so they can help themselves with it?
Elliot Williams
Well, I think first it starts with Black people collectively changing the mindset. And what I mean by that is changing the mindset with regards to how our businesses are being viewed, because a lot of times when it comes to Black-owned businesses, we think that they offer a lower standard of service or they don’t give quality customer service and they don’t provide quality goods as well. And that’s just not true. I think collectively, once more people are aware of these businesses, that mindset will change. And when that mindset changes, then more and more people will support these Black-owned businesses and then on top of that, what we try to do is inform and educate our people at the same time about the greater purpose. It’s more than just spending money in a Black-owned business. We want the Black consumer to realize that it’s for a greater purpose, and that greater purpose is one day becoming 100% self-sufficient like we were back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. If you’re familiar with the Black Wall Street story, you find out that the Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma Black Wall Street in particular, we were very inspired by that part of our history, especially since it’s being swept under the rug and not many people know about it till this day. We need to educate people on this story and how it was the most prosperous time in African American history as a whole. So I try to educate our people on the greater purpose of being a 100% self-sufficient where we own all the industries that we spend money in, for example, the haircare industry. I’m sure you’re familiar with how Black women in particular spend so much money on the haircare industry but there’s not much Black ownership in that industry. That’s just one area where we should focus our efforts.
blackmattersus.com
So what kind of businesses do you advertise on Greenwood Ave?
Elliot Williams
A wide range of businesses. We have restaurants, to hairdressers, we actually have 5 Black-owned beauty supply stores in the area, massage therapists, restaurants, vertical farmers, lawyers and doctors with their own practices, seamstresses, tailors. So just about every vocation you can think of there’s a Black-owned business in that industry, so that’s what we are doing, bringing awareness to these businesses.
blackmattersus.com
Do you support organizations like Black Lives Matter and other Black rights groups?
Elliot Williams
I support the original mission. You see, a lot of people kind of get the true meaning of Black Lives Matter twisted I believe. Because I always try to remind people that the original purpose for the movement was not necessarily the crime itself even though there are different organizations that are working towards eradicating that problem. The true purpose of Black Lives Matter was to do something about the injustice when police go unpunished for killing Black people. When another person kills another person, typically that person goes to jail right? But when police kill Black people especially unarmed innocent Black people, it seems like they are rewarded with paid time off, or administrative leave, which we all know is just a vacation. So with people becoming more aware of the true purpose of the group, it’s not a racist group, it’s Black Lives Matter and its core is about doing something about the unpunishment of police officers when they kill Black people.
blackmattersus.com
How do you support the movement? Have you ever joined a protest, and do you participate in them now?
Elliot Williams
Yes, I participate in different rallies throughout the city in person and online. I was unable to go to the protests that got a lot of attention back in June, but typically I’m right there with the people.
blackmattersus.com
Do you think that there’s a threat of black tax on consumers especially with people raising their prices knowing that this niche is theirs or that once their business is focused on the smaller Black community they don’t have to compete with a majority of other white-owned businesses?
Elliot Williams
We understand that there is such a thing as black tax. It’s very real, and it is part of those things where Black people have to understand what goes behind the purpose for that. Because for the Black-owned business to survive, you have to understand that behind the scenes, they might not have the same supply connections as other businesses do. And that they have to pass those costs on to the consumer so they can stay afloat. So it all has to do with controlling the industry and every part of the industry from manufacturing, distribution, all the way down to retail. When our people don’t control all those industries, that’s where retail shops have to raise their prices just to stay afloat. I think in every Black consumer’s mind, there’s a threshold of how much more they’re willing to pay. Typically, I know for me, that threshold is around 30-40%. Sometimes I may go a little bit higher than that, but typically that’s what it is. Black people know that they’re going to spend a little bit more than if they went to a chain restaurant, because the chain restaurants have all the power with regards to the manufacturing and distribution systems, so they can kind of control the market that way.
blackmattersus.com
I think most of our readers would like to join you in helping build the Black economy. Do you have anything special to say to them?
Elliot Williams
Please continue to support Black-owned businesses with whatever and wherever you can, and I’d like you to visit greenwoodave.net to find verified local Black-owned businesses in your city. Right now we’re focusing on the Dallas-Fort Worth area but we’ll be expanding to other cities very soon. So please continue to buy Black and continue to spread the word about these good Black-owned businesses that provide exceptional goods and services as well as customer service because the Black community needs it and we need to go in collectively to circulate our dollar.
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