Angela Dotson With Aprio Black Business Forum

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Angela Dotson with Aprio Black Business Forum. Welcome.

Angela Dotson: Hi, Lee, thanks for having me today.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Aprio Black Business Forum. How you serving folks?

Angela Dotson: Absolutely. First, let me give you just a brief background on myself. I’m a tax partner at Aprio, working from our Atlanta office and a co-chair for the Black Business Forum. And my normal day to day work is spent with business owners, um, working with them on their business and personally on their individual taxes. And so I was fortunate enough to be included in the conversation post-pandemic about what could we do to serve the, you know, black business community. And so, you know, the Black Business Forum, you know, evolved. We started last year in 2023 was our inaugural year. And we are providing an ecosystem for black business owners, um, from the standpoint of business relationships and also providing relevant financial education to help them grow their businesses.

Lee Kantor: Now, how are you defining a black business in terms of size? Is it like somebody that is a, you know, an individual that has their own, you know, side hustle or is it a, you know, a business of a certain size, like $1 million business, like what is kind of the range of the businesses that are part of this ecosystem?

Angela Dotson: Yeah. So any business could be part of the ecosystem. It could be the, you know, solopreneur to, you know, one of the largest black owned enterprises in the country. So, you know, we’re providing information from a financial standpoint to fill in some of the financial literacy gap that we see, you know, based on our vantage point. So we can serve entrepreneurs at various stages, and our content is usually targeted to specific folks. So every event might not be for every business owner. And so depending on the topic, that gives them some insight into whether you know that information is for that, you know, particular size of company.

Lee Kantor: Now how do you communicate with the community? Are you doing this in person events? Are you doing kind of virtual online, you know, webinars, things of that sort?

Angela Dotson: Yeah. Right now we’re doing in-person events. And, you know, Future State is to have, you know, some additional resources, you know, from a digital perspective. But we have events typically quarterly here in the Atlanta area. We recently launched a partnership with the Gathering Spot and had our kickoff event with them this past June. They have the beautiful space down there in Midtown and had the capacity to serve, you know, more businesses than we had in our office space. Um, in, um, Brookhaven in Atlanta. So we’re definitely expanding the size of the room and look forward to, you know, in the future, expanding beyond the Atlanta market.

Lee Kantor: So what happens at an event like Walk Me Through if, uh, if someone wants to attend an event?

Angela Dotson: Yeah, absolutely. So we market the event internally, of course, to our clients, um, and our network people who have interfaced with us here at Aprio. We put out, um, our information on the social media platforms for those who are not clients so that they can have exposure to know that the event is happening. And of course, there’s, you know, some word of mouth that happens. And so our events always start with networking. So we want to make sure that black entrepreneurs are mindful of expanding their network. So we have found that many black business owners, you know, spend most of their time in the business and not a lot of time on growing their network. So an important component is networking and making connections with people that you need to know before you need to know them. So that’s that’s the first component. Um, and that’s the first thing that we do is, you know, have um, a good amount of time for networking, usually 45 minutes to an hour. The second hour is comprised of, um, some curated content around a very specific topic. For example, in February we had an event related to obtaining government contracts, and so we fill our panel with business leaders first, because entrepreneurs like to hear from other entrepreneurs, and they want to get advice from people who have been in this, you know, position that they are in.

Angela Dotson: So, um, it means more coming from the business leader entrepreneur who’s made it versus if I were to be on the panel, I’m telling owners what they should do. And then we have other service providers or other experts, you know, in those particular fields, um, to round out those panels. And so there’s usually about an hour of education that leads to some actionable items that the attendees can take. For example, there were very specific takeaways for people who were interested in obtaining government contracts. And there were some, you know, resources and tools that were provided as takeaways for all of the attendees. And then generally at the end of the event, there’s some organic networking after the event is technically over. People have historically hung around for another 45 minutes to an hour to continue the networking, after they’ve had a chance to hear the content.

Lee Kantor: Now walk me through what it was like to, um, at the beginning when you were had the idea of you would like to do something like this. And was this something that you approached the Apria leadership with and said, hey, I think this is important. We should be doing this? Or did they approach you and say, hey, this is important. Can you help us spearhead this? Like talk about the genesis of that, because I like to leave the listeners with some information on how to get something like this started. If their organization thinks it’s an important, uh, initiative to take forward.

Angela Dotson: Yeah, absolutely. Our office managing partner in Atlanta. Elena Apollo, this was her brainchild. And she approached me to, um, find out if I would be interested in spearheading it. Um, you know, as I mentioned before, I work closely with business owners. My parents were entrepreneurs. So, um, you know, small to medium sized businesses have, um, you know, a huge place. You know, in my heart, I appreciate being the extension of the team that could help businesses be successful. And so the next step was to determine, you know, who should be involved. And so I decided to contact, um, other senior leaders in our organization, namely partners and directors who I thought shared a similar passion for helping black owned companies. And so, you know, we have a core group of leaders that’s about five of us who meet on a regular basis to discuss strategy, um, meet with our, um, you know, network to determine what content you know, they would like to see. And, um, it’s definitely a passion project that takes, um, you know, additional, um, energy and effort in addition to our day jobs. So I would say a commitment to the outcome is critical. Um, because there have been other, um, you know, similar groups that kind of had a slower to launch or a failure to launch. But I think it was because, you know, the passion wasn’t there. The commitment to seeing the outcome, you know, wasn’t there. And so, you know, our team, we have a phrase that we use and it’s two feet in. And so each of the leaders we are two feet in, it’s a very democratic process, you know, within the team. And once we’ve made a decision, you know, to go forward with an event, a speaker, a location, you know, what have you. We all know that we’re all, you know, 110% committed to what we’re doing now.

Lee Kantor: Um, how do you measure success? How like is success that, oh, more people are attending the event? Is success more? There’s more black owned businesses in the markets we serve. Like, how are you kind of measuring that to make sure that it is delivering on, you know, what your mission is trying to accomplish?

Angela Dotson: So there are a few.

Angela Dotson: Different ways we look at success. And, you know, we’re still, um, fine tuning how we, um, you know, measure it from, you know, a number standpoint, but, you know, some examples of success. Um, you know, there’s one client of mine who was at an event. He’s a, um, solar panel, solar panel manufacturer. And there was a, um, you know, I would say he’s a mature small business, and there was a, um, person in the room who wanted to get into manufacturing. So my client is now mentoring and helping another business owner along. So, um, for me, that’s a measure of success. We’ve helped companies, you know, apply for government contracts. We know they’ve applied. We’ve helped connect financing to some business owners. Um, there are some business deals that have taken place between people that came from the networking, um, that has happened at the events. And so people do come back and let us know, um, the success that they found because they connected with someone or the information that was shared by the panel was helpful to them. Another measure of success is the number of outlets, um, organizations, firms that have reached out to us that wanted to, um, come alongside and be a part of what we’re doing. So, for example, ACG um, did an event with us last year. We partnered with the United Way of Greater Atlanta. We’re actually working on a project, um, with them that will launch later this year. Um, we’ve had William Blair and Maurice Manning and Martin, who came on as sponsors for an event based on their attendance, and we do get great feedback. Post events in real time from business owners and from other professional service providers. And so I think there’s a lot of excitement and value in what we’re providing. And, you know, the market is telling us, though.

Lee Kantor: Now, what are the trends when it comes to black business ownership? Is that something that is growing?

Angela Dotson: So it is definitely growing. Um, among among minorities, it’s the fastest growing, um, segment of business. Atlanta has one of, you know, the strongest black owned business communities, and more than half of all black owned businesses are in 12 cities in the US. So there are some concentrations of that business. And, you know, with us being headquartered here in Atlanta is one of the reasons why we started with Atlanta first. Um, you know, just based on, you know, the number of companies in our backyard that we can serve.

Lee Kantor: And then when it comes to your growth, you mentioned your, uh, expansion goals are, is this going to be something that you’ll just kind of, uh, grow market to market as you expand?

Angela Dotson: So we do plan to expand.

Angela Dotson: Um, you know, our firm is a global firm. And our partnership, you know, with the gathering spot, gives us a partner that has a national reach. And so there are a lot of synergies. Um, for some of those other top 12 cities. And so, um, you know, we look forward to possibly in 2025 moving into our, um, you know, next city outside of Atlanta. And we just want to make sure that, um, we’re very thoughtful and can bring the same content, the same excitement, the same result that we, um, found in Atlanta. So working, you know, with our partners across our platform, our gathering spot partner and our other collaborators who’ve come alongside us. And so we definitely want to be very intentional that we’re bringing to those communities the content that they need. And so with us being here in Atlanta, we’re very familiar with some of the trends and some of the, um, you know, obstacles that black owned businesses faced. And, you know, we believe it is similar in other cities and look forward to that expansion.

Lee Kantor: Now, what are some of the upcoming events and speakers have you decided moving forward? As you know, as we get through the summer here?

Angela Dotson: So we just had our summer event, um, at the end of June, and we were very fortunate to have some Atlanta legends at that event. Um, the event was scaling Atlanta, learning from, um, business legends. And we had Matt Wilburn, who was the first black McDonald’s operator in Atlanta, on one of our panels. Uh, we were fortunate to have Jerome Russell, um, president of H.J. Russell and Company, one of the largest black owned construction and real estate, um, firms in the country. Um, we had a private equity, um, partner, IRA mallen, out of ICB partners and a pioneer in interactive technology, um, in Farah Allen, who was the CEO and founder of the labs. And so that was our latest event. It was on June 27th. Um, folks can check out our website, um, for video, full video of previous, um, events. And we’re in plans for our November event. Right now, we don’t have any topic and the speakers, but we are looking forward to a fourth quarter event and, um, you know, branching out into 2025, um, doing, you know, quarterly events, um, primarily, um, with the gathering spot, um, as our, um, partner for the event hosting.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more and become part of the community, what is the best way for someone to do that? Is there a website?

Angela Dotson: Yeah, absolutely. They can find us at aprio. Com search for Black Business Forum. And there you can connect directly with us. You can share information, um, name contact information. We can put you on our list to make sure that we send you invites and information as we’re sharing it, and we will post future events and upcoming activities, you know, first on our website and then out on social media, but definitely connect with us on our website now.

Lee Kantor: Is there still opportunities for sponsorship or other types of partnerships with the Black Business Forum?

Angela Dotson: Absolutely We are looking to collaborate with others because we want to bring resources and tools to business owners in a very efficient manner, and so we’re open to collaboration with other partners, other sponsors. Um, you know, right now we have our primary event sponsor, but we’re not, um, we don’t have dedicated sponsors as far as legal or, um, you know, financial advisory or any other services. But we’re very interested to connect with other business leaders who are trying to reach the same population and who have the same goal of fostering the growth of black entrepreneurs. And they can also reach us on our website at pro.com. Um, that’s a p r I o. Com.

Lee Kantor: Well, Angela, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Angela Dotson: Thank you so much for having me and giving me the opportunity to share about our Black Business Forum.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.