Heartland Black Chamber boosts longevity for KC businesses

Kim Davis, CEO of the Heartland Black Chamber of Commerce, is working to strengthen KC’s Black business infrastructure by creating opportunities.

Heartland Black Chamber of Commerce

Kim Davis, president and chief executive of the Heartland Black Chamber of Commerce, has worked within the community to solve a problem that money alone cannot fix.She’s seen many Black-owned businesses launch with talent and hustle, but without the internal systems, collateral and experience that lenders demand. Under her leadership, the chamber operates a regional business institution, engaging in economic development, transportation, education and workforce conversations that she says shapes the conditions in which Black entrepreneurs can grow. Davis and Heartland Black Chamber are out to make sure Black business leaders have a better understanding of what makes business thrive and the role they play in the overall economic ecosystem in Kansas City. She believes that in order for these businesses to succeed they have to expand their capacity beyond just selling a product and gain experience in supporting areas such as landing contacts, writing proposals, public speaking, things that meet industry expectation. She wants these businesses to not only survive but to thrive. Davis, raised in Kansas City and shaped by early community programs and small business work, came into the leadership role in 2018 determined to move the organization beyond basic networking. She and the Heartland Black Chamber work as a bridge between small Black-owned firms and the larger ecosystem of banks, prime contractors, policymakers and partner organizations that control access to capital and contracts.Recently Davis sat down with The Star’s culture and identity reporter J.M. Banks to talk about the lack of capital for Black business, creating partnerships and empowering minority entrepreneurs.Banks: How did your journey in business and community work lead you to the Heartland Black Chamber of Commerce?Davis: I had worked in a small business distribution operation, which is my husband’s business. Then I went to work for a government business and from there, I started spending time with the Kansas Black Chamber of Commerce,I started my own little consultancy, became a member and a board member and then was asked to step in as the CEO in 2018. So that’s my journey. It is nothing fancy or over the top, I could say.When you first stepped into the role of CEO, what did you see as the most urgent needs facing Black entrepreneurs?Honestly, when I first stepped into this role, my first initial thought was it was a nonprofit. I never worked in nonprofits.However, I did know that the most important need for small businesses, especially Black businesses in Kansas City, was capacity building. We have a lot of businesses that get started, but they never get to the point where anybody is teaching them how to build capacity, really teaching them the business side of business. So I started working from that point of view.Was there any particular moment or experience that convinced you that this kind of economic advocacy was your calling?I’m sure there was something that just kind of struck me and I want to say it was probably during the time when we were talking about the airport and getting the contractors ready to bid on the airport. When the bids were going on, they (the city) were setting goals and trying to figure out who was going to be able to capitalize on an opportunity like the airport.What I found was that a lot of businesses that came to me lacked capacity. They lacked the long-term experience. You know, we all talk about capital, but without capacity, the capital is not going to do you any good. So I think that was my turning point when I realized that we have to discover a way to build our businesses, to have them ready for opportunities when they come. I figured out that we have to help businesses understand the industries they have chosen to be in and the entire holistic part of business.A lot of our small businesses do not even understand the investment that they have to put into a business in order to make it run.How do you describe the Heartland Black Chamber and the work it does with the community?When I started really trying to understand what I should be doing as a chamber, I realized we were not actually operating like a chamber. We were operating like an ESO, which is an entrepreneur support organization. People were looking at us as an entrepreneur support organization.We are and should be operating like the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce or any other chamber of commerce, the Lee’s Summit Chamber, the Latino chamber, any chamber of commerce. Our role is participating in the economic development and the entire ecosystem of the community in which we serve.So I am very active in being a part of what happens with transportation, what happens with education, what happens with workforce development and economic development. That is our role. That is how we help communities really shift and change. When they understand how their community actually operates, we can really move the needle.How do you decide which programs, services, or initiatives to prioritize for these members?Well, we have to start with what we had in-house. What we had in-house were businesses. So the first part of that was to figure out programs that would get our businesses to understand it does not matter where your business is, it matters how you operate it.One of my big focuses when it comes to business is that we have businesses in the urban core and a lot of people think they are not thriving because the people in the community do not support one another. That is not always the truth, because you have to think about not just how much money goes out of our community, but how much money stays out our community.So we have to figure out how we, as business people, become a part of the community in which our business is set. We clean them up and we make them attractive. We make them safe and make them someplace that people who may not live in our community want to come to, because they want to attend a restaurant or purchase a product.We have to do the things that we need to do in those communities to make our community as attractive as the other communities.Is there any particular program in general that you are most proud of?We just started a program called Strive Sphere. It is probably my first initial program, it is an 11-month (business education) program, every other weekend. It is industry-specific, and we will see how that turns out at the end, but so far, so good.Our first cohort is construction. Most of our small businesses are excellent in their craft, or they can make the great product. But when it comes to understanding the business side, everything from how to read a contract or a proposal, how to prepare a proposal, understanding the terminology in the industry that you are working in.There are all these little things that small contractors just do not learn. You do not learn that until you get into the industry or you are taught that by one of the major contractors.Also, we launched Toastmasters. We are now a chartered Toastmasters chapter. So we are Heartland Toastmasters, which is very important to the growth of not just our businesses but our young professionals, being able to speak publicly.Toastmasters is a public speaking program. I am a certified Toastmaster. I got my Toastmasters’ certification in the 90s. It is a program that helps you to be able to speak in public.It helped me in my ability to network. It helped me in my ability to put together presentations and present. It helped me even in how I studied or researched before presentations.It is a program that really builds confidence, builds speaking confidence, and it also helps you focus on what kind of research you need to obtain and what you need to know before you walk in the door.How do you measure success or impact when it comes to the Chamber’s work with entrepreneurs and small businesses here in the metro?I will measure the success when I see small businesses actually thriving on their own. When they are able to walk into a bank without being fearful of not being approved. When they are actually able to bid on a project or put together a business and not have to worry that just because they are a minority, they are only going to be given 10%.I think our success will be when we are investing in ourselves and not expecting others to invest in us.Is there any particular story of a business or entrepreneur whose journey illustrates what the Chamber is trying to accomplish?I would like to use AGA, because AGA, they are a production company. They are in our building now, and they have been on productions as large as being part of the Bel-Air team. They were the production team that did “Girl in the Garage” with Lifetime. They just finished a documentary in St. Louis.That would be one of my most favorite members, just watching them grow and continue to grow.From your perspective, what are the biggest barriers to capital, contracts, and opportunities for Black-owned businesses here in the metro?I think probably the biggest barrier has been the lack of collateral, the lack of experience for some of them. And then, I hate to put this out here like that, but we have not found an institution that is ready or able to take a chance on small minority businesses.The biggest drawback to me is that if they do qualify, the interest rates that they have to pay back are so high that they still are not able to have retained earnings, because most of their profit goes back into what they borrowed, if they are able to borrow.How is the Chamber working with banks, investors, and public agencies to shift those barriers?Right now, we are working on putting together a consortium of banks that are part of our chamber, U.S. Bank, UMB, Arvest Bank. We are looking at several credit unions and a couple of CDFIs (Community Development Financial Institutions), just to come together and figure out ways that we can work together to help our businesses understand banking and get bankable through Strive Sphere.So the first thing is to get them bankable. The second thing is to create a program in which the banks can do contract lending. That is where a business can get a loan under a contract, and when the contract is paid up, both the bank and the lender’s names are on the check, and the check goes into the bank. The bank takes off its portion, and the lender is given the balance.We are also requesting that a small percent of it be paid into an escrow account so that at the end they have retained earnings, which they would not have known to put aside, and they are able to build those retained earnings. As you begin to need to borrow again, you have collateral. Then you do not need the contract lending. You have collateral that you can put up.What does real economic equity look like to you in practical terms?That would be living in a dream world. I mean, equitable economics, meaning that there is fair economics, that our businesses will be looked upon by their experience as well as their capacity. If you have experience and capacity, capital will fall in line.To be able to look at a business and its business value and not its personal value, I think we will start seeing some equitable economics.How is the Heartland Black Chamber involved in policy conversations at the city and state level?On some levels, at the city and state level, more at the state than the city, we are very involved right now in the gerrymandering or the redistricting. We are not endorsing a candidate, but as an issue, redistricting is going to affect many, many Black businesses. That is a fight and that is a policy that we are very involved in, so much so that I am on the lawsuit.How do you partner with other chambers, nonprofits, neighborhood organizations and Black-owned media to advance the mission?We partner with the Hispanic Chamber. I am also a part of the Metro Chambers, which includes all the small chambers around the Kansas City area. That would be Raymore, Raytown, Blue Springs, Grandview, Lee’s Summit, all the chambers. We come together.I do some things with the HEDC, the Hispanic Economic Development Corporation. We have done things with Prospect Business Association, Porter House KC, G.I.F.T., Pathway Financial. These are partners we have, resource partners that we try to be with as often as possible.What role does community trust play in the work you do and how do you maintain it?I try to always be honest with the community. It is important that whatever I do, or whatever we do as a chamber, we are as honest and as transparent as possible. We are a chamber, we are a business, we are a Black business in Kansas City.If you want to be quite honest, you know that there are other organizations that do not play well in the sand. We do not get involved in the back and forth or the putting down of any other organization, even if there are organizations out there that are possibly trashing us. We try to stay above the fray and just do the work and it has served us well. It really has served us well.How do you encourage residents, not just business owners, to support and sustain Black-owned businesses in the metro?I remind them that it takes a village. It takes a village and you can find the exact same value in your own community as you find anywhere else. I encourage us to try to find not just value, but the need to support.We are like any other businesses. We have businesses that make mistakes. Yes, some of our businesses can do a better job with their customer service or making their establishment welcoming. But at the same time, do not take it out on every Black business.Also, do not always think that Black businesses are only in the urban core. We have Black businesses all over the metro. I have members that are in Overland Park, in Olathe, in Leawood, in Raymore. I have businesses all over the city and up north.To promote and support Black businesses means that you look for them and you put forth an effort to do that. I also try to encourage other Black businesses to support Black businesses.When you look ahead five to ten years, what do you hope the business landscape in this region looks like?Business, not Black business, just business. When we can take the label off of it and just be businesses, then we look like the landscape by being excellent at what we do.I think that we have had a habit of being labeled as Black business, of having our ethnicity placed before our origin. What I want people to see is that we are American businesses with products and services and we are Black people.We are not separate from America and we are not separate from this land. We are part of the land and the landscape and we just happen to be Black, which is a great thing. But we are American businesses and American businesses are something to be proud of.For more stories about culture and identity, sign up for our free On The Vine newsletter at http://KansasCity.com/newsletters.
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J.M. Banks

The Kansas City Star

J.M. Banks is The Star’s culture and identity reporter. He grew up in the Kansas City area and has worked in various community-based media outlets such as The Pitch KC and Urban Alchemy Podcast.

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