New GR Chamber leader hopes to foster growth for business owners of color

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — James Byl has a story about his daughter and their boat at the end of the season. Every fall, he has to take someone with him to get the boat out of the water. Byl said one particular day years ago was very windy.

“We had these whitecaps coming in. I thought, ‘Oh, no, she’s never even driven the boat by herself. So, I gave her some instructions and she made it, believing in her just gave her ownership. Now, she’s our boat captain,” he said.

Byl said someone gave him a similar chance 28 years ago when he opened his first business — Multi-Automatic Tool and Supply in Walker.

“We supply companies that make round metal parts. We have tooling and replacement parts for their machines,” Byl explained.

His dad had a tooling business as well. The connections from that business helped Byl succeed early on.

A buyer who worked for Delphi Automotive told Byl to get in touch with him once Byl’s business was open. It led to Multi-Automatic’s first purchase order.

Delphi had a policy to do a certain amount of business with minority owners. The buyer didn’t know of any minority business owners in Grand Rapids until he met Byl.

It was a significant contract with critical detail, which Byl said could have cost the plant hundreds of thousands of dollars if they had made any mistakes. They came through and continue to serve the plant under its new ownership.

“That director of purchasing at Delphi just made an exceptional move. Believing in me and believing in our team that’s a lot of trust. That helped us create an expertise and set us on our path,” he said.

Byl has expanded his business since then, buying Belding Tool and Supply in 2019 and surviving the challenges of the pandemic. He is now the 2024 Chairman of the Board for the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, where he hopes to foster even more growth for minority business owners.

His success goes against the statistics. Data from Demographics USA shows less than 1% of the businesses in Grand Rapids bringing in $250,000 or more each year are owned by a person of color. In comparison, 98% of the business revenue in the city comes from white-owned businesses.

Programs throughout Kent County offer resources to help minority business owners succeed, including one through Jandernoa, which started a partnership with the GR Chamber a little more than a year ago.

Byle said it’s a mentorship program that participants join for two or three years to help them grow to scale. He’s already noticed the difference it’s making.

“I’m noticing that companies are very cognizant that they’re growing with their sales. I’m noticing that, like with acquisitions, now they’re much more in tune with that,” he said.

Byl believes that helping minorities succeed in business, especially in areas like the 49507-zipcode, will lead to long-term success.

“It’s like feeding the system of higher employment, adding more leadership in the community and having more investment in the community. It goes 20 times further than philanthropic giving every year,” he said.

He believes there is a negative message that West Michigan is not a place for people of color to succeed in the business world, based on the statistics. He would like to use his new leadership role to inspire more collaboration and programs to help change the numbers and the message.

“If we could get some momentum where we are ambassadors who can say that West Michigan is a place for all of us to belong, I think that that would be crucial to changing our long-term direction here,” said Byl.