Establishment of minority and women-owned businesses today continue to grow at a rapid pace, but they still, at times, continue to struggle with being over-looked for business contracts and falls short of accumulating adequate funding to keep them in business.
Southern California Minority Business Development Council (SCMBDC) was founded in 1975 by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Minority Enterprise Coalition of Los Angeles in an effort to support and develop minority businesses, enabling them to be better equipped to compete in their respective industries.
Since its creation 35 years ago, SCMBDC has grown into the largest nonprofit minority business advocacy organization in Southern California and serves more than 600,000 minority business.
According to the organization’s website SCMBDC identifies its objectives as:
To open the corporate purchasing and contracting door for minority business owners;
To provide corporations with information on qualified minority suppliers; and
To enhance employment in the minority community through increased corporate purchases.
SCMBDC is one of 38 members of the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) which provides a direct link between corporate America and minority-owned businesses. NMSDC is one of the country’s leading business membership organizations. It was chartered in 1972 to provide increased business opportunities for minority businesses of all sizes.
SCMBDC works to extend outreach and access to more than 3,600 corporations by 15,000 minority businesses.
Since the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Minority Enterprise Coalition of Los Angeles created SCMBDC, corporate purchases with minority businesses have increased significantly. According to the NMSDC, corporate purchases from minority vendors totaled $70 billion in 2002, up from $86 million in 1972. Similarly, SCMBDC corporate purchases from minority vendors in 2002 totaled $6.8 billion, up from $35 million in 1975.
SCMBDC began on Bixel Street in downtown Los Angeles, as a one-day event that was hosted by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. It was called the “Minority Business Opportunity Day Trade Fair” and began to attract modest groups of minority business owners and corporate managers. The event’s intent was to create a venue for these groups to network and come together to provide goods and services to the local community. Year after year the trade fair got increasingly popular and beneficial to those who attended.
Today SCMBDC still holds its’ “Minority Business Opportunity Day” (MBOD) annually and exposes minority businesses to progressive workshops and seminars that optimize business potential and or enhance business growth. MBOD also provides valuable opportunities for minority-owned businesses to network with SCMBDC member corporations who sponsor and fund the events and activities.
The organization will hold its next MBOD on February 24, 2011 and registration for businesses and corporations is currently open. For more information on the Southern California Minority Business Development Council, visit the organization online at www.scmbdc.org.
