I GOT THE HOOK UP.. Get it for FREE while you can!

I'm sure this blog post's title grabbed your attention! Who wouldn't want to know more about a "free" product or service they can participate in or use, right? But is our eagerness to patronize a business only if we don't have to come up off a couple dollars one of the down falls of the black economy?

I stumbled across an article on BlackEnterprise.com that addresses this very issue, (then it came in my inbox from two other email newsletters I subscribe to)- apparently the issue of the black "hook-up" mentality is a huge deal among African American entrepreneurs. Although I have witnessed this phenomenon myself, I just assumed it was the way things were and that I needed to find ways to work around it in order for my own business to grow.

How many times have you had to coax black people to attend your event by making it free?
Or had a friend or loved one ask you to offer your products at a deeply discounted rate?
And here's the kicker, do you know someone who will go to an event to take advantage of the freebies, but when it's time to support the business and purchase an item, is no where to be found? Let me just say- this is not what's happening in white owned businesses. When they start businesses, every friend, acquaintance, and ex-boyfriend is lined up around the block in order to show their support by investing into said business. When will we black folk begin to do the same?

According to Alfred A. Edmond Jr., editor-in-chief of BlackEnterprise.com:
"One of the biggest drags on black entrepreneurial growth and profitability is the "hook-up": black people expecting other black people to provide them with free goods and services just because they're black. We need to stop it. Today. NOW."

I tend to agree with Mr. Edmond, and I'm sure that you entrepreneurs who are reading would too. Check out the rest of this eye-opening article here.

-Alecia D.