Columbus, OH (Akiit.com) - It’s been estimated that fewer then 10 percent of all entrepreneurs know about or truly understand how business credit works. So, lets first define what exactly business credit is.

Having business credit means that you have a line of credit (credit cards, loans, etc) seperate from your personal credit. This essentially means that if you take out a business loan, it will only show up your business credit report - not your personal. In fact, anything you do on your business credit will only affect your business.

So the question is how do you get business credit?

1) Repair your personal credit. Although they are separate, you likely will not be able to get a line of business credit, if your personal credit is bad. This is because initially this is all a banker has to go on.

2) Open a business banking account. Be sure to do this at the same bank where your personal bank account is. This will allow the banker to see that you are a good customer. Make sure to open the account in the name of your company with a business tax ID, and try to keep at least $1,500 in that account.

3) Approach your banker about business credit. After months have gone by with a business account at the bank, now you can ask your banker about giving you a line of business credit. You may only qualify for $300 or less, but take it.
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(Akiit.com) Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles about the effects of integration in America and whether or not the decisions made during the stormy years of 1954-1968 civil rights movement has in fact, improved black Americans’ status in the country.

“You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: ‘now, you are free to go where you want, do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.’ You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying, ‘you are free to compete with all the others’, and still justly believe you have been completely fair. . . We seek not just freedom but opportunity.” — President Lyndon B. Johnson, June 4, 1965, during a speech to the graduating class at Howard university, Washington, D.C.

Chester Thompson sits in his office as president of the Black Economic Union in the historic Vine District, fully aware that while life for black America has improved greatly since integration, it still has its moments of frustration when it comes to being fully integrated into corporate America.

Not that Thompson is one to gripe, but even he knows among many others that when laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — which prohibited Americans from discriminating against others in voting, education, and the use of public facilities, or the Executive Order 10925 — issued by President John F. Kennedy that not everyone would receive the news with gladness.

Black America has reached higher proportions when it comes to melting into the American pot of inclusiveness in corporate America. More blacks found their way into white-only offices starting with the Civil Rights movement, when blacks screamed successfully at times, for opportunities in the business world. With the help of legislation that would allow diversity to come to America’s business world, African Americans, already taking full advantage of educational opportunities, became more active in melting into America’s corporate world.
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CHICAGO, July 26 /Akiit.com/ — Because the lives of professional black women in America have been understudied and their contributions as leaders often undervalued, The League of Black Women (LBW) conducted its “LBW Having Our Say: Fostering the Leadership Potential of Black Women in America Survey” to help identify and eliminate the challenges black women face as they strive to fulfill their leadership potential and achieve socio-economic parity for themselves, their families and their communities.

The report includes an assessment of the key barriers to black women realizing their leadership potential; recommendations for how corporations can remove those barriers and support retention; and personal accounts of professional black women striving to rise to leadership positions despite the odds. The data found only 20 percent of black women are “very satisfied” with their overall lives, and respondents reported greater and more pervasive degrees of frustration with advancing in their careers.

“The League of Black Women is committed to supporting and developing leadership values and joyful living for the 21st century black woman,” said Sandra Finley, president/CEO. “With this report we provide essential support and timely advice to corporations on specific methods and recommendations to recruit, retain and empower black women as leaders. By implementing our suggested strategies, we believe companies can improve their efforts toward achieving greater workforce diversity.”
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(Akiit.com) The old Ferguson Hotel in Charleston is long gone but memory of it, like that of others of the kind in the country, lingers on in the tradition of black-owned hotels that goes way back.

Today, such ownership depends more on partners or partnerships than on the enterprising individual or family, say changing times.

G.E. (Cap) Ferguson sold his hotel that stood where Fairfield Inn now stands at Washington Street and Leon Sullivan Way. Ferguson also owned other properties.

The partnership approach to hotel ownership shines out at the Summit and Trade Show this week (July 18-21) in the Atlanta Marriott Century Center, which boasts of being the largest black-owned full-service hotel in Georgia, and one of the largest in the nation.

The sponsor is the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators and Developers. NABHOOD announced the event in a full-page New York Times ad on July 8, calling it, “Building Diversity in the Lodging Industry.”

“Nearly all the major hotel brands will use the event to recruit potential owners,” says NABHOOD President Andy Ingraham. “We are seeing a number of major brands coming to recognize the importance of having an African-American and nontraditional segment in their portfolio of owners, and they are putting more resources to help grow these segments.”

A hotel franchise is different from fast-food and similar franchises, Ingraham says. “Hotel owners enjoy the benefits of appreciating value of real estate, and can pass that property on to children,” he says.

NABHOOD started out last summer to create 500 new black-owned hotels by the end of 2010, but now expects to open 122 this year for a national total of 289, according to the ad. It notes that achieving the goal is well within sight.
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(Akiit.com) _ Beverly Hills–Black Entertainment Television is exploring the launch of several new linear and broadband channels for distribution as early as next year, BET president Debra Lee told Akiit News Sunday.

Lee, who spoke to Akiit News immediately after the network’s Television Critics Association tour session here, said the network will look to create several channels over the next year that would compliment the 85 million-subscriber BET channel and its sister 26 million subscriber BET J service, although she would not reveal specifics. Potential offerings could include a family, gospel, and women’s channel, according to executives close to the company.

She said the new services could take the form of either a linear cable channel, a video on demand service or a broadband video channel.

Lee feels the momentum the network is building through its lineup of original reality and scripted fare will help make it easier to launch the new services. At its TCA presentation, the network announced several new fall shows, including its first animated scripted comedy show BUFU, an American Idol-like Gospel competition series Sunday Best and a town hall news program Hip Hop Vs. America which will take a close look at the merits and faults of the hip hop community.
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