Originally published on Feb 26,2024 on AJC.com
On a recent Tuesday, Dr. Tiffany Bussey was welcomed about a dozen other entrepreneurs to a conference room in northwest Atlanta to hear from officials from St. Louis, Missouri-based McCarthy Building Companies, a multi-billion dollar construction firm that helped build the domestic terminal canopy at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, about how to do business with them.
The Morehouse Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center (MIEC), is currently running a seven-month small business executive program for construction companies. The center’s goal is to open the doors for the 17 participating businesses to secure contracts and capital. To that end, entrepreneurs get one-on-one executive coaching and teams from large contractors like McCarthy, J.E. Dunn, Holder Construction and the supplier diversity division of Hartsfield-Jackson are teaching participants how to work with them.
Dr. Bussey’s research suggests that business clinics could be an effective strategy for increasing the supply of underrepresented entrepreneurs, like Chassydi Butts, owner of dump truck and hauling company Go-Ram Logistics. She is a first-time entrepreneur and is part of the MIEC’s construction cohort, which she hopes helps her be able to “bid competitively and bid as a Black minority small business.”
“The study suggests that these types of business clinics seem to help in understanding and perhaps overcoming some of the systemic barriers that are there [to entrepreneurship],” said Tiffany Bussey, executive director of the MIEC and one of the study’s co-authors.
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