Hi, my name is Payton, I'm 19 and currently attending the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley majoring in Psychology and Marketing with a minor in Business Administration.

I just wanted to share with you all some of the things I've learned during my 2 years of exploring economics and business that I feel would improve the lives of more African Americans if they simply knew the information that I now know.

1. Black women are the #1 consumers in America. Most people do not know this, but black women spend more than any other group of people in America. This is important for black-business owners to know because 1. this presents itself as a potential target audience and 2. it allows us to acknowledge certain clientele more effectively when marketing.

2. Keep money within the black community to strengthen the black community. This reality saddens me, the black community does very little to build each other up and support each other and that is the very reason why the black community fails to prosper economically. In order to increase the flow of money within the black community it is VITAL that we support other black-owned businesses. As stated before, Black women are the #1 consumers in America and that should be reflected within the black community more than any other community. Often times I hear that black women do not support black businesses because of the lack of professionalism but that by no means, to rule out all dealings with other black businesses, it jusr means that you need to give that business owner constructive criticism and find another business owner who can better meet your needs. Nobody likes being labeled because of the actions of another person, don't be a hypocrite.

3. Encourage others to become entrepreneurs. By having more entrepreneurs in the black community we create more jobs for other Black people and we become apart of the resolution to increase the economic well-being of our African American community. Most people don't know that there are several outreach programs in their neighboring cities that push for things like this. For example, Empower Baltimore, was a huge initiative to increase the economic well being for minorties in Baltimore that gave out loans for businesses, increased job creation, and funded a city wide clean up.

Click this link to continue learning about improving the economic well-being of African Americans.