The Black Business Association of Memphis is launching “Propel,” a church-based initiative to teach people with entrepreneurial dreams how to turn them into realities.

Experts will provide workshops on topics such as customer service, business planning, marketing, accounting and preparing bid packages.

“There have been a whole lot of initiatives from the top down that don’t accomplish what people hoped they would accomplish, but this is from the ground up,” said Roby S. Williams, president of the Black Business Association.

The formal announcement of “Propel: The Proactive Program for Economic Progress and Prosperity” was made this morning. The BBA is working in conjunction with the Tennessee Small Business Development Center, the Memphis Chapter of the National Black MBA Association and the Think Tank for African American Progress in setting up the program.

“I believe in collective intelligence,” Williams said. “Last October, I had the opportunity to facilitate a session with the Think Tank for American Progress. That’s the Black Ph.D. group. We began talking about this. It evolved into this actual idea, and we began going to visit with the Baptist Ministerial Association and talked with them about it. We had to develop the infrastructure to make it work.”

More closely knit

The goal is to establish a business and professional association within each church. For congregations that already have an association, Propel will assist those efforts.

“Our mission is to further educate, equip, enable, empower, encourage and inspire the members of those associations and others to increase their revenues and improve their profitability,” Lee A. Harris, the chairman of the BBA board, said in a statement.

David Doyle, the executive director of the Tennessee Small Business Development Association, devised the curriculum for the program. One byproduct of the initiative could be community-based businesses near the churches where the congregations live.

Williams will teach the introductory session.

“The fundamental goal is to help folks do business the right way,” he said. “What we’re going to do is teach people to value customers and have them understand if you don’t make it on the top line you will never make it on the bottom line. Understand that the customer is king.

“I will begin each session by asking a question: Have you ever been in a business, any business, and you walked in and somebody who worked there was talking on the phone and did not acknowledge you?

“We want to change that. We want each businessperson to understand that the customer is king and we have to develop a system and process that attracts new customers and retains those customers.”

Strictly business

One of the services the Tennessee Small Business Development Center offers is the Memphis Area Contractor Development Program, which teaches business

owners how to be “bid ready.” This new program, which was launched Jan. 30, can be made available through Propel, Williams said.

“We’re going to try to help you start your business and grow your business among the people in your church initially and expand it beyond that,” he said. “Ideally, in five, six, seven or eight years, you will be doing business with major companies and develop a track record over the course of those years to show them you have the experience, the capacity and the capability of providing a business service for them without them taking a risk.”

Anyone seeking information about Propel may contact the BBA at 526-9300 or visit www.bbamemphis.org.