Transcript of ‘Shark Tank’ star shares key to getting your business off the ground

For some, building a business is part of the American dream. For Black Americans, nearly 3% are living it. That's according to a lending tree. They note that the city with the highest rate of businesses owned by Black people at roughly 9% is Atlanta. The city makes sense as the host of this year's Black Entrepreneurs Day. There were conversations about building a business with business owners, both established and aspiring, like Kelly Rowland.

But entrepreneurship is just incredible. To watch it around me, I think the first entrepreneur that I met was my mama T, Tina Knowles. This is a Black woman in Houston, Texas, having every woman coming outside of her hair salon. They were fly. I remember when In Vogue came in there, and all of these different artists came in there, and I thought it was so incredible to watch her be so fabulous in the salon. But she was also... She came home and she'd make us food, and it was like a thing. I was like, Wow, you can do it all. Maybe.

The creator of Black Entrepreneurs Day is Damon John, who you know from ABC Shark Tank and the iconic Foo Boo brand, which we're going to talk about FUBoo in just a moment. But thanks for coming in.

I am excited to be here, man.

I appreciate it.

The best thing ever before shrimp and grits. All right.

I know it's early. Let me start here. We're going to talk about Black Entrepreneurs Day in a moment. But I know that there are some people who are just in this this moment of transition who are a little worried. Are you optimistic for entrepreneurs?

I'm always optimistic for entrepreneurs because entrepreneurs will change the world. So whoever's going to be in office four years from now or 40 years from now, what does that matter to me? I'm not planning my life and how to be of value to other people for the next four years, eight years, or twelve years. It's for the rest of my life, and it's for my customers, and it's for my family and my legacy. So Things are going to come, people are going to come and go and support causes and leave causes. That's not in my control. The only thing in my control is finding something that I can add value to my community. Whoever wants to buy and support, I want to support them.

At the top of the show, we talked about some of the DEI estimates or the attempt to get rid of DEI in government, maybe federal contractors. How much of that is a challenge for people who want to do business with with the government that don't have access at this moment?

It is a challenge, of course. If you look at black entrepreneurship, we make up a population where 14% of the country and we're 3% of entrepreneurs. You need to have people that work and think within your system that look like the people you serve. A lot of government workers and people like that are people of color and women and veterans and various other things like that. You're just going to have inferior products, more of inferior products, if you don't look and think like the people you serve within your system. However, a better thing to think about is large corporations are now saying, We don't care what the government is saying. We must do this because of social media embarrassed of the things we need the transparency to say, We are making with people that look and think like you. And that's exactly why J. P. Morgan, Chase, and all the people came out to support in Salesforce to support my program because internally, they They have a mandate. They're like, I don't care what the government's doing. This is what we must do.

There is also the pressure from the other side on companies like John Deere, and I don't want to misname Miller, other companies that have reduced, pulled back on Jack Daniels as well. Their DEI.

Dei can get very tricky, but you pulled up somebody perfect example. I know John Deere, and four or five of the executives have been there 40 years or African-American. Their program, they may think about reducing that there, but yet they're trying to gain back and give incentives to go and get 20 million acres of farmland that was owned by African-Americans that were boxed out of their rightful properties and ownership. That's their program. So they're doing and they're walking the walk instead of just talking the talk. It all depends on if you are going to serve your customer.

Let's talk about Black Entrepreneurs Day. Let's talk about it. Big day, year five, and you have brought it for the first time to Atlanta.

I brought it to Atlanta. I brought it to the mecca of Black entrepreneurship, and I love it. I actually got awarded a proclamation by Mayor Dickens and the Congress people out here. It's absolutely been amazing. We had a really amazing night. Actually, we watched Flavor Play three instruments. You know he can play up to 14, I believe.

He is a surprise every time I see it.

Fascinating. Entreprene came out, and we gave away and we hit the mark of over a million dollars giving away. We funded now, sorry, giving away grant-free money to over 40 businesses, African-American-owned businesses. I started five years ago, and today we're in Atlanta, and I love it.

What do you tell people? Because I imagine there were some in the audience who are considering entrepreneurship and are not yet entrepreneurs. What's the advice for people who are just standing at the edge and not yet taking that leap?

Do the power broke. African-americans, we're resilient people. We've been bartering and trading since the beginning of time, but we've never I formalized it. It's always been a side hustle, right? Do the power broke and do your homework and create a structure. That's the most important part, the financial intelligence, creating a structure and a business so that when you do want an investment, I can actually invest in you. If you have a company and somebody else has a company and you can't take money in and your receipts are in a shoe box or stuff like that, well, how am I going to ever get paid back? Where's my money going? It's normally the foundation, just like in a house, just like in a family, just like in a business, it's creating that great foundation.

Power of broke.

Power broke.

What is it?

You ain't got nothing. You're going to figure it out. Money often in a small business highlights your weaknesses. If you have a weak conversion or weak campaign, well, buying more of that campaign is not going to increase your sales. If your product is crap, you've been watching too much Shark Tank, but you want 50% margins, so you're buying more to get a better margin on your product, you still got a bunch of product coming back to your warehouse or your garage. It's usually It's usually about thinking outside the box and using OPM, which should be other people's money, but other people in manufacturing, mindpower, manpower, marketing, and mentorship. Of course, like I did with Timberland, making a profit off of other people's mistakes.Let's.

Talk about FUBU. Yeah, let's talk about it. First runway show in at least what, 15 years?15.

Years out here in Atlanta.

A bit of a relaunch here in the US. Why now? Why is now the time?

Well, I think it's a great time to come back because people who grew up on FUBU are saying, Bring it back. We've been doing great business in Malaysia and Germany and South Africa for many years. But the new generation is finding us. That's what happens with fashion. People go and people come back. We love it. We love the fact that we created the first hashtag of clothing years ago. It was not only about African-Americans, it was about supporting whatever your culture is. Fub is a sign of empowerment, and people want it back. We're here to bring it back, and we love it.

I certainly had my FUBU. I certainly did. Damon John, I appreciate it.Thank you for having me, man.Thank you so much.I appreciate.