The Final Call | Business & Money

New Black business app is on the scene

By Toure Muhammad -Contributing Writer- | Last updated: Apr 13, 2016 - 10:13:33 AM

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Are you looking for Blackowned businesses to buy from in your neighborhood or when traveling across the United States? Well, there’s an app for that.

WHEREU Came From is a Black business directory app for Apple and Android devices off ering a local business search with real-time listing of Blackowned businesses across various categories, ranked by people using the app.

Created by Atlanta-based, social entrepreneur and former Final Call newspaper staff writer, Dr. Dionne Mahaffey-Muhammad, the app merges technology with the need to handle poverty, crime and other social ills in the Black community by focusing on economic development and job creation. Her company, The CPAI Group, also launched The Loyalty Stamp, a mobile rewards app, last year.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent survey of business owners there are 2.6 million Black-owned businesses in this country. This app seeks to connect Black businesses with Black consumers using the latest in mobile technology.

“While the growth is encouraging there is still a lot of work to do to increase the profit of these Black businesses. Gross receipts for all minorityowned firms are still well below the average gross receipts for non-minority-owned firms,” Mahaffey-Muhammad said.

A huge problem is that despite a collective buying power of $1.3 trillion dollars, very little of that money stays in Black communities or is spent on Black-owned businesses.

Currently, a dollar circulates in Asian communities for 30 days, in Jewish communities approximately 20 days, White communities 17 days, but in contrast a dollar circulates in the Black community only six hours.

Just two cents of every dollar a Black person spends in this country goes to Black-owned businesses. If higher income Black consumers spent at least $1 out of every $10 with Blackowned businesses it would generate one million jobs for Black people, according to researchers.

“It will take all of us across all socio-economic statuses to build Black wealth. We’ve got to invest in our own community. For us, community can’t be limited to where we are domiciled since many of us live in non-Black neighborhoods. When we start to embrace the diaspora-view that our community is wherever we find our people, then we will be more inclined to support one another, even if it means taking a long drive,” Mahaffey-Muhammad continued.

The WHEREU app is here to help make it easier to buy Black, explained Dr. Mahaffey-Muhammad. Everything from house cleaning, plumbing, catering, lawyers, doctors, graphic designers, restaurants, beauty salons and more, the app’s referral and location-based system helps you start your search among the most trusted Black professionals and businesses.

“Our development team has added several thousand businesses for the app launch. However, we’d love to include as many of the 2.6 million Black businesses in the United States as possible,” she concluded.

Business profiles can be submitted from the web-site or within the actual WHEREU Came From app. The app can also help majority, non-Black corporations meet their diversity objectives by finding minority businesses to support.

Additionally, the website, WhereYouCameFrom.biz will feature entrepreneurs’ stories, off er narratives on wealth building and other topics relevant to Black business owners and consumers. The company also plans to hold conferences and pop-up shops across the country to promote Black entrepreneurship.

Some of the unique app features include:

Access the top 10 most referred pros and businesses under a category even without Internet connection

Ability to find the pro nearest you through geo-location technology

Reliable listings with verified contact numbers

Easily refer trusted pros to friends and family through the referral function

For more information, visit www.whereyoucamefrom.biz. Also find them on Facebook @whereyoucamefrom and on Twitter and Instagram @ WhereUCameFrom. Download the “WHEREU” app in the Apple Store or Google Play.