By Starling Thomas
Nationwide — Have you ever wanted to shop with Black owned business in your city or when traveling across the United States? Not sure how to find local or national business that are owned by people that look like you and live in your community.
WHERE U Came From is the premiere and reliable Black business directory app for Apple and Android devices offering a local business search with real-time listing of Black-owned businesses across various categories, ranked by consumers who use the app.
The app was created by Atlanta-based, social entrepreneur Dr. Dionne Mahaffey and her company the CPAI Group. The wealth disparity arises in the African-American community because the dollar doesn’t circulate the way it does in other minority communities around the world. A huge problem is that despite a collective buying power of in the trillions of dollars, very little of that money stays in Black communities or is spent on Black-owned businesses.
The WhereU app was conceived for the need to help circulate the dollar longer in Black communities and because of this, it could generate one million jobs for African- Americans nationwide.
Did you know that 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.
According to researchers, just 2 cents of every dollar an African American spends in this country goes to Black owned businesses. If higher income Black consumers spent at least $1 out of every $10 with Black owned businesses it would generate one million jobs for African American.
Money zooms over our heads and through our fingers faster than we can count it and it rarely stays in our pockets long enough to save or go to the Black-owned businesses in our neighborhoods. We spend our hard owned money with companies that could care less about our community and more about their bottom line. We are so used to creating jobs for other people and corporations, but we as a community are unable to create jobs for ourselves. This is a very serious issues that the WhereU app is addressing.
The app merges technology with the need to handle poverty, crime and other social ills in the African-American community by focusing on economic development and job creation.
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.
“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 minority-owned firms are still well below the average gross receipts for non-minority-owned firms,” Mahaffey said.
“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,” said Mahaffey.
The WhereU app is here to help make it easier to literally buy Black, in your community and when you travel to other communities around the country. This app will help you locate every African-American owned business in your vicinity from everything like restaurants house cleaning, plumbing, catering, lawyers, doctors, graphic designers, 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. .
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
The website, WhereYouCameFrom.biz will feature entrepreneurs’ stories, offer narratives on wealth building and other topics relevant to black owned business owners and consumers. The company also plans to hold conferences and pop-up shops across the country to promote black entrepreneurship.
Get Connected:
Download the “WhereU” app in the Apple Store or Google Play
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WhereYouCameFrom
YouTube: https://goo.gl/sjwezW
Twitter and Instagram: @WhereUCameFrom
PRESS CONTACT:
Ashley S. Thomas
astarlingw@gmail.com
404-857-6961