EHLAI

12/09/2021

https://ehlaipoint.com/micro-business-focus-for-2020/

https://www.marketingbyminal.com/micro-business-marketing-challenges/

12/06/2021

A Blueprint for Revamping the Minority Business Development Agency
November 30, 2020 EHL.AI
Small businesses are a significant source of employment and provide a variety of goods and services. While Black Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, they own less than 2 percent of small businesses with employees. If financial capital were more evenly distributed and Black Americans enjoyed the same business ownership and success rates as their white counterparts, there would be approximately 860,000 additional Black-owned firms employing more than 10 million people. A future presidential administration could meaningfully reduce small business dis-parities by revamping a long-neglected agency housed within the Department of Commerce.

The United States is home to inseparable racial disparities in wealth, access to capital, and business ownership. Wealth and capital are a prerequisite rather than just a prod-uct of entrepreneurship. Black Americans have been systematically prevented from accumulating wealth and accessing capital for centuries. The typical Black household has just one-tenth of the wealth of their white counterparts.

Black firms are seven times less likely than white-owned firms to obtain business loans in their founding year. Black Americans make up approximately 13 percent of the U.S. population but receive just 3 percent of SBA loans. If these programs were equitably administered, Black firms would have received an additional $2.5 billion in loans.

Without wealth at the community level, existing Black-owned businesses may also struggle to maintain their financial footing during sustained economic downturns. During such periods, regular clients and customers may have fewer resources to support their local veterinarian, mechanic or contractor.

The current state of Black-owned businesses reflects persistent inequities in wealth and access to capital. The MBDA is well positioned to lead the federal government’s efforts to eliminate racial disparities in business ownership. Once established, these firms have potential to increase wealth, create jobs, and reduce persistent shortages of essential goods and services in Black neighborhoods, including health care, child care, and food. However, creating an environment where people of color—especially Black people—can start, grow, and expand their own businesses will require more than entrepreneurship seminars. The federal government must devote substantial resources toward increasing wealth and access to capital for all black Americans.

The Minority Business Development Agency began more than 50 years ago as the Nixon administration’s Office of Minority Business Enterprises. Congress has never passed authorizing legislation for this agency. In FY 2020, the MBDA had just $42 million in total available funds, constituting approximately 0.003 percent of total discretionary spending. For every $1,000 the federal government spent in 2020, it allocated just three cents to foster, promote, and develop minority-owned businesses nationwide. However, a significant expansion of MBDA resources would allow the agency to engage in a variety of activities to meaningfully reduce racial disparities in wealth, economic mobility, and business development.

https://ehlaipoint.com/a-blueprint-for-revamping-the-minority-business-development-agency/

12/06/2021

Steps to AI for nail salons, restaurants and other small businesses
April 25, 2020 EHL.AI
Artificial intelligence for main street is more than robots, self-driving cars, natural language processing (NLP), machine learning and chatbots. Small businesses like restaurants, nail salons and hair salons should look at AI in terms of applications that can automate your business processes – do more with less and keep a safe distance.

You do not have to have deep background in statistics, math or programming, you just need to understand the deep logic and flow of your business. You can leave the rest to existing AI platforms, cloud providers and consultants that understand your sectors.

This example is for nail salons, but you can apply this to restaurants and other small businesses. You also need to be mindful that getting your nails done require a series of steps and some of those steps can be automated. The process starts before a customer sits down with a nail technician and ends with a thank you follow up several hours later. Think about more about the “technician” part of nail technician!

What are the new skills required for Artificial Intelligence?
For those that love technology or have spouses that are in the technical field, then you can ask them for help. You need to be familiar with high-level object-oriented programming languages such as Java, Python, R, C, C++ and server-side scripting languages such as NodeJS, PHP, ASP, JSP, Ruby, etc … You also need to understand fuzzy Logic, Neural Networks, Cognitive Computing, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Data Analysis, Search technologies, APIs, enterprise architecture and security architecture; are some technological underpinnings of AI.

Luckily for us there are existing platforms that require no programming skills. All you need to bring is a blend of expertise, curiosity and ability to learn. In the post COVID age, you must change.

What about machine learning?
Machine learning is considered necessary for trends-spotting since you have no idea what patterns exist within your business and with your customers. With every industry applying AI, machine learning expertise is available as a platform. I spent eight years learning about the accounting industry, independent ethnic restaurants and beauty services. There are patterns that you can leverage, survive and thrive.

With an AI toolbox, you need to be multi-functional and work across technologies, platforms, and grow in sync with the company visions. So, the secret here is to look around, and gain the in depth understanding of your industry. Pick out the leaders in your industry, copy, innovate and leapfrog.

https://ehlaipoint.com/steps-to-ai-for-nail-salons-restaurants-and-other-small-businesses/

Artificial intelligence for main street is more than robots, self-driving cars, natural language processing (NLP), machine learning and chatbots. Small business

12/06/2021

Much of the data being used to train machine learning algorithms doesn’t take ethnicity or race into consideration. Errors from incomplete AI training data already affect people of color. The more intertwined our lives become with AI, the more biases could bloom, some of which could result in life or death. Before AI exacerbates inequities throughout society, we must include and protect minority data.

Health care, which increasingly uses algorithms to determine diagnoses and treatments, is also problematic. Nearly 40 percent of Americans identify as being nonwhite, but 80 to 90 percent of participants in most clinical trials are white. In the US, people of color are projected to outnumber non-Hispanic white citizens by 2045. Around 50 percent of the world’s population growth between now and 2050 is expected to come from Africa.

Data ownership is essential. It’s not just our human right today, but also the key to our future rights. We must design technology that doesn’t inadvertently oppress those who have already been oppressed. Coding inclusivity into algorithms is a challenge when most developer teams are made up of paltry percentages of women and of people of color. But we must augment initial training datasets to reflect the actual demographic makeup of our society.

https://ehlaipoint.com/an-ai-run-world-needs-to-better-reflect-people-of-color/
https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-run-world-needs-to-better-reflect-people-of-color/

Much of the data being used to train machine learning algorithms doesn't take ethnicity or race into consideration. Errors from incomplete AI training data alre

12/06/2021

https://www.marketingbyminal.com/micro-business-marketing-challenges/

11/12/2021

https://ehlaipoint.com/tax-time-2020/