The latest statistics from the Department of Commerce show Black business start-ups are on the rise. The count now exceeds 850,000. On the surface, this increase in the number of Black-owned businesses from 1987, when the number was purported to be approximately 425,000, makes for good copy in the newspapers and other publications. It even makes many of our people feel good about our progress in business development. However, the complete story is not apparent merely by looking at the number of Black-owned businesses. We also must look at the revenues of those businesses.

In 1992, when an increase also was recorded, the interesting small print disclosed by the Department of Commerce indicated that 56 percent of the 627,000 Black businesses reported then had annual revenues of around $10,000. The USA Today newspaper recently reported that just 20 years ago, Black-owned businesses led other ethnic groups in revenues. Now, in 2002, Asian businesses lead the pack with $336,000 in revenue annually, followed by Hispanic businesses with $155,000, and bringing up the rear are Black-owned firms with a meager $83,000. I say it again: Black people have an annual aggregate income of nearly $600 billion, yet our businesses have annual revenues of $83,000. You do the math.

We have come to be content with mere numbers when it comes to Black-owned businesses. The larger the number grows, the better off we are made to feel about our situation. But aren�t revenues more important, or at least just as important, to Black business as how many businesses there are?

The success of Black business must not only be couched in numbers, which are still far lacking, relative to our approximately 40 million citizens. Black business also must be associated with growth. Too often, we talk about the survival of Black-owned businesses, neglecting to acknowledge the fact that unless a business grows, it will not survive.

So what we need in this country is not only an increase in the number of Black-owned businesses but different kinds of businesses, especially those upon which we depend for our sustenance, i.e., supermarkets. We need business growth, business support, training and education, investment funds, partnerships, alliances, cooperatives, and control of vertical business chains within industries that Black folks dominate.

We must also have a distribution system that we can control and not be subject to the whims, greed and unfairness of non-Black distributors who realize that if we obtain distributive control of our products, we will be well on our way to economic freedom. And guess what, brothers and sisters? That�s just what like Claud Anderson, Al Wellington and Ken Bridges, co-founders of the MATAH Network, have been telling us for years.

Everyone should know by now (the proof is before our eyes everyday) that jobs are steadily disappearing, or at least leaving this country. We must be job makers in addition to job takers. We must instill in our children the entrepreneurial spirit, which will give them the security of knowing they can take care of themselves and not have to depend upon the largess of government or layoff-prone corporations.

Let�s get busy. Catch the spirit of entrepreneurship. Our ancestors will be proud, and so will our children.