By Jeff McKinney
The Cincinnati Enquirer

After getting weary of the corporate rat race, Terri Lynn Jenkins figured that if she could work that hard for someone else, she could do it for herself.

Terri Lynn Jenkins owns ETC, a women's apparel shop in Pleasant Ridge. (Tony Jones photo) | ZOOM |

That entrepreneurial spirit prompted Ms. Jenkins in June to open ETC, a small women's apparel boutique in Pleasant Ridge that offers Afrocentric/artistic type clothing with a stylish flair and different look.

"You won't find a traditional blue-and-white suit or white blouse in here, but something you might wear to everything from the symphony to the jazz festival," she says.

ETC is evidence of why businesses owned by minority women are growing at four times the rate of all other new business start-ups nationally.

After researching the market and not finding a large concentration of stores like hers, Ms. Jenkins used savings and proceeds from selling an Allstate Insurance agency to invest about $15,000 to $20,000 to open ETC. Even though the agency was hers, she still had to answer to Allstate's corporate headquarters.

"I was blessed - with some help from my parents, some savings built up and a business that could be sold - that I didn't have to worry about the capital thing," Ms. Jenkins, 41, said.

More important, a belief that she could make the boutique work, a willingness to research her business and identifying a niche were also key elements that helped Ms. Jenkins.

BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES

The number of black-women-owned businesses in the United States is one of the fastest-growing segments of all U.S. business startups, based on data at the end of 2002. A breakdown on how those firms are faring in the Tristate (all comparison figures are from 1997):   OHIO • Number of firms: 10,930, up 3.2 percent. • Sales by those firms: $1.03 billion, up almost 54 percent.   KENTUCKY • Number of firms: 2,328, up 3.7 percent. • Sales by those firms: $75 million, up 7.4 percent.   INDIANA • Number of firms: 7,167, up 40.2 percent. • Sales by those firms: $52.6 million, down about 70 percent.   Source: National Women's Business Research Council, preparer of latest data provided by Center for Women's Business Research.

The number of firms owned by minority women - including Latinas, Asians, blacks and other women of color - was more than 1.2 million last year, up from 932,403 in 1997, according to a new report by the Center For Women's Business Research. That 2002 number was up 31.5 percent, or quadruple that of all U.S. firms that grew by a rate of 6.8 percent in the same period.

Moreover, there were an estimated 365,110 black-women-majority-owned firms, up almost 17 percent from 312,884 in 1997, the latest report revealed.

In Ohio, there were 10,930 black-women-owned businesses, up 3.2 percent from 1997. The trend held up in Kentucky and Indiana. There were 2,328 black-women-owned businesses in Kentucky last year, up 3.7 percent from 1997. In Indiana, there were 7,167 firms owned by black women in 2002, up 40.2 percent from six years ago.

Financial independence, lack of career advancement opportunities in a job, a great knowledge of their business and believing they can make their ideas work are among factors why many black women are becoming entrepreneurs.

Moreover, greater flexibility to run their own firms and manage family duties, being downsized, losing a spouse or just wanting to control their destiny also are prompting more black women to branch out, experts say.

"Many just have the talent, expertise and experience and make the decision to take the risk and go for it,'' said Mrs. De Asa M. Brown, president of the Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky African-American Chamber of Commerce.

Tara Smith, who opened T.M. Smith & Associates Inc. downtown in February, decided to start her own business because there were limited advancement opportunities in the health research and services field, particular after the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001.

"I got a little frustrated and just decided to branch out on my own," Ms. Smith, 29, said. "It was more out of frustration than anything."

T.M. Smith & Associates found a niche by specializing in customer satisfaction research and customer relationship marketing primarily to businesses that are just starting up. Ms. Smith's firm teaches them about the importance of customer satisfaction, how to manage a customer base, and how to boost customer loyalty and customer retention.

"With the number of businesses rising, particularly with all the downsizing and weak economy in recent years, we're trying to catch those companies as they start up,'' she said.

The latest data on the rising number of minority-women-owned businesses also shows that financial institutions, investors, major corporations and policy-makers are recognizing that those firms are viable, said Sharon Hadary, executive director at the Center For Women's Business Research in Washington.

She said that's a key reason many U.S. banks and other financial institutions are increasing lending and making more capital available to women of color trying to start their own businesses.

The numbers appear to reflect that trend. For instance, sales at firms owned by African-American women in Ohio came in at more than $1 billion in 2002, up nearly 54 percent from six years ago.

"They're starting to see these as viable businesses that not only can compete with other firms, but become profitable new business for them as well," Ms. Hadary said.

E-mail jmckinney@enquirer.com.