ENTREPRENEURS Suburb’s businesses eager for networking
The Greater Houston Black Chamber answers the call by opening a branch in Fort Bend’s Missouri City
L AMONTE Waits, owner of Boogie’s BBQ catering service and restaurant in Missouri City, used to offer the lowest possible bid for his signature burgers and Chicago-style ribs. He figured a low price would secure a contract, even if the pay wasn’t great.
“I just wanted to get my foot in the door,” Waits said.
It wasn’t until Waits informally met with a fellow small-business owner at a community event that he learned how to better price bids.
In Missouri City, historically a bedroom community with middle- to high-income residents commuting into Houston for work and play, many soon-to-be retirees are seeking resources to run
businesses in their own backyard. Existing mom-and-pop operations like Boogie’s BBQ are also seeking support, be it organized networking events or workshops outlining tips and tricks on bidding, bookkeeping and the like.
“Missouri City is in need of a chamber of commerce,” said Sheri Smith, an associate professor of public affairs at Texas Southern University.
The Greater Houston Black Chamber has answered the call by opening a branch there, its first outside the Houston city limits. It won’t have a physical location, but the chamber will be hosting meetings and events in Missouri City tailored to local businesses’ needs and concerns. The branch will also serve as the model for future openings across the region.
“We are extremely excited about this,” chamber chairwoman Courtney Johnson-Rose said.
After being approached by 15 Missouri City business owners and residents two years ago, the chamber did its own research into the area’s demographics. They found a suburb whose population is 46 percent African-American, and a median African-American household income of $87,000.
A Houston Chronicle analysis of U.S. Census data shows that after the last recession, blackowned businesses kept the economy afloat in the suburb, which is mostly in Fort Bend County.
Several chamber members hail from Missouri City as well.
“This is definitely an ideal target,” Johnson-Rose said.
To better understand what businesses in the area needed, the chamber last year hired Smith and her TSU students to conduct a business assessment survey. From January to June, Smith and her team collected data from residents and entrepreneurs alike.
They found that residents sought “buy local” campaigns and a local business directory. Surveyed business owners, including Waits, hoped an entity like a chamber with a diverse membership could help host networking events that could open doors to business opportunities.
Waits, a new member of the Greater Houston Black Chamber, noted that soon a Houston Community College campus will open just a few blocks away from his storefront, which includes a small dining area, on Texas Parkway.
While he can approach school officials to form a partnership, encouraging students to eat at Boogie’s BBQ, it would be a smoother process if the chamber hosts a meeting between the school and local eateries, even if just to plan catering for one schoolwide event.
“Sometimes it just takes one big event for your business to flourish,” Waits said.
For him, the TSU researchers’ focus on the older corridors of the city, including his own, was a welcoming sign.
As Missouri City moves ahead with a comprehensive plan for development, residents and business owners in the older corridors, including the one along Texas Parkway, feel as though they are being neglected, longtime resident Vickie McBride said.
McBride, who is also a management consultant at the Houston-area Urban Community Development Corp., said that when the older corridors do receive attention, it clashes with what residents want. For instance, she said, much of the commercial development in Texas Parkway has been limited to supporting the influx of industrial parks rather than introducing more retailers or supporting existing small-business retailers.
“People are interested in goods and services, not just industrial parks,” she said.
McBride, Waits and others hope the local chamber can serve as a resource for residents and business owners who seek to balance out how commercial space is used in the coming years.
“We feel it’s fertile ground,” Johnson-Rose said.