Beginning in 1998 I opened a very modest lawn & landscape business that over the following 15 yrs generated avg of about $75k annual revenue.
In 2013 I gave it all away and organized a small network of six outdoor service operators (all white race). Collectively we employ about 20 people and generate a combined almost $1.5m revenue during past five years
it should be noted that the general demographics of our target suburban homeowner client base is approx 80% white, 10% Latino, 5% AA and 5% other ethnic spanning a population of approx 500,000+ residential property owners
If an African American man of highest calibre were to have followed same business model in this same geographic zone (north end of both Pinellas and Hillsborough counties) he very well could have replicated same level of bottom line success
But it is absolutely certain he would have had to work twice as hard with regard to obtaining customers....easily would have needed to answer 2 to 3x the number of sales calls during either of the two cited time frames of 15 yrs and 7 years
Make no mistake....I feel absolutely Zero Guilt that I and my partners can have the $$ success we've enjoyed while working with market conditions 2 to 3x less difficult than a man who is clearly African American
Rather, I simply thank my stars that in fact, I *am* white
And I never, ever pretend that it has not been a significant advantage and privilege for doing wide ranging business in 21st century Florida USA given the demographics of our target market
