11 minute read
Voices in Business
The Changing Landscape of Conscious Commerce
With 2022 now underway and issues of social justice remaining prominent, an increased focus on conscious commerce and investment has become a priority for many. Some individual shoppers have made efforts to avoid the vast digital warehouse of Amazon, shopping in favor of sourced items from businesses that share common values and principles. This more thoughtful approach to commerce leaves the buyer feeling better about their own investment, whether this is buying a stock or purchasing a bag of coffee.
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On social media, hashtags promoting business principles readily identify aspects of a company that may be attractive to investors, with minority-owned businesses being an area of significant interest this past year for many individual household consumers. The Instagram hashtag #blackownedbusiness has garnered close to fifteen million posts in recent months, and shoppers on many platforms can now easily filter searches to navigate more conscious shopping choices.
While minority-owned businesses are not a new phenomenon, the social spotlight on this aspect of our economy has certainly been greatly enhanced in recent times. For some business owners, however, this moniker can be in equal measures a positive tool and simultaneously a difficult label.
Bridgton Academy recently connected with some alumni business owners to gain their thoughts on why diversity in business matters and how this topic can sometimes create a tightrope to walk.
Scott Baker opened his company, RTD Logistics, in 1986, just twenty-one years old and fresh out of college. “I remember calling my dad and saying that I was thinking about starting a business. It got really silent on the other end of the line. I told him the whole concept of what I wanted to do and I remember him saying, ‘Well, the good thing is that you’ve got nothing to lose!’”
Now in its 35th year operating out of the Boston metropolitan area, RTD Logistics is a comprehensive express delivery and logistics services company. Scott, who majored in finance at Boston University, shares that he fell into his business by happenstance. “When I graduated, my dad, who worked in insurance, had connections with some of the ‘big wigs’ in Boston. I remember going to do interviews and job shadow some people that he helped to connect me with. Everyone I talked to when I did those visits did not seem generally happy. I didn’t come away enthused.”
“In the midst of that, I met one of my original business partners. We started talking about the idea of starting a business together, with efforts focused on freight consolidation, which seemed like an area that could see growth. That’s how things started, and my company has been around ever since.”
Scott, who serves as the Founder and President of RTD, has learned a lot over the years running his business. “I drove and delivered packages every day for the first year. At night, I would come in and run bills and do client outreach. Sometimes, when I got too tired, I would sleep on a cot in my office.” Early on, the office operated from the basement of an old factory in the meatpacking district of Boston. Three decades later, RTD is running strong, serving clients throughout New England and in various locations nationally.
As he began to build the company, Scott soon realized that he would face a number of challenges as a new business owner, including some that were based solely on the color of his skin. “In 1986, the climate for minority-owned businesses in Boston was much different than it is today,” Scott reflects. “I remember working through cold calls and being so glad to finally get a meeting. I’d get to a meeting, knock on the door, and when the potential client would open the door, I could feel them step back sometimes and say ‘woah, this is a minority.’”
Scott, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, moved to the east coast shortly before his high school graduation. He recalls the difference in attitude and environment when he settled in New England, describing it as a big uprooting. “You can feel the difference in environments,” Scott reflects. “People have different mentalities and realities. This comes from how they are raised and the values they are taught.”
“When you start to sense that feeling, that what you look like may be impacting your pursuit of success, it motivates you to turn towards organizations that can help you to navigate this. That is what led me, even early on, to join minorityowned business groups. I believe that these groups give you more clout, kinship, and mentors who have faced similar struggles of identification. Today, my business is certified by just about every minorityowned agency that there is to be certified by.”
“For me, I am a businessman. I want to go out and earn your business because of the quality of service that I provide. I happen
navigating logistics with scott baker ‘81
Baker in the early years of operating his 35-year-old Boston--based business, now known as RTD Logistics to also be a Black man. If you turn off the lights, how would you know the difference? The service is getting done, and it’s getting done well. But, when you turn on the lights, that’s when people’s perception and stigma come into play. That’s when it can turn into a totally different ballgame.”
Scott reflects that this can be a tricky line for minority-owned businesses to walk, wanting to be known for what your business does, not just what organizations you may identify with. That said, as a businessman, he believes that you need to take advantage of all the tools at your disposal. “Now, in today’s society, there are organizations that feel in their heart that supporting minority -owned businesses is a good thing to do— that it is a way to try to heal societal wrongs. I encourage minority-owned businesses to use this momentum to build your business— to enhance the great service that you already provide. I get calls all the time from companies looking for qualified minorityowned businesses to contract with. You have to be able to take advantage of these opportunities. They are not, in any way, a surrender of values. Like it or not, as a minority you may still have less opportunity going into things, that’s just the way it is. So play the cards that you have in your hand.”
Through his involvement with minorityowned business coalitions, Scott has had a chance to affect economic and social agendas at both the municipal and state levels, helping to lay a better groundwork for all striving businesses. “I’m in a coalition of prominent minority-owned businesses in the Boston area,” he shares. “Prior to the mayoral election, we had meetings with the two final candidates. We brought to those meetings a list of eight important action items we felt that the City of Boston needed to take on behalf of its minority-owned businesses. The candidate that we endorsed supported every one of those eight things that we wanted. In that regard, I feel like there is a lot of positive change coming. Similar municipal and state action has led to winning partnerships for minority-owned businesses. When the governor and other officials are committed to ensuring that minority-owned businesses survive and thrive, policy follows to help ensure that we all get a fair shake. These are positive winds of change indeed, and, compared to 1986, today is a totally different world.”
Scott Baker attended Bridgton Academy in 1981, going on to attend Boston University and graduating with a degree in finance. He encourages every college student to become a good generalist, learning the fundamentals of both business and economics. On a daily basis, Scott can be found running his company, RTD Logistics. He serves on numerous boards and coalitions, including the Bridgton Academy Board of Trustees. Scott holds a Minority Business Executive Certificate from Tucks School of Business.
santos norales ‘16 and his drive for success
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Santos Norales ’16 was busy with life in New York City. Working as a manager at Amazon, Santos and his girlfriend, Aliyah, along with their goldendoodle, were juggling multiple jobs, getting used to life as new homeowners, and making their post-college career pathways. Santos’ plans shifted in a big way when he found himself laid off this past year as a result of the pandemic. What may have seemed like a setback, turned into a new opportunity for this young Wolverine who used this career change to establish his own trucking business, Inspire Logistics LLC. “I’ve always wanted to be self-made,” Santos shared. “I’d rather fish for myself, and not depend on others. During my time out of work, I saw a few things online about trucking, and for a while I had it in the back of my mind—I kept my eye on it. One day, I talked to my girlfriend about a class I saw that would help me to learn how to start my own trucking company. Aliyah told me to do it, but I hesitated a bit. I think I was scared and wondering ‘What if I fail?’”
Santos used money he had been saving to take some initial classes. While he started out with the idea that he would just run
the business side of his company and hire drivers, he quickly realized that having truck driving experience brought better investment opportunities. “I failed my trucking license test the first two times,” Santos recalls. “I did take a couple of classes before my first test, but I skipped through a lot of the detail. I just wanted to get in the truck and drive…but then, I failed. I wasn’t ready.”
The third time was the charm, and once he had his license in hand, Santos began working in earnest to create his own company. “It was hard starting up the business,” Norales shared. “There was always something that I had to figure out. I reached out to a lot of people. I asked a lot of questions—I still do. Sometimes people don’t want to give out information. You have to read between the lines. You might get a little nugget of information that you can then chase down. I’ve learned to exhaust each resource until I find the answers I’m looking for. It can be tiring though. Sometimes I feel like ‘Why can’t Google just tell me what I need to do?’ but with this stuff, you have to be willing to seek out what you need.”
In 2021, Santos’ initial business plan came to fruition. He was the proud owner of a new 18-wheeler and earning his way driving loads between Long Island and New Hampshire. “It’s going well so far,” Santos states. “It’s a lot of hard work, and I don’t have much time to do anything else. I’m driving, I’m managing the business, and business has been steady.”
As a young business owner, Santos finds that his age can be one of the toughest hurdles for him to overcome. “People often don’t take me seriously. They have to see my work. Sometimes people take a shot on me, because of my character, and then I let my actions speak for themselves. I know what my value is. I might be twenty-five, but once people see what I’m about, they give me my props.”
When asked about realities he’s experienced as a minority businessman, Santos is pragmatic. “I see the designation of being a minority-owned business as solely a business transaction. This designation doesn’t impact who I am, what I am, or what I’m capable of. It’s a transaction. If something is going to help my business to elevate, then let’s do it.”
“I think that sometimes defining yourself solely through a minority mindset is jeopardizing. I have my own identity, but my business doesn’t revolve around my identity. While I do take advantage of being a minority-owned business, I sometimes think that some people see ‘minorityowned’ and they automatically think it’s ‘less than.’ The workload that I have, what I’m doing, it’s no different than any business that’s not minority-owned. The only difference I see between the two is with access. Access to resources is not the same, and a minority-owned business designation can help people to gain access to resources they wouldn’t otherwise have, especially when they are first getting going.”
“I think that subconsciously sometimes these labels can, and do, affect you. I am very aware of what I see as my position in society—how others may view me just because of who I am. That said, I don’t let that have any impact on where I want to be.”
“Starting my business isn’t just for me. It’s for the people who come after me. I want my kids and grandkids to look and see that if you work hard and invest resources into what you want to do, that you can do anything.”
Santos hopes to increase his company’s fleet by up to ten trucks in the next few years, but for now, is taking things one day, and one step, at a time. “My advice? Go for your goal. Shoot your shot. The worst that can happen is that you fall. You pick up the pieces, learn from them, and shoot again.”
Santos Norales graduated from Bridgton Academy in 2016, going on to attend Marist College in New York. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Entrepreneurship and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. While behind the wheel, Santos enjoys building his mind, listening to podcasts, including favorites such as Earn Your Leisure, Market Mondays, and The Breakfast Club.
