Spreading the Wealth An Interview with Nicole Murphy, Founder & CEO, barter black

Spreading the Wealth

An Interview with Nicole Murphy, Founder & CEO

According to U.S. Census data, Black people comprise approximately 14% of the U.S. population, but only 2.3% of owners of employer firms while White-owned employer firms comprise 83.5%. The number of U.S. Black-owned businesses grew from 2017 to 2019 by 8% in all sectors of the U.S. economy, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey. Nicole Murphy and her company Barter Black might have helped with that increase. W2W Magazine Editor-in-Chief Rachael Romig interviewed Murphy to learn more about Barter Black and its significance in spreading the wealth.

Rachael Romig: Barter Black provides an exclusive bartering platform for Black Entrepreneurs and Startup Founders to trade goods and services with one another in order to grow their businesses, circulate wealth among themselves and rebuild Black Wall Street through the power of technology. Is the stark statistic above what led you to founding Barter Black? How did you get to where you are now?

Nicole Murphy: Somewhat! But it was mainly the COVID pandemic that led me to creating Barter Black. It was statistics like the one you just shared that validated the need for Barter Black. My entrepreneurial journey actually started back in 2017 when I launched a short-term property management company called HomeShare 365. My business thrived very quickly and I scaled it from cleaning properties and other concierge tasks up to all-inclusive Airbnb listings and property management all across Washington, DC and the surrounding areas. When the COVID pandemic struck in March 2020, all travel shut down. Airbnb canceled all guest bookings and my thriving business shrank from between 5-10 cleanings per day down to zero overnight. With such unprecedented action from Airbnb and no end to the pandemic in sight, many of my clients sold their listings in a panic or shut down their business altogether. This is when I realized not only was my business suffering, but other Black-owned businesses were suffering, as usual, at a higher rate than our counterparts, as you already mentioned. My struggles and the need to address the glaring, but often ignored, market gap led to the creation of Barter Black.

RR: I am embarrassed to ask, but what is “Black Wall Street”?

NM: I’m glad you asked. Black Wall Street is the name that was used for the Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Black business owners created their own ecosystem of businesses and it was one of the wealthiest black communities in the United States. Black Wall Street was thriving until 1921, when an event unfolded that left this area to be better known in history as the Tulsa Race Massacre. Over 35 square blocks of the neighborhood were destroyed, including businesses and people’s homes. Hundreds died, thousands were injured and almost 10,000 people were left homeless. What was known as Black Wall Street was destroyed in two days. All because a black man was accused of assaulting a white woman. I believe Barter Black has the opportunity to rebuild Black Wall Street through the power of technology. It’s very important to me that we band together and build back successful Black businesses

together, creating our own ecosystem where we are not only contributing to each other’s success, but ensuring that we are able to sustain and create needed generational wealth.

RR: How can Black-owned businesses get involved with Barter Black? Can anyone across the country take part?

NM: Any Black Entrepreneur and Startup Founder who wants to start or has a business and understands how important it is to build their business with a community is encouraged to get involved with Barter Black. Yes, it is a bartering network, but it is also a community. We barter but we also invite experts in to teach the community about different aspects of business, we host coworking spaces where we come together and bounce ideas off of each other. We are focused on scaling businesses past solopreneurship. The best part is that you meet people across the country and build relationships that will last past the barter.

RR: In terms of women in business (since we love shedding the light on amazing things women are doing), Harvard Business Review released a new report sharing that in the U.S., “17% of Black women are in the process of starting or running new businesses, compared to just 10% of white women, and 15% of white men but only 3% continue to run mature businesses.” One of the big reasons is the accessing capital piece! Do you find that many women versus men are using Barter Black? Equal? And/or have you seen any trends in Black women in business?

NM: The access to capital piece is big. Black Entrepreneurs in general are more likely to seek, but less likely to receive, outside funding. But people also underestimate the power of relationships. Building a network and intentional relationships is a very powerful source to building a sustainable business. I do find that more women than men are using Barter Black. Still trying to figure that piece out. Could it be because Black men are twice as likely as Hispanic men and 5 times as likely as white men to be incarcerated? It doesn’t take much to understand the ripple effect of these harrowing statistics and how this issue might create barriers to our Black men joining Barter Black. On the flip side, could it be that women have more pressure through this pandemic on their shoulders (especially in light of the recent SCOTUS rulings) and they know they must take things into their own hands to rise to the challenge? Overall, I can only speculate on the reasons why we are seeing this trend in Barter Black usage. What I do know, is that women are rock stars and we want and know we can have it all. Being a

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stay-at-home mom or working a 9-5 job just isn’t doing it for us. We want to be that stay-at-home mom and run a business. Or, we work that 9-5 while building our business at night. We want more and we demand it!

RR: You and I had the opportunity to meet at the Black Inventers Got Game event produced by Albright College. How did you get involved in the event and group?

NM: That event was amazing and I was so honored I got the call to be a part of it. The crazy part is that the root of the story starts with a tech company that was interested in investing in Barter Black in its early stage. We declined, and the person who I spoke with ended up introducing me to someone who introduced me to someone else. That someone was James Howard, the man behind the amazing documentary, Black Inventors Got Game, or BIGG for short. This is what I mean about the power of relationships. I have been working with James on different things since we were introduced. The inventors in the documentary were scheduled to be at Albright and Adelle Schade, who was planning the event at Albright, posed a very important question to James. “Where are our Black Women Inventors?” James called and I didn’t hesitate. I wanted in.

RR: If you had to offer one piece of advice to someone thinking about starting their own business, giving back, or just taking a leap – what would you tell them?

NM: Wow! I have so much advice to give. If I had one piece of advice though, it would be to ask for help. This is something I had a major problem doing and still do to a certain extent, but you can’t build a business alone. You can start it, but it's impossible to scale it without help. Think of it this way, your business will have hundreds of moving parts. You, as the business owner, are not an expert in all of those parts. Find the expert, ask or hire the help you need to make scaling your business easier and scale it faster by simply just asking for help. This is where Barter Black comes in and it’s super exciting to see people getting what they need in their business when they ask for help by posting a job and then in return, are connected with the expert they need. Both the owner and the expert each leverage their experience and expertise by bartering and playing a role in supporting one another. So, ask for help, seek help. That’s something I wish someone would have told me years ago!

To learn more about Barter Black and get connected, go to www.ibarterblack.com and follow Barter Black

(@ibarterblack). 2

By Rachael Romig Senior Director of Special Events & Special Programs Greater Reading Chamber Alliance

SCORE is currently looking for qualified volunteers to mentor people going into business or currently in business.

We have a need for accounting, legal, computer skills, general operation expert.

If you have extra time and would like to help us with our request, you can go to our website or call 610-376-3497 or 484-577-9791.

Thank you, Co Chairs, Dave Verrill and Pete Kostick