African American Woman Develops Unique Program to Help Level the Playing Field for 750,000 Minority Construction Firms

BE Group is ready to prepare minority construction firms in any city become bid ready
Suzanne Stantley
Suzanne Stantley

 African American Woman Develops Unique Program to Help Level the Playing Field for 750,000 Minority Construction Firms
BE Group is ready to prepare minority construction firms in any city become bid ready

CHICAGO PRNewswire -- A decade ago, Suzanne Stantley
realized that billions of dollars in construction projects were going on in communities throughout the country and that most African American businesses were not in the loop to
bargain for, identify and connect with the right decision-makers. She learned these businesses’ inability to make connections impacted their ability to participate in the American dream, and she knew exactly what she had to do. She took her more than thirty-five years as a trained marketer and parlayed that into a venture that would bring companies, small and large, together to do business. Her vision was to bring diverse businesses, government,
project owners, large prime contractors, suppliers
and buyers together where they could network and talk about building relationships. And she named that vision the Construction Industry Conference, which will host its 10th conference virtually later this year.

While executing and planning the conference, Suzanne launched the contractor development side of her company, BE Group, that would focus its efforts on helping these diverse firms build the capacity to bid on and win contracts. Afterall the end game is to win contracts and generate revenue. She realized that in many states, and in particular her home state of Illinois and home city of Chicago, African-American firms received less than one percent of the annual
revenue generated in the commercial industry.

As she expanded her firm’s services, she rebranded the concept and named it TOOLS™, Transforming Organizations’ Operations and Leadership Strategies.
TOOLS assists diverse construction firms increase
their capacity to bid on, win and manage construction
contracts through business assistance, training and
focused individualized support. She has provided her
program to the City of Chicago, the Chicago Department of Aviation and the Illinois Tollway.

TOOLS can be implemented in any state, city, or
municipality and Stantley’s firm is for hire. Its ser -
vices can be procured by government, at any level, be
it an agency like a transportation department, housing
department, or any department that has construction
projects and has mandates for the inclusion of minority
firms on their projects. “Generally, the large primes, the big firms who win the multi-million-dollar contracts, have minority participation goals. Most are unable to find a pool of candidates who understand the inner workings of the
commercial industry to win contracts with them
to achieve their goals. They are the key buyers of our services as they are charged with the inclusion of minorities on contracts they win. And we are for hire,” says Stantley.

“Cities across America can no longer sit by as billions of dollars of construction is taking place and not have minority construction firms involved in those projects. Even before the
recently signed massive $1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure bill, many cities were slated to spend billions on roads and bridges, airports and a myriad of other types of building projects. And unless and until diverse firms gain a greater
understanding of what it takes to operate in this
arena, they will never gain access to even a portion of these contracts,” Stantley adds.

TOOLS offers its services free to minority construction
firms, who are generally struggling to stay afloat, which is why the program seeks its funding from government, prime contractors, developers and philanthropists to make its services available to the minority owners. While many minority owners may have not obtained advanced degrees, their ability to perform their trade is unquestionable. Stantley
believes what they need is what TOOLS provides,
preparation so they can have a real shot at achieving
the American dream.

Nationally, there are appropriately 750,000 minority firms who generate less than $500,000 of revenue annually each. These are the firms we want to support, “by expanding their capacity, we can increase their employee count 200-300% and add exponentially to the improvement of the lives of all they impact.”

BE Group, also publishes Building Entrepreneur
magazine a valuable resource providing businesses
information and later this year, the Group is launching
a portal, Building Entrepreneurs, where businesses can
promote their operations to an audience of project owners
and others interested in identifying and connecting
with them.

BE Group’s founder and CEO, Suzanne Stantley began
her career in marketing after earning an MBA. Her
career started with a tenure at Leo Burnett Advertising,
the largest advertising agency in the world at the time.
There she became the first African-American woman
hired into their management training program, working
with some of the largest fortune 500 companies in the
nation.

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