OPPORTUNITY ALMOST LOST

By Larry Martin

In October of 2008, I was contacted by the State Office for Women and Minority Business Assistance (SOWMBA), which we discussed in our last article, and MassHousing, the state’s affordable housing bank that provides financing to for-profit and non-profit developers and property management companies. The majority of apartment and housing complexes located in the greater Springfield area are financed through MassHousing. MassHousing provides many other services, but for this article, I will focus on the property management financing.

Both organizations wanted my help in recruiting women and minority business owners who could provide services to property managers, such as the construction trades, pest control, and office supplies, to participate as vendors in a MassHousing Western MA trade fair. These companies did not have to be SOWMBA certified in order to participate in this opportunity to market their services and products to the regional property managers who would attend. MassHousing has a goal of 14% (minimum) for contracting bids awarded to minority or women-owned businesses for the property managers whom they finance.

I was intrigued by the fact that the last fair of this type was held more than 15 years ago, was poorly attended, and no other fairs have been held here since that time. Meanwhile, these fairs have been held every year for the past 15 years in Boston! This also raised the ire of Khali Maddox-Abdegeo, a Springfield publisher, who was the driving force in having this fair brought back to Western MA. So I agreed to help since this would be a great opportunity for our local contractors to gain more visibility and, hopefully, receive some project opportunities. Besides, how difficult would it be to recruit 30 or 40 contractors for this free marketing opportunity to have all the property managers come to them instead of chasing leads? And, MassHousing also provided dinner as well!

As it turns out, it was more difficult than I imagined. Although MassHousing sent out waves of mailings to local business owners, they did not want to take the grassroots approach to marketing that I recommended, so a small group of us from the One-Stop Career Centers, EDC, New England Black Chamber of Commerce, MA Latino Chamber of Commerce, Elizabeth Cardona of the Governor’s Western MA Office, and Trevis Wray and Tony Taylor, both professionals from Springfield, did our best to spread the word to the Holyoke and Springfield communities with no budget and a 3-week registration period. Responses were few and time was running out. Note: If they had taken out an advertisement in this newspaper in September and October, there would have been no problems!

Flash forward to the day of the fair and MassHousing was very pleased with the turnout of contractors representing Western MA and they are excited about convening a 2009 event. Over forty contractors participated and there was a steady stream of attendees receiving information -- from bathroom renovations to tax services. MassHousing proclaimed the fair an overwhelming success! But was it? I estimated that only 25% of the businesses were actually from Hampden County; the rest were from the region between Worcester to Newton. I do not remember seeing any electricians, plumbers, carpenters, or landscapers from this area. We can do better; we must do better to keep this fair an annual event.

I applaud the effort that the MassHousing Department of Compliance and Diversity put forth in bringing this fair back to Hampden County; now we need to keep it here.

(Maybe this year they will take your advice and run ads in the Point of View. The Publisher) n