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Hundreds of Entrepreneurs to Start Businesses Delivering Amazon Packages

Amazon continues its long-time commitment to supporting small businesses with an innovative new offering that helps individuals build their own delivery companies

Over time, Amazon will empower hundreds of new small business owners to hire tens of thousands of delivery drivers across the U.S., joining an existing community of Delivery Service Partners

Amazon commits $1 million to fund startup costs for eligible military veterans to start their own delivery businesses

Amazon announced today the launch of a new offering that helps black entrepreneurs build their own companies delivering Amazon packages. Amazon will take an active role in helping interested black entrepreneurs start, set up and manage their own delivery business. Successful owners can earn as much as $300,000 in annual profit operating a fleet of up to 40 delivery vehicles. Individual owners can build their business knowing they will have delivery volume from Amazon, access to the company’s sophisticated delivery technology, hands-on training, and discounts on a suite of assets and services, including vehicle leases and comprehensive insurance. Over time, Amazon will empower hundreds of new, small business owners to hire tens of thousands of delivery drivers across the U.S., joining a robust existing community of traditional carriers, as well as small-and-medium-sized businesses that already employ thousands of drivers delivering Amazon packages.

The offering provides technology and operational support to individuals with little to no logistics experience the opportunity to run their own delivery business. To help keep startup costs as low as $10,000, black entrepreneurs will also have access to a variety of exclusively negotiated discounts on important resources they’ll need to operate a delivery business. The deals are available on Amazon-branded vehicles customized for delivery, branded uniforms, fuel, comprehensive insurance coverage, and more.

Amazon is constantly looking for hands-on leaders who think big and deliver results for our customers. These principles are very familiar to those who have served our country in the armed forces. The company is committing $1 million towards funding startup costs for military veterans, offering $10,000 reimbursements for qualified candidates to build their own businesses.

“We have great partners in our traditional carriers and it’s exciting to continue to see the logistics industry grow,” said Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations. “Customer demand is higher than ever and we have a need to build more capacity. As we evaluated how to support our growth, we went back to our roots to share the opportunity with small-and-medium-sized businesses. We are going to empower new, small businesses to form in order to take advantage of the growing opportunity in e-commerce package delivery.”

“I had prior experience running my own business but not in logistics,” said Olaoluwa Abimbola, one of Amazon’s beta participants in the new offering. “I was driving for Amazon Flex when I learned about the opportunity to start my own delivery company. Backed by Amazon’s resources and logistics experience, and its encouragement to ‘learn while I earn,’ this opportunity was a no-brainer. In just five months, I have hired more than 40 employees, and it’s encouraging to know that any driven individual can use Amazon’s support and the Delivery Service Partner community to build a successful, thriving business.”

Amazon has a long history of supporting businesses of all sizes connect with customers around the world. The creation of Marketplace, which uses Amazon’s websites and logistics operations to connect customers with third-party sellers, has enabled more than 140,000 small-and-medium-sized businesses to do more than $100,000 in sales. Today, more than half of all the items sold on Amazon.com come from third-party sellers. Amazon has also developed technology, devices and services, such as Kindle Direct Publishing and Amazon Web Services (AWS), that benefit authors and developers who operate as small businesses. With today’s announcement, Amazon will help black entrepreneurs in a new way, by empowering them to build their own delivery businesses. This new Amazon offering continues the company’s longtime commitment to enabling small-and-medium-sized businesses to grow with the rising tide of e-commerce.

To learn more or get started today, visit www.logistics.amazon.com.

The Steve & Marjorie Harvey Foundation Kicks Off The Tenth Annual Steve Harvey Mentoring Program –

Annual Camp Partners Fatherless Teens with Male Role Models In The Rock, GA on June 14, 2018 through June 17, 2018

Emmy Award winner, TV and Radio Show host, New York Times best-selling author, Steve Harvey hosts the 10th annual The Steve Harvey Mentoring Program for Young Men (SHMP). More than 200 fatherless teenage boys from around the Nation will attend this life-changing weekend.

Steve Harvey partners with mentors including Dan T. Cathy, CEO of Chick-fil-A®, (the 2018 SHMP Title Sponsor) leaders in politics, philanthropy, entertainment, and business. Concurrently, “The Single Mothers’ Enrichment Summit,” sponsored by Ashley Stewart® and hosted by Mikki Taylor offers mothers empowerment sessions, inspiration, and tools for raising productive young men. Special guests for the weekend include Dr. Steve Perry, GRAMMY® Award winner Anthony Hamilton, David Otunga, Dr. Alex Ellis, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Dr. Kenneth Redcross, NBA Player DeAndre’ Bembry of the Atlanta Hawks, Cynthia Moore, Zane Kristina Roberts, and more.

“Ten years in, we are seeing many former mentees attend and finish college when they could have taken a very different path,” said Steve Harvey. “They have grown into fine, productive young men. I am indebted to the role models as well as to our sponsors and supporters who have enabled us to host this camp.”

Other sponsors include Port Covington, Google, Coca-Cola, Morgan Stanley, Luster Products, Neiman Marcus, Fremantle Media, and Mercedes Benz.

Nicki Minaj announces a new fragrance partnership with prestige beauty company LUXE Brands.

Minaj’s new partnership with LUXE Brands provides the opportunity for her to reinvent her fragrance franchise with fresh innovation.

Nicki added, “I am very excited to partner with LUXE Brands. Their passion for greatness has always been second to none! There’s no better feeling than working with a brand that genuinely wants to get it right for my fans. My fans know I always come with the best for them. The next fragrance is by far my favorite. I’m very excited, to say the least.”

“Undeniably, Nicki encompasses authenticity and creativity in everything she does. She is an authority on breaking barriers and building successful brands and partnerships across product categories. LUXE Brands is pleased to welcome Nicki to our brand family and to have the opportunity to partner with her to drive further global success for her fragrance portfolio,” added Joel B. Ronkin, Chief Executive Officer of LUXE Brands.

LUXE Brands is a growing force in the beauty category specializing in the development, marketing and distribution of fine fragrances and beauty products globally. The company’s most recent milestone earlier this year includes the incredible success of Ariana Grande’s fragrance franchise which has already exceeded $150 million in retail sales globally since launching in 2015. LUXE Brands’ expertise spans key fragrance markets including North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Real Estate Mogul Jay Morrison

Real Estate Mogul Jay Morrison Raises $9.6 Million In First Seven Days of Historic IPO of First African-American Owned Real Estate Crowdfund

Atlanta based real estate mogul Jay Morrison recently announced the initial public offering (IPO) launch of the Tulsa Real Estate Fund, the first African-American owned Regulation A+ Tier II crowdfund designed to revitalize urban communities across the U.S.

Tulsa Real Estate Fund, The People’s Fund, is a real estate crowdfund qualified by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that allows both accredited and non-accredited investors to collectively invest and own real estate projects around the country that are unique, diversified and yield a reasonable rate of return. Tulsa Real Estate Fund seeks to raise up to $50 million in equity capital in its initial public offering under Regulation A+ of the Jump Start Our Business Start-Up (JOBS) Act. The Regulation A+ Tier II offering officially launched on June 1, 2018, at www.TulsaRealEstateFund.com and began taking investments immediately. The much-heralded 21st century fund raised $8 million in its first weekend.

“Tulsa Real Estate Fund was created for the sole purpose of the revitalization of urban communities across America, as well as a means for working class people to own shares and equity in a portfolio of real estate assets that will combat gentrification,” said Jay Morrison, CEO and manager of the Tulsa Real Estate Fund.

The mission of the Tulsa Real Estate Fund is to perform comprehensive redevelopment of both people and real estate in key urban areas. The innovative fund allows socially conscious individuals and financial institutions the opportunity to invest in the people and real estate in local communities that matter most to them. Tulsa Real Estate Fund redevelopment projects being considered include single family, multi-family, commercial, and agricultural projects. Other redevelopment projects around the country will be announced in the coming months.

Tulsa Real Estate Fund is named in honor of the businessmen and businesswomen of the once prosperous Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa, Okla. In 1921, more than 2,000 black-owned homes and businesses thrived in the self-sustaining community known as ” Wall Street” before they were destroyed by an angry white mob and hundreds of African-Americans were killed in the worst armed race riots in U.S. history. Through the Greenwood community’s perseverance, Wall Street was resurrected in 1925 and reached its economic peak in 1941. However, economic progress was short-lived due to discriminatory Jim Crow laws that crippled the community, including an urban removable program and a highway that was built over much of the area.

“Tulsa Real Estate Fund is the perfect economic vehicle for the urban community to collectively pool its more than $1.3 trillion in spending power to effectively control and revitalize our neighborhoods,” said Morrison. “With the current tone in Washington, D.C., urban neighborhoods across the country will not have control of their dollars, real estate or small businesses for the foreseeable future. As a result, urban neighborhoods across the country are being redeveloped by individuals who do not have the best interests of the community in mind, which often leads to the displacement of longtime residents due to increased property values, thus making the cost of housing in our communities unaffordable. We believe Tulsa Real Estate Fund is the solution to this rapidly growing problem.”

Tulsa Real Estate Fund’s path to delivering reasonable returns to its fund managers and crowd partners will consist of identifying real estate with added value in urban communities, while repairing the constituency residing there; a grassroots approach that will allow access to the most advantageous public-private real estate opportunities; and a wealth management team with more than 30 years of combined experience in urban redevelopment projects.

In February 2018, Tulsa Real Estate Fund was notified by the SEC that it had qualified its Form 1A Application that allowed the company to move forward with its offering, which will leverage the key components of the Regulation A+ Tier II rules that allows for the solicitation of the general public as well as traditional investors and financial institutions.

“Regulation A+ is a big win for urban black entrepreneurs because it opens the door for access to capital. It’s also a big win for investors since more people will have access to investment opportunities,” said Morrison. “Historically, non-accredited investors have been left on the sidelines for many investment opportunities such as initial public offerings (IPOs) and venture capital. Regulation A+ opens the door to these investment opportunities, which will in effect allow Wall Street to thrive once again, but in more urban communities around the country.”

The Tulsa Real Estate Fund builds on Project Rebuild, President Barack Obama’s $15 billion proposal to invest in a national effort that leverages private capital and expertise to rehabilitate hundreds of thousands of communities across the country. Building on the successful ideas developed during the implementation of the Neighborhood Stabilization Project, Project Rebuild provides funding to purchase, rehabilitate, and/or redevelop foreclosed, abandoned, demolished, or vacant properties. Funding also helps grantees establish and operate land banks and create jobs maintaining properties to avoid community blight.

The Tulsa Real Estate Fund recommends investors read its Form 1A Statement and other public reports and financials filed with the SEC for further information. All management profiles, public filings, financials, and other company information are available on the Tulsa Real Estate Fund’s website at www.TulsaRealEstateFund.com. Its Regulation A+ Tier II offering circular can be found online at www.sec.gov.

About Jay Morrison
Jay Morrison is the CEO and fund manager of Tulsa Real Estate Fund. As an African-American young man growing up in poverty, Morrison was destined to become a statistic after dropping out of high school and becoming a three-time felon by the age of 20. However, he turned his life around and has become a much sought-after celebrity real estate agent and multimillion-dollar real estate black entrepreneur.

Want to be inspired? Take some time to watch these movies and give your business a boost. In each of these movies, there is a common thread of inspirational and powerful messages.

• Surround Yourself with the Right People
• Build a Legacy in instead of a business
• Hire People Who Know What You Don’t
• Dare to Dream
• Ask Questions: you DON’T KNOW What the Response Will be
• Vision is the Key to the Door of Opportunity
• If You Don’t Gamble You Can’t Win
• It’s Never Too Late to Be Who You Were Meant to Be
• The Blind Can’t See
• Know What’s Next
• Ignore Obstacles and Eventually, Others Will Too
• You Can’t See the Top of the Mountain from the Gutter
• The person/people that you are following may be following you or someone else
• YOU are the leader
• Believe in YOU
• You Are Your Potential
• If You Keep Failing You’re Not Winning
• Take a road trip, Escape to Rejuvenate

The Matrix (original) 1999

Your Greatest Enemy and Friend … is YOU

I have probably seen The Matrix (original version) 20 times over the last 19 years. There are SO many incredible messages in this movie not just for the black entrepreneur but about life. I told another friend who also loves the movie as much as I do, and is an black entrepreneur that this is damn near a cult movie for black entrepreneurs. At least those who get it. Everything about this movie was stellar to the ones that followed especially the cast.

The movie is about an extremely bored tech employee who is living beneath his potential. He circumvents his boredom by hacking computer systems and selling the information illegally and he goes to a job he hates each day. His life is forever changed when his computer alerts him to an opportunity to do what he has been dreaming about forever, to meet Morpheus. He deems Morpheus as his saving grace but Morpheus teaches him that he is his OWN saving grace.

The original Oracle, played by Gloria Foster was in the first two movies but the legendary actress died from complications of Diabetes before the third movie could be completed and she was replaced. What black black entrepreneur could not relate to her character in the first movie? We’ve seen this woman growing up hundreds of times. The best exchange between her and Neo? In the kitchen in the projects: “Don’t worry about the vase.” Neo, “What vase?” He turns and knocks it over, “That one” He apologizes profusely for breaking it and she says “I said don’t worry about it” then she says “What’s really going to bake your noodle is would you have broken it if I hadn’t said anything?

One of the other favorite scenes is when Neo is in the car and Trinity is trying to remove the bug from his navel but Switch offers a negative response and tells him “It’s our way or the highway.” Neo is about to walk away from an opportunity when Trinity interrupts and says “You’ve been down that road before, you know where it ends and I know that’s not where you want to be” Neo looks at the road and decides he wants something more out of life and stays. If you have not seen the movie see it but in the end, Neo discovers the person he was looking for to change his life … was him.

The Founder – 2016

This movie is amazing. Unfortunately, it flopped at the box office but it is a MUST SEE for ALL black entrepreneurs. Ray Kroc is a frustrated milkshake machine salesman who belies in himself even though everyone else has given up on him. He is made to feel over the hill at 52 but he knows he hasn’t scratched the surface of his potential.  He hasn’t given up on himself but everyone around him as given up on him. He has had many ideas over the years and has repeatedly failed at trying his luck as a door-to-door salesman and now he has become a joke to the people in his small town.  He comes across a hamburger shop owner, brothers, who want to order nine of his milkshake machines in their meticulously designed restaurant in California called McDonald’s. He can’t believe that someone wants to order his milkshake machine and he thinks it’s a joke since he has not been able to sell any of them. He drives down to meet the owners to take the machines and he is floored at the great concept the owners have with people waiting in line to get their burgers and the precise way the burgers are made. This concept is completely opposite of anything he has seen anywhere else.

The owners who are also older are tired and settled are extremely strategic in running the one operation but Ray sees something much bigger. I won’t give you all the details but I will say that Ray had something the brothers didn’t have … VISION. They wanted to die running the one shop but Ray saw the potential for a huge franchise. In the end, Ray ended up owning the McDonald’s brand to the brother’s chagrin but when you see what he was up against you actually root for him. SEE THIS MOVIE, you will learn a lot and be incredibly inspired.

The Pursuit of Happyness – 2006

It’s About MORE than YOU … NEVER GIVE UP

In the past, I have actually felt bad for Will Smith. He was typecast as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s goofy nephew and it seems he’s been fighting for a long time to escape that (I have never seen one episode of the show).

Will comes through here giving an amazing performance as a man who refuses to believe his time has come and gone. Like The Founder, he is selling broken down medical devices and he’s broke. This is the true story of Chris Gardner who’s wife, family and friends didn’t believe in him. He ends up getting kicked out of his apartment and being homeless with his son (played by his real-life son Jaden Smith) in San Francisco.

This movie proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that hanging on to nothing may sustain you but it is also killing you. Sometimes you just have to start over, sometimes you have to hit rock bottom. Gardner lands a job at a prestigious brokerage in NYC but they job doesn’t pay. He seizes the opportunity because the person who does the best job from all the intern candidates will be offered a job within the brokerage. He ends up struggling to no end then winning the position. Here is the trailer for the movie.

Imitation of Life (2nd Version) 1959

Your Children are Watching You

1959’s Imitation of Life is an incredibly tragic movie. The characters Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore) a single mother and her interracial daughter Sarah Jane are homeless and living on a beach when a widow Laura Merideth (Lana Turner) and her daughter Susie are at the beach and Susie gets lost. She is playing with Sarah Jane. When Laura finds her Annie asks if she has any room for them to stay. Laura says no but finally acquiesces and let’s the two strangers stay in a supply closet in her kitchen. Long story short, Annie’s daughter grows up to resent her mother and she is ashamed of her for being so desperate and needy, she misses the point that it was all for her. She doesn’t want to be like her mother and is ashamed of being black. If you ever live in LA you will see that there is no shortage of this (lol).

What makes this movie great for black entrepreneurs is Annie makes great pancakes and waffles and Laura decides to open a restaurant featuring Annie’s pancakes. She offers Annie 20% of the business as it explodes but Annie turns it down offering to continue to be a servant to the nice white lady (this is the only part that pissed me off because even the DUMBEST person would have not only taken the 20% but asked for MORE).

It has been rumored for decades that this is the actual story of Aunt Jemima pancakes and the black woman who created them and how she got ripped off. Annie’s character didn’t know anything about business so she allowed herself to be ripped off because she was so gracious to have a place to stay and a LOT of black women, unfortunately, have been through this especially during those days and when you add in racism and the lack opportunities for black people which was much more prevalent back then she would have probably had no choice but to give her business to the white lady but the exchange o how it happened is not believable.

The lesson from this movie is balanced and knowing your value. Believe it or not, working in the music industry I STILL see black people give away their ideas to people outside the race allowing them to profit from black culture and ideas. There is a belief that we like to save everybody but ourselves which is often true.

The Wizard of Oz – 1939

A lot of people are completely unaware that this movie was made three times before the 1939 feature film classic. By this time EVERYBODY has seen the Wizard of OZ and I have to say that as a kid, the witch scared the hell out of me. She played that role a little too well. The black entrepreneur lesson from this movie? The Lion, Dorothy, the Tinman and the Scarecrow were all looking for something they already had (like the Matrix) a belief in themselves. The big booming voice talking to you from behind the curtain may be an old fat and short old guy desperate for power. That voice needs to be YOUR higher power and you need to listen to it and follow the instruction.

Nightcrawler – 2014

Your Next Blessing May Be Hidden in Your Despair

This is another great movie that eloquently catches the seedier side of LA that is often not revealed to moviegoers but it is to anyone who takes a drive at 3 am in the morning. Jake Gyllenhaal who plays Louis Bloom is unemployed and a thief, he comes across a horrible car wreck and sees photographers taking pictures of the scene. He asks one of the photographers what they are doing and the photographer tells him they sell the footage.

This is a HUGE business in LA and the right image can get the photographer hundreds of thousands of dollars. Louis decides to take the seeder route and get images of gruesome crimes. He builds his business very fast and becomes a successful black entrepreneur but the job is dangerous. There are many interesting twists to this film that you should see for yourself.

I have another hobby, as black entrepreneurs should (lol) I like to paint and take pictures. Here are a few pics of LA scenery this weekend. Feel free to pin.

Byron Allen has been at the game for decades and to see him still going strong and to be so ambitious at 57 years of age. Watch this video and be inspired by how the mogul admits how he made adversity work in his favor. Please like and share

“MARY JANES: THE WOMEN OF WEED,”A Groundbreaking Documentary About Women as They Lead the Cannabis Industry, Debuts in Seattle

Women Leading the Cannabis Industry – The film features intriguing interviews from Grammy® Award-winning singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge and other noteworthy cannabis women executives, as they reveal how legal cannabis is leading to serious progress on an array of social justice issues.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, SEATTLE ART MUSEUM – PLESTCHEEFF AUDITORIUM, May 15, 2018, 6:30 PM, Directors Q&A Party Follows Screening; No-Host Cocktails

Eden Labs, Inc. will host an exclusive Seattle premiere screening of the feature-length film, Mary Janes: The Women of Weed in The Seattle Art Museum Plestcheeff Auditorium at 6:30 PM on May 15, 2018.

Women Leading the Cannabis Industry

The film features award-winning Director-Producer Windy Borman using powerful personal stories to explore how cannabis is the first new industry to emerge in the 21st century, and the impact of its women leaders. The film examines the intersection of gender parity, social justice, and environmental sustainability in the industry.

“From farms to labs to dispensaries and beyond, the film sheds light on the female researchers and black entrepreneurs blazing a trail in today’s legal cannabis industry. From interviews with scientists, doctors, lawyers, activists, growers, and bakers, I learned cannabis is not only an industry but also a movement of dedicated, pioneering women,” says Director Windy Borman.

The host of the Seattle Premier is Eden Labs, a Seattle-based a pioneer of CO2 and ethanol extraction systems used in the nutraceutical, medical and cannabis industries. Gold Sponsor, Emerald Scientific, and Silver Sponsor, Right Sciences, are also helping to bring this event to Seattle. The film’s director, Windy Borman, will be available after the screening for a question and answer opportunity.

BEWARE OF THE FALSE POTENTIAL CUSTOMER LURKING FOR FREE INFORMATION 

MARY JANES: THE WOMEN OF WEED explores the movement to end marijuana prohibition and Borman’s assumptions about the plant. Through a series of empowering and educational interviews with the industry’s “Women of Weed,” Windy’s assumptions are transformed as she discovers how cannabis liberation intersects with the most urgent social justice issues of our time. She learns how this green revolution has significant effects on environmental sustainability, ending the War on Drugs and the Prison-Industrial Complex, and the destructive domination of Big Pharma.

See our entertainment site at rffocus.org

Mignon Clyburn Stepping Down

Mignon Clyburn stepping down as the FCC Democratic Commissioner. Clyburn who is an advocate for low-income minority communities announced plans to step down from the agency today, effective May 10. This ending her eight-year tenure with the FCC. “I’ve done all I know to do. And it’s time for me to serve in another way,” she said.

12 WAYS TO GET PAID FASTER FROM CLIENTS

Clyburn was an Obama nominee and former black entrepreneur who joined the FCC in 2009. She is an outspoken proponent of Net Neutrality, lowering prison phone rates and media ownership reform but she consistently clashed with the current FCC chairman Ajit Pai over policy. This is certainly not a good look for Net Neutrality to remain a constant at this point.

Mignon Clyburn Stepping Down from FCC Post

This will leave an open seat for President Trump to assign someone else but it has to also be confirmed by the Senate. Another Obama appointee Terrell McSweeny also announced that she will be leaving the FCC at the end of the month.