(BBR) On Sunday, the LSU women's basketball team made history by advancing to the NCAA championship game for the first time since 2008. The Lady Tigers' hard work and determination have paid off, and they are now just one win away from claiming their second national title.
LSU's journey to the championship game has been nothing short of impressive. The team entered the tournament as a seventh seed and faced tough opponents in the early rounds, including third-seeded Arizona and second-seeded Baylor. Despite being the underdog in both matchups, the Lady Tigers never backed down and earned hard-fought victories to advance to the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, respectively.
In the Elite Eight, LSU faced a familiar foe in top-seeded UConn, a team they had lost to earlier in the season. But the Lady Tigers were determined to avenge that loss and put on a dominant performance, defeating the Huskies 69-61 to advance to the Final Four.
In the Final Four, LSU faced another tough opponent in fourth-seeded South Carolina, the defending national champions. But once again, the Lady Tigers rose to the occasion and pulled off a thrilling 66-59 victory to secure their spot in the championship game.
The key to LSU's success has been their balanced and unselfish play. Throughout the tournament, multiple players have stepped up and made crucial contributions. In the Elite Eight, it was sophomore guard Khayla Pointer who led the way with 19 points, while senior forward Awa Trasi stepped up with a career-high 15 points in the Final Four matchup against South Carolina.
The Lady Tigers will face a formidable opponent in the championship game in top-seeded Stanford, who are also vying for their second national title. But LSU has proven throughout the tournament that they are capable of beating anyone, and they will undoubtedly give it their all on Sunday.
Regardless of the outcome, the LSU women's basketball team has already made their mark in the NCAA tournament and has shown the world what they are capable of. Their grit, determination, and teamwork have been inspiring to watch, and they have made their fans proud. Now, all eyes will be on the Lady Tigers as they look to claim the ultimate prize and bring another national championship back to Baton Rouge.
Baltimore (BBR) - If you own or manage a business, chances are you don’t have all the answers. There are too many variables to be able to consider all of them on your own, and even if you did, there would never be enough time in the day to do it all yourself.
That’s why hiring business consultants can be such an effective strategy!
Here are 5 benefits of hiring a business consultant that can help you make an informed decision about whether or not it’s the right choice for your company.
1) Expertise
The first benefit to hiring a business consultant is that they bring years and years of experience in your industry, which can prove invaluable. Inexperienced entrepreneurs might make avoidable mistakes when first starting out because they aren’t aware of how things really work.
An outside perspective can provide an objective look at your business, making it easier to see where you might be lacking and how to fill those gaps.
2) Communication & Strategic Planning
You might be surprised that many small businesses don’t have great communication or work well together. So not only does hiring a business consultant to ensure you have someone who can unify your team and help them communicate more effectively, but it also provides you with strategic planning.
A good consultant will review your operations to make sure you’re using your time wisely, optimizing internal resources, and creating an efficient workflow from start to finish.
3) Professionalism
If you’re just starting a business, knowing how to handle day-to-day tasks can be intimidating. Working with a consultant gives you immediate access to support, such as help securing office space and organizing your first few meetings.
By working with experienced professionals from day one, you’ll gain confidence that will pay off in spades down the road.
A business consultant can help organize tasks, establish efficient processes and optimize workflow. They can also motivate employees, as well as assist with administrative work. All of these factors lead to greater productivity and employee morale in your company.
5) Cost-Effective
A consultant’s fee is usually based on what you want to accomplish, not how many hours they work. As a result, a business consultant can save thousands of dollars by helping you streamline your business, manage projects more effectively and grow your bottom line.
This can mean paying a higher fee for more sessions or paying less for fewer sessions—you decide what works best for your business.
Conclusion
A business consultant is an impartial third party who can offer insight into your company and how to improve it. A consultant has no personal stake in your company and thus won’t be affected by the decisions you make. This allows them to provide objective advice to help your company grow and succeed.
Business consultants can help you make sense of everything from strategic planning to marketing advice, freeing up your time to focus on what matters to you and your company.
Many of today’s most influential business founders are of African American heritage. In observance of Black History Month, Entrepreneur is celebrating the drive, accomplishments and contributions of all trailblazing, record-breaking black entrepreneurs.
They’re men and women who have built empires across industries, inspired millions and supported the next generation of black founders striving to make it big.
Click through the slideshow to reflect on the work and achievements of some of the nation’s most successful and celebrated African American entrepreneurs.
Winfrey was famously fired early in her career from a television news anchor job at Baltimore’s WJZ-TV. Her boss labeled her “unfit for television news.”
However, she persevered and proved this characterization wrong. She went on to host and produce her own talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and become the chairman and CEO of Harpo, Inc. She later launched a magazine, O, and TV network, OWN.
Today, Winfrey splits time as a philanthropist, 60 Minutes contributor, actor (with a leading role in the upcoming film A Wrinkle in Time) and brand ambassador for Weight Watchers -- she owns a 10 percent stake in the weight loss company.
Her net worth as of Feb. 15, 2018, is $2.8 billion, according to Forbes, making her the richest black American.
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Daymond John
Multi-millionaire marketing mogul and ABC Shark Tank investor can also teach up-and-coming entrepreneurs something about perseverance. He launched his clothing line, Fubu, in 1989, and over the next few years, he had to close the business three times as he learned the ropes of entrepreneurship. He also worked at Red Lobster during Fubu’s first six years.
Fubu reportedly was not John’s initial venture. He sold customized pencils to peers in his first grade class. It was in his late teens that he came up with the idea to start an apparel company, and his mom taught him how to sew and eventually mortgaged her home a second time to support the venture.
In addition to being a prominent investor and the CEO of Fubu, John is also the founder and CEO of Blueprint + Co., a coworking space in Midtown Manhattan, as well as The Shark Group, a brand management consultancy.
Various sources estimate that John has a net worth of $250 million.
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Michael Jordan
The legendary basketball player who formerly played for the Chicago Bulls is a brand in and of himself. As a teenager, coaches rejected Jordan from teams for being too short, despite his persistent interest in the sport. He went on to play 15 seasons in the NBA.
Today, Nike’s Air Jordan line, or Jordan brand, named after the star athlete, is a billion-dollar business known for its coveted sneakers. Jordan has also earned several brand partnership and endorsement deals throughout his career, serving as a spokesperson Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, Gatorade, McDonald’s and more. Additionally, he’s the majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets basketball team and a minority owner of the Miami Marlins baseball team.
In December 2017, the NBA Hall of Fame member became the world’s highest-paid athlete to date by Forbes. As of Feb. 15, 2018, Forbes reports that Jordan has a net worth of $1.65 billion.
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Robert L. Johnson & Sheila Johnson
Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, or the BET network, shares the title of America’s first black billionaire with his ex-wife, Sheila. The former couple became billionaires when they sold BET to Viacom for $2.9 billion in 2001. Nine years earlier, BET went public and was the first African-American-owned company to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
Since then, Robert and Sheila have achieved various other entrepreneurial milestones. In 2003, Johnson became the first African-American to be the majority owner of a professional sports team, the Charlotte Bobcats NBA basketball team. Meanwhile, Sheila was the African-American woman to be a part owner of three professional sports teams -- the Mystics (WNBA), the Wizards (NBA) and the Capitals (NHL).
Robert has also founded an investment firm, a digital content distributor and an on-demand video streaming subscription service, and Sheila has launched and led a resort chain, a film festival and a venture capital firm.
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Janice Bryant Howroyd
The founder and CEO Act 1 Group, an employment agency and consultancy, is the first African-American woman to operate a company that brings in upwards of $1 billion in annual revenue.
She moved to Los Angeles from her hometown of Tarboro, N.C., in 1976 with just $900 to her name, according to The Los Angeles Times. Two years later, she founded Act 1 despite not even owning a fax machine -- just a phone. She grew the company through word of mouth, and by adding new types of services based on client needs.
In an interview with CNBC, Howroyd said, “being the first African American woman to achieve anything in 2016 is not an accomplishment. … While I accept that applause with all the gratitude I can muster, the best thing I can be applauded for is simply being a woman building a great business.”
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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Diddy (also known as Puff Daddy or P. Diddy) is known for his Grammy-award-winning album No Way Out, but entrepreneurship preceded his recording fame.
After working his way up to an executive role at Uptown Records, he later launched his own record label, Bad Boy Entertainment, in 1993, and signed major acts such as Notorious B.I.G.
Combs founded apparel line Sean John in 1998, and in 2004, it won the Council of Fashion Designers of America award for Menswear Designer of the Year. In 2014, he launched Revolt, a cable music network. He’s also owned restaurants and appeared in films throughout his career, and he owns half of Ciroc vodka, for which DJ Khaled is a brand partner and spokesman.
Forbes labeled Diddy the richest person in hip-hop in 2017, with an estimated net worth of $820 million.
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Jay-Z and Beyonce
Rapper Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) has founded and run a number of companies, his first being (the now defunct) Roc-A-Fella Records in 1995. He also co-created the urban apparel line Rocawear, the 40/40 club chain of restaurants and later, after serving as the head of Def Jam Records, the Roc Nation label. He’s also the founder of Tidal, a music streaming service, which he co-owns with his wife, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter.
"I'm not a businessman / I'm a business, man," Jay-Z raps on Kanye West’s “Diamonds of Sierra Leone (Remix).” Just behind Diddy, Jay-Z has a net worth of approximately $810 million, according to Forbes.
Beyoncé, in addition to being a multi-platinum recording artist, performer and Tidal co-owner, has had a range of lucrative product endorsements throughout her career. In 2005, she founded a fashion line, House of Deréon, with her mother, Tina Knowles, and in 2014, she launched athleisure line Ivy Park. In 2016, she invested in a watermelon-water company, WTRMLN WTR, and in 2017, Forbes estimated her net worth at $290 million.
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Dr. Dre
Andre Young, a.k.a. Dr. Dre, partnered with Jimmy Iovine in 2008 to release Beats by Dre headphones. The brand scored collaborations and endorsement deals with various artists, athletes and designers, expanded its product line to include earbuds, speakers and a music streaming service and was acquired by Apple for $3 billionin 2014. It’s now known as Beats Electronics, and Beats Music morphed into Apple Music. At the time of the Apple deal, Dre reportedly surpassed Diddy to become the richest person in hip-hop.
Prior to that, Dre began his musical career as a member of N.W.A. and performed solo as well. He co-created Death Row Records, which put out albums including Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle and 2Pac's All Eyez On Me, then founded Aftermath and partnered with Iovine on Interscope Records, which signed Eminem. Interscope became part of Universal Music, and people dubbed Universal “the house that Dre built” because of the value and talent Interscope brought to the business.
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Madam C.J. Walker
Born Sarah Breedlove, Madam C.J. Walker (1867–1919) became one of the first American women to become a millionaire when she formed a business around a product she made for African-American hair care. The invention was based on a personal need: Walker suffered from hair loss due to a scalp condition.
With her husband, she traveled around the country promoting her products through a series of lectures and demos of what they called the “Walker Method” of hair care. (The couple later divorced.)
As the business grew, she expanded into cosmetics and cosmetology with the establishment of Madam C.J. Walker Laboratories. The beauticians trained there, called "Walker Agents," became well known throughout the black communities of the United States.
Toward the end of her life, Walker also traveled around the Caribbean and Latin America promoting her business and donated part of her wealth to charitable initiatives.
Martin Rose | Bongarts | Getty Images
George Foreman
Former professional boxer George Foreman earned the title of oldest heavyweight champion of the world in 1994 at age 45.
He went on to help train his son, George “Monk” Foreman III, as a boxer, and when Monk established a gym brand, Everybody Fights, Foreman Sr. invested. Later, he and his son co-founded a boxing promotion company, Foreman Boys. In March 2016, Foreman founded George Foreman’s Butcher Shop.
Then, of course, there’s the George Foreman grill. Foreman has said the idea came from a hallucination he had after Muhammad Ali knocked him out during a match.
The manufacturer of the Foreman Grill, Salton, Inc., paid Foreman $137.5 million in 1999 for the rights to Foreman’s name and image. Today, estimates put his net worth at $300 million.
(BBR) New York - Eric Adams, the Mayor of New York City, is a leader with a compelling story. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, Adams spent more than two decades as a police officer, rising through the ranks to become a captain before retiring in 2006. He then entered politics, serving in the New York State Senate for eight years before being elected Brooklyn Borough President in 2013. Now, as the city's mayor, Adams brings his unique perspective and experience to one of the most challenging jobs in America.
Adams' life has been shaped by both personal and professional struggles. As a child, he witnessed his mother being beaten by his father and later suffered from dyslexia, which made school difficult. Despite these obstacles, he found his calling in law enforcement, driven by a desire to help his community and protect the vulnerable. During his time on the force, he experienced racism and corruption firsthand, and he became a vocal advocate for reform.
As mayor, Adams has promised to tackle some of the city's most pressing issues, including crime, homelessness, and economic inequality. He has proposed a number of innovative solutions, such as using vacant hotels to house the homeless and creating a new police unit to address mental health crises. He has also pledged to focus on improving education, expanding affordable housing, and investing in infrastructure.
Adams' approach to leadership is both pragmatic and visionary. He is committed to data-driven decision making, but also understands the importance of empathy and community engagement. He has a clear vision for the future of New York City, one that is inclusive, sustainable, and equitable. He has called for a "people's budget" that prioritizes the needs of working-class New Yorkers, and he has pledged to create a more transparent and accountable government.
Throughout his career, Adams has been a champion for social justice and equality. He has spoken out against police brutality and racism, and he has been a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. He has also been a leader in the fight against food insecurity, launching a program to provide healthy meals to New Yorkers in need.
Adams' leadership is grounded in his deep connection to the people of New York City. He is a passionate advocate for the working-class families who make up the heart of the city, and he has a clear understanding of their needs and concerns. He is committed to building a more just and equitable society, and he has the experience, vision, and determination to make it happen.
In a time of great uncertainty and division, Eric Adams represents a beacon of hope for New York City. His leadership is bold, compassionate, and effective, and he has the ability to bring people together to solve even the most complex problems. As the city emerges from the challenges of the past year, there is no one better suited to lead it into a brighter future.
The Figgers Neptune is the only smart phone produced by a Black-owned telecommunications firm
Nationwide — Freddie Figgers, CEO and founder of Figgers Communications, owns the first and only Black-owned telecommunications firm competing head-on with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. He is also now the only firm that is giving away his 4G smartphones for free when customers subscribe to a plan.
His newest smart phone model, called the Figgers Neptune, is comparable to Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy. It runs the Android operating system on a 4G network, features an HD responsive touch screen, a removable battery, a micro SIM.
The free smart phone offer is available in most areas across the country, and comes with several affordable plans including the Unlimited plan for $60/ month, the Economical plan for $40/ month, and the Senior plan for $15/ month. The phone also has a Shared Family plan for $120/ month.
All of the plans include unlimited calls, texting, and data usage, and other features like voicemail, caller ID, WIFI calling, call forwarding, and 3-way calling.
In his popular Netflix series called Trigger Warning, Killer Mike strongly encouraged the Black community to support Black-owned businesses and included Figgers Communications as a business that should be embraced by cell phone users nationwide.
For more details and/or to take advantage of the free smart phone offer, visit www.Figgers.com/free
To learn more about Freddie Figgers himself, watch his story on his official web site at www.Figgersinc.com
(BBR) - On March 31, 2023, news broke that former United States President Donald Trump had been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on more than 30 counts related to business fraud. This is a significant development in the ongoing legal battles that Trump has faced since leaving office, and it could have major implications for his political future.
The charges against Trump reportedly stem from his time as a real estate developer and businessman in New York City. According to sources close to the investigation, the grand jury has been examining Trump's financial dealings for several years, and they have gathered extensive evidence of wrongdoing.
Among the charges reportedly included in the indictment are fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, and racketeering. The exact details of the charges have not been made public yet, as the indictment is still under seal, but sources say that they are based on a variety of alleged criminal activities that Trump engaged in over the course of several decades.
For Trump, this indictment represents a serious threat to his political and personal legacy. He has long portrayed himself as a successful businessman and dealmaker, and his reputation in those areas has been a key part of his appeal to his supporters. But if he is found guilty of these charges, it could undermine that image and expose him as a fraudster who used his wealth and power to enrich himself at the expense of others.
Moreover, if Trump is convicted, he could face significant legal penalties, including fines, forfeiture of assets, and potentially even imprisonment. This would be a stunning fall from grace for a man who once held the most powerful office in the world, and it could have long-term consequences for the Republican Party, which has largely aligned itself with Trump and his policies in recent years.
Of course, it's important to note that Trump is innocent until proven guilty, and he has denied any wrongdoing in relation to these charges. His lawyers have said that they will fight the indictment vigorously and that they believe the charges are politically motivated.
But regardless of the outcome of the legal proceedings, this indictment is a reminder of the legal and ethical challenges that Trump has faced throughout his career. From the Trump University scandal to the ongoing investigations into his business dealings, Trump has consistently been accused of engaging in unethical and possibly illegal behavior.
Whether or not he is ultimately found guilty of these charges, it is clear that Donald Trump's legacy is now inextricably linked to his legal troubles. And as the legal process plays out, it will be interesting to see how this indictment affects Trump's political future and his standing in the eyes of the American public.
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