SPREAD THE WORD: 10,000 Fathers Wanted To Tackle Early Childhood Literacy- Dropout Rates

By: Dr. Alvin S. Perry & Robert Johnson

He is in the 8^th grade and cannot read at the expected proficiency level. He is like 87% of his peers. He is a Black male—but not from a third world county. He lives in the United States of America!

1. Recognizing the Problem

The number of Black children with single females as the head of the household is 72%. The website www.BlackMaleAchievement.org reports that only 17.7% of Black males are reading at or above proficiency levels by the time they reach 4^th grade. The numbers do not get any better by the time Black males reach the 8^th grade. At this point, 12% of Black males are reading at proficiency levels, marking a decline from the fourth grade. The 2010 Schott Foundation 50 State Report found that only 47% of African-American males graduate from high school. Black men age 16 and older account for 5.4% of the civilian labor force but 10.4% of the unemployed. Black males were 40% of the male inmates held in state or federal prisons or local jails, as of June 2009.

We see from this information that single Black females are having children whom they are left to raise by themselves. In 72% of these households, no father is present, leaving the mothers to operate without the proper support. Black males suffer from a lack of positive Black male role models in the house from the very beginning. This pattern starts a pipeline from birth to illiteracy, leading to dropping out of high school, high unemployment, and incarceration.

2. Providing the Solution

Current approaches to this problem have been fragmented and have not developed a scalable model or system. The data shows that, in many ways, having fathers in the lives of children greatly increases the likelihood of improving the social problems plaguing us today. Research has noted several positive outcomes when a father is present in his children’s life, such as better socio-emotional and academic functioning, fewer emotional and behavioral problems, higher educational outcomes, and lower rates of poverty, infant mortality, incarceration, delinquency, teen pregnancy, obesity, and drug and alcohol abuse.

Fathers in Education (FIE), www.FathersInEducation.org, seeks to involve 10,000 fathers in their children’s education. Initially, the organization aims to get fathers involved in increasing the number of Black male children reading proficiently by the time they reach 3^rd grade. The hope of the organization is that these fathers will stay engaged in their children’s educational attainment through high school and beyond.

I Failed My Way To Success

By: Dr. Alvin S. Perry

The initial investment was $50,000 of my own money and an additional $600,000 of Angel Investor money. The new venture failed and personal bankruptcy and foreclosure came along with it.

1. Recognizing the opportunity

Keep your eyes open because opportunity is all around you. The goal was to become a better golfer.  There were many days of struggle with my golf game and God provided me with a vision that would solve the problem of keeping my feet from moving in the wrong direction during my golf swing. Research was conducted and there were no products on the market that could provide an adequate solution. It was clear to me at that point that there was an opportunity to design a new golf training aid. The vision in my mind was to build a product that was inexpensive to manufacture, portable, and easy to use. It was also apparent as the process began, that I was no engineer and this was not going to be an easy task.

2. Building the solution

My mother-in-law was my initial manufacturer because she knew how to sew. This provided me with a conceptual model, a prototype, to work with. From here I got a member of my church to develop drawings that I could use for presenting to a manufacturer and for use when filing for a patent. A manufacturer in China was sourced to help with finishing the product development, and once the final design was completed, a patent was filed. There was excitement as the new product was shown to GolfTec, the largest golf training company in the United States. This is the place where I was taking golf lessons. The VP of Training viewed the product and advised that he thought there was something there. His first thought was to tell me to combine my product with something else that was already on the market. I was hearing him however, I was not listening to him. The advice given was to make some adjustments and invent something that did not exist in the golf industry. It took another day for what he was saying to register, but after that the adjustments were made and a new golf training aid was designed. A new patent was filed within 5 days of the GolfTec meeting. The new product was manufactured, http://youtu.be/HWqy7FqjZA0, in China and delivered to the GolfTec VP. He replied that the upgrade was great and I was going to be a Millionaire!

3. Pursuit of happiness

If a credible source told you that becoming a millionaire was in your grasp, I think you would pay attention too.  The process of building the empire began with finding an expert that the market would believe. The first hire was a 20-year PGA Teaching professional out of north GA. The two of us approached and were turned down by so many Angel Investors, that the average person would have quit. However, our first investor wrote the company a check for $50,000 from his checkbook. You could imagine the excitement after that meeting. In addition to seeking funding, the systems and processes needed to run the business were being built. We hired nationally recognized golf celebrities (Rick Smith & Brandel Chamblee), an international shipping company, a fulfillment center, a call center, a website developer, a commercial production company, a retail packaging company, and a marketing company. This outsourcing model was utilized to keep costs down. Because this business building approach was chosen, there was no need to hire additional employees. Two people could operate the entire company. Well, we were able to raise a total of $600,000 of the $1.5 million goal. Although we were well short of our goal, we launched the company, Quiet Feet, Inc. Golfsmith, a major golf retailer, placed the product in the company catalog and three of their stores; GolfTec placed the product in a couple of training facilities; GSI Commerce placed the product on the company website; The Herrington Catalog Company placed the product in the company catalog; and the PGA Superstore placed the product in two of their stores. Several PGA Teaching Professionals purchased the product as well. The vision was clear and the million dollars was in site.

4. The crash and burn

It is an awful feeling to watch your dreams go up in smoke. No additional money was raised; therefore, we could not run enough television commercials to drive demand. However, a very small amount of product did sell off of the retail shelves, websites, and catalogs. The major goal was to become an infomercial product and that never happened. The money that was raised ran out quickly and before you knew it the company and I were broke. The bill collectors started calling at 8AM and did not stop until around 9PM, seven days a week. This continued for about 6 months and as you can imagine was mentally stressful for my wife and me. I must say my wife never wavered from my side as everything around her was falling apart. Bankruptcy became an option that worked out so well that I tried it 4 times. Ultimately, foreclosure was the only solution and the $500,000 home with $175,000 in equity was gone, along with many of our possessions that we sold at several garage sales.

5. The lessons learned

It is tough finding something positive in what on the surface appears to be a disaster. However, I took a few very important lessons away from this experience.

1.      Developed a clear understanding of how to raise money, $600,000

2.      Learned how to complete the Patent process, #7156747

3.      Learned how to take a product from conception to the retail shelf

4.      Learned to focus on creating the right value proposition and the resources will come

5.      Don’t be afraid to go for it, because you only have one life to live

6.      Having a support system is more valuable than you realize

7.      Developing the right relationships means all the world to you and your project, and in many cases they are better than having money in your pocket

8.      Failure will not kill you, the experience may grow you well beyond your imagination

9.      Things come and go however, the knowledge gained from the experience stays with you a lifetime

10.  You have much more substance than Corporate America will lead you to believe

     The process of pursuing and receiving a patent and taking that invention to retail required skills and talents that I did not know I had. You too are more skilled and knowledgeable than you believe you are. Remember the one thing that beats a fail, is a try. My life’s greatest failure and success occurred both at the very same time.

5 Tips To Turning Your Passion Into A Profitable Business You Will Love

By: Dr. Alvin S. Perry

The initial investment was $250 and within the first year, over $25,000 in sales were generated.Passion for bowties drove the new business venture. 

1. Listen to the market

It is so important to listen to what people in the market are saying. This entire venture started from the passion that was developed for bowties in 2008. The day I wore my first bowtie an old gentle paid me a compliment on how well the bowtie looked on me. This began the validation process that was needed to make a style change. The more bowties were worn, the more the complements were received. What was noticed most, was that compliments were received from men and women and it did not matter the age or race, the compliments kept coming. The complements provided the validation needed to move forward with a new bowtie venture. The market was feeding my passion and selling bowties seemed like a good idea.

2. Pursue your passion

Passion was driving the need to develop a premium bowtie collection that could be worn and sold. However; paying a premium price for the bowties was not an option. The bowties that were currently being worn were discounted department store brands selling for no more than ten dollars per bowtie. There was a huge desire to wear and sell bowties that would retail for $75 dollars or more. As an entrepreneur, it was realized that to accomplish my goal, there would need to be a cheaper and faster way to build a bowtie portfolio. There has been much knowledge and experience gained building new business ventures.  So the process of developing a bowtie line with the main goal of creating a personal portfolio of bowties that would be at a premium level was started. The second goal was to sell enough bowties so that a small monthly car note could be made. A manufacturer in China was sourced to make the P5 bowties. This manufacturer provided over 600 patterns to choose from. My daughter, who was about 12 years old at the time, agreed to pick out the patterns that she liked. We then ordered 20 sample bowties and this was the start of P5Neckwear.com. The “P” stands for Perry and the “5” represents the five members of my family, which are my wife, the three kids, and me.

3. Build your business

Now it was time to Construct the systems and processes. The next thing we needed to do was to take pictures of the 20 bowtie samples. We needed to do this so that we could develop all of our marketing materials which included a website, business cards, and eBrochures. A friend was asked, who had a good camera, to take the pictures and we used the office space that was being rented as the location for the photo shoot. The idea was to keep cost way down during the business building process. Once we had the photos, the graphics team in India was able to receive copies of the pictures via email and the development process of the website and other marketing collateral began. It did not take more than a week to get the marketing items completed. At this point we had sourced manufacturing, international transportation, developed marketing collateral, and the delivery system for providing customers the product. All this represented the supply chain.

4. Count your cash

Now that the supply chain was setup, P5 bowties were ready to be sold. The first seven bowties were sold for $100 each to guys that were in my network who loved bowties. Now P5 had $700, which represented the initial $250 investment and $450 profit.  The brand was already in the black, made a profit, with the project and it did not take more than 30 days. This was the validation needed that pursuing a bowtie business was the right decision. Within the first six months P5 was able to secure a University as a client. We were able to custom design four bowties and sell the University $14,000 worth of product. In addition, three events were attended where P5 was able to set up a vending table and make sales. Bowties are always kept on hand for what is call hand-to-hand combat. This means bowties were sold out of the back of the car or anywhere a sales opportunity presented its self. By the time 12 months had passed, P5 Neckwear had generated over $25,000 in sales.

5. Review lessons learned

The key lessons that have been learned from this entire process are that it does not take much money to start a profitable business, having a foundational understanding of business systems and processes are very important, and it is much easier to follow your passion when seeking to start a business. There have been many entrepreneurial projects pursued over the years without following a standard approach. By not having a good system and process in place, working hard versus working smart seemed to be the plan and the results were not always what had been expected. This particular project provided me with an opportunity to follow the entrepreneurship principles that were developed and written about in TheCircusAct.com. This book represents a view of entrepreneurship from the most elementary perspective and most important, it will allow you to follow a system and process for success.