Selling Black-Owned Businesses to White-Owned Corporations

August 14, 2023 — Jt Spratley

I'll make this short. I hope that black business owners selling their companies to larger, white-owned corporations does not become a trend. I believe that we need to keep that money in our communities. However, I do understand that many founders sell their business to a larger company to make change elsewhere.

If a Black-owned business is sold outside of the Black community, I prefer that it be publicly announced, unlike Greenwood bank allegedly did. Remove the business from any Black chamber of commerce listings. Remove "Black-owned" from all parts of the brand's online presence. And I'll find a new Black-owned business to support.

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10 HBCU-Focused Platforms to Follow

August 08, 2023 — Jt Spratley

After having the nerve to write an unofficial address to students attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), I used that momentum to consolidate a HBCU music playlist. Below are some social media platforms to keep HBCU students in the know about college news, specifically HBCU culture.

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Understand the Racist Arguments Against Reparations

June 20, 2023 — Jt Spratley

Some RallyPoint members (RP) recently praised arguments in an article titled "Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Blacks is a Bad Idea for Blacks [And racist too]." I replied to the post in detail but wanted to also write it here for a few reasons:

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4 Important Components to Making Money

July 29, 2022 — Jt Spratley

COVID-19 reminded us how important it is to have savings. Companies are laying off employees to downsize. Many 9-to-5 workers are doing side-hustles to pull in extra income. Some have found ways to lower expenses such as biking instead of driving or moving to a smaller home. It feels like the United States is being tested on concepts covered in the Essentialism book. Great book, by the way.

Even with the recession and increased cost of living country-wide, some people are still neglecting the basics of money management. With issues like single mothers and crime increasing more, especially within the Black community, you have to check yourself and reflect on your financial choices. I'm no professional in personal or professional finances. I'm not going to talk about stocks, bonds, or anything of the sort. Everything I say below, you can work on now.

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Easy Credit Report Repair Steps

June 06, 2020 — Jt Spratley

First published on August 16, 2015

This will be quick for now. Nolo for more. Check your credit reports from Experian, Equifax, and Transunion annually on AnnualCreditReport for free and no penalty to your credit score.

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4 Reasons to Use Microsoft Bing Search Engine

June 03, 2020 — Jt Spratley

First published on December 1, 2016

I no longer recommend Bing for anything. I recommend DuckDuckGo, Swisscows, and searching within websites you trust.

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5 Reasons to Try Project Wonderful

May 24, 2020 — Jt Spratley

First published on November 14, 2016

As stated in Music Production Lessons in 2018, Project Wonderful shut down in 2018. There are alternatives listed on SaaSHub.com. Please contact me if you find a good alternative.

I found Project Wonderful while reading the Questionable Content web-comic a few months ago. Once I learned a few valuable lessons from using Google Ads, I wanted to find something better. I had Project Wonderful ads to use in three short steps:

  1. Create a profile with what your website is about
  2. Make a few ad “boxes” with specified size options and tags you want to apply to individual boxes
  3. Copy and paste the HTML code into the site

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