How Many Local Black Businesses Do You Know of? Discover More at the MKE Black App
Are you Black, a business owner and live in Milwaukee? If so, then you may be interested in adding your business to the MKE Black app. With already over 200 Black businesses in their portal, co-founders Paul Wellington and Rick Banks are on the hunt for more businesses to add.
The purpose of the app is to highlight Milwaukee’s Black businesses and both men have been enjoying the process of finding new Black-owned businesses around the city. The app had its launch party earlier this year for the Google Play version, while the IOS version is still in the works.
MKE Black was founded in 2019 because Wellington and Banks wanted to increase the exposure Milwaukee’s Black businesses receive. The app showcases all types of Black businesses from brick and mortar to e-commerce and more.
Paul Wellington (L) and Rick Banks (R) with Andrea Wiliams’ TV show “Our Issues”. (Picture take from Facebook)
“We want to give visibility to Black businesses,” said Wellington. “Milwaukee is not just downtown.”
According to Banks, they’re in an interesting phase where they’re looking for ways to help local businesses, during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said they’re trying to figure out “how to be the best support to the community.”
Wellington started a Go Fund Me on March 23, 2020 with a goal of raising $1,000 that will be distributed through MKE Black. So far, $250 has been donated.
Banks likes knowing the fact that there was a want for an app like MKE Black.
“So many other people had this idea also,” he said.
Both men said they’ve been able to learn about a variety of Black businesses while on their search to add them to their portal. Although the app is out, there are features that they would like to add, such as the ability to search for businesses. Users can scroll up and down the list of businesses, but there’s no option to directly search for one. Eventually, they hope to add delivery and curb-side services to the app, along with an option to rate each business.
The MKE Black app also features the business’s phone number and website, and there are advertisement opportunities available.
Outside of the app, Banks works for BLOC (Black Leaders Organizing for Communities) as a political director, and Wellington is a librarian and author of Black Built: History and Architecture in the Black Community.
For more information on MKE Black, click here.