In Prince George's, Four Voices Sing Same Song

The 160-member Prince George's County Board of Trade, which bills itself as the home for the county's small businesses, was formed to help sole proprietors and farmers in the county's eastern and southern parts after World War II. And the three-year-old Prince George's Black Chamber of Commerce spends most of its resources training minority businesspeople and helping them navigate government procurement.

In many ways, these groups reflect the diversity of the county's business community: About 28 percent of all firms with payrolls in Prince George's are minority-owned, by far the largest percentage of any jurisdiction in the region. By comparison, only 18 percent of Fairfax County's business establishments are minority-owned.

The county's businesses tend to be small. Prince George's has about 14,000 businesses with more than one employee, according to the most recent U.S. Census data. About 12,000 of those have fewer than 20 employees.

Census statistics show that the overall number of Prince George's business establishments has held relatively steady in the past decade. But while the number of firms with more than 500 employees has grown by only 10 during that time, the number of firms with fewer than 20 employees has grown by more than 300 and accounts for most of the private-sector employment growth in the county.

Moone said that three years ago the chamber membership approached 1,000 under the leadership of President Wendi Williams but has declined in recent years, owing to the turnover in the chief executive's job. After Williams resigned for personal reasons in 2004, the chamber hired Kathleen M. Smith earlier this year. Smith quit four months into the job, and the chamber is conducting a search for her replacement.

In 2002, Hubert "Petey" Green and a group of 30 black executives formed the Prince George's Black Chamber. It now has about 150 members and an annual budget of just $60,000. Its mission is primarily to help small, minority entrepreneurs with education and business assistance programs.

Given the growth of minority enterprises -- 25,000 Prince George's companies, including more than 23,000 one-employee firms, are black-owned -- Green, president of the organization, said the black chamber was formed "by a need to have a voice" for black entrepreneurs.

"We have unique situations and unique barriers to overcome," he said. "There was no focus on small and minority-owned businesses at the time we started." While money is tight -- he said the group's $250 membership fee "can be a backbreaker for some small businesses" -- Green has tried to build membership by focusing heavily on service, both giving members educational tools to help them start and grow a business and encouraging businesses to volunteer at public schools.

In 2002, Estepp helped form the Greater Prince George's Business Roundtable, a group of 30 chief executives and presidents, including the heads of several prominent companies that are based in the county or do much of their business there, such as John M. Bond Jr. of Columbia Bank and car dealer Geoff Pohanka. The group's mission is to better involve business leaders in public policy issues affecting the county, such as public education and economic development.

While each group is unique, their separate missions would be undertaken by a single chamber of commerce in most counties.

"Clearly, unlike in Prince George's, we don't have anybody else at the countywide level that does all the things that we do, or even some of the things we do," said Richard N. Parsons, president of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.

Likewise with the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, which has active committees for everything from legislative issues to business relocation assistance. The Service Corps of Retired Executives, a nonprofit small-business coaching organization, has one of its three Fairfax County offices at the Fairfax County Chamber. It has just one office in Prince George's, at the county government's small-business assistance center.

Estepp defends the notion of multiple business organizations even as he acknowledges that too many could be detrimental.

"It's just like having different businesses. . . . Do we want one business to provide all our needs?" he said. "Nothing gives the chamber of commerce some inherent quality to address all of business's needs. Our members felt that their needs were not being met, but that's not a slight to any other organization."

"Each group has its own mission, and each offers something distinct to its members," Moone said. But she added that more consistent and regular collaboration among the groups would make the business community a more prominent player in community debates: "We would all be more effective, I think, if there was some way we could all pull all together."