By Jibril Sulaiman, president of Pay Cell Systems
Hello my name is Jibril Sulaiman. I’m the 33 year old President of a local technology company, Pay Cell Systems and I’ve been an entrepreneur in Pensacola since the age of 20. Over the years I’ve gained a level of notoriety in the community as being one of the most well know entrepreneurs in this City. I’ve always tried to work hard and excel at what I do. While in many instances I’ve learned the hard lessons of running a company, I can say that without those experiences I would not be here writing this editorial today. Presently, I’ve been working hard as an advocate economic and workforce development for Pensacola and Escambia County. Because of this I joined the Chamber of Commerce. I love it, I’ve had the opportunity to network with other business leaders, meet the former UN Economics Ambassador and participate in many key discussions. But as of lately I’ve see a barrage of social media activity from another chamber called, The Gulf Coast African American Chamber of Commerce. Because I am so passionate about business and seeing Pensacola grow I had to ask myself the question, why in the hell does Pensacola need two Chambers of Commerce and why do we need one specifically for Minorities?
Before I address that, I would like to give you a little of my back story. I started out at the T&W Fleamarket repairing cell phones and selling cell phone related accessories. I opened my first wireless store, In-Style Wireless, in 2001. I rebranded the store as the “Cell Phone Place” in 2007 and by 2009 the store was generating over a million dollars per year in sales. I opened additional 3 stores in 3 cities across the south. I’ve always been a problem solver and as the store’s owner I identified a problem with collecting and processing the payments of our prepaid wireless customers. Well, I created a technological solution to that problem and in 2011 I turned that solution into its own company named, Pay Cell Systems. Today Pay Cell provides the platform, originally created for my wireless stores, to other wireless stores across the country. In June of 2012, I applied to join the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) an “Incubator” program for technology companies in the local area. The program is a joint effort between Pensacola State College and the Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce.
So now that I’ve caught everyone up, now back to the matter of “WHY IN THE HELL?” Well first of all, the “Chamber” I alluded to being part of in my introduction is not the same chamber you may be thinking of. It’s Gulf Coast African American Chamber of Commerce. If you noticed in my back story, my company is part of a program that is jointly sponsored by the Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce. That should have been my opportunity to join a chamber right? Wrong, I didn’t in 2012! Although I was the only African American operating a tech company in the CIE and only 1 of 2 African American tech companies in Pensacola and although Pay Cell had just crossed the $1 million dollar sales mark by the end of 2012, no one presented me with the idea or benefits of joining the Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce. That’s not to say I wasn’t on their email list, I’ve been getting correspondences and emails from the GPCC for some time. But no one ever said, “Hey Jibril, have you ever thought about joining the Chamber” or “Hey Jibril, are you aware of some of the great benefits being a member of the Chamber provides?”
From 2012 to 2014, including the many years before that, I continued remain to clueless of the networking opportunities, workshops, connection building, relationship building and overall fulfilment being a member of the a Chamber of Commerce would bring me. That’s until I met the current Executive Director of Gulf Coast African American Chamber of Commerce. Nicole Dixon asked me to come aboard and to contribute; that’s what I’ve been doing since March of 2014. We’ve worked tirelessly to rebuild the organization and establish it as a tool for creating economic development in the area for Minorities. Believe it or not, joining the GCAACC even sold me on why I should join the GPCC!
Don’t get me wrong there are some great people over at the GPCC. But as I reflect over the last few years I have to realize as much success as I’ve had, they were simply not targeting me as a member. I slipped through the cracks. In the business world that occurs when a company’s marketing strategy is not fine tuned. Some companies, by choice, only operate on a macro level of marketing and because of that, tend to only target and serve the largest customer base. After attending many of the GPCC’s events, I can see the results of such a strategy as often times I am the only Black person (not to mention Minority) in the room. Smart companies understand this concept and outsource their services to smaller companies that serve the “niche” market, a market the larger company may not necessarily be able to reach. Because my expertise is in wireless, I’ll provide you with this example. We all know of At&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. Well each one of these companies understand the aforementioned strategy of outsourcing to a niche oriented company. Therefore, Sprint has Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile to reach a certain demographic. T-Mobile has Simple Mobile, Verizon has Page Plus and At&t has “Net10, H2O Wireless and Red Pocket Mobile.” These companies appease a certain demographic by providing a service that the larger company would not normally be able to provide.
The Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce is not a “for profit” organization neither is the Gulf Coast African American Chamber of Commerce however the same corporate marketing strategies apply. And since the City of Pensacola and Escambia County funds these organizations it is beneficial to the area’s overall economic development to reach the entire market through this two organization approach, simply because it’s done the same way in the corporate world. In order for this to happen effectively each organization MUST be funded in proportion to their target market. To do otherwise would create an intra-organizational disparity similar to the disparity that exists in today’s business and workforce environments.
I hope I’ve been able to adequately answer the question of, “why in the hell does Pensacola need two Chambers of Commerce?” As a board member of the GCAACC I can attest to the fact that there is a lot on rebuilding to do for our organization and plenty of work to be done. We are working with the GPCC on a long lasting partnership that will benefit everyone for many years to come. I look forward to hearing the readers’ comments, ideas and strategies on how we can forge new paths in making Pensacola safe and prosperous place for everyone to live.