OVERVIEW OF THE BLACK MARKET PROJECT PLAN

The Black Market Project has several phases which include Milestones in order to assess the progress of the overall plan

PHASE ONE: CREATE ONLINE BLACK-OWNED BUSINESS DIRECTORY

This phase will utilize the power of crowdsourcing in order to create a comprehensive directory of black-owned businesses throughout the United States of America. Submissions to our black-owned business directory will be verified by the staff of Afro-Pick.com.

Phase One Milestones:

Create online form to solicit submissions to black-owned business directory.
Add one Black-Owned Business from every state to the directory.
Verify that each business is black-owned.
Add all black-owned business for an entire state to directory.
Verify that each business added to drectory from that state is black-owned.
Add all black-owned businesses for remaining states to directory.
Verify that all businesses added to directory are black-owned.
Make directory web-accessible and searchable.
Begin Phase Two

PHASE TWO: ADD REVIEW CAPABILITY TO DIRECTORY

This phase is about making it possible to not only see which businesses in an area are black-owned but also to rate, comment and provide user-generated reviews of the black-owned businesses on the directory.

Phase Two Milestones:

Create means to submit review/cooment/ratings for each business in directory.
Create Afro-Pick Annual Certification Standard for black-owned businesses with X amount of positive reviews.
Certify at least one black-owned business in each state using Afro-Pick Annual Certification Standard.

Begin Phase Three

PHASE THREE: CREATE INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORY OF SUPPLIERS, MANUFACTURERS AND DISTRIBUTORS IN THE AFRICAN DIASPORA.

This phase concentrates on expanding the scope of the directory by adding an international component which focuses on providing a listing of suppliers, manufacturers and distributors in those countries whose populations are primarly considered to be a part of the African Diaspora.

Phase Three Milestones:

Add supplier, manufacturer or distributor from an African country to directory.
Add supplier, manufacturer or distributor from an Afro-Caribbean country to directory.

Create complete listing of suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors from countries in the African diaspora.

PHASE FOUR: CREATE ONLINE MARKETPLACE WEBSITE

This phase would be the culmination of all previous phases. The goal being to connect black-owned businesses, suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors through one simple interface modeled on Amazon.

Phase Four Milestones:

Secure Domain name of spin-off website.
Contact all businesses on directory that are suitable for participating in an online marketplace.
Create website.

SUMMARY:

The Black Market Project is meant to first make it easier to keep black dollars within the black community by providing knowledge of and quality assurance for black-owned businesses in the United States of America. Secondly the goal of the project is to foster economic ties between all members of the African diaspora internationally by increasing knowledge, utilization and trade of goods and services at a competitive level between members of the African diaspora.