Kerry Cooper, who operates two iSOLD It on eBay stores in the county and is considering opening another, says a loan from Neighborhood National Bank helped him move the business forward. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

Every once in a while Kerry Cooper encounters customers who just don’t know the value of what they have. Not too long ago, a Chula Vista man invited Cooper, who owns two iSOLD It on eBay stores, to his home to inspect a massive collection of dolls left by his deceased wife. He wanted Cooper to sell them for him on the Internet auction site.

“As we were leaving,” Cooper recalls, “the man pointed out three little scruffy looking bears. We took them and sold them for $375 apiece. Turns out they were made by the North American Bear Co. and were designed by original artists of the company.”

On another occasion, a Kearny Mesa company asked Cooper to sell nine cam machines used to make dental picks. The company figured the machines would sell for $3,000, but Cooper auctioned them on eBay for $8,700 to a Chicago firm that runs an overseas manufacturing plant. Like the Chula Vista man, the Kearny Mesa company received a tidy return.

“This is a very interesting business,” says Cooper, who launched Cooper Enterprises a year ago after putting in 10 years as a Wall Street investment broker and another 10 years in executive positions with Qualcomm Inc. and Intuit. Cooper Enterprises does business as iSOLD It on eBay, one of 800 such franchises across the country — 10 in San Diego County. Cooper runs a store in Bonita and another in Encinitas. He has 12 employees. The stores take merchandise from individuals and companies, auction it on eBay, and collect 20 percent to one-third of the sales price as commission. An item that sold for $100, says Cooper, would return $63 to $65 to the customer.

Cooper’s father, Alonzo Cooper Sr., and brother, Alonzo Cooper II, are involved in the business. He says he combined personal savings with the proceeds of a 401(k) to open his two stores and obtained a $90,000 SBA loan from Neighborhood National Bank to move the business forward. “It was a very streamlined process,” he says. “I was assigned a specialist to help me along the way (Debbie Landstedt, a bank vice president) in due diligence. It was a great exercise before I got that final check.”

Cooper says his company reached $320,000 in sales last year and projects $500,000 in sales this year. The family is considering opening another iSOLD It on eBay store in La Mesa.

Like Cooper, other black entrepreneurs looking to run their own businesses are receiving help from banks and other lending agencies in the county. “I think that we (bankers) all make a sincere effort to reach out to the African-American business community, including the larger banks such as Wells Fargo, Union Bank and Washington Mutual,” says Bob Adkins, president of Neighborhood National Bank. “But I cannot point to any one bank that is outstanding. A successful African-American business professional can bank pretty much anywhere. Neighborhood National Bank works with small business customers of all ethnicities to help them achieve their financial goals.”

Aldrica Lattimore, president and CEO of Accurate Engineering Integrated Construction Services Inc., operates the business with husband Steve Lattimore, right, and brother Rodney Thompson. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

Aldrica Lattimore, president and CEO of Accurate Engineering Integrated Construction Services Inc., launched her business in 1994 with husband Steven Lattimore and brother, Rodney Thompson, growing it to 50 employees and $4 million in sales last year from an initial outlay of $2,000. The company performs general and specialty construction work for a variety of government agencies, including the city of San Diego, the Navy and Marine Corps and the General Services Administration. Two years ago it obtained a $200,000 SBA loan from Neighborhood National Bank which, says Lattimore, “opened up a lot of business opportunities for us.” Today Accurate Engineering has two offices in San Diego, including its headquarters in Sorrento Valley, an office in Los Angeles and a fourth office that was opened in Georgia last year. Lattimore says she expects to close out 2006 with $6 million in sales.

“By all accounts we shouldn’t have survived,” says Lattimore, referring to the early years. “But I started out as a kindergarten teacher in New York, working in one of the worst school districts. It certainly toughened me up for this construction business, which can be a monster. I’ve stepped into this industry knowing there are few African-Americans, few minorities and certainly fewer women — and become successful.”

Ed Smith, president of Plaza Financial Group in La Mesa, a company he founded in 1993, says certain segments of the minority community don’t have access to the financial resources necessary for starting and running successful businesses, so they turn to companies like his or to organizations such as Acción San Diego, which provide loans and technical assistance to low-income and “credit-challenged” individuals.

Acción San Diego provides first-time loans ranging from $300 to $10,000 and subsequent loans up to $35,000. Patti Mason, president and CEO, says 15 percent of its loan clients are African-American and of those, half are women. Most of the loans approved are $5,000 or above. Most clients use the money to expand their businesses.

To give prospective loan applicants a leg up in qualifying for a loan, Acción struck a partnership with Vivian Johnson, who runs a 10-week business plan workshop under her company name, The Servant. Johnson, the CEO, says the workshops are for low-income individuals, particularly women, “who are interested in Christ-centered wealth building through business ownership.” Most of the people who take the workshop have a business in mind, says Johnson, and they walk away with an actionable business plan.

Nikki Cotton, styling a customer’s hair, opened U Deserve An Encore on University Avenue in La Mesa in 2003, fulfilling a childhood dream. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

Nikki Cotton turned to Neighborhood National Bank for an SBA loan to realize a childhood dream of running her own hair salon. She opened U Deserve An Encore on University Avenue in La Mesa in 2003 after seven years as a stylist at a National City salon. She shares her salon with seven independent stylists who rent their space from her. Cotton was born in Southeast San Diego. “I knew this is what I wanted to do since I was a little girl messing up my dolls’ heads,” she says.

Cotton is a licensed cosmetologist and a graduate of the cosmetology program at San Diego City College. Although reluctant to disclose financials of the business, Cotton, a single mom with a 13-year-old son, says sales have increased “since Day 1.” She credits Gail Walker, owner of Children of the Rainbow day care centers, with encouraging her to launch the business. “She was impressed with me after I started doing her hair and started bringing me business owner manuals and inviting me to different business seminars,” says Cotton. “She pushed me and motivated me.”

“I saw the entrepreneur in her,” says Walker. “She had a lot of positive energy for her clients. I felt she really needed her own shop.”

Terrilynnette Minor and Aurora Crane worked together for eight years as vocational rehabilitation counselors before taking a $215,000 SBA loan from Neighborhood National Bank to open Lil’ Arts Inc. in Rancho Bernardo, a cultural arts center teaching dance, drama, art and music to children 3 to 14 years of age. They opened in September of last year after leasing a 5,500-square-foot building and spending $118,000 on improvements. Their first class attracted 30 students. Enrollment grew to 70 students last month. Minor says sales for the first full year of operation will approach $90,000 and should reach $1.5 million by 2008.

Terrilynnette Minor, right, and Aurora Crane worked together for eight years as vocational rehabilitation counselors before taking a $215,000 SBA loan from Neighborhood National Bank to open Lil’ Arts Inc.

“David Harper, a broker with Colliers International, told us about Neighborhood National Bank, which lined us up with the right people at SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), who made us develop a business plan,” says Minor. “We resisted at first because we thought it was too difficult. But it forced us to sit and think about the whole concept and the money that it was going to take.” She recommends the SCORE program to other entrepreneurs. “It’s important to have a clear understanding of your business plan,” she says. “We reflect back on ours all the time. It can be a living document.” The partners — Minor is CFO and artistic director and Crane is CEO and director of creativity — plan to expand into Chula Vista and Temecula over the next two years.

“African-American branch managers are active in the community and regularly give information to black business owners seeking loans,” says Bob McNeely, head of Union Bank of California’s community development division in San Diego and a member of Neighborhood National Bank’s advisory board. He says Union Bank provided $75,000 five years ago in seed money to help establish the San Diego chapter of the National Business Development Council that supports minority-owned businesses in gaining contracts with major corporations.

Frank Robinson, head of Union Bank’s diversity lending program — which serves women and minorities — operates under a special purpose classification that gives the bank more flexibility in providing loans. “Our hope is to get more women and minorities access to capital,” says Robinson. “The program has been very successful.”