CHAPTER IV

Some Sample Enterprises

In the first chapters on Negro business enterprises, the
several classes of establishments were described in order to
present a picture of business among Negroes as a whole.
A more concrete idea of the organization and operation of
these enterprises, as well as of the proprietors who own and
operate them, may be gained from detailed descriptions of
selected establishments of each kind. These have been
chosen as representing a fair type of the classes to which
they belong. On some points there may be wide variations,
but each class as a whole is fairly represented by those de¬
tailed.

I.   INDIVIDUALS  AND   PARTNERSHIPS

Establishment No. i was a barber shop started in 1898,
and moved once to the present address eleven years before.
The proprietor was born in Savannah, Georgia, had re¬
sided in New York City for about twenty years, and was a
journeyman barber before starting his own shop. He em¬
ployed four barbers besides himself, paying each barber
between forty and fifty per cent of his receipts. This shop
was about 12 feet by 40 feet, and the rental was $30.00
per month. The estimated value of his tools and fixtures
was about $700.00, and the estimated gross receipts of his
business were $3,500.00 in 1907 and $4,000.00 in 1908. The
proprietor kept a cash-book which he balanced once a week.
He started his enterprise with one chair, bought with sav¬
ings from his earnings as a barber. He did a strictly cash
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