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Title:
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Publisher/CEO of Xpression Publishing
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Age: 31 |
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Accomplishments:
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1990 — At 19, McWhorter's company, The Frame Up, landed a three-year, $130,000 contract to provide art supplies to the Detroit city government.
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1995 — McWhorter wrote and published An Introduction to Business for American-American Youth (Xpression Publishing, 1995).
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1997 — He started a company, McWhorter Properties, to manage single-family and multi-unit buildings.
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1999 — McWhorter created OurPC, a computer and Internet magazine for African-Americans.
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Source:
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Xpression Publishing
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Detroiter is Rising Star in Business Hall of Fame
Nonprofit to honor black leaders.
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DETROIT — When he was younger, Abner McWhorter wanted money more than anything.
"Making money was my only motivation," the 31-year-old Detroit entrepreneur said. "I still want to do that, but I also want to uplift the African-American community."
McWhorter is trying to do both as the chief executive officer and publisher of OurPC magazine, a quarterly publication about personal computers and technology for African Americans.
His work caught the attention of Race For Success Inc., a Cleveland-based nonprofit that is developing the African American Business Hall of Fame. Now it plans to honor McWhorter with its Rising Star Award.
The group will hold its first hall of fame induction ceremony June 22 at the Cleveland Convention Center.
During the event, McWhorter will be honored along with the hall's three inaugural inductees Berry Gordy, the legendary founder of Motown Records; Bob Johnson, the billionaire creator of Black Entertainment Television; and media magnate Oprah Winfrey.
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Abner McWhorter, 31, publisher of OurPC magazine, will be honored by the African American Business Hall of Fame with its Rising Star Award.
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"We selected Abner for a Rising Star Award because he's a 21st-century leader for African Americans who is helping change the image of us that exists in the mainstream media," said George Fraser, the founder and CEO of Race For Success. "He needs to be held up as a model and celebrated for the excellent work he does."
And to think a pair of blue jeans started it all.
When he was 11, McWhorter desperately wanted a pair of Calvin Klein blue jeans. But he knew his mother, Sharon, wasn't going to give him $60 to buy them. That's when he remembered how much money he made selling candy for his school band. So, with his mom's help, McWhorter found a candy wholesaler and started a fund-raiser for himself.
Four years later, the budding businessman realized that Blow-Pop sales were limited.
So he started a new venture -- cutting grass for businesses, calling the venture Dr. Lawn Care. He had a van and a lawn mower he rented from his mom. And since McWhorter wasn't old enough to drive, he hired friends who were.
By the time he was 16, McWhorter had bought half of The Donut Man, a doughnut stand in Trappers Alley, a mall in Detroit's Greektown district.
Under his management, the company's sales peaked at more than $1,000 a day on weekends. But the business closed down within six months, reflecting a heavy debt load.
McWhorter wasn't deterred.
At age 17 as a senior in high school, he borrowed from an uncle and started The Frame Up, a picture-frame and art-supplies retailer.
Over the next two years, he built it into a business with more than $100,000 in annual sales. He also landed a three-year, $130,000 contract to supply art supplies and picture frames to the city of Detroit.
At 25, McWhorter's focus began to shift from making money. He wrote a book to help African-American children start their own businesses and created a company to publish it.
The book sparked McWhorter's interest in publishing and led him to create OurPC in 1999. The magazine started as a free insert in 25 general market and African-American newspapers across the country, including the Michigan Chronicle in Detroit.
Last August, OurPC expanded and became a subscription-based, quarterly publication. A year's subscription is about $17. Paid subscriptions have since risen 50 percent to 75,000, and advertisers include Microsoft Corp., Mercedes-Benz and CompUSA, McWhorter said.
"He's a driven young man," said Sharon McWhorter, Abner's mother and the president of her own company, American Resource Training Systems in Detroit, which provides management, strategic planning consulting and employee training services. "He's been that way since birth."
Glenn D. Oliver, a Detroit attorney, former business partner and longtime friend of McWhorter, said the entrepreneur is savvy and driven.
"Abner is a brilliant businessman," Oliver said. "I'm always amazed at how he is able to come up with great business ideas and then pull them off."
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