Why We Log: The $2.6 Million Circulation Story
Every movement needs receipts. Ours is a number: $2,614,743.15.
That's how much money members of the Black Business Focus Group have circulated to Black-owned businesses — not pledged, not promised, logged — across 4,232 purchases since 2016. You can watch the counter climb on our homepage. Every dollar on it got there the same way: somebody bought from a Black-owned business, then took thirty seconds to write it down.
This is why we log.
It started with a promise
When I founded the BBFG in November 2015, the mission was simple: circulate our dollars on purpose. Buy from Black-owned businesses at least three times a month. In the early days we tracked it with monthly polls — members publicly committing, month after month, that they'd done their three. Almost everybody said yes. But a poll is a promise. I wanted proof.
So in 2018 we moved from promising to logging — and we never went back. (The honest truth? I borrowed the mechanic from a weight-loss app. What gets logged gets done. It works for pounds; it works for dollars too.)
A log is small. What it builds is not.
One log is thirty seconds: the business, the amount, the date. But stack 4,232 of them and they become things no single purchase can be:
Proof. When we talk to partners, media, and sponsors, we don't say "our community supports Black businesses." We show them $2,614,743.15 and counting.
A map. Every log tells the next member where to spend. Your logged purchase at a Houston bakery becomes somebody else's Saturday plan.
A queue. Our weekly BOB Spotlight — the business we feature every Tuesday — starts with logged transactions. Log a business and you're nominating it, whether you meant to or not.
Momentum. Streaks are contagious. Members who log their three a month start looking for the fourth.
The mission for November
November is a new month, and the counter doesn't care what you did in October. Here's the whole program:
Buy from a Black-owned business — at least 3 times this month.
Log every purchase at blackbusinessfocusgroup.com. Thirty seconds. That's it.
Repeat — and watch the number move.
$2,614,743.15 is what a community looks like when it keeps receipts. Let's see how much higher it sits on December 1.
It's our time!
-Phil-
Founder, Black Business Focus Group
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