In 2013, when Phil Andrews first became involved with the Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce, the organization was holding many of its meetings at the Freeport Library, and attendance was sparse. There were only about 20 members.
Now, Andrews, 61, is president of the LI African American Chamber of Commerce, or LIAACC. The organization still holds some meetings at the same library, but there are now about 400 members, its headquarters is in Garden City, and the organization is busy celebrating its 15th anniversary. The LIAAAC is preparing for a series of events this year, focusing on ways small businesses may gain access to capital, workshops on finance, and sessions on management techniques.
“It’s going to be a very busy year,” Andrews told the Press.
The LIAAC was founded in 2009 by John L. Scott, a banker, who died in 2020, at age 81.
Andrews, born in a Brooklyn housing project, has an unusual background for a business leader.
He worked for almost 20 years as a corrections officer at New York’s toughest prisons — Rikers Island and the Brooklyn House of Detention in Elmhurst, Queens, which he said was an even tougher place than Rikers. Previously, he had served in the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy Reserves.
Working in the prisons provided Andrews with the kind of grit needed to succeed in business.
“I figured if I could manage (the prison work) I could manage a business,” he said.
He had attended York College in Jamaica, Queens and John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.
Andrews and three other corrections officers pooled their savings — about $20,000 — and in 1987 began opening barbershops in Hempstead, Roosevelt, Jamaica, and Brooklyn.
But the shops were different. They had art work and poetry on the walls, the proprietors offered health advice, and signs pointed customers to places they could get business advice.
“We also spoke in the community” on business topics, Andrews said.
After about a decade of the barbershop business, Andrews became president of the 100 Black Men of Long Island — the Long Chapter is the second-oldest in the country. Andrews served two terms. “The 100” is focused on creating educational opportunities, promoting economic empowerment and addressing health disparities.
He has been named Small Business Person of the Year in Roosevelt, and also by the Indian Chamber of Commerce on Long Island.
In between joining organizations and running them, Andrews started P.A. Public Relations.
“He’s very hands-on,” Rose Ward, vice president of the LIAAC, told the Press. “I don’t know when the guy gets any sleep. At 12 o’clock at night, he’s up writing emails.”
Andrews has had a steady hand on the LIAAC, guiding a number of members to start their own companies.
One of them, Jonathan Ortiz, is owner of Creative Focus Designs Inc., a media company in Malverne.
“Phil was instrumental in helping build my business,” Ortiz told the Press. “As an entrepreneur, it sometimes feels like you’re all alone out there. But Phil and this chamber, they are there for you.”
Andrews was instrumental in starting a chapter of the LI African American Chamber of Commerce in Suffolk, its director, Jordan Isaac, told the Press.
“I met Phil about a year ago,” Isaac said. “We got started talking about how chambers help small businesses. Then he asked, ‘What’s going on in Suffolk?’” A chapter came together.
Chambers of commerce used to be solely identified with towns and villages on Long Island. There are still many of those. But in recent decades, they have become popular among a number of ethnic groups. There is now a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and a Latino Chamber and Indian, as well as others for those who are Greek and Jewish.
Andrews believes he had accomplished at least some of what he had set out to do: membership has increased and so has awareness of the LI African American Chamber of Commerce. But he said he has further ambitions.
He wants to help create a national small business group that would deal with the problems of minority business owners.
“We want to make multimillion-dollar businesses,” Andrews said. “We want to create a giant new network for more small businesses.”
