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SOUTHERN VOICE » DECEMBER 29/1994 15 Magazine tracks gay business growth by WAYNE HOFFMAN It may not have the cachet of the For tune 500, but the Victory! 50 is an impor tant step toward recognizing the tremen dous growth occurring in the business sector of the gay community. In the cur rent issue of Victory!, the year-old national gay and lesbian entrepreneur magazine, the publication ranks the 50 fastest grow ing gay-owned companies. From the Big Hair/Big Art hair salon and art gallery in Sacramento, with gross revenues in 1993 of $81,000 to the Denver-based soft ware giant Quark Inc, with earnings of $110 million, all the businesses in the Victory! 50 experienced signifi cant growth over the previous year. Two Atlanta businesses made the list: Brushstrokes, which reported a 25 percent revenue increase last year, and PFM Mortgage Services, which enjoyed a 37.5 percent increase. "A list of the 50 largest compa nies would be stagnant," says pub lisher MJ McKean-Reich, who is planning to make the list an annual event. "Instead, seeing the fastest growth, you'll see what are the hot businesses, what are the niches people are getting into." Victory! magazine did not qualify for its own list; being only one year old, it had no 1992 finan cial record upon which to improve. Be sides, the fledgling magazine has yet to turn a clear profit. But perhaps next year, it will join fellow gay publications Out and Genre on the list. With a print run of 20,000, Victory! has already achieved serious national expo sure since its debut last December. McKean-Reich hopes eventually to in crease advertising, pull the magazine firmly into the black, and double circula tion. Optimistic plans in a field littered with failed publications, perhaps, but McKean-Reich is something of a success story of gay entrepreneurship in his own right. Growing up in Pittsburgh's inner city, McKean-Reich lived on AFDC govern ment assistance, spared the trials of urban gang life only because he was "too effemi nate" to be a part of any gang, until he entered college at Yale. Though he earned a degree in organizational behavior, he always maintained a keen interest in busi ness affairs. After graduate school and a job lead ing diversity seminars for men's clubs, McKean-Reich decided he was ready to take on corporate America. With the help of his lover, Thomas, McKean-Reich—a 27-year-old novice with no previous ex perience in publishing and no educational background in business—started Victory! in December 1993. His goal in launching Victory! was "to provide opportunity for other people, not to push my ideas on them but to say, 'If you want to do this, this is the way I did it.'" But defining a gay business is not a simple matter. McKean-Reich outlines the types of businesses his magazine covers: the gay-owned, gay-oriented store; gay- owned businesses, like Quark, that cater to mainstream consumers; gay-friendly companies that are straight-owned; and finally, mainstream companies run by straight people that may include out standing gay entrepreneurs within their ranks. Despite the range of businesses cov ered, it is apparent from the photos ac companying the Victory! 50 that nearly all of these entrepreneurs are white, and a lopsided majority are men. "I think it's reflective of mainstream America. I think we are a smaller multicultural version of the larger pic ture," says McKean-Reich. He is happy to report that the gender split among sub scribers is nearly even, but this has been achieved only with serious effort. "We look for the women, while the men come to us," he says. McKean-Reich hopes that Victory! can do for gay business people what Black Enterprise or Working Woman did for oth ers in the past—namely, showcase role models and create a forum for discussion of problems within a budding minority business community. Only by building up our community economically, he argues, can we achieve the mainstream accep tance, exposure, and respect we desire. "The only way things are going to change is if we own businesses," he says. "The next step for the civil rights agenda for the gay community in my opinion is economic stability." WANTED: Gay Man who is into honest communication, intimate moments, h^t sex, and ndoms. 1438 West Peachtree Street Nw, Suite 100 Atlanta, Georgia 30309 (404) 872-0600 Stay in Bloom This Winter Are you ready to get good at taking care of yourself? No matter what shape you're in now, we can help you devise comfortable, sensible ways to build well being. And enjoy it. It isn't easy, but you're worth it. Call us Today. Let's get started. 13 Corporate Square Suite 107, Atlanta • 325-2273 STOSH OSTROW, M.D. General Practice