{"id":126006,"date":"2022-02-16T13:38:19","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T18:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=126006"},"modified":"2025-06-26T09:28:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T13:28:13","slug":"opportunity-knocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/opportunity-knocks\/","title":{"rendered":"Opportunity Knocks"},"content":{"rendered":"
Among her memories from childhood, Inez Long \u201998MBA<\/strong> most vividly recounts two. In the first, she\u2019s playing in the yard with her cousin. The cousin tells Inezshe\u2019s really<\/em> hungry. They go inside and find only a single banana to eat as a snack. Inez cuts it in half and keeps the smaller piece for herself. Later, Long\u2019s mother asks, \u201cInez, why did you give your cousin the bigger piece?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause,\u201d little Inez says, \u201cshe was hungrier than me, mom.\u201d<\/p>\n In the second memory, Long is looking at a bookshelf inside the same home. The shelves sag under the weight of the encyclopedias her parents have purchased for Long and her brother. It would take years for Long to fully understand the reason for all those books.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was not easy for us to go to a public library as it was built on the \u2018white\u2019 side of town, so my parents found other ways for us to expand our knowledge. That\u2019s how they invested in us.\u201d<\/p>\n These two precepts \u2014 recognizing the level of hunger in people and investing in them \u2014 are cornerstones in Long\u2019s work as president of the Black Business Investment Fund (BBIF). Long has made such a positive impact in her 32 years with BBIF that Orlando Magazine<\/em> named her one of the city\u2019s 50 Most Powerful People in 2021. In April she will be inducted into the UCF College of Business Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always a blessing to not just enjoy whatever comes my way,\u201d Long says, \u201cbut to help others get the most out of life, too.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, an opportunity is all that a person needs.\u201d \u2014 Inez Long \u201998MBA<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n With BBIF she paves the way for Black, minority and underserved small businesses to receive management training and financial backing. Under her leadership to date, 1,061 businesses have been approved for more than $81 million in loans, allowing them to support nearly 14,000 jobs, often after they\u2019ve run into unscalable walls at traditional lending institutions. She\u2019s also brought in $148 million in New Market Tax Credit, which attracts private capital investments into low-income communities allocations, and has leveraged more than $350 million in economic development projects.<\/p>\n And that leads to perhaps the most prominent statistic of all: More than 96% of the business loans through BBIF have resulted in investment gains. Traditional bank executives can only wish for that kind of success rate.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s just say those banks had their chances.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes,\u201d Long says, \u201can opportunity is all that a person needs.\u201d<\/p>\n Growing up in Winter Garden, Florida, young Inez James would ride bicycles and play marbles, football and baseball with her big brother and boys in the neighborhood. She never thought of her mother and father as being poor. Both parents had similar backgrounds, being raised by their grandparents, uncles and aunts, after their own parents died when they were very young.<\/p>\n \u201cMom and dad never made excuses,\u201d Long says. \u201cThey were determined to work hard and create their own opportunities as a young couple.\u201d<\/p>\n At that time, home loans were not made available to Black people. So, each of Long\u2019s parents worked several jobs and saved enough cash to buy land and build their own home. They stocked it with love and books, and with a love for\u00a0<\/em>books.<\/p>\n \u201cMom and dad taught us that knowledge could open a world of possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n Long had thoughts about attending law school while studying at the 海角直播 of South Florida, but when her father died suddenly, she knew the financial resources and support that she needed wouldn\u2019t be available. A classmate, Fitzhugh Long, encouraged her to try a few business courses to see if anything clicked.<\/p>\n \u201cI never expected that I would fall in love with accounting,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n She also fell in love with Fitzhugh. They married and moved around the country for a few years, as Fitzhugh landed a corporate job with Kmart Corporation. Later they landed in Orlando where Inez began a career in banking while also raising their first two children. After a while, she recognized sexism and racism pervading the business environment. Long would need a source of leverage to push through it.<\/p>\n