With a focus on the city’s often-overlooked neighborhoods, a nonprofit collaboration is taking a personal approach to providing training, resources, and support for Detroit’s entrepreneurs, witnessing the ripple effect that investment creates.
In the past five years, Detroit has seen an 88% increase in women-owned businesses — the largest growth rate of metropolitan areas across the U.S. LaShonda Sims is part of that cohort, striking out with her daughter and cousins to launch a beauty company in 2017, and now, it's that family support that's helping them face down COVID setbacks.
Phil Knight might just be Detroit's last neighborhood mechanic. Since he opened his own auto shop in 1998, he has seen his share of changes in the community, but still wants to keep his business small and prices fair.
An innovative industrial engineer from Ghana is bringing West African-inspired prints to Detroit's fashion scene, despite COVID-19 creating roadblocks for her budding business.
Sandra Cavette is one of 1,048 homeowners in Detroit who have used a 0% interest home repair loan program to maintain historic properties throughout the city. Long-term residents like Cavette have seen the city through its ups and downs and are investing in its future through the program, which launched five years ago and has generated $10 million in funding.
Detroit entrepreneur Deirdre Roberson doesn't fit a mold. And the scientist-turned-fashion-designer doesn't want you to, either. “People will say to me ‘you look like a model,’ but why did nobody ever tell me ‘you look like a scientist’? We are complex. We are multidimensional people.”
Ally Vang opened Orchid Thai in downtown Detroit with the goal of being part of the area's revival. More than 15 years later, she credits the restaurant's longevity and ability to adapt as keys to its success in navigating two recessions and now a pandemic.
Education. Inclusivity. Hair care. Two entrepreneurs in Detroit want to change the way you think about your locks.
Are minority contractors being left out of Detroit's construction landscape? We talk to the changemakers helping minority business owners become "bankable" and get a seat at the table: “The future in Detroit shouldn't just be Dan Gilbert. It should be Cliff Terry and people who built up a neighborhood, and with the neighborhood included.”
Stephanie Byrd shares the process of reopening Flood's Bar & Grille, which is offering carryout and delivery with a limited menu (and yes, the lamb chops are back).
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