While Allegheny County and City of Pittsburgh officials pursue luring Amazon’s second corporate headquarters to the region, representatives of the Hill Community Development Corporation have been focusing on positioning entrepreneurs as business leaders, providing them with the resources necessary to create opportunities and to sustain a business in a transforming the Hill District.
“Developing our community requires a focus on developing the people behind our businesses that offer products and services,” said Marimba Milliones, President and CEO of the Hill CDC. “That’s why we created the Business Leadership Academy for Social Transformation (BLAST) so that people can get the support they need to thrive in our transitioning neighborhood. The vision is for us to all grow together.”
In its second year, BLAST is designed to provide core business development programming for small business owners seeking to develop deeper professional and personal competencies. A business and community development program, Milliones said this year’s program was comprised of a cohort of participants keenly focused on: developing business leadership skills; mastering a strong elevator pitch; and effectively casting a vision that will attract investors to advance the growth of their business within their community and beyond.
He explained that the program operated on a threefold mission: to develop the business leadership skills needed to operate an ethical business driven by social awareness to address the need for change within communities; to create compelling pitching narratives to attract investment from lenders, crowd funders, and changemakers to support businesses that have the potential to create transformative opportunities in the Hill; And to provide entrepreneurs with the technical support, mentorship, and space necessary to operate legally-structured businesses with revenue-generating marketing strategies to build and maintain a vibrant customer base.
The Hill CDC, Alexander, Kiva Pittsburgh, Urban Innovation21, and Woodforest National Bank recently hosted a “Shark Tank” event for the five participants from the BLAST Summer 2017 cohort to pitch their businesses to a panel of judges. Participants were seeking funding for a Kiva loan which enabled the audience to lend funds live.
Participants were Julia Clemm, Clemm’s Notary; C. Denise Johnson, Drumbeat Communications; Shakelah Knox, Keep it Sweet by Shakelah; Leeretta Payne, Legacy Café LLC; and Deidra Washington, I Dream a World LLC.
The winner of the competition, I Dream a World LLC, offers a series of personal and professional development workshops, ranging from self-empowerment to workplace communication and retention, using a strength-based approach.
“I discovered that many roadblocks for a client’s professional success stem from personal barriers that many organizations are not addressing,” Washington said. The Hill District resident and former second grade teacher touted her analogy: “We are all broken crayons, but we all still serve a purpose.”
With the goal to become a mobile and electronic notary to help ensure that the vulnerable will be protected by the documents needed prior to end of life or during an emergency, Clemm’s focus is to provide notary services to seniors and to title/legal settlement companies.
Assisting and servicing emerging grassroots entrepreneurs, artists, and non-profit organizations with a need for greater and more strategic outreach, Johnson is utilizing her 30-plus years of experience in journalism, media relations and outreach to underserved constituents to develop and expanded inclusive strategies to foster and build long-term relations between clients and target markets.
Keep it Sweet by Shakelah, known as K.I.S.S., is a confectionery company specializing in all things sweet, from custom cookies to chocolate-covered strawberries. K.I.S.S. transforms desserts to fit themes for a “wow” factor at her client’s events. K.I.S.S. also holds Sweet Craft classes for youth and operates as a vendor throughout the area. K.I.S.S. is already Kiva-funded.
The caterer of the event, Legacy Café LLC, is a business-to-business company serving government agencies, businesses, non-profits, movie productions and political events in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Inspired by her Hill District roots, menu items are named after famous entities of the Jazz era. Legacy Café is also a Kiva-funded business.
Washington’s winnings were inclusive of $1,000, five free hours in critical business support services totaling $515 in value from Tia Baker of Crown Cut Concierge, Soleil Meade of Soleil Branding Essentials, James Hancock of Hancock Accounting and Bookkeeping Solutions and Dana Richardson of Tibbot and Richardson Attorneys at Law.
Emily Keebler, the Kiva City of Pittsburgh lead, announced that the funding staple in the community is approaching $1 million in lending. Kiva Pittsburgh is led by Urban innovation21, a non-profit organization that supports the growth of entrepreneurship within the innovation economy of the Pittsburgh region and connects that growth to underserved communities and the residents that live in those communities.
Judges for the BLAST pitch were Danielle Darr, owner and founder of D’s Natural Products and also a Kiva loan recipient, Mamar Gelaye, former owner and CEO of Omnyx, Nicole Manns, founder of “Nikki’s Magic Wand” and Shawn Thomas, entrepreneur lending director at Bridgeway Capital.
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