Displaying items by tag: Michigan

When Detroit resident Gwen Jimmere started her hair company, she only had $32 in her banking account and was just laid off from her full time, corporate job all while going through a divorce. She would run her small business from her basement while taking care of her infant son.

Launched in 2013, Jimmere created Naturalicious by making products in her kitchen and selling them from her home. The brand now serves over 700,000 customers worldwide with great reviews. She is the first African American woman to hold a patent for a natural haircare product.

Today, Jimmere is celebrating the seventh anniversary of her company with a new 4,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Detroit. The new office will be home to 13 full-time employees including those from Services to Enhance Potential (STEP), a nonprofit that connects businesses with people with special needs looking for employment. The new location is equipped to meet increasing orders due to customer demand.

In addition to the new manufacturing facility, Jimmere is also gearing up to open her first flagship Naturalicious salon. Naturalicious Certified Stylists will be there to provide excellent service while educating customers on how to care for their hair texture and what product ingredients to use in a relaxing setting. Her goal is to expand to more brick-and-mortar locations to spread the brand’s message.

Source https://www.blackenterprise.com/detroit-entrepreneur-opens-4000-sq-ft-manufacturing-facility-for-her-haircare-company/

Detroit based design firm, Hamilton Anderson will be expanding their firm to Atlanta in partnership with Atlanta-based urban design firm, SHAPE. The expansion will increase its dedication to urban design and development across the country.

Since moving to downtown Detroit, Google has been doing its due diligence within the black community in the city. The world’s leading cloud-based technology provider donated a total of $1 million in grants to two inner-city STEM programs in the city earlier this month. Now the company is partnering with the National Business League (NBL) to help black businesses in Detroit succeed in the digital economy.

The John C. Lodge Freeway, which was first built in the 1950s and named after the former mayor in 1987, connects the city of Detroit to the suburbs, ending in Southfield. That was the inspiration behind native Detroit media personalities Jemele Hill and Kelley L. Carter founding Lodge Freeway Media: to connect the world to stories about people of color, specifically women.

Liberty Bank and Trust Company is providing $4 million in financing to the Detroit-based Entrepreneurs of Color Fund, a well-known loan fund that helps black-owned businesses in the Motor City grow.

The capital infusion by Liberty Bank, No. 3 on the BE Banks List of the nation’s largest black-owned banks, will allow the Detroit Development Fund to boost the lending capacity of its Entrepreneurs Color of Fund to $22 million.

Norma G’s Cuisine, an authentic Caribbean cuisine restaurant, is the first sit-down, full service establishment in Detroit's Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood in 30 years.

The sleek, new dining destination gets its name from owner and chef Lester Gouvia’s mother, and seats 91 people inside, which includes seating for 12 at the bar. It also features a high-top seating area, plenty of windows that brighten the casual space and retractable window that opens to patio dining.

The Roberts Riverwalk Hotel, which is the only African-American-owned historic boutique hotel located on the banks of the majestic Detroit River, was granted a $4.8 million energy efficiency and property sustainability program. The program was approved by Lean and Green Michigan for PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy),in partnership with PACE Energy Services, Structured Finance Associates, and Wayne County.

The city of Detroit has two problems when it comes to the multimillion-dollar residential projects popping up all around the city: inclusiveness to African-Americans living in them and African-Americans developing them. At least one of those issues were addressed for the three new residential projects being developed in the city’s historic Brush Park neighborhood on the outskirts of downtown.

Finding the perfect card that says all the right things can be difficult, but Andrea Williams sure has the perfect card for the occasion. Founded by Williams, Paisley Paper Co. is a black-owned stationery company located in Detroit, Michigan that is here to meet all your stationery needs.

All you need is one bite of Jackson’s Five Star Catering and it will have you wanting to come back for more. Founded by husband and wife duo, Anthony “Tony” and Cindy Jackson, the full-service catering company has been serving delicious food to the Detroit area since 1995, specializing in dinner parties, family picnics, baby showers, gourmet boxed lunches, elegant weddings, corporate events, and other amenities. And it all started through inspiration from Tony’s mother.