Minority and Women Entrepreneurs Emerge in UB Program
Buffalo resident Alexa Wajed began modestly, starting a small business as a way of getting her husband’s illustrations and drawings before the public. Their product line evolved to customized greeting cards—which they sold at vending fairs and church events—along with stationery, invitations, and more.
“We were just flying by the seat of our pants,” she recalled. “The only thing that I wanted to do was to get a business plan and to actually know what I was doing.”
The president and owner of Emani Kemet Enterprises and Gallery 51, Wajed received the knowledge and encouragement that she sought in a year-long program designed to assist minority and women business owners improve their businesses. The Allstate Minority and Women Emerging Entrepreneurs Program is a joint venture of the University at Buffalo School of Management Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) and the UB Center for Urban Studies, sponsored by the Allstate Foundation, a charitable organization funded by subsidiaries of Allstate Insurance Corporation.
Wajed did so well, in fact, that at the end of the program she was named “Protégé of the Year,” receiving a $1,500 prize for the honor.
“Now our business really has taken flight. With the help of that program, we were able to identify who we were, what services we had to offer, and how our services were needed. It was a good experience. I learned a lot about my business and where I wanted to be and the possibilities of where we could go,” she said.
Community mentoring
The participants of the program, which begins in January and runs through the year, enter as protégés; each is assigned two mentors who are successful entrepreneurs from the local business community and who meet regularly with them to help them evaluate and improve their business plans.
Wajed’s mentors, Donald J. Hahn of Hahn and Associates, and Conway Porter of Conway Porter, CPA, won “Mentor of the Year” awards.
There were twelve participants in 2005, the second year of the program. Awards for second and third place went to Buffalo residents Harriett Black of Hair Concepts by Duchess, and Carrie DeGeorge of The Laundry Basket Too, who received $1,000 and $500, respectively. Other participants included Buffalo residents Terry Baker, Lake Effect Laundry; Janice Crews-Dearing, J Crews & Associates, Inc.; Beverly Deas, People Printing; Freida Joyce, New Masten Eaton Lounge; Junko Kanamura, JK Solutions; Donna Pratt, Kadoma International; Carla Singleton, Singleton Construction Consultants, Inc.; Winsome White, Eleanor’s Boutique; and Cheektowaga resident Kathy Collins, WNY Property Management, Inc.
“As a result of this program, these twelve graduates have sought to foster their economic independence, advance the future of their families, and, in turn, strengthen the economic health of their community,” said Allstate Foundation director Inez Birbiglia. “Knowing that these strong, intelligent women have further enhanced their development by acquiring tactical business skills demonstrates the continued success of the UB/Allstate Foundation partnership.”
Althea Luehrsen, executive director of CEL, said the mission of the program “is to create a pathway that enables minority and women emerging entrepreneurs to move their companies to the next stage of development.”
Realistic goals
Mentors provide protégés with technical advice on varied aspects of running a small business, such as strategic and tactical thinking, marketing, merchandising, pricing, inventory control, accounting, long-range financial planning, and basic legal advice to help protégés formulate realistic business goals and develop timetables and strategies for achieving them.
The culminating activity in the program is the creation of a new or revised business plan. One year after completing the program, protégés are invited back to assess the program’s impact on the development of their businesses.
“Winning the award has really helped us out a lot,” said Wajed, whose Gallery 51 store operates at 569 Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo. She also is developing a Web site: www.emanikemet.com. “We’re working on our profitability, making sure we can become profitable within two years. We’re updating the business plan because a business plan is really a living document and can never be static. It’s ever changing.”
Wajed’s unique stationery and gift boutique has been attracting a varied multi-ethnic customer base, from artists to business people. “Someone stated that our place is like a nexus—people come and they always end up meeting someone they’ve been meaning to meet or they discover someone who can help them with something they’ve been trying to do,” she related.
It’s a happy result of a focused but evolving business, with appeal to a variety of tastes and sensibilities.
To be eligible to apply to the program, an entrepreneur must be a woman or a member of a recognized minority group (African American, Latino, Native American or Asian) and must own a business in the Buffalo-Niagara region.
