For entrepreneurs, community is key to success, and at the Invest Ottawa and Wesley Clover event highlighting Black entrepreneurship last Friday, community-building was in full swing.
Local Black business owners were up bright and early on the last day of February to fill the hall overlooking the Brookstreet Hotel’s golf course with tables of locally made products, from snacks and serums to books and clothing. Others promoted their tech platform or motivational speaking services.
The Building Our Future event, which featured Black speakers from half a dozen different sectors, was a welcome close to Black History Month.
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“A lot of times during Black History Month people ask Black people questions about Black entrepreneurship, questions that are only centred around Black issues,” Emmanuel Antonin, president of event partner Novas Group, told OBJ. “We wanted to expand on that. We wanted this event to capture the idea that being a Black entrepreneur is not just being a Black entrepreneur, but being a Canadian entrepreneur.”
It’s the second edition of the event, which began last year, but Antonin said he expects it to become an annual tradition.
He said it’s a unique chance to connect with other members of the local Black community and gain insight from people he’d otherwise never hear from.
“Everyone in this room is here to support Black entrepreneurship,” he said. “Having the people in this room together – students, mentors, corporate leaders, people who work in government, politics, tech – it’s really a group full of high-output people in a room together, all willing to support Black entrepreneurship.”
Saunia Keddon, program manager at Chnge Mker Innovation Hub, a local organization that equips Black business owners with skills and strategies to grow, agreed.
“I specifically work with Black entrepreneurs and I find one of the things I notice is a lack of community,” she told OBJ. “That’s one of the things we’re making sure that we’re providing, when they want to start a business but they don’t know where to go.”
Keddon said in addition to building business plans and marketing strategies, Black entrepreneurs often lack a built-in network. The Chnge Mker Hub, she said, connects them with mentors, coaches and potential partners, but events such as Building Our Future are also essential for finding potential clients, investors and business owners on a similar journey.
“They want that network,” she said. “They want to be introduced to other people. They want that mentorship and they want lived experiences. They want somebody who has gone through the journey already and can say, hey, this is what I’ve done, don’t make these mistakes.”
She added, “(Events such as Building Our Future) encourage them to see they belong here. It gives them motivation and it’s inspiring to see themselves on the banner, to see their products and the people coming in show interest. Sometimes they don’t have that place to showcase their business.”
Hafsa Ayuub, who is taking part in one of Chnge Mker’s programs, was one of the business owners displaying her work.
Now 22 years old, she took the leap into entrepreneurship last summer with her clothing brand Aluxx Apparel, which offers silk-lined items like hoodies and hats to protect hair against frizz.
“It went from an idea last Black History Month to being a product and business for six months this Black History Month,” she said.
She got her start putting herself out into the community and taking part in workshops to learn how to get started. As a young entrepreneur, she said the kind of support and assistance she can get from the people in the community is what’s most needed in the early stages of her business.
“I’m new to the business world,” she said. “I was a child-care worker, so it’s a whole different field than what I’ve been working with. Having guidance to those types of things, as someone who is only starting out and gaining knowledge, is what I need most right now.”
For Ikram Ahmed, the day brought unexpected motivation and validation.
Ahmed has worked a nine-to-five office job her whole career, but she’s started businesses of her own, including Siti Fashion House and beauty brand Siti Organic Skin.
After just an hour chatting with event attendees about her products and her story, two people told her that she was inspiring them to turn their own ideas into reality.
“I love going to events like this because you get to connect with people who have the same vision as you,” she said. “I love to showcase what I do. It’s my passion. Meeting other people that have the same determination just makes me feel like I should keep going.”
