Content tagged with Success Stories

Brandi Harleaux, CEO of South Post Oak Recycling Center, has been named the Small Business Administration’s Texas Business Owner of the Year, the Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year, and was listed as one of the Houston Business Journal’s top Women to Watch. Harleaux credits the Houston MBDA Business Center for much of her success and continues to work with the...

Tamara Turner, a single mother and businesswoman, went from working 3 jobs and going to school full-time to support her dreams, to owning a multi-million-dollar dessert and food service business. In 2017, after grinding through school, multiple jobs, she knew the time was right to take the entrepreneurial leap She founded her company Silver Spoon Desserts, a premium dessert manufacturer...

The region in St. Louis, MO called the Delmar Divide refers to an area north of Delmar Boulevard, a physical and psychological dividing line which reveals distinct socioeconomic, cultural, and public policy differences between the haves and the have-nots in the region. Over several decades, policies and practices of disinvestment, suburban migration, racial covenants, and redlining devastated the...

Royal Men Solutions Carl Williams founded Royal Men Solutions in August 2020. His passion for carpentry and wood making runs deep through his DNA. He is a third-generation carpenter and has been building cabinets with his father since he was a child. Carl knew he wanted to start a business. He wasn’t sure in what, but his entrepreneurial spirit and crafting experience guided his dreams to make...

OurPlace Residential Services Over the course of their careers as inpatient nurses in Minneapolis, Murwo Elmi, Ikraan Abdulle, Farhia Abdulahi, and Faiso Abdulle have seen a bit of everything. After 10 years, however, the group shared a similar realization: once their patients were released back into their communities, they didn’t have the support and stability they needed. They wanted to change...

Noah’s Ark, Imari Mackey Thanks to FLEE, Imari is changing the world one house at a time. During his time serving in federal prison, Imari heard about the Dannon Project’s Financial Literacy, Entrepreneurship & Education (FLEE) Program. FLEE is funded by MBDA’s Entrepreneurship Education for Formerly Incarcerated Persons (EEFIP) and offers entrepreneurial programs and training to previously...

Calaway Foods Jack Huang took a leap when he left his career as a banker to start Calway Foods, growing and selling pecans, almonds, walnuts, and pistachios. Jack didn’t know much about pecans, but he knew the opportunity was there. Thanks to Jack’s hard work and the Sacramento MBDA Business Center’s help, Calways Foods hit $16 million in sales in only its 5th year. MBDA has been a great partner...

Buck Roofing, LLC Buck Roofing has been a mainstay roofing company in Hawaii for decades, founded by Buck Schipa in 1976. After graduating from school in the late-2000's, Hina Schipa took over her father’s business. Thanks to her work in construction management and contracting, she had the experience to continue and strengthen her father’s legacy. However, she wanted to gather every tool she could...

All Gateway Network Business (AGNB) The Virginia MBDA Business Center provided us business management experience in government contracting and small/minority business development. We got turned down, we failed, had setbacks, had to start over many times, but we kept going at it. In anybody’s case, that’s always the distinguishing factor. All Gateway Network Business was founded in August 2018...

Indigenous Design Studio + Architecture Tamara Begay, CEO and President of Indigenous Design Studio and Architecture (IDS+A) is breaking new ground in the architecture industry. With only 17% of registered architects being women and 0% being Native American, IDS+A continues to thrive and is the only architecture firm in the world to employ 100% indigenous staff. Promoting design that is not only a...

Evalv IQ Theresa Jones, owner and principal of Evalv IQ, a boutique professional services firm, knows how to seize an opportunity. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, she saw a growing need for protection in the IT sector and knew Evalv IQ could fill a critical role in the industry. While the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down business throughout the country, hitting minority and woman-owned...

Women represent a small percentage of the construction industry, making up around 10.9 percent of the construction workforce in 2020, according to the United States (U.S.) Bureau of Labor Statistics. Traditionally seen as a male dominated field, women and nonbinary individuals in construction face several challenges, including gender discrimination, lack of representation, limited advancement...

Celebrating The Work of MBDA Business Centers We are so excited about the opportunities we have created to help the nation’s MBEs, that we wanted to close this year by highlighting the great work of a few of our Business Centers and Programs. With that in mind, below are snapshots of our work in Arizona, Ohio, Illinois, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Pennsylvania. The dedication and passion of our...