Topic: Taxes and Business Structures
Presenters:
Mike Hawkins – CEO of Hawkins & Company CPA Ciarra C. Adkins, JD – Founder of AQUME Law, PLLC
GRABB & Go Meetings were created to provide Black entrepreneurs with the latest information about current events, resources, best practices and strategies on everything from product development, sales and selling, marketing, funding and finances.
Are you ready to Shop? Grand Rapids Area Black Businesses (GRABB) is excited to announce the District 2012 Digital Market.! Now you can shop local from the comfort of your home or office. Join them for a live shopping event featuring a variety of Black businesses.
2020 has had a huge negative impact of Black businesses. It’s been reported that 40% of Black businesses nationally have closed due to the economic downturn caused by Covid-19. This is an opportunity for our community to support and patronize Black businesses safely while also promoting economic equity.
District 2012 Digital Market will feature an exciting and diverse range of local Black businesses from artisan candles and soap, to fresh baked goods, apparel, handmade wares and much more.
This is a Digital Market with Live Video vendor booths where business owners and shoppers can interact through video and/or chat to being a personal feel to virtual shopping.
To Attend RSVP Here
Virtual Vendors Including:
Hosted by the Grand Rapids Area Black Business (GRABB).
This one-day experience dedicated to empowering Black entrepreneurs and communities, #TheShift Summit has gone virtual this year with the theme, Progressively Black. This annual gathering connects, engages and informs Black entrepreneurs, creatives small business owners, professionals and stakeholders about opportunities, resources and programs in the entrepreneurial ecosystem that will foster to economic empowerment and equity.
#TheShift Summit attendees will enjoy a day filled with panel discussions, workshops and networking with entrepreneurs, influencers, doers, creatives and other social, public and private leaders.
Featured speaker Lynn Smith is an entrepreneur and the creator of Buy The Block, one of only Black-owned crowd-investing platform that is helping Black communities build wealth while determining the direction of development in their communities.
Lynn has invested in real estate since she was 21, and experienced firsthand how difficult it can be for small investors to get financing. She also saw how the North Miami neighborhood where she grew up was radically altered by development, without any input from residents. Those experiences led her to found Buy The Block.
Smith is motivated by the power that crowd-investing has to engage people and give them a sense of agency. “It’s really helps to get the community involved and show them they can be part of an action that’s being taken in their community and get the benefits and rewards,” she says.
Learn More Here – Buy The Block
Featured speaker, Andre M. Perry, is a fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, a scholar-in-residence at American University, and a columnist for the Hechinger Report. He is the author of the new book Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities, which is currently available wherever books are sold.
A nationally known and respected commentator on race, structural inequality, and education, Perry is a regular contributor to MSNBC and has been published by The New York Times, The Nation, The Washington Post, TheRoot.com and CNN.com. Perry has also made appearances on CNN, PBS, National Public Radio, NBC, and ABC. His research focuses on race and structural inequality, education, and economic inclusion. Perry’s recent scholarship at Brookings has analyzed Black-majority cities and institutions in America, focusing on valuable assets worthy of increased investment.
His research has spotlighted the struggles of Black businesses—including artists and art institutions, restaurants, and barbershops and beauty salons—as they await federal relief from COVID-19’s economic impact.
Learn More Here – Know Your Price
Link to Facebook
#30day30dollars Challenge
Today, the Grand Rapids Area Black Businesses (GRABB) launched an economic empowerment initiative primarily seeks to raise the community’s awareness of Black owned businesses while increasing the capital flowing to these businesses. One way you can make this happen is to shop the Southeast Area Farmers’ Market on Sept. 5 and 19!
GRABB also seeks to aide in the sustainability of locally owned black businesses that support families. “By doing so we will increase employment opportunities for residents within neighborhoods of focus that will lead to a reduction in the unemployment rate and begin to revitalize economically neglected neighborhoods,” GRABB’s messaging says.
Beginning the week of September 1, 2020 through the week of September 30, 2020, GRABB is challenging 1,000 residents to commit to shifting $30 of their monthly spending to a Black owned businesses with the overall goal of increasing the length of time dollars remain in Black neighborhood businesses.
“By shifting your dollars to Black Businesses, you will be playing a vital role improving the quality of life in economically marginalized neighborhoods in Grand Rapids while purchasing great products and services,” GRABB reports. “By the end of our #30days30dollars challenge, we will realize the collective strength of our dollars and the strength of the people in our community!’
Location: Grand Rapids Center for Community Transformation
Our Kitchen Table 