Twelve minority business owners were honored in a ceremony at Simmons College of Kentucky on Thursday night for completing Greater Louisville Inc’s inaugural "Power to Prosper Minority Business Accelerator."
The graduation ceremony was attended by high-profile business leaders and members of GLI’s board of directors, and featured a keynote address from Tawana Bain, founder of TBain & Co., remarks from the GLI leadership team, and individual recognition of each participant.
The cohort began in April. The program took participants through 12 intensive sessions across four modules that covered high-level business skills and provided them with curriculum to take their business to the next level. Skills covered included business and strategic assessment, finances, marketing and sales and human resources.
GLI also connected participants with its investors by facilitating introductions and hosting gatherings with members of the board of directors to help participants grow their professional networks. The program concluded with participants pitching their growth plans and services to a panel of regional business leaders, with the intent of assisting in securing future contracts with those companies and helping them scale.
“Graduating from the Power to Prosper program is a tremendous accomplishment and underscores these 12 individual’s commitments to growing their business in Greater Louisville,” said Dana Johnson, GLI’s senior director of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“Not only did each participant attend regular sessions, they also contributed significant time after business hours to crafting their own growth plan and putting lessons from each module into practice.”
The program was coordinated by Johnson, and Eric Jordan, GLI's diversity and inclusion strategies manager. The class was instructed by Miguel Hampton, President and CEO of F5 Enterprises.
The criteria for admission to Power to Prosper included having a minimum $200,000 in annual revenue, at least one employee, and the ability to commit the required time to the program. The program is a $15,000 value but is provided free of charge to participants.
The 12 graduates include:
• Kristy Bartlett, Founder and CEO, Option To Success Inc.
• Carl Brown II, CEO, Manns Moving & Delivery
• Chelsea Ellis-Hogan, Co-Owner and CEO, Jim Reynolds Asphalt Contractor
• Pamela M. Haines, CEO, Sweet Peaches
• Maria Mackey, Founder and CEO, Mackey Printing Services
• Mechelle Porter, Owner and CEO, M3 Events
• Joseph Scott, CEO, Joash Construction
• Dr. Angelina Strickland, CEO, Strickland, Cox & Associates Primary Care Center
• Shelby Throneburg, CEO, Eagle Steel & Metal Products
• Dr. Teresa Walker, Owner and CEO, New Leaf Clinic
• Don Weobong, CEO, eLeaP
• Lameca Yankey, Founder, CEO and Head Director, Vivid Imaginations Child Care Center LLC
To launch Power to Prosper, GLI partnered with national consulting firm, Interise, to craft the framework and curriculum of the program. Interise’s StreetWise 'MBA' uses a peer-learning method and brings in industry experts and business peers to provide insights, strategies, motivation and accountability. At the end of the program, participants walked away with a vetted individualized three-year Strategic Growth Action Plan outlining the action steps required to achieve their business goals.
Yankey, said the program helped her to look at her 15-year old day care business with fresh eyes.
“This program has shown me that I need to look at everything on a financial basis, which I wasn’t doing before," Yankey said. "I was working and letting the CPAs handle everything. Now, I know how to forecast monthly, and I’m on top of my bottomline.”
Plans to begin the second cohort are underway and applications will open on Feb. 1, 2022. The inaugural class was held online, but Hampton said he expect the second cohort to be in-person or a hybrid with online and in-person instruction.
