Starting a business is hard. Keeping a business alive during a pandemic that has no clear end date is a million times harder. So much so that I seriously considered applying to a magazine reporting job based in Honolulu today. I got as far as the resume upload button when I stopped. What am I doing? Here I was running a growing startup four weeks ago. Today, I’m ready to pack my bags — and my dog and my husband — and move to Hawaii?
Before hunting through my Google docs for my resume, I had a flashback to four years ago. I was reporting for The Detroit News and got a scoop that Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan would be speaking to a small group of millennial entrepreneurs. So I went to a largely vacant building overlooking the Detroit River and stood among 20-somethings from around the U.S. interested in coming to Detroit because of the possibilities.
As he explained how Detroit was on the rise, Duggan teasingly, but also seriously, told the group, “Only extreme rebels come to Detroit.”
“If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re a rebel by nature,” Duggan said. “You had to ignore what your friends said, maybe what your family said, about ‘don’t take this chance.’ You’ve got that rebel streak in you.”
Little did I realize I had that rebel streak in me.
A few months earlier I had left a stable editing job in Washington, D.C., to follow my now-husband to a city I grew up near, but seldom in. As a journalist, I was intrigued by the stories I heard of people my age opening restaurants, bars and clothing boutiques. Wouldn’t it be fun to tell those stories and be a part of this magical resurgence that didn’t yet seem real in 2016? So we took a leap of faith. I found a reporting job and moved into a city I called home, but barely knew.
Fast forward a few months, and I caught that entrepreneurial bug when interviewing entrepreneurs who turned their passions into brick-and-mortar shops, with little in their bank accounts, but a whole lot of grit and determination.
This was indeed the city of possibility.
I started dreaming of an idea of my own — a space where writers, designers, photographers and other creatives would feel at home and could work during the day. The nights would host book talks, open mics, writing workshops and other creative experiences I couldn’t find walking through the downtown streets. The dream kept growing in my head as I added local art exhibits and personal writing coaches who were top journalists and authors. I couldn’t shake the vision of this community and cultural space. Over lunch near Campus Martius, I ended up sharing the vision with a mentor who gave me the push I needed to go after this dream and make it a reality.
Nine months and one day after opening, I was forced to close The Detroit Writing Room’s doors. I pray it’s only temporary.
I did my due diligence to take a Build Institute course and learn how to write a business plan. I revised it again and again, creating different versions for each potential location I scouted. Yet nowhere in this business plan did I have a section: “How to Respond in a Pandemic.”
Saying that startups and established businesses in Detroit, and across the country, were caught off guard by the coronavirus is an understatement. One day we were open with tables filled; the next, we sat empty.
“Virtual workshops” are also two words that never appear in those business plan pages. As of March 16, I made the decision that if the DWR had any chance of survival, we’d have to move the coaching sessions, writing workshops, yoga for writers classes and even open mic nights to Zoom.
It’s a Band-Aid, as we count on in-person experiences like book launches and private events for networking, fundraisers and celebrations like bridal showers or birthday parties to pay the rent. We’re not in a Bedrock building, so our rent hasn’t been forgiven for three months like some of our neighbors around the corner on Woodward Avenue.
A few months ago I quit my full-time magazine job to focus on The Detroit Writing Room and a new nonprofit arm that would offer free summer writing and photography camps for Detroit high school students.
Thanks to COVID-19, many funding sources from foundations have been diverted or halted. I’m so incredibly grateful the Fisher Foundation is still supporting our photography camp we’ve postponed to August.
I truly don’t know what will happen in the next few months. Even when the stay-at-home order is lifted, I fear it will be a while before Detroiters feel comfortable venturing out to hear an author speak or sit next to someone at a creative writing workshop.
What I do know is that I’m not about to let a virus crush my dreams and what I’ve worked to build the last three-plus years. It would be easy to take down the Detroit photos from the wall, pack up the mugs, books, vintage typewriters and purple pens, sell the 100-year-old chandeliers, and just walk away with whatever is left in the business bank account. But that would be the safe route, and the extreme rebels don’t take the safe route.
Honolulu, I’ll save you for a vacation one day.
If you’re interested in attending a virtual workshop or event, visit detroitwritingroom.com/events.
Disclosure: Model D managing editor Dorothy Hernandez is a coach for the Detroit Writing Room's summer camp for students.