Lots of new entrepreneurs are ready to go at the 2009 Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference in Detroit.
Excerpt:
Dubrece Smith was downsized in December, but that's only made her more determined to pursue her dream -- running a day spa chain.
But Smith, 36, knows that business and the $250,000 she needs to kick it off aren't just going to drop into her lap. That's why the Ypsilanti resident was pitching her business idea to a table of entrepreneurs Monday at the 2009 Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference. The event, which started Sunday and ends today, is at the Detroit Marriott in the Renaissance Center.
The attendees were ready to make deals, challenging their tablemates at lunch to pitch a business idea in two minutes or less. Ebony Rider-El, a Detroit native attending California State University, San Bernardino, jumped in, even when she was assigned a random product -- the fork beside her plate.
Smith, who lost her accounting job in December, also took a stab at pitching her dream, explaining how she would start her spa concept in Detroit. Then she asked for criticism.
"I have always wanted to be in business for myself ever since I was a child," said Smith, who was born in Detroit and grew up in Westland. "So I'm here making connections ... learning how to network."
Read the rest of the Detroit Free Press story
here.
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