Folsom, Calif. – (April 14, 2023) – With as many as 20 percent of small businesses failing within the first year of opening their doors, SAFE Credit Union’s commercial lending team is working to help Sacramento area upstarts with the information and resources they need to be successful.
As part of that effort, SAFE is hosting the Black Entrepreneur Success Academy’s (BESA) first graduation ceremony this week at the credit union’s Folsom headquarters, 2295 Iron Point Road. SAFE is a sponsor of the academy.
Inspired by the story of Tulsa’s once thriving Black Wall Street, the newly created academy provides 12 weeks of professional development to Black business owners in varying stages of creating and running start-ups.
The first 16 graduates began the academy in January engaging in a series of courses focusing on business models, finance as well as marketing and social media.
“We are so grateful to SAFE for their ongoing support of our program and for hosting the academy’s first graduation,” says BESA co-founder and facilitator Robynne Rose-Haymer, Vice President Capitol Impact, LLC.
BESA Co-Director Robynne Rose-Haymer
Rose-Haymer, who began the program with curriculum creator and facilitator Anthony Robinson, says BESA began as “a back of a napkin pitch” after watching a news story about Sacramento’s own Black Wall Street in Florin Square mall.
Anthony Robinson, BESA Curriculum Creator and Facilitator
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s California Small Business Economic Profile statistics show of the 4.2 million small businesses in the state, a half percent, or 226,016, are Black-owned businesses.
“Based on the high attrition of early-stage Black businesses, the community identified a need for practical skills and networking opportunities to help them survive and thrive,” says Rose-Haymer. “This group of entrepreneurs, in most cases, is doing double duty, working full time, taking this class and building their businesses. These are resilient, scrappy folks who are working very hard to bring their dreams to life.”
The program’s first graduates are entrepreneurs operating beauty, counseling, educational support, fashion, ice cream, jewelry, photography, sensory box and wellness businesses. There are also two bookkeepers, a mobile party photobooth owner and a vegan food operator.
In addition to the lessons and instruction, students built connections and networked with fellow business owners and business executives and entrepreneurs. The class culminated with students presenting pitches to potential partners and banking professionals.
Anjetta Johnson, owner of Ivy Solutions, a bookkeeping business she opened in South Sacramento a year ago, says the program helped her develop a strategic plan.
“The classes really helped me have more of a focus and gave me the idea to create more of a niche for my business,” says Johnson. “It also helped me think about expansion efforts and what that would look like.”
Brigitte Muderhwa, owner of the African-themed selfie boutique The House of Royals, says the program helped her further develop her business plan. Her Florin Square Mall store opened last October.
“Before, I used to have just a basic business plan and now it’s more structured. That was the missing part,” Muderhwa says.
SAFE Senior Vice President of Commercial Lending Ken Getz met with BESA students and participated in the students’ assignment to pitch their business’ financial viability to potential investors.
“The program is a confidence builder offering each participant an opportunity to pitch their business ideas and to gain the needed support to take them to the next level,” Getz says. “We are so excited to be on the ground floor of this much-needed Sacramento program.”
SAFE Vice President of Commercial Lending Ken Getz
Members of SAFE’s commercial lending team also help boost area small businesses by supporting Sacramento’s Small Business Administration Emerging Leaders/THRIVE program, as well as the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Development Center, and the Women’s Business Center.
BESA will begin again this summer. To register or to participate in the program email [email protected].
In addition to consumer services, SAFE offers business services including commercial loan products.
For more information about BESA and the graduation ceremony at SAFE email [email protected].