- PNC is proud to support "Business Forward," where community leaders discuss the issues confronting business in Central Illinois.

(light music) (bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music continues) - Welcome to "Business Forward."

I'm your host, Matt George.

This is going to be a really fun show for me.

I've got Denise Moore on.

Denise does so many great things for our community, and her husband Gary, well, he always gets the pats on the back, but we know who really does all the work.

(laughs) But we're gonna focus on something that she's very passionate about, and I really think the whole community and every community needs to be passionate about this topic.

I see Denise as an entrepreneur and community advocate, and today, we're gonna discuss the Minority Business Development Center.

- [Denise] Yes.

- [Matt] So, welcome, Denise.

- Thank you.

Thank you for having me here.

- Well, let's get down to it.

Let's talk about you first.

Are you from Peoria, or are you from Central Illinois?

- No, I grew up on the South Side of Chicago, and what people are surprised when they hear about from me was I was raised for early part of my life by a single mom.

And it was myself, my little brother and my mom, who slept in the same bed on the studio apartment on the South Side of Chicago, and I thought that's what all kids did.

And so it wasn't until I was in my mid-20s when I told that story to somebody and they said, "Well, you grew up poor."

I said, "Hmm, nope, I wasn't poor.

My family was there.

I had extended family that lived in the neighborhood, and that's how I grew up."

I went to all-Black schools on the South Side of Chicago and didn't know anything different until we moved out to the suburbs.

And from there, I grew up in the suburbs and moved to Normal to finish my degree at Illinois State University in 1987.

- [Matt] Okay.

- And I came to Peoria by way of my husband, that you know.

(Matt chuckles) I always tease that, you know, for some reason, he wanted me to live with him, and now there are no give-backs.

(laughs) - [Matt] There are no give backs.

(laughs) - That's right.

- That is funny.

So maybe your drive, and I didn't know that story, but maybe your drive really comes from your mom.

- Yes, absolutely because she worked in a factory and we were up and at my grandma's house at six o'clock every morning.

So I think that's why I love the mornings.

And she worked all the time.

- I love that.

- And she married the gentleman that I consider my dad, he did the same thing.

He was a UAW member for 35 years, and she was AFL-CIO for 22 years, both of them involved with the unions at the time.

And that's where I think my work ethic came from.

- Yeah, because when I see you and Gary, both of what you do in the community, I think of the word "grit."

You know, you're just, you're grinding, and you're grinding for the better- - Yeah.

- [Matt] And for the cause and so whatever that cause may be.

- I think we grind for the community.

- [Matt] Grind for the community.

- We have, in our lives, done okay, and so the things that we do, we do out of a sense of responsibility for the community.

That's how we were raised.

You're supposed to give back to the community and leave it better than you found it, and that's what we're attempting to do.

- Yeah, and if you think about it too, some of the things that you do, it starts with kids.

- [Matt] Yes.

- You know, I don't think of Gary as an example of TV guy or radio person.

I don't think of him as that.

I think of him as bringing his drums out to Youth Farm and showing the kids what music's about and having drum circles and doing these things with Children's Home and doing these things with all these great nonprofits in our area.

Then you do the same thing.

- Yes, in fact, our daughter has grown up sharing us with other kids.

She feels like she has other sisters and brothers.

- [Matt] I love it.

- Because there's been so many kids coming through our household when we had our business in downtown, well, uptown Normal.

There are a lot of kids we sent care packages to in college.

When they went away, when they got married, when they have children, they still call us, and so we feel like we have more than one child.

- [Matt] Yeah, well, you do.

- Yes, we do, and we love it.

- That's cool.

Yeah, there's nothing better.

So let's talk about that piece in Bloomington-Normal because before you had the vision of the Minority Business Development Center, there was another vision.

I mean, I think it was called the Black Business Alliance.

Is that?

- That's right.

- And talk to me about that.

How did that start, and what was the goal?

Like, what was your long-term vision of that?

- I started the Black Business Alliance as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in Bloomington in 1996.

And the reason I did that was in '95, I tried to start my own business, and I have a business degree.

I can get this done.

Well, I quickly learned that reading about a thing is different than doing a thing.

And the locations that I tried to go to get business assistance all closed at five o'clock.

Well, I was working at State Farm at the time, and by the time I got off work, I couldn't get to those other locations, or I had to take personal time off work to go to these places that were open.

And after struggling with that for a period of time, I decided we need an organization that is available in the evening and on weekend that relates to the minority culture that can say, "Okay, be honest with me.

You know, don't sugarcoat it.

'Oh, Denise, this is a great idea.

I think you're gonna do wonderful.'

Well, maybe say to me, 'Denise, have you thought about this or that or this other thing?

And do you understand the struggle that you're gonna have in this other area?'

And then point me to resources that I can find out more."

And it didn't exist, and so I started the Black Business Alliance with 35 individuals right outta the gate.

And what we did, a group of all volunteers, we met once a month for the express purpose of bringing in what I called an educator to talk about some aspect of business.

And that grew to the point where in 2007, I was able to start a radio station for that organization in Bloomington-Normal that still exists today.

And I drafted someone you know to assist me in building that radio station out.

I always say that I know how to spell "radio," but I didn't know how to run radio.

But as you mentioned, my husband, Gary, started his career in radio, a country-western radio station right here in Peoria.

And so he helped me along with some others in Bloomington-Normal, Gil Chinnery, I have to mention because he's the engineer over there, and some others.

And it helped to get the word out to the minority community that there is an organization here to help you with your business idea.

When I moved to Peoria, I was still living in, excuse me, I was still working in Bloomington, but I discovered the same types of things existed here in Peoria.

There was no grassroots organization on a day-to-day basis trying to help minorities start businesses, and so I started the Black Business Alliance here in Peoria, the Peoria chapter, and in that same year, started a radio station, which is reaching out to the minority community and has become the premier resource to get information out to that community.

So that's how it all got started.

- It's pretty cool because I think sometimes when you go and start something like this, you really, and I'm not putting words in your mouth, so tell me if I'm off, but you kind of don't know where it's gonna end, and there's a piece of you too that it may not ever end.

It may just have tentacles that reach, but I think it goes back to, if you think about it, like, you're an entrepreneur, I mean that is that entrepreneurial mindset that you had.

State Farm, good job, but it wasn't your passion.

- [Denise] Right.

- You know, and so I think to do something like this, you have to have a passion like no other.

Am I right?

- You're absolutely right.

In fact, when I was at State Farm, I was in leadership, and with my team, at one point, I had a team of 11 people.

And one of the vice presidents came to my desk once and said, "Why is it that all of your people on the employee opinion survey didn't have any problems with what's going on here?"

(Matt laughs) I said, "Well..." Well, they did have one problem.

They had a problem with the cafeteria.

- [Matt] Okay, that had nothing to do with you.

- Nothing to do with me.

And so what I said to him was that, and I have to mention his name was Willie Brown because he was someone instrumental in my development when I was in Bloomington-Normal, and I said to him that, "I empower each person at their desk."

This is your business.

Your desk is your business.

You have to educate your people, so that's professional development.

You have to watch the budget, so what materials are you using.

You have to make sure that your customer is taken care of.

That was our agents and those that worked around them.

And so if you empower individuals, after you train them, you empower them, they will do the work that you ask them to do.

And guess what.

You also treat them like adults because that's what they are.

And my team over-performed every quarter because they were adults and I gave them the information they needed.

If they felt like they needed additional resources, I helped provide those additional resources and then let them do what they do, and it was a pleasure.

- That is great.

So this is a loaded question, but I'm gonna ask it anyway.

Why is it so difficult for minority businesses to have that kickstart?

Because I'm gonna go into what the center does and the offerings in a second, but, you know, it's like I sit here and I think to myself, if you look at, take away the word "minority," just business.

- [Denise] Okay.

- I want you to have a business here.

I want you to have a business in Champaign and Galesburg and this and that.

It helps our community.

And there's a lotta smart people in every community.

Right?

- Right.

- And I think people have tried different things, but it's almost the mindset of why can't we all chip in and help someone like you or whoever that wants to start a business?

I'm gonna give you just a quick example.

So I have a lotta people on this show that are entrepreneurs, and I had Gary Weinzimmer tell me once, he said, "People usually start with the idea of starting a business, they think money first, but it has nothing to do with money at the beginning."

But that's where people get tripped up.

So they get tripped up right from the start.

Right?

- Mm-hm.

- And then all of the sudden, you don't have a plan, you don't have a strategy, you don't have a business plan, you don't have all these different things, but there's a lotta people that you can reach out to.

So maybe that's what you're trying to fill.

Am I right there or not?

- In my experience, the people who come to our office that have an idea, Matt knows how to cook, and everyone raves about Matt's cooking.

- [Matt] They do, actually.

- Oh, see?

I didn't even know that.

- [Matt] (laughs) I'm joking.

- They rave about Matt's cooking, and someone says, "You know, Matt, you should have your own business.

You should open up a restaurant."

And Matt thinks, "Well, you know, I cook very well.

All of my friends and family love my cooking.

So yes, I wanna start a business as a restaurant."

And then you go out, and you find a restaurant, and you open your business.

But Matt has no idea about where to get products and services.

- [Matt] Finance.

- Matt has no idea about finance.

Matt has no idea about location or health department requirements.

So that trips you up, and all you wanted to do was cook.

And so that's why when they come into our center- - [Matt] Okay, yeah, that's a good example.

- And it happens all the time over and over.

So if people aren't thinking about money.

They're thinking about their passion.

But what happens to their passion, it becomes a nightmare if they don't plan to be successful.

And who is it that say, "If you're not planning to succeed, then your plan is to fail"?

And so we try to help people plan to succeed.

Oftentimes, though, people are impatient because they're so excited and so much passion.

They wanna do it right now.

And I'm telling them, "Okay, pump the brakes.

Let's get your business plan in place."

And folks think, "Well, the business plan is for the bank.

I don't need to go to the bank."

"Well, that's partly true.

The business plan is for you."

Let me give an example.

My husband and I started a business in uptown Normal called Cultural Expressions, and I had a business plan, and it was beautiful, and I went to the bank, and all that was done.

And when we opened for the first six weeks, it was outstanding.

We had people coming from near and far.

Money was rolling in, and it was great.

And then something happened.

Things stopped.

For a whole week, nobody came in the door.

And literally, I was in tears.

And my husband was like, "Denise, why are you crying?"

I said, "Why am I crying?

No one's coming in the store.

What's going on?"

He says, "Well, what does your business plan say?"

I thought, "Oh yeah, where is that?

Where's that business plan?"

Because I had planned for that kind of thing.

We were so successful that I had stopped doing what made us successful.

And when I went back and looked at the business plan, it talked about marketing and advertising and outreach.

I had stopped doing those because we were so busy in the business.

But you have to keep doing that, even when you're in the business.

And I ask people, "Think about McDonald's.

As big as McDonald's is, they still advertise because they wanna keep filling that funnel of people coming in the business."

And we forget that when we start being successful.

- I think that's a great analogy right there.

So let's now talk Minority Business Development Center because your offerings are just, I mean, all-encompassing.

I love it.

So I studied it.

Like, for this past week, I've studied.

I've gone back and forth and read all these different things.

And so let's talk about entrepreneurship training.

That's a big one.

- Yes.

- [Matt] So what's involved with that?

- Well, that's our core.

We started because I saw a need for minorities, specifically African Americans, to be trained on how to run a business.

The example I gave, your passion is not going to be enough to carry you through.

You need to understand how to open the door and when to open the door, and what research have you done on how to reach the market you're trying to go after?

You can't just say, "People will come because they know me," because after you get through all of those people, you need other people.

- [Matt] Right.

- And so that's how it all started.

That's our core.

That's what our mission was.

Before I started this organization, I studied Peoria and I looked around to see what was missing because I don't want to recreate the wheel.

I bring in partners so that I don't have to recreate the wheel, so that's our core.

And we teach people not only how to create a business plan.

Well, what are the elements of a business plan?

You know, how do I complete a marketing plan, a financial plan?

I don't know.

Triple net lease, what does that mean when you talk about location?

- That's good, yeah.

- And so we bring people in to educate them about those things, and that's how we get it done.

- Okay, so one of the things you do is, and I wrote a lotta notes on this, is IT workforce development.

And the reason so is because you hear so many now jobs that are opening up and you've got AI is at the forefront of everything, and you have technology drives everything, and, you know, there's so much going on with ICC and their focus and Eureka and Bradley and Illinois State, but the focus, there's a huge IT focus.

And so you're preparing people to understand not just to get what does IT even mean, but the scope across the board 'cause IT's here but the what you can do in it never ends.

- Yes, absolutely.

And when you look at our kids, they're teaching us things about IT that, you know, we would never know.

- That's true.

- I mean, quick story, my grandson did something on my cellphone, and I swore he had downloaded something I didn't know.

And he would look at me, and he calls me Mom.

"Mom, that was always on your phone."

I've had this phone five years, and I didn't know I could do that?

- I've had that happen.

I'm not laughing because it's happened to me too, yeah.

- Yes, and so what COVID did was shown a bright light on the lack of IT training in the Black community.

So between 18 and 45, 50- - Yes, I get it.

- We bring people in and we teach 'em the very basics, this is a monitor, this is a keyboard, this is where memory goes, all the way up through this is how you take a computer apart and put it back together.

And then on either side of that, we have youth training that became part of something we started because the adults coming in would bring their kids, so now we have something for the kids to do.

And on the other end of that, we're collaborating with AARP to do training for 50-plus.

I had a gentleman come in from B'nai B'rith in his wheelchair, and all he wanted to do was learn how to send an email to his grandchildren.

- [Matt] Aw.

- And I said, "Mr. Dannage, you know all they're gonna do is send you an email for money."

He says, "That's okay.

I just wanna be able to communicate with them.'

- (laughs) I love it!

- And so our core is that group that are working adults, and then we step into the other sides to make a complete picture.

- I like what you say in your marketing where you say it's 21st century opportunities.

- [Denise] That's right.

- Because if you think about it, whether it's skills and competencies or infrastructure, hardware, software, coding, all these different things, I mean, some of these kids really are so, their minds are so untapped.

- [Denise] Mm-hm.

- And we talked about earlier, you gave a shout-out to Junior Achievement off the air.

You know, I always talk about how great different nonprofits are, and Junior Achievement's one of 'em.

But that financial literacy piece, there's another thing that you offer and kinda hold people's hands and step.

And really what you're doing in a way too is you're just the big mentor to a lotta different people.

- And that's it exactly.

That's it exactly.

We don't take complete credit for anybody's success.

We only want to be a small part of what helps you to become successful.

One person outside of you cannot make you successful.

Only you can make you successful.

And I'm hoping that you realize that asking for help to become more successful is what you will do.

- Yeah, I opened a restaurant once, and I had a mentor tell me, and I was so excited, and I was like, "This is gonna be so cool," and the mentor told me, he said, "Matt, what's your exit plan?"

I went, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I dunno, man.

I'm making sandwiches, and this is so fun."

And he goes, "Son," and sure enough, he was right.

- Absolutely.

- And I was not prepared.

And so it's stuff like that because you do this coaching and mentorship piece that's a big part of what you do.

- Right, right.

- So if you would've helped me early on, Denise, (laughs) maybe I would've been a little more successful.

- And you know, M, I'm glad you mentioned that because our business model is "We help keep your business in the black because the only color we see is green."

- [Matt] I love that.

- And so anybody can come to our office.

- [Matt] (laughs) That was great.

- We collaborate and partner with the likes of the Small Business Development Center, with SCORE, with The Nest.

There's an entire entrepreneurship ecosystem in Peoria that most people are not even aware of, and I think we could work better together.

There's a lotta silos out there, but that's starting to break down.

- There's a lot of people like Glenn Ross, as an example, that has, I mean, so brilliant, and he mentors with SCORE.

SCORE is a great organization.

But if you give more opportunities where people go, "Oh, I heard Denise.

I wanna help with that."

And you need people.

- Absolutely, I'm glad you mentioned that because we're a victim of our own success.

This whole great resignation has brought so many more people into our office.

We don't have the funding oftentimes to be able to assist people as quickly as they would like because, you know, when you're a nonprofit, don't have to tell you- - You're stretched.

- You're stretched to the max, and so we're always looking for additional funds.

And we opened another office in Bloomington-Normal.

We had people driving from Bloomington to Peoria to our office because they were only able to get evening services here.

And so we opened an office in Bloomington in Eastland Mall because I did a lot of programs there at the ISU Alumni Center every other weekend, and I had so many people coming there, I said, "We need to open a office here," and we did.

And the city of Bloomington and the town of Normal have been so supportive.

- Good.

- It has been unbelievable.

- You know what though, what just hit me is?

I could say that your organization's needed in every community.

- [Denise] I agree.

- You know, I grew up in Danville, and we got hit hard with big companies, manufacturing leaving.

It went from 60,000 people at one time to 20.

And so we need people that are gonna help build the community back by small business.

Small business drives everything.

- That's what drives everything, and to your point, I was invited down to East St. Louis a couple months ago.

I've been asked to open up a location there.

I've had five or six people regularly coming from Decatur to Bloomington office, and they would like for me to open up a location there.

A victim of your own success suggests that there is so much need that you can't be everywhere, so what I'm trying to do is clone myself in other locations and be a consultant or a mentor to people in those communities to say, "You don't need Denise Moore.

You need you and your folks, and let us help you to get there."

- Yeah, that's a great model.

So there's a few other things.

There's back office support services, executive training.

You have business office incubator, online business directory, mailbox answering services, member services, traditional services.

It's all-encompassing, and it's a great, great facility.

So what are your, quickly, what are your immediate priorities for this upcoming year?

What are you looking at besides people?

- Besides people and funding- - Funding.

- Is to shore up those individuals who are coming through our office.

As I said, there are so many people coming through.

We have four programs, our entrepreneurship program, minority contractor development, IT training, and workforce, and from those four programs, everything else you mentioned really bubbles up to those four because that's where the needs are.

We need volunteers coming in to mentor businesses, and maybe it's only an hour a week, or maybe it's only two hours a month.

The mentorship is huge so that they can hear other people saying what we may be saying, that there is more work to be done.

So the mentorship volunteers are needed.

We need funding support for programming.

I have to give a shout-out to the county of Peoria.

They have been amazing in supporting what we do.

- Peoria County, they run a pretty good business.

I mean, they understand what's going on and good leadership.

So what does community mean to you?

I think I could answer it for you, but what does it mean to you, and maybe you and Gary?

- For us, it means all of us pulling in the same direction.

- [Matt] Okay.

- So you may recall when I was in the City Council.

I spent eight years on the City Council here in Peoria, and I would always say that the city of Peoria is dependent upon what is happening on the South Side of Peoria.

And what I mean is this.

You know, everybody has heard the overused phrase, "You're only as strong as your weakest link," and if you can shore up that weak link, then everything gets better.

- Well, I appreciate you coming on board because I tell ya, we could keep talking, and I want to have you back, and I'm gonna do a check-in with you in a few months because I think when people see this, I guess my ask to other people is to help.

And that means many different things, but we need people's brains.

- Absolutely.

- And let's use 'em.

So, Denise Moore, you do great things.

Minority Business Development Center.

Keep it going.

Keep that grit going.

I love it.

- Thank you.

- All right.

- Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

- My name's Matt George, and this is another episode of "Business Forward."

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