- The 11th Annual Small Business Workshop presented by the Lee Group takes place on May 14th at The Corner Ballpark in Detroit.

This year's theme is "Thriving Through Uncertainty."

The Free Event provides expert advice, resources, and networking for small business owners.

Here to tell us more is Mark Lee, president of the Lee Group and a Detroit PBS board member, along with Dimitrius Hutcherson, president of First Independence Bank, a sponsor of the event.

Welcome.

- Thanks for having us.

- Thank you for having me.

- So this is an exciting event that you have coming up, and certainly very timely.

Wonderful that First Independence is a sponsor.

I'm gonna find out a little bit first from Mark about what the event will be like.

What will the day be like?

- Yeah, I'm so excited to say it's our 11th annual event, and it's a half-a-day event focusing primarily on entrepreneurs and small businesses.

And what we do is we have speakers from across Detroit, business leaders from across Detroit as well.

We have other entrepreneurs who will be speaking and addressing a key issue.

And so the issue this year that we're focused on is thriving through uncertainty, thriving through uncertainties.

Now, think about the times that we are in.

Detroit has 62,000 small businesses.

We're the fourth and largest city in the country according to the US Census data in terms of the number of small businesses.

And lot of those businesses are nervous.

A lot of them are like figuring out, what do we do, you know, with the administration, with certainly the talk of tariffs and everything that's taking place.

So this workshop will be addressing specific issues focused on thriving through uncertainty.

You will walk away with practical solutions and advice.

- Awesome.

So, Dimitrius, why did First Independence decide to support this event?

- Well, thanks for having me again.

We felt that the whole topic of thriving through uncertainty is important to bring these issues out and really put business owners at ease, given that, while there's uncertainty, we still have some things in place that we can offer our customers to be able to have solutions to work through the uncertainty and be sure that they have a banking partner that's here to assist them.

And Mark's message and the work that he's done in the community has helped so many other small business owners, so we're delighted to be a partner with him.

- Great.

So what are some of the highlights of the day?

What do you think that people will be looking forward to?

- We're gonna have the... We're gonna have a motivational speaker who will be coming in.

Again, lot of entrepreneurs are working on the island and they don't necessarily have that support.

So I want to change the tonality, have someone come and have an uplifting talk, essentially, motivate them.

They're gonna have an economist, and the economist is gonna come in and talk about the state of the economy.

There's a lot of conversations.

Is there gonna be a recession, what's happening with the stock market and things like that.

We're not gonna... We're not gonna be talking about the specifics within the economy.

In other words, how can this impact your business?

What are some of the strategies you ought to think about as you're refocusing on your business moving forward?

We're gonna talk about mind over business.

What we mean there is that mental health is a challenge, and we recognize that.

And so someone's gonna come in and give us a talk on the importance of taking care of yourself mentally, as well as physically.

And then what we talk about cybersecurity.

We're in era now where we have hacking that's taking place, and small business still are not protected in totality.

So someone's gonna need a conversation on cybersecurity.

And lastly, a panel discussion with business leaders from across Detroit that talks again about how do you thrive through uncertainty.

- So it sounds like you're covering all the bases.

- I think so.

- Excellent, excellent.

So, small businesses might not think about the importance of their relationship with their bank.

What are things that First Independence is able to do that maybe small businesses haven't thought about?

- Well, what we do is we provide alternative solutions to help them work through some of the questions and nuances that go on in economic cycles that occur.

We are here to be partners to provide alternative lending solutions in the event that they need options to consider and we will also provide financial literacy for folks that are really in need of that.

Financial literacy is a way of really providing folks with options and knowledge that really will enhance their ability to make decisions.

- So have either one of you found, are there particular businesses, small businesses in Detroit that tend to thrive maybe more than others, or what are kind of the popular areas or what are people involved in?

- You start to see businesses in tech industry beginning to thrive.

I mean, everybody's talking about apps, right?

The app business, development, they're beginning to thrive.

The traditional businesses, the suppliers continue to struggle because we're so dependent on the automotive industry here.

So we're finding some of those individuals, those types of businesses are, you know, they still have a challenge.

I wanna give a very special shout out to First Independence Bank.

This is a 55th year, and they have, you're talking about somebody thriving through uncertainty for 55 years.

And we we're gonna highlight and have a fireside chat, a one-on-one conversation with the First Independence Bank that talks about how they've been able to thrive for 55 years in the great city of Detroit.

- Absolutely.

I'm gonna just follow up on the one area.

When you talk about tech companies, give me an example.

What do you mean by tech companies?

- A lot of times, tech developers, right?

Those in cybersecurity space, those are the ones that are trying to help, in theory, should be helping businesses protect their business.

And so anything in that technology space, right?

Anything that involves computers, computer technology.

So I think really the growth area continues to be in the tech space and app development.

We're seeing, you know, the apps that delivers food, right?

So those types of business continue to thrive.

So, if people are looking at starting a business, still pull the landscape back, look at the entire landscape, pull the picture back, and look at the types of business that you think that you can really add value to the customers for.

- Do your homework.

- Do your homework.

- Absolutely.

So, as Mark mentioned, 55 years for First Independence.

I think that a lot of people don't realize the size of the bank and your reach because I know you also are now in Minnesota as well.

So talk about the reach and the types of services you provide.

- Sure.

So again, First Independence is gonna celebrate 55 years on May 14th.

We evolved initially as a bank that was formed as a positive outcome of the 1967 civil unrest.

And we were initially focused on providing financial independence for people of color.

We ultimately have evolved into a full service bank.

While we are Black-owned, we're not Black only.

You have the ability now to have a reach through not just a metro Detroit area, but Minneapolis, Minnesota.

And we have partnerships with some of the large global banks where you may have an ATM card at First Independence, but you can use it at any Fifth Third, J.P. Morgan, Chase, Bank of America without a surcharge.

And we have a full suite of products.

You can open up a bank accounts online at www.firstindependence.com.

You can business services, commercial lending, residential, a full suite of products that are catering to your specific needs.

So we've evolved into a bank that is for everyone, and our customer base has expanded.

- Excellent.

And I know you provide financial literacy services as well.

- Yeah, we do a great deal of that.

We have individuals that work in our branches in partnership with Operation Hope, where we have financial wellbeing coaches that help individuals that are trying to get that taste of the American dream, i.e, home ownership.

If they may have some blemishes in their credit profile, with Operation Hope, we help them remove those blemishes and position them for home ownership.

And we have team members that actually do financial literacy workshops and, in certain instances, myself as well.

- Great.

So, Mark, talk a little bit about the Lee Group and how you advocate for small businesses.

- Yeah, yeah.

The Lee Group has been around for 17 years.

And I started the company 17 years ago.

I was running a major organization from a marketing perspective.

And what I noticed in those days, people would pitch me their business.

They would, you know, I controlled a huge budget.

They didn't know how to pitch me, and I got frustrated.

And a lot of them were small businesses.

So when I moved back to Detroit, I made it a mission.

The mission of the Lee Group is to provide the resources to help small businesses grow and navigate to certain challenges.

And I'm very proud that 17 years later, we still stand here.

We started at the height of a recession in 2008 here in Detroit.

We have survived, obviously, the pandemic, and we're still standing.

And by the way, we are growing.

And if I could also say very quickly, the workshop is free.

It's free.

- Yeah, that's very important.

- I wanna make sure that people realize all this expertise, and it's free.

- Thanks to First Independence.

That's great.

- Thank you.

- So what are the kind of stumbling blocks usually?

What are the challenges that you see when you're talking to a potential small business?

- You know, that is, they still don't know how to market themselves.

You know, you have to have the ability to stand up in front of people, sell your idea.

- That elevator pitch.

- That elevator pitch.

Business is about building relationships.

Build a relationship with your prospective client.

It's okay to have a board of advisor.

People think I'm an expert.

I guess, respectfully, I am in certain areas, but I'm not an expert in everything.

I had to pick up the phone.

I call people all the time and say, "Hey, what do you think?"

The number one issue that comes up survey after survey, and Dimitrius can relate to this, is access to capital.

People have an idea, they don't necessarily have the money, so how do you finance your business?

And the last challenge is, people will have an idea, but write it down.

Write it down and develop a plan.

A lot of times, people will come to me and say, "Mark, I have this idea."

And I'll say, "What's your plan?"

"Uh, not exactly sure what I'm gonna do."

- Yeah.

- That's the recipe for failure.

- Good point.

So what's the best way to take advantage of this day, this free event?

How do you suggest, in addition to, you know, having a plan that people tackle this day and make sure that they walk away with what they want?

- They want to come in and have open ears.

Just listen, ask questions.

We set up time for businesses to network with each other as well.

So just come in, take notes.

Don't be afraid to ask questions.

People like Dimitrius and his team are willing to talk to you, they're willing to work with you.

'Cause the objective is for people to come through this, and we're gonna help make you successful moving forward.

- Awesome.

So you'll have a team on site as well?

- Yeah, one of our key individuals will be participating in a fireside chat and we'll make herself available to answer questions that some of the small business or fledgling business owners have.

- Great.

And I know you have an extensive website as well that provides information about your services.

- You visit First Independence, www.firstindependence.com.

You can apply for consumer loans, commercial loans, and you'd be lined up.

And we actually have a loan program for small business owners that is in participation with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

But that all can be accessed on our online website.

- Great.

Well, best of luck for the event.

And like you said, it's free.

Very important.

So, thanks so much and much success to you, and much success to the small businesses that day.