All Articles Tagged "black entrepreneur"
Philly Businessman Exposed as a Phony
(Reuters) – Tyrone L. Gilliams Jr., a commodities trader, part-time online preacher and hip hop event promoter, is not one for understatement. In a promotional video for a celebrity-studded charity event last December — among the headliners was rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs — Gilliams mugs for the camera. Posing with stacks of money on his lap, he bills himself as a mogul, a philanthropist and a self-starter. But now one of his investors is crying foul, suing the Camden, New Jersey, native and Ivy League graduate for fraud. David Parlin, a businessman from Cincinnati, Ohio, claims Gilliams misappropriated much of his private foundation’s $4 million investment and used the money to pay for trips to the Bahamas, outings at Miami nightclubs and shopping sprees at Saks Fifth Avenue and a Cherry Hill, New Jersey Mercedes Benz dealership. On its face, the investment venture that Parlin sunk some of his foundation’s money into seems dubious. He was promised, according to court papers, a five percent a week return — the kind of performance that would make even Ponzi king Bernard Madoff blush. And it was an investment strategy using U.S. Treasuries, where the current yield on a 10-year T-bill is 3.2 percent. Worse, Parlin says he didn’t even know the money had been passed on to Gilliams to manage until shortly before he filed the lawsuit. He’s also suing New York financier Vassilis Morfopoulos, who transferred the foundation’s money to Gilliams.
Posh Boutique Caters to Pets
(Uptown) — Is Fido’s bling looking busted? Perhaps Fluffy could use a pink Mohawk to spice up those trips to the park. In Atlanta, funky dog owners demand flavor for their canine counterparts, and they get it at Glamour Paws, an upscale pet spa and boutique. For two years, the Virginia Highland haunt has treated man’s best friend to the good life, and co-owner Nichole Ferguson’s glammed-out vision—complete with a chandelier, high-end items from labels like Juicy Couture, and eco-friendly pet treats from brands such as Free Range—is a blast for anyone to see.
Behind the Afrobella Banner
(Black Enterprise) — For Patrice Yursik, having natural hair is more than a fad, it’s about embracing her God-given curls and understanding that it’s just as beautiful as any other form of tresses. Longing to see a reflection of herself in mainstream media, the Chicago-based blogger took matters into her own hands and created Afrobella.com, a blog that celebrates women who are “all shades of beautiful,” and reviews products for natural hair. Since launching in 2006, Afrobella.com has won several Black Weblog Awards—including Best Niche Blog, Best Culture Blog, Best Writing in a Blog, and Best Style and Fashion. Now, Yursik’s achievements are being recognized by BlackEnterprise.com as part of our first annual Black Blogger Month. Here, she discusses her journey to loving her natural tresses and the business of blogging about beauty.
I started blogging because…I started noticing a void in the representation of women who look like me in magazines and online. There weren’t any natural hair blogs to speak of at that time. So I wanted to write about natural hair and also kind of depict the fact that just because you have natural hair, doesn’t mean you’re wearing clothes that you made yourself out of hemp and make-up made from natural pigments. Women who are natural can also be glamorous.
Bakery Business Is No Piece of Cake
(Uptown Magazine) — “I eat cake every day,” says Aliyyah Baylor with a laugh. The co-owner of the Harlem-based bakery Make My Cake rode into the dessert world on a wave of Southern baking traditions upheld by her mother and grandmother. Her mother, Jo-Ann Baylor, started selling homemade cakes when she was 5, but when mom returned to corporate America, Aliyyah, at age 18, picked up the reins. “I don’t think I fully understood [how much] my mom did,” reflects the tall, svelte entrepreneur. “I was making icing, doing the fi lling, and prepping the cakes, and when [the business] was handed to me, it was like, Oh, I get it, but not really.”
Can Magic Johnson Work His Magic at Vibe?
By Sheryl Nance-Nash
Can Magic Johnson work his magic yet again? The smart money suspects yes, as does Robert Miller, who, along with Quincy Jones, founded Vibe magazine in 1993.
Johnson teamed up with Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies earlier this year to invest in Vibe Holdings. He became chairman of the New York-based company that owns Vibe, Vibe.com, Uptown and Uptown Professional magazines, the Soul Train TV show and library, as well as the Vibe Lifestyle Network, a collection of some 25 websites.
“Magic Johnson has a track record of success in developing businesses in the urban market. His credibility, resume and his knowledge in this space opens a lot of doors,” said Miller, chairman of the Vibe and Uptown Magazine group.
The infusion of capital will fuel expansion. “This will give us a lot of flexibility to grow our businesses and the opportunity to acquire or invest in others in the urban media space,” said Miller.
Though Johnson will not be involved in the day-to-day operations, when it comes to setting strategy and direction, he’ll be the go-to guy, much as he was for the Lakers.
“In addition to participating in, creating and agreeing to the big picture, at any point he will also have four or five initiatives to focus on,” Miller added.
Johnson’s moxie could move the needle for Vibe Holdings, which in the last year has found its sea legs. After advertising sales fell more than 40 percent in June of 2009, Vibe magazine shut down. Six months later it relaunched, under the new ownership of Uptown Media and private equity firm InterMedia Partners.
Mobile Merchants Stay on a Roll
(Examiner) — New York City is no stranger to the entrepreneurial spirit. Everyone wants to make a buck and plenty of people seem to have something to sell – an idea, a product, and even a knock-off of someone else’s idea or product. But instead of setting up shop at a table on the curb or paying ever-increasing rent for a building (or a crevice between two buildings), those convinced they have something to sell that New Yorkers will buy are increasingly going mobile. You’ve seen them at the corner of your office building, down the block from your apartment, and anywhere there’s room enough to park. They sell tacos, cupcakes, froyo, falafels, dumplings, pizzas, burgers, oxtail, schnitzel, and anything else one can kill, clean, and cook. New Yorkers can find the perfect lunch, late-night snack, or in-between treat almost anywhere in the City for not-too-bad of a price. But how about a hot t-shirt, spanking new ball cap, or an out-of-this-world toy?
Teen Designer's Prom Dress Give-Away
(The Grio) — Most high school students take it one day at a time. Tanesa Patterson takes it season by season. She’s 16. Not even driving yet, but already designing and selling her own fashion line. Tanesa’s always loved pretty clothes, and the dream to design them started at 12.
Ex-Pat Builds Exercise Empire
(Hurriyet Daily News) — With 14 years of experience in law enforcement as a weaponless self-defense instructor for the state of California, Tony Hill is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with. Yet that’s not where his list of credentials ends. As a member of an adult contemporary pop group that has performed in Las Vegas and Turkey, an American TV personality, member of the Grammy’s Association in Los Angeles and a fitness consultant to the likes of Miss California, professional athletes and the cheerleading team for the NFL’s San Diego Chargers, Hill has a wealth of experience in a diverse number of fields. His latest mission, however, is bringing a culture of fitness to Turkey. With over 20 years of experience in the sector, Hill and his wife, Karen Hill, are now focusing on a series of outdoor events in Nişantaşı Park to be held in May, comprising of hip hop events and choreography workshops. Also in store for the coming months are summer boot camps, fitness work shops and special programs for children’s fitness and nutrition.
African Bakery Expands With High-Powered Help
(Minneapolis Star Tribune) — Francesco O’Ryan, owner of the East African Bakery, launched his company in 2000 to satisfy a craving, shared by tens of thousands of other African immigrants in Minnesota, for the breads he grew up eating. Ethnic markets soon snapped up East African Bakery’s spongy injera bread — a staple eaten with meat or vegetarian sauces at most meals by Eritreans, Ethiopians and Somalis — and its sweet hambasha bread, often eaten as a snack or used for sandwiches, O’Ryan explained. The flatbreads also are served in some restaurants and are on the shelves at the Seward and Wedge co-ops in Minneapolis and the Holy Land deli. Now O’Ryan’s focus is to expand to mainstream grocery stores throughout the Twin Cities, a push that may begin in a month or two, and eventually to other cities and states. And he’s getting some high-powered help from food company giants Cargill Inc. and General Mills. O’Ryan turned to the Metropolitan Economic Development Association (MEDA), a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that offers consulting, training, business planning and financial assistance to minority-owned business.
Hip Hop’s Sartorial Pursuits
(JohnJohnSaidIt) — The growing demand for urban and hip hop clothing lines have lead many to start their own lines of branded hip hop clothing lines. some are small, and some are big. some of the biggest names in hip hop fashion clothing lines today weren’t only started by professional fashion designers alone. Popular branded hip hop and urban clothing lines today, such as sean john clothing, house of dereon, dereon, apple bottoms, rocawear, are those brands of whom are started by some of the most famous entertainers and hip hop artists today. Here are a short list of those popular brands of clothing lines that were founded by different celebrities and hip hop executives.
Sean John Clothing: First of the list is sean john clothing. Coming from the man they once called as the “Shiny Suit Man”, Sean John Combs has showed his talents not only on hip hop music, but also with Sean John Clothing is an urban clothing line founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs in 1998 that won the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Award for Menswear Designer of the Year in 2000, and one in 2004.
