(KHQA) — The month of August is a time to celebrateBlack Business Month throughout the country including locally black owned businesses in Quincy.
Great River Economic Development Foundation president Kyle Moore says the month is important.
“We just like to celebrate the entrepreneur spirit and the many black owned businesses in our local area,” said Moore.
Ray Humphrey, who is the owner of DiVine Shine Detailing in Quincy, shares what this community means to him and his business.
“When I came back to Quincy eight years ago, I actually wanted to start a business, because I actually came here and had a community center. So I actually wanted to start a community center. So I wanted to start a business to fund another community center one day. So, this is why we do divine shine, you know.”
Lisa Gaines, the owner of Luxe Floral in Springfield, also talks about what the community means to her.
“We should support our community and that we have various types of talent and different businesses here in Springfield that’s black owned and that we should all be able to take advantage of their services,” Gaines said.
Humphrey also details the process he went through to get his business to where it is today. He describes working at a car dealership, and they knew that he had a talent.
“The guys over there, I was working for them, and then the GMs over there, they said that you need to go out on your own,” Humphrey said. “You got a talent, so you should start your own business, and they said we’ll back you and they did.”
He also gives advice to young people wanting to open their own business.
“Just be ready to work. Just be ready to put your hardhat on, and just don’t give yourself an option. You just always have to work every single day,” he said.
Moore says that black owned businesses are important to every community.
“We want to make sure that everybody regardless of their ethnicity and background know that they can prosper in their very own backyard, and often times people think of businesses as being large scale, but a majority of our small businesses are one or two person operations, and certainly in the state of Illinois that’s true for black-owned businesses.”
Moore also says August isn’t the only month they help black owned businesses. They assist anybody who is wanting to open up their own business.
“We like to be a resource for businesses all year round to where when they’re making that decision to expand, when they’re making that decision to hire another employee, we can be here for them,” Moore said.