BUSINESS START-UP WORKSHOP
SIGN UPS CLOSED
Do you have a fresh business idea? Design it in FOUR live session classes. AND YOU GET PAID :)
Together we begin Tuesday May 16th at 6:00pm at ICNA Relief MA, 257 Roxbury Street, Boston (near Roxbury Crossing). Apply Below:
BUSINESS DESIGN workshop
GET PAID a $120 Stipend for high-quality work and participation
Use a simple plan for Business Startup
Network with start-up peers
Write mission & vision statement
Plan research & narrow your focus
Identify your customer voice and needs
Map your work activities & space (including costs & quality)
Generate & test new ideas
Create a brand, a promotion plan, a sales funnel & more…
Come organize your business idea better, simpler, and truer.
MAY/JUNE APPLICATION IS CLOSED
4 Session-Workshop - IN-PERSON
Each TUESDAY 6pm-8pm
May 16, 23rd, 30th, and June 6th
REQUIREMENTS:
You are interested in starting a business and have an idea (even if you are not sure about the product or service).
You must be serious.
You must commit to actively participating in two hours of class and a minimum of one hr of offline assignment work each week (4 weeks total).
You must be serious.
Did we say you must be serious (smile).
LOCATION: ICNA Relief MA, 257 Roxbury Street, Roxbury-Boston,
NOTIFICATION: Accepted participants will be sent a confirmation email before Class#1.
MATERIALS: Once you are successfully registered, you will be given a workshop Workbook and a 24”x36” business model poster.
Please complete all information below.
“Mr. Joel Mackall has been helping our company Butu International (African hair services and African home base products) for more than 12 years in the Brockton area. He has an excellent track record and is well known for his sense of initiative and persistence. A good example of these is the a fact that most of our new services and products come from his ideas. I am sure that he will help other businesses grow even more and do a great job in any training program. I greatly appreciate his time.”
“The ReIdren Business Group, has been inspirational to my organization, Parents Management, Incorporated. As a project manager for us, Joel is a very knowledgeable and determined young man. His directives has helped us create a business plan to strengthen our approach and to put our vision to work for the community we serve effectively. Our Organizational skills are getting better and
we are able to feel more confident completing each workshop. Thank you, Joel Mackall, Peace & Blessings!”
About Your Workshop/Facilitator
Bro. Joel Mackall is an award-winning Educator & Project Developer with the ReIdren Business Group based in Roxbury MA. He was the co-founder of the SOS Living Museum, the Hidden History of Black Boston Tours, the Nubian Writer's Group and is a self-published author. He has also served as secretary of the Cameroonians of Lowell Association, as an officer on the Warren Gardens Housing Cooperative board, on the advisory council of the Network of Immigrant and African American Solidarity and as a technology chairperson with the Black Community Information Center.
Bro. Joel presented "Excellence AND Culture: Operating Your Cooperative Better, Simpler and Truer" at the National Association of Housing Cooperatives Annual Conference in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands and "Why Do We Black Folks Hate On Each Other?" at the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations' Ancient Egyptian Studies Conference in Newark, NJ. He has led/facilitated numerous professional workshops in Greater Boston on topics including genealogy, African & world history, business design and technology at the Freedom House, Mother Caroline Academy, Warren Gardens, Roxbury Multi-Service Center, Roxbury Community College, Emerson College, Lesley College, South Bay House of Correction, almost all of the BPL neighborhood branches and Walden Square Technology Center (north Cambridge), in both English and Spanish. To learn more/contact Joel at SNLREIDREN or drop a message.
Projects & Awards
•Creative Community Fellow - National Art Strategies (2022)
•Fairmount Cultural Corridor Artist Commission Grant – for “Radical Welcoming: Docu-Poetry Workshop for Greater Upham’s Corner” (2021)
•Tufts Medical Center Community COVID-19 Relief & Recovery Program Grant – for Startup Design for Businesses & Non-profits (2021-2)
•Malcolm X Afrikan Achievers Award for outstanding community service, from the Black Community Information Center Inc. (2021)
•Small Business Startup/Design Program grant, from Berkshire Bank Foundation Community Building (2020)
•Fellowes Athenaeum Trust Fund grants for Technology Instruction at the Dudley Branch Boston Public Library (2014), Smartphone for Seniors (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), Tracing our Roots / Facing Slavery – Family Genealogy (2006, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022), Business Startup for Entrepreneurs (2020), African-American History Series (2021-2)
•Photography Exhibition: “African America in the Nile River Valley”, for the National Museum of Afro-American Artists (2019)
•Poetry/History Exhibition: “Hauntologies of David Walker City”, for the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture Grant, Codman Square Library Branch (2019)
•Creative Entrepreneur Fellowship - Business for Artists, for the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston (2018)
•Hands-On Black History Learning Retreat, for the City of Boston Arts and Culture Opportunity Fund Grant (2017)
•Grove Hall Trust Fund Grant for African-American Genealogy programming (2016)
•Keeper of the Gardens Award for community service from Warren Gardens Housing Cooperative (2009, 2014)
•The Archie Williams Jr. Technology Award from the Freedom House Inc. (April 2010)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1: I don’t have a business plan or business idea, is that ok?
We encourage registered participants to bring any research you've done or any important documents/media that you might have regarding your business idea/plan. If you just inherited $10,000 and don’t have an inkling idea, then this is not the ‘startup’ for you (see franchise ideas here). If you do have an idea, even if you have a lot of doubts, if you are passionate about some aspect of being self-employed around a positive IDEA, this is for you. We are going to start at the beginning and cover a lot of ground in the time allotted (smile).
Q2: Are there any resources that we can exploit before the workshop?
Yes (smile). Click on these links:
www.reidren.com/teaching (bottom esp. videos)
www.facebook.com/groups/dbobo (a/c required)
https://www.pinterest.com/reidren/business-organization-development-consulting/ (a/c required)
Q3: Do I need a computer to participate in this workshop?
Absolutely. You can follow along theoretically on a laptop or tablet, (phone is HIGHLY discouraged), but the work, your life work, is high resolution and far too important for 5inch screens.
Sign up today for our dBOBO business/organization workshop and organize your business from end to end and top to bottom. Let’s create a business you love in 2023
In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts*, wealth is not that common for BIPOC & Immigrant folks. Our median household net worth is grossly unequal compared to white households. What if we could eliminate this inequality? What would that mean?
It would mean a good number of us would have started sustainable places to buy products and services. It would mean an even greater number of you signed up today for our dBOBO business/organization workshop: let’s design & build a business you love in 2023 & reverse those gaps now.
This is nothing new for non-European Boston families. This is not even new to Afro-Boston entrepreneurs. Phillis Wheatley Peters and husband John Peters are incredible examples of black folks leveraging their knowledge and abilities to build and protect their healthy entrepreneurial projects. Using process. Using good problem-making. Using our spirit to break intergenerational chains cuffed on by unjust structural powers. Let’s make better mistakes tomorrow. Accomplish what we WILL.