“We are the cavalry.”

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor at Large

Supporting Small Black Business is looking to be an even bigger flex for 2025.

“There needs to be tailored solutions and tailored resources to meet evolving needs,” said Johanne Brierre, the Brooklyn-based CEO of BKLYNCommons. “We need a real small business support ecosystem,” she told Our Time Press. “There needs to be a focus on sustainability.”

With a faith-in-the-neighborhood dependency, small Black businesses like Bati Ethiopian Kitchen, Therapy Wine Bar, Moshood Fashions, the Bakery on Bergen, Akara House, Deborah Young’s Seasons plants and Christmas tree store, Kebe Fashions, Le Paris Dakar Cafe, and the Little Caribbean are looking forward to a profitable community-supporting and supported New Year.

Kenneth Ebie knows small business.

“As we enter 2025, Black businesses will continue to face challenges in accessing working capital to operate and scale,” the founder of Ebie Strategies told Our Time Press.  “We anticipate that recent legal challenges and the new administration in Washington will create additional hurdles to economic equity initiatives established to address the disparities faced by marginalized communities. However, the opportunity to access information and to leverage technology like artificial intelligence to improve business operations and revenue provides tremendous possibilities for Black-owned businesses.” 

Until August 2024, Ebie served as the inaugural Executive Director and chief Development Officer of Black Entrepreneurs NYC (BE NYC), a municipal initiative to address the racial wealth gap by empowering Black entrepreneurs and business owners. BE NYC launched several programs that provided over 6,000 entrepreneurs with business education, mentorship, and community.

Now, with his own company, Ebie advises clients on municipal economic inclusion, public-private partnerships, and social impact strategy. 

Moving forward successfully for 2025, Ebie suggested, “Most importantly, as customers and clients, we must commit to patient and consistent investment in our Black-owned businesses. The cavalry is not coming from Washington or from anywhere else, for that matter. We are the cavalry.”

Brooklyn has a commendable array of Black businesses striving to increase and maintain continuous Black community support in 2025, this, in the face of the uncertain economic landscape as the administration in DC is about to undergo a major shift.

But, small businesses are somewhat overlooked, said Brierre. 

“Not all small businesses are created equal. They don’t all have the same needs, and they don’t all have the resources. Small Business Services may have workshops for tech, for building websites, for financial literacy. But, they need to be industry-specific. A small business, a solo-preneur, or a freelancer may have different issues. Their learning is completely different, they need different tools.  

A lot of the programs and a lot of the resources need to be updated for 2025. Now is the age of AI, but a lot of these programs are very, very stagnant. They must be updated.”

From 2016, Brierre helped launch and grow the small business hub BKLYN Commons beginning with a  “pilot of six beauty suites.” Part of her mission is helping small businesses and startups set up successfully and control their own vision.  With the life-altering shutdown of the pandemic in 2020, Brierre pivoted and realized the new greater role for wellness and beauty creatives and experts. She created the Flatbush-based NYBeautySuites, a wraparound workspace assisting “beautypreneurs” find their clientele and grow their businesses. The New York Institute of Technology alum was born in Haiti and grew up on Brooklyn’s Flatbush Avenue. 

Post Covid-19-era downsized now, but business architect Brierre’s NYBeautySuites housed dozens of micro-businesses, from wellness coaches to massage therapists to skin care specialists, in her two 60,000-square-foot locations.

Pessimism is not an outlook that should be harbored, said the business activist.

“I am very optimistic about the future, there are so many opportunities that have to come in the form of education and ongoing learning. But, for example, there are no incubators in South Brooklyn. What are they doing for the next generation? In  Downtown Brooklyn, every month the BID holds a huge competition where they give out $5000 for small businesses.”

Brierre continued, that as she is mission driven and community driven, “We don’t have time not to be optimistic because we know Brookyn has a lot of talent. They are being backed with finances, with learning, with tech, with capital, with partners. 

For us we have to build everything from scratch. There is not enough focus on small businesses. They need to talk to the thought leaders and the small businesses to see what is needed.

Central Brooklyn is very supportive, but some politicians are not even part of the Small Business Committee. We need more focus on small businesses that are really connected to the community.”

Such local business successes include Kebe Fashions, a staple on Fulton street and Throop. Senegalese-born Abdoulaye Kebe is the distinguished bespectacled tailor and dressmaker who will make a custom-made outfit within a couple of weeks, or one can buy a design off the rack, alongside authentic leather bags and jewelry. Several customers looking to pick up orders or simply shop, walked into the store while he was talking to the paper.

“ I’ve been here for a long time, like 20 years,” he said. “You can bring your own style too, I can make it. You can buy the material here, or you can bring the material. I have a lot of African American and African clients, all nationalities–men, women, and children.”

With three tailors,  all from Senegal, “The average design would take a week or 2 weeks depending on the style.”

Business is doing well, the designer said, and the holiday season is proving to be very healthy, rows of clothes being worked on illustrate the point. Looking forward to the New Year, he said, “Yes, I think 2025 will be good. We are getting a lot of support from the community, and we are already getting a lot of business for Black History Month.”

Opening two locations in Bed-Stuy, and one in Greenpoint, Le Paris Dakar is the French-Senegalese crêperie and café. 

“We are getting love from the community,” Thierno, owner of Le Paris Dakar, told Our Time Press. “That’s why we are hanging on here. That’s why we are still here.”

As soon as they walk in, staff know what their regulars would like. 

With delicious sweet and savory crepes, pastries, hot beverages, and light eats like avocado toast, omelet croissants, and baguettes with brie, salmon or goat salads, and vegetarian options, the fayre is popular

“We have been here for 15 years, and we are very thankful to our customers from the community.” 

As folk celebrate Kwanzaa this week on Saturday, “I am caribBEING,” hosted a day of buying for the Xmas and Kwanzaa holiday season.

CaribBEING, they say, “is a multidisciplinary venture dedicated to showcasing Caribbean culture + art + film in Greater New York City and around the world, where art + culture + lifestyle.”

Shoppers who wanted items familiar with an extraordinary but definitively Caribbean flavor flocked to the location to make purchases. Kwanzaa’s Nguzo Saba’s collective economics was in play. In the same vein, this past Saturday and Sunday, the ‘Buy Black, By Black’ shopping event took over the Atlantic Terminal in downtown Brooklyn. With the @buyblkbyblk & @thelayoutco tags, over twenty local, Black-owned brands sold their wares from clothing to beauty products. It is a supportive narrative that makes community and economic sense with the surmountable challenges of the new year. Small business advocate Kenneth Ebie stated that the Black community can –and should support Black entrepreneurs. “We should invest in ourselves so that we can grow and develop our own local businesses. In supporting them, we support our community.”