Business
Saluting Brooklyn’s Black-Owned Businesses
Right now, we are in the midst of the holiday season and counting down to the New Year. Our Time Press reached out to a few of Brooklyn’s Black-owned businesses that can make the holiday a little less stressful. The holistic Ancient Blends ApotheCare store has organic gifts for the mind and body. To get ready for the 2023 tax season, count on veteran CPA Richards Accounting and Financial Services. Please help Our Time Press support our local Black-owned businesses who are making a positive, inspirational impact on the community.
Ancient Blends ApotheCare
EXPERTISE
Priestess Yendys Nefer-Atum, founder and owner of Ancient Blends ApotheCare, has been creating organic recipes for 36 years. She developes products for natural body care, facial care hair care, beard care, body butters with cocoa butter, shampoos made with chlorophyll, essential oils and facial serums and organic detoxing teas to drink. In addition, she is one of Brooklyn’s pioneering natural hair care professionals. Specializing in anything with natural hair. Her store Ancient Blends ApotheCare opened three years ago.
ADVICE ON HOLISTIC LIVING
“I believe you shouldn’t put anything on your body that you can’t ingest as a type of food. I have ancestral recipes. I didn’t create those recipes. I hadn’t even planned to start a product line. It was intuition and divine guidance. I did not create them. I just manifested them.”
“I am one of the founders of the plant community on social media. I sell plants and have over 500 plants in my apartment. I grew up seeing my mom having a lot of plants. I wasn’t interested at the time, but ever since she transitioned about 15 years ago, I wanted to keep her plants alive. So, I kept her plants and adopted my own. It was a way of staying connected to her. I feel I’m still spiritually connected to her. Plants are an inexpensive way to have beauty and naturalness around your inner environment. People are getting more into self-care and caring for plants inspires self-care. Plants make the house healthy because plants clean the air and the leaves give off oxygen. They breathe in the carbon dioxide that we breathe out. It’s a beautiful natural exchange.”
SUPPORTING BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES
“Black businesses that are making Afrocentric products are helping us keep the culture alive. You’re not only supporting that individual, but you’re also supporting a continuum and keeping our doors open so can keep supplying our communities with what they like, love, and enjoy.”
LOCATION
Ancient Blends ApotheCare
357 Tompkins Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11216
347-635-3676
Richards Accounting and Financial Services
EXPERTISE
For over 20 years, Genroy Richards, CPA, MSA, has worked with corporations and organizations. His Brooklyn-based Black-owned firm, Richards Accounting and Financial Services, specializes in accounting for small businesses, hospitality, non-profits and real estate matters. Our Time Press reached out to him
ADVICE ON TAX PREPARATION FOR 2023
“People should not wait to the last minute they need to start planning now. They need to start getting their papers together now. If you own a property you should get all your papers together. People tend to forget things at the last minute.
Make sure your employer has you in the right category like married or single. Also, the correct the number of dependents. Some people were able to withdraw money from their 401(k)Or 403b and were allowed to pay over a three-year period. This will be the last year for that. Remember you have a loan from your from your pension. People tend to forget that the pandemic gave us a lot of leeway and now it’s slowly going away. For charity donations get a receipt. Even Goodwill and Salvation Army item donations have receipts available. Churches supply donors with letters on the yearly donation. Donations are deducted when you itemize.”
SUPPORTING BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES
“We Need to support each other more and also respect each other’s ability and knowledge. The treatment and the respect we get from our own people is very different from what they give to other cultures and races. It’s happened to me and it’s happened to colleagues. We don’t get the respect for our services. In reality, many of us are better and more qualified. People need to value our services.”
LOCATION
Richards Accounting and Financial Services
829 Nostrand Avenue, Brooklyn NY
718-208-4882