After coming to the realization that African-American culture often emphasizes attending college to work for others, as opposed to becoming entrepreneurs – Tiandra Robinson, CEO of T. Marie Consulting, decided to shake Louisville’s black community up for a day.
Robinson, partnered with Tonya Walker, owner of the Avenue E Art Gallery and the pair presented Tiny Tycoons & Mini Moguls on Sunday, March 25, from 1pm-4pm at Avenue E.
The vendor event featured twelve youth entrepreneurs, ages 4-14, who sold items such as homemade pastries, cookies, handmade pillows, lemonade and arts & crafts. Most of the items ranged from $1.00- $10.00. Musical entertainment was provided by 10 year-old D.J Fabulous.
Avenue E provided the use of their venue, free of charge, while Robinson handled all the event planning – therefore the youth were not required to pay any vendor fees. Any profit earned, was theirs to keep – to hopefully reinvest into their businesses.
T. Marie Consulting worked diligently for months locating local sponsors to provide customized t-shirts, tablecloths and banners for the entrepreneurs, to make their experience as professional as possible, with limited out-of-pocket costs. Chase Ur Dreamz LLC & Echilann Images provided all the promotional items for the event – free of cost.
Robinson said the goal of Tiny Tycoons & Mini Moguls is to provide Louisville’s youth with an entrepreneurial experience at an early age, in hopes of inspiring them to become future business owners. Robinson said that two of the entrepreneurs nearly earned $400 in sales at the event.
“I put on the Tiny Tycoons & Mini Moguls event because I felt like it is important for us to teach our children how to create their own generational wealth and learn how to just basically be their own boss.” – Tiandra Robinson
Customers arrived as early as 12:45pm and the crowd steadily flowed in and out throughout the entire three hours of the event. Making the experience more interesting is the fact that Avenue E is Louisville’s only female black-owned art gallery – and its location was actually instrumental in improving race relations in Louisville during the Jim Crow era.
Walker says that the building that is now Avenue E, was home to a high-end women’s clothing store called Bick’s Department Store, during the 1960s.
Walker further states that Bick’s was one of the first department stores in Louisville to allow black customers to use their dressing rooms. Historically, black customers were allowed to purchase clothing but were not allowed to use the dressing rooms – that luxury was reserved only for white customers.
“The art gallery opened in October 2017, and we have been steadily gaining business and we’re looking to grow in the future. This is a black-owned gallery, the resident artist is Charles Rice and my partner in business is Everett Morton. We enjoy investing back into the community and we look forward to many years of service here.” – Tonya Walker
Avenue E Art Gallery is located at 536 S 4th St, Louisville, KY 40202
Hours of operation:
Mon & Tues – By appointment only
Wed & Thurs – Noon – 5pm
Fri – Noon – 5pm
Sat – Noon – 5pm
Sun – Closed
Available for events & private parties. Venue holds a capacity of 125 people.
Brad Harrison is a journalist/motivational speaker/entrepreneur and on-air personality. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications with cum laude honors from the University of Louisville. In October 2015, he started UrbanMaxx Magazine to provide positive role models for Urban residents that reside in at-risk-communities and lack positive leadership in their lives.
For booking or advertising – contact Brad Harrison at bradharrison@urbanmaxx.com