Empowering Black-Owned Businesses: Celebrating Growth and Resilience Following National Black Business Month

By Eddie B. Allen Jr.

Joyful moments seemed less frequent for Dr. Dana Braxton, but she didn’t know why. She hadn’t experienced a major loss and there were no obvious triggers of newfound depression.

“I was crying every day, watching commercials with babies that were supposed to be humorous,” she says. “And I said, ‘What is going on?’”

Reflecting on life, including her advancement into middle-age, she soon recognized the signs and symptoms.

“Then I said, ‘Aha! You’re in menopause,’” Braxton recalls.

A professional pharmacist, she’d occasionally been asked questions like, “What should I do about hot flashes?” Well, now that menopause-related symptoms were hitting home with Braxton, she decided to “kick it into high gear,” pursuing a journey that ultimately led to the creation of Lierre Naturals, a holistic, online company working with Oakland Thrive, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping small and disadvantaged businesses grow and prosper. Braxton is among the growing number of Black women business owners who praise the non-profit for its consulting and networking on behalf of Oakland County entrepreneurs in August, which is Black Business Month, and year-round.

“I was studying at the Oak Park Library, trying to learn how to do business plans, and one of the Oakland Thrive staff said, ‘We have a great guy named Daryl Peguese who helps businesses,’” says Braxton.

Peguese, a senior business forward consultant for Oakland Thrive, soon proved a valuable ally “not only through his support, mentally and emotionally, but he connected me with other resources,” Braxton says.

Having earned a doctorate in pharmacy, Braxton’s training had been in traditional western medicine, but she says she was “always into that herbal and holistic space.” Combining personal dedication and Oakland Thrive’s assistance, she was able to transition from her position as the Eight Mile Road Meijer store’s pharmacist in 2017 to launching her very own online business, www.lierrenaturals.com within five years.

She traveled to various countries, conducting research to develop an herbal tincture, Menopause Relief, a product that has been well-received and can be easily consumed in coffee, fruit smoothies, or tea, she says. Other Lierre Naturals products include a relaxation and sleep aid and an appetite suppressant.

Particularly for women experiencing menopause, Braxton says it has been gratifying to combine her passion for helping others with her life as an entrepreneur.

“Oakland Thrive is excited and honored to be a support network providing much-needed services to entrepreneurs in Oakland County, like Dr. Braxton,” says Vicki Selva, Oakland Thrive CEO. “Thrive staff and myself know how hard it is to be a small business owner, and we have developed programming, resources and opportunities to let owners know they don’t have to do it all, all by themselves.”

Thrive combines no-cost services that include one-on-one consulting, training sessions, workshops, and grants to be able to meet with vetted professionals, attorneys, accountants, marketing experts and more, to help sustain and maintain Oakland County’s small businesses. ?Oakland Thrive was established in March 2023 with entrepreneurs like Braxton in mind. Focused on women, minorities, veterans, LGBTQ and entrepreneurs with physical or developmental challenges, Thrive strives to provide assistance where most programs do not. “Even though Oakland remains one of the nation’s wealthiest counties, there are cities and communities, and especially individual business owners all over the county, struggling to make payroll, file their taxes and make it to another quarter. Thrive strives to aid those businesses that make our communities strong and interesting and valued,” says Selva. Funded with federally issued American Rescue Plan dollars, and supported by County Executive Dave Coulter, his administration and the majority of the Board of Commissioners, the initiative was aimed at creating equity for businesses that were struggling during the pandemic, then giving them tools to flourish. In the short 18 months since Thrive opened, the consulting staff has already been in contact with over 7,000 small businesses in the county and intends to reach the rest of the 32,000 businesses in the next few years.

Like Braxton, Gena Harrison-Anderson’s Fountain of Youth (FOY) Med Spa of Southfield, Michigan was born out of the business owner’s desire to promote mental and emotional healing and wellness. An M.D. primary physician through Corewell Health, she launched the spa in 2022.

“It’s not as glamorous as one would think, coming out of med school. The information I have to provide patients is not always great,” says Harrison-Anderson.

From diagnosing cancer to end-of-life decisions, she says her career as a physician was taking a mental toll: “It begins to wear on you. So, I was getting burned out. I work for the inner city, for the people, and I said, ‘What can I do that will give me that boost of energy that made me want to go into medicine?’”

Her answer is located at Southfield and Thirteen Mile Roads where aesthetician treatment, pampering, and even ketamine therapy is provided by FOY’s team. Not only has the spa given Harrison-Anderson a “second wind,” she says she has taken on three apprentices who’ve become trained to complete requirements for their own aesthetician licenses.

“I’m able to pour back into women who want to do entrepreneurship,” adds Harrison-Anderson. “We’re not just doing facials and being cutesie-tootsie. We’re changing lives and I’m super-proud of that.”

Harrison-Anderson hosted a Southfield Chamber of Commerce event that Oakland Thrive attended, which she says led to valuable help with everything from FOY’s bookkeeping to social media.

“I didn’t know everything that I needed. When somebody asked, ‘Do you have this?’ I’d say, ‘No, I don’t,’ or ‘Yes, but it’s not in the shape that it could be,’” she recalls.

Though her company was Women’s Business Enterprise National Council-certified, she says assistance from Oakland Thrive helped improve efficiency.

Among FOY’s many offerings is ketamine treatments: Psychotherapists have been among FOY’s clients, some of whom raised the question of whether Harrison-Anderson considered addressing depression as part of the spa’s offerings. She hadn’t – but now nasal ketamine treatments are a valuable addition that she has been able to incorporate as a physician.

“Depression does look like you and me,” adds Harrison-Anderson. “People come into the spa, and they get ketamine, then they ask for a blanket and drift off.”

The result, she says, is a mood boost by the time they walk out of the door, she says.

So, fulfilling has Harrison-Anderson’s journey into entrepreneurship become that she describes it as more pleasure than business.

“This is not work,” she adds. “I enjoy it to no end.”

Like Harrison-Anderson and Braxton, ShaWanna Gajewski leveraged Oakland Thrive’s advising into a business that emphasizes wellness, but unlike Braxton and Harrison-Anderson, Gajewski, the CEO of Gajewski Homes, stresses financial wellness. A licensed real estate agent, broker and builder, she left a career as a controller for a supplier to the Big Three automakers to start her own property management company.

“I discovered that so many people did not know what it took for them to live month to month,” Gajewski says. “Financial literacy became a big deal, and supporting first-time homeowners became my mission.”

She left her job due to “the stress level of being in corporate America and everything being focused on the bottom line,” but she had already begun investing in rental properties to create residual income for herself and her children, following a divorce.

From 2009 to 2019 she saw the evolution of what began as Cook Property Management into a framework for Gajewski Homes, which she formed in 2021.

“I understood the impact of what I was doing. My kids saw me as the cool mom who knew how to paint,” she says, “and if they needed money, I’d say, ‘Don’t ask me for money, but I have a job for you to do.’”

She met Oakland Thrive’s Senior Business Forward Consultant Tracey Williams at a funding event, and the pair exchanged business cards. A couple of months later their introduction came full circle.

“She called me and introduced me to another lending institution,” Gajewski says. “She remembered my development project. I was just really blown away, like, ‘You remember me?’”

Although she’d earned six figures in her previous position, Gajewski often worked 16 hours a day, “but it was literally killing me, the stress level,” she recalls. Today Gajewski Homes operates seven rental properties and plans to break ground next year on a project for 72 single-family homes in Inkster, targeting first-time homebuyers. A partnership with a non-profit, the venture will also incorporate two skilled-trade programs to participate in the construction.

Oakland Thrive not only assisted Gajewski in earning minority business certifications, but also connected her with lending sources for her building venture and linked her company with a training program sponsored by Chase Bank to support the effort, she says.

In addition, Oakland Thrive has endorsed Gajewski’s weekly study group she hosts at Southfield Public Library for those planning to take real estate exams. Whether selling or buying property, Gajewski remains an advocate for education about basic financial guidelines.

“The key to good health is having a stable household,” she says, “and you need financial literacy to maintain that. To be a homeowner you have to have good credit, you have to know what your income is versus your expenses.”

For more information, visit www.oaklandthrive.org, or call them at 248.602.0040. The organization’s headquarters are at 35 W. Huron St., Ste. 201, Pontiac, MI 48342