Jackee Kasandy now owns and operates a retail retailer on Granville Island in Vancouver, and whereas she is profitable now, it was a tough highway to get right here.
“I couldn’t get anybody to fund me for the lifetime of me for the primary three years of my enterprise,” she advised World Information.
Kasandy left her job within the company world in 2015 and took a leap of religion to start out her personal retailer.
“I drained all my financial savings, all my bank cards, all my RRSPs, to simply get off the bottom,” she mentioned.
She discovered he was dealing with much more hurdles than she had anticipated.
“I’m a girl, I’m an immigrant, I’m Black,” she mentioned. “I’ve to work a bit bit tougher. I’ve to show my humanity first, after which show my smarts after which show my enterprise to get somebody to truly take a look at me, take heed to me, and supply.”
Now Kasandy is utilizing what she realized to assist different Black entrepreneurs.
The group, Black Entrepreneurs and Companies of Canada is holding a free Black Enterprise Summit Feb. 24-25 for everybody who’s .
They’re additionally working a contest the place the winner would get $25,000.
Among the many contestants, Deress Asghedom is the founding father of Vaster, an AI-powered app for hashish merchandise.
Mwenda Dyck can be within the working for his microgreens verticle farming system.
“I’m simply sort of working out of the spare bed room in my home proper now,” Dyck mentioned. “However the grant cash will enable me to renovate a barn simply outdoors of Chilliwack that I’ll have the ability to actually scale up the manufacturing.”
Learn extra:
Inaugural Black Ladies’s Enterprise Community Expo shines gentle on entrepreneurs
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Kasandy mentioned it’s all about opening the door to enterprise alternatives.
“We’re in Black historical past, however I need us to have fun the way forward for what blackness seems like in Canada.”
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