Small Business

Client Spotlight: Riley’s Way, overcoming hair discrimination & embracing natural hair
April 28, 2023June 13, 2024

Crystal Dowe is the owner of Riley’s Way, an apparel company that specializes in clothing and merchandise that encourages young girls to embrace their natural hair.
Growing up, Crystal Dowe was teased for her natural hair and chemically straightened her hair for 30 years until she finally decided to embrace her natural hair in 2011. Now, Crystal is a proud grandmother to her granddaughter Riley who loves sporting her natural puffs. In honor of Riley, in 2017, Crystal founded Riley’s Way to help other girls accept themselves and feel just as empowered in their natural hair. “I wanted other little girls …

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Client Spotlight: Black Girl MATHgic
February 27, 2023June 13, 2024

Brittany is the owner of Black Girl MATHgic, a math subscription box company that aims to decrease math anxiety for girls and empower them to embrace their math abilities. Brittany founded Black Girl MATHgic in 2018 after witnessing math anxiety in her students firsthand as a math tutor. Since then, she’s shipped over 5,000 math subscription boxes, helping hundreds of children gain math confidence.
Currently, Brittany is working with two DNEP student teams to take Black Girl MATHgic to the next level: (1) In MKT 313: Consumer Behavior, students are conducting market research and surveying current customers to get input about …

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U-M students create new how-to guides and equitable business models for green energy businesses to help Detroit entrepreneurs take advantage of new federal funding
February 24, 2023June 13, 2024

“The Inflation Reduction Act sounds really boring,” says Michigan Ross professor Jerry Davis, “but it’s actually a big stack of money for green energy businesses. If you read through it, it’s easy to think of dozens of ways that this could benefit a city like Detroit.”
Davis and his colleague, Cat Johnson, of Michigan Ross’ Business+Impact designed a class to do just that. The class, BA670: +Impact Studio Designing Equitable Enterprises, teaches teams of grad students from all majors how to use equity-centered design thinking to develop businesses that improve communities. This year’s focus is on the green energy transition in …

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Konjo Me & Ice Cream Detroit Selected for DNEP Accelerator: Business+Law+Design
February 6, 2023June 13, 2024

When most small businesses become clients in a Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project class, they get a basketball team’s worth of researchers, data analysts, thought partners, and cheerleaders. Helina Melaku of Konjo Me and Ysahai Honor-Marie of Ice Cream Detroit, it’s more like getting an entire baseball team.
Melaku and Honor-Marie were selected as this year’s integrated semester clients, meaning that they are working with teams of students from three different classes at the Ross School of Business, the Law School, and the Stamps School of Art & Design. Students in the three classes work on different aspects of the business, but …

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Clients wanted to work with interdisciplinary teams of U-M students this summer
April 28, 2022June 13, 2024

Beginning May 4, the University of Michigan’s Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project (DNEP) will offer free services to Detroit small businesses and non-profits through its DNEP +Impact Studio for Local Business 2022 (DNEP +ISLB) internship program. DNEP +ISLB is a pro bono implementation-focused program for Detroit neighborhood-based businesses that need talent and capacity to activate something challenging in their business. DNEP hires a team of 18 U-M undergraduate students, guided by business and design faculty and DNEP staff, to implement marketing and operations projects. Students work with businesses in intense bursts of 1-2 weeks from start to finish.
This year, students will …

Read More Clients wanted to work with interdisciplinary teams of U-M students this summer