MINNEAPOLIS — What sat as an empty parking lot outside the Midtown Global Market Friday afternoon in south Minneapolis, soon will be full of life, passion and the will to succeed from 55 Black small businesses owners for the third annual Black Entrepreneur State Fair.
"We started in 2020 and since then, our last year's event just alone we've seen vendors just have so much success -- whether it's the amount of revenue that they've made for the week, or just the amount of connections and bookings," explained Destinee Shelby, founder of the event and owner of The Kitchen by Baked Brand.
For Shelby, each vendor's success is tied into the bigger picture of networking and exposure, which for many of these business owners wouldn't be possible at larger events do to financial costs and limited space.
"A lot of these vendors sometimes are like ecommerce vendors. This is like an experience to like be face to face with their customers, this is a great opportunity to be seen," said Shelby.
Diyon Lee, owner of the Bag Lady's Kitchen LLC knows just how beneficial that can be, considering last year...
"I made close to 15k," said Lee.
Money, invested in a new food truck.
"I'm excited to bring it to the fair, because last year it was kind of ghetto, it was white, it had a banner on it and I just wasn't ready, but we ready now!"
While also investing in a new brick-and-mortar space.
"It's a small deli and it's located inside of a supermarket on Lowry and Emerson," said Lee. She went on to explain, "they let me do a trial run from July until now and things have been going really well so I was offered a lease there.”
This year's fair will also include a new component, addressing the struggles many minority small business owners face.
"The panel discussions is a platform added to the fair to kind of give free knowledge, the topics that we have picked for the panels are things that our community needs...wellness Wednesday, financial Friday, lots of community engagement," said Shelby.
It's opportunities like these, setting the stage to make a meaningful profit.
"These events are helping people survive," said Shelby.
"My business is accumulating enough money to where I'm able to take care of home," said Lee.
The Black Entrepreneur State Fair kicks off Sunday at the Midtown Global Market, and runs through Aug. 27. Admission is only $7.
Watch more local news:
Watch the latest local news from the Twin Cities in our YouTube playlist: