A workshop Monday night aimed to help entrepreneurs and small business owners in west Charlotte strengthen their digital marketing skills and build connections with fellow business owners.
Digital Marketing 101, hosted by nonprofit QC Family Tree, focused on strategies for attracting and engaging customers through email and social media. The class is part of the "Here for Good Business Cooperative" initiative. It's supported by a $220,000 city grant to assist businesses and residents along the historically disadvantaged Freedom Drive and Wilkinson Boulevard corridors.
Helms Jarrell of QC Family Tree said branding and marketing are critical parts of running a business, even though they often fall outside a business owner's core expertise.
"It's the abstract stuff that we have to do in order to get people to buy our products or come to our store, and yet it's not the actual work of our business," Jarrell said.
Jarrell said the initiative is also designed to help entrepreneurs build relationships and support one another.
"We want them to meet each other because it's really hard to do this kind of business work alone," Jarrell said. "We're hoping that they'll develop community with one another and be able to find ways to help each other as they build their business."
Local singer Kenya Templeton, 53, said the workshop provided practical guidance that can be difficult for small business owners to find on their own.
"We have to do the research, and to be able to come here for two hours and get really good learning from a professional, it saves us time as small business owners," Templeton said.
Nicholas Jordan, a content creator focused on Black culture, said the workshop helped him develop a clearer strategy for creating content.
"This gave me a good direction on how to make content and make that happen. And the strategy around it," Jordan said.
Since launching last year, the initiative has hosted a dozen workshops designed to help small businesses grow and succeed.
