Small Business Saturday brings out Pontiac's 'hustlers' spirit'

Pontiac — Small Business Saturday drew residents to downtown Pontiac to support local food trucks, entrepreneurs and artists.

Over 50 small businesses were featured across five downtown locations at the event, many with brick and mortar locations, and several without. The historic Flagstar Strand theater in downtown Pontiac bustled with pop-ups offering everything from baked goods to skin care products.

Mia Brooks, who helped organize the event, had a pop-up for her natural skin care line called Luminosity Naturals.

Brooks is from Pontiac and moved back in 2020. She said she saw local businesses struggling with exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic and wanted to organize pop-ups to help them get the visibility that the average brick-and-mortar store has.

"I think that this city encompasses the hustlers' spirit, and we're just out here giving the hope to the average hustler, like get it done," Brooks said. "There's workshops or stages to help you get the business structure put in place, but the most vital part is you. If you don't get going, you can't keep going."

Small Business Saturday, which happens over the holiday weekend between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is when shoppers are encouraged to shop locally rather than at big chains. Saturday's event has taken place in Pontiac every year since 2018, organized and promoted by Tameka Ramsey the founder of T. Ramsey and Associates, a social impact consulting firm.

"When you support small businesses, the money stays in the community. Most of the time, the people you're buying from are your neighbors, your family members or your friends," Ramsey said. "We know that small business helped build this country. So if you put as much investment in small businesses, when you go to cities or municipalities, then it helps to rebuild that community."

Small businesses kept Pontiac afloat when General Motors left Pontiac in 2009, Ramsey said. The Great Recession and subsequent auto industry job losses that same year hit Pontiac particularly hard, leaving the city with a budget shortfall, $100 million in accumulated debt and an emergency manager. Since then the city has begun to attract new development projects and small businesses.

Pontiac now has its own Amazon fulfillment center which is helping the city's small business ecosystem a lot, Ramsey said.

"In order for us to grow bigger, we do need the Amazon fulfillment center, because a lot of our small businesses use it and because they're close by they can get products really quickly," Ramsey said. "But we also need the smaller businesses that are going to keep the dollar floating in the community and hire people that they know and love and invest in the community."

Pontiac native Jennifer Corr, 42, runs the local favorite Seoul Rolls on the Go food truck that was parked on North Saginaw Street for Small Business Saturday. She makes hand-crafted egg rolls in 19 different flavors. Corr previously worked as a social worker but decided to become an entrepreneur and start her business in 2014.

"The community has helped me so much, everyone in the community loves my egg rolls — that's why I'm still here," Corr said. "It gave me confidence here in how good they are just, it keeps me going."

Corr would like to eventually open a brick-and-mortar location in Pontiac someday so her loyal customers can have easy access.

Local businesses weren't the only ones with products on display Saturday afternoon. Several regional artists like Fatima Melendez, who is from Mexico but currently lives in Warren, displayed paintings and prints at Pontiac's Gallery 46. Melendez was also working on her latest exhibition, a painting of a geisha, at the event.

Gallery manager Irma Hayes has lived in Pontiac for over three decades and said she hopes events like Small Business Saturday bring more people to Pontiac.

"My goal is to see people up and down the streets at all hours of the day just popping in and out of places," Hayes said.

Ramsey said the event would likely draw some out-of-town attendees but that it would mostly be attended by locals. Pontiac City Councilman William Carrington stopped by the pop-up and got a T-shirt and some specially made juice.

"Small businesses are the businesses that are mostly in his country," Carrington said. "The way to make sure they continue to prosper is that we have to support them."

hmackay@detroitnews.com