Last year, when business coach Chataun Denis created a directory of Black owned-businesses, she realized there was a need to promote the businesses more widely.
Born and raised in Dayton, Denis spent the last two decades in Cleveland and Atlanta, where she built a career as a grant writer, and started her company GrantSource. When she returned to Dayton last spring, she started looking for ways to support Black-owned Businesses in the region.
That’s howShop Black Biz Dayton was born.
Shop Black Biz is an online directory which features local entrepreneurs in the region. For Black History month this year, Denis is launching a social media campaign to promote the directory, and wants Daytonians to join.
Throughout the month of February, any Black business owner in the region can add their business to the directory for free. Customers can also take a picture of a local black owned business, and share it on Facebook or Instagram, with the hashtag #ShopBlackBizDayton.
Denis said the goal is to create a model that other cities can use to grow local Black business economies.
“The entire vision for the campaign is to raise awareness and that we start circulating more of our dollars in our neighborhoods and our communities with the businesses and the people who live next door to us so that we can stimulate the economy," Denis said.
According to research by the University of Cincinnati, Black-owned businesses in Southwest Ohio have an economic impact of more than $2 billionevery year. Denis plans to continue growing Shop Black Biz, and she says the next step is to build an app to help get the word out more about local black businesses.
"We can spend our money with our own neighbors," she said. "We create jobs right here and have more commerce options in our community."
