Photo: Tobin Buckner and Aa’Ron Epps, at the Akron Urban League’s Emerging Entrepreneur Networking Group. Credit: Susan Ruiz Patton.

An accountant by trade, Melinda Boykin of Richmond Heights, Ohio, used her energy and creativity to help make her employer successful.

But something was stopping her from using those skills to build her own successful business. Related LinkS

“Ice House Entrepreneurship Program” – grant profile 

“Lessons from the Ice House Inspire Entrepreneurs” published in Knight Blog on 7/20/2013

With the help of the Ice House entrepreneurship program, she learned that even though she was functioning like an entrepreneur, fear was holding her back.  “I had to release that fear to truly start my business,” she said.

“This is a program that allows individuals to start seeing what’s possible,” said Tobin Buckner, the former program manager for the Partnership for the Minority Business Accelerator at the Akron Urban League, which offers the Ice House program. Buckner recently joined the startup accelerator Jumpstart as its entrepreneurial community manager in Akron.

Knight Foundation recently awarded $50,000 to the Akron Urban League to expand the Ice House program, which will include introducing the class to high school students and offering additional support to fledgling businesses.

Ice House recruiter and business consultant Misty Rogers and Lawrence Young at the Akron Urban League.

Boykin and others said embracing the Ice House’s entrepreneurial mindset helped them take steps to open their businesses.

“This is not a business class like any other,” said Aa’Rron Epps, a certified Ice House facilitator who teaches the class in Akron. “We are not doing marketing strategies and finances. All of that is great if you already have a business. But what about a class for people who have ideas and want to validate them.”

Epps said the classes can be helpful to those re-entering the workforce after incarceration, as well as high school students. But without the Ice House program, they wouldn’t receive that entrepreneurial exposure and training.

If a high school student says, “‘Hey I want to be a doctor.’ The teacher will say ‘Great, here are the prerequisites,’” said Epps. “But if you say you want to open a restaurant, students will hear, ‘Great, but you had better have a Plan B.’ Most schools, they are not supporting an entrepreneurial thought process. They are not even considering that a viable option for success.”

Epps said they are finalizing details to offer the program at two Akron-area high schools.

In addition to inspiring new entrepreneurs, Epps said Knight’s funding will allow the Urban League to offer post-graduation support.

“Some people who take the class – they need several months,” to get the business started, said Epps. “This [grant] money will allow us to fund a development workshop.”

At the first meeting of the Emerging Entrepreneur Networking Group in mid-February, about 20 Ice House graduates gathered to catch up on each other’s progress and to learn more.

Miranda Saddler of Akron said the program gave her the encouragement and information she needed to take the first steps. She plans to buy a building and house senior adults who can live independently but need a little help – which she will provide.

“I know people will be blessed by what I’m doing,” Saddler said, smiling with pride. “A lot of people have no one” to take care of them in their senior years.

Lawrence Young and his wife, Latrina, opened their own beauty salon called Gifted By His Grace in the fall of 2014 after graduating from the program.

“My wife is a stylist and worked in different salons,” said Lawrence. “We felt it was our time to make money for ourselves.”

The program gave them better insight as to how to go about starting the business and why it is important to fill a customer’s need and to assess “what sets your business apart from others,” he said.

“As you can tell by the name, we are Christians,” Lawrence Young said. “We get to minister to people. People who sit in the chair, you never know what kind of [emotional] weight they are bearing.”

Young’s business advice? “Have a mindset that it is going to work and give it your all.”

Susan Ruiz Patton is a freelancer writer based in Northeast Ohio.