94.3 WYBC

WYBC & Yale University salute Neville Wisdom Fashion Design Studio

Name: Neville Wisdom

Business Name: Neville Wisdom Fashion Design Studio, 27 Broadway, New Haven

Year Business was started in New Haven: 2007

Why did you start your own business?

I started my own business because I wanted to do what I love and I also wanted to be in control of my own destiny.

Why did you choose to start your business in New Haven?

I chose New Haven because I migrated from Jamaica and settled in New Haven. I would’ve have started my own business no matter where I lived and I had a fashion design company in Jamaica prior.

What challenges did you have to overcome in starting your business?

At the time I started my business funding was one of the major challenges, but now that I know better, experience was my biggest challenge. I have no regrets but for those who may be trying to start their own business. Get as much information as you can and make sure you can adjust your budget if you don’t meet your projections. Just find a way, dream big, act fast and never worry about failure. Starting a business in Connecticut was not easy but could have been easy if I had a more confidence and push the limits a little much more and not compromise. Stay true to who you are.

WYBC Lunch Club with D’Amato’s Seafood: February 2024

Deborah, working at New Haven Superior Court for Juvenile Matters, is the 94.3 WYBC Virtual Lunch Club winner for the month of February 2024! Deborah and her guest enjoyed a delicious lunch with Wanda Coppage on zoom, courtesy of D’Amatos Seafood on Whalley Avenue in New Haven!

Want to have a virtual lunch with Wanda? Go to our WYBC Contest Page and enter to win!

WYBC & Yale University salute Sandra’s Next Generation

Name: Sandra Pittman

Business Name: Sandra’s Next Generation, 636 Congress Avenue, New Haven.

Year Business was started in New Haven: 1989

Why did you start your own business?

Growing up on 99 Edgewood Ave my family and sold Soul Food dinners for $5. We sold out every week and my husband encouraged us to open a restaurant.

Why did you choose to start your business in New Haven?

Why not start a business in the community we live in.

What challenges did you have to overcome in starting your business?

When starting our business, the most challenging element was being consistent. We had to duplicate what we knew worked day in and out.

WYBC & Yale University salute MINI PNG

Name: Eiress Hammond

Business Name: MINI PNG, 77 Audubon Street, New Haven

Year Business was started in New Haven:

2022 – storefront

2019 – started making clothing online

Why did you start your own business?:

In 2019 as an 18-year-old, I was going to college for pre law in a whole different state! (Ohio State University) and I felt like the creative side of me was missing that had always been a part of me. In HS I wanted to go to college for fashion design after studying abroad in high school in Europe and getting inspired by fashion in general. BUT I wanted to go to college in NYC. I was told by my HS counselor that the field held no income for me. So, I went for my plan B major which was prelaw. I came back home transferring colleges after my first semester in Ohio trying to figure myself out after a horrible personal experience. I started making clothing and selling it online for fun and for extra money since I couldn’t hold a job with the prelaw program I was in. My designs went viral, and I took a step back from college in 2020 during the pandemic to really focus on what I loved.

Why did you choose to start your business in New Haven?:

My family is from New Haven! My Abuela immigrated from Puerto Rico – Brooklyn with family merging into New Haven. My grandmother went to ACES as a kid and the location of my shop with ACES being right next door was a full circle moment!

What challenges did you have to overcome in starting your business?:

One of my biggest challenges was dropping college. I’m a first gen student in my family (only child) and it was very pushed on me to be the one to follow the road to success “the right way.” I’ve always had support from my family, but it was more of an internal battle and the overall fear of failure/ that what if aspect of veering off the path that’s expected.

WYBC & Yale University salute Noir Vintage & Co.

Name: Evelyn Massey

Business Name: Noir Vintage & Co., 111 Court Street, New Haven

Year Business was started in New Haven:

My business came to life with a storefront June 2023 but started at the end of the pandemic as an online store on Instagram, and with the help of market pop-ups and vending opportunities around the city it also boost my brand as well.

Why did you choose to start your business in New Haven?

I wanted to set up shop in New Haven where I grew up, it would only make sense to start this business where I’m most familiar and downtown was the ideal location to become the first black owned women vintage store that landed in the downtown area, also the first vintage store in New Haven owned by an African American woman.

Why did you start your own business?

I started this business out of love for timeless vintage clothing and the stories that came along with it, I’ve always been a person that loved old things there is such beauty in preserved treasures.

What challenges did you have to overcome in starting your business?

My challenges came about when it was time to fund my business, the difficulties of having a dream that you are passionate about with no money is the real reality, but I never gave up on believing that I would accomplish this someday, even as I got older…I kept that dream until it manifested, and now I am downtown with a beautiful shop, and I must say this it is never too late to follow your DREAMS! If you see it and dream it, you can have it. Never give up, yes it will get hard because running your own business is never easy!

Just DO It!!!

WYBC & Yale University salute Woody’s Wings

Name: Linwood & Lachele Lacy

Business Name: Woody’s Wings, 91 Church Street, New Haven.

Year Business was started in New Haven: December 2019 on Whalley Avenue for 3 years

Why did you start your own business?

I wanted to show my different training styles of cooking with a fast-food twist. I also wanted to show off my love of seasoning and flavors on wings.

Why did you choose to start your business in New Haven?

It’s my hometown!

What challenges did you have to overcome in starting your business?

The challenge for us was not knowing the business side. The cooking side was the easy part. If it wasn’t for the Small Business Resource Center of New Haven giving us the resources, we would be totally lost. Our biggest take away is not to be scared to ask questions. Knowledge is key!!!

WYBC & Yale University salute Dope N’ Delicious

Name: De’Ari Allick

Business Name: Dope N’ Delicious, 300 Dixwell Avenue, New Haven.

Year Business was started in New Haven: 2021

Why did you start your own business?

I started my own business to give my kids a better future

Why did you choose to start your business in New Haven?

I actually started my first restaurant in Bridgeport but coming back home was the dream. Opening a restaurant is your own city is iconic for me! Brings hope to the community.

What challenges did you have to overcome in starting your business?

The challenges you must overcome is staying consistent and never giving up on yourself. Times get hard as an entrepreneur so you must stay focused.

WYBC & Yale University salute Petals Market

Photos are of Elaine of Petals Market.

Owner: Gideon Gebreyesus

Business Name: Petals Market, 100 Ashmum Street, New Haven

Year Business was started in New Haven: 2019

Why did you start your own business?

The area is known as a food desert, and the business was open to fill the void with the collaboration of Yale and ConnCAT/ConnCORP. To serve the Town and Gown.

Why did you choose to start your business in New Haven?

We have a vested interest in New Haven and do a lot of work in the Dixwell and Newhallvile communities, so it is a perfect fit. Down the street, we have ConnCAT, Which has been training people

What challenges did you have to overcome in starting your business?

Having been in the business, it was easy once we got everything in order. All stakeholders were on the same page. We got hit with Covid-19. It was challenging, but we got through it.

WYBC & Yale University salute BIM Auto Repair

Name: Emerson

Business Name: BIM Auto Repair, 223 Whalley Avenue, New Haven.

Year Business was started in New Haven: 2015

Why did you start your own business?

I opened Bim Auto Repair as a tribute to where we were from. Bim is the name used for Barbados, where we grew up with a single parent raising five boys on her own in a government house.

Why did you choose to start your business in New Haven?

We moved to New Haven in 2015 in an abandoned building that had been vacant for over 15 years.

What challenges did you have to overcome in starting your business?

We struggled the first 4 years because we were in an area in Hamden where our landlord was not allowing us to grow. We couldn’t do bodywork or sell cars because he sold cars next door to us in his own business, so we lost a lot of money paying bills and maintaining our business.

We started from scratch, bought all the equipment, put in 2 car lifts, bought a paint booth and everything else to run our business.

WYBC & Yale University salute The Anchor Spa

Name: Karl Williams

Business Name: The Anchor Spa, 272 College Street, New Haven

Year Business was started in New Haven: 2016

Why did you start your own business?

Growing up in an innovative, business driven household, I learned from my father the value of creating something on your own. I developed an intimate knowledge of not only the hardships and challenges to owning your business but also the incredibly rewarding experience that comes from giving your unwavering attention to something you are passionate about and seeing it blossom. I started my professional career in Brand Marketing with a focus on Beverages and had the opportunity to connect with numerous innovative and influential figures in the Craft Cocktail domain that I found incredibly intriguing. Fueled by my growing interest in this world and inspired by my family’s entrepreneurial legacy, I ventured into opening bars and restaurants, including the establishment of the Anchor Spa in New Haven.

Why did you choose to start your business in New Haven?

I went to Yale as an undergrad and always knew I wanted to bring something to New Haven both because of the impact it had on me at such a pivotal point in my life, but also because of New Haven’s reputation in the culinary and cocktail world.

What challenges did you have to overcome in starting your business?

One of the biggest challenges I had to face is something that I think many Black entrepreneurs are faced with – and that’s the lack of available capital and resources to Black-owned businesses. Combine that with the inherent challenges of just running a restaurant in general definitely contributed to us having some hard times when we first opened. However, with an excellent team and the unwavering spirit I possess in making things work, we were able to overcome these challenges, which ultimately helped us get through a tough time like COVID and come out on the other end stronger than we ever were.