The Resident Owned Business Incubator (ROBI) exists to launch and sustain underserved and under-resourced entrepreneurs with the start of their small business. ROBI increases market access and sub-contracting opportunities. ROBI has launch thirty-four (34) small businesses accessing more than $200k in revenue, thus paving the inroads to wealth and the reduction of government subsidies. At the end of ROBI, students earn a business license, marketing essentials, and a chance to pitch for cash.
Public assistance and or minimum wage will never be sufficient vehicles to help low-income families build wealth and reduce their dependency on government subsidies. Furthermore, underserved and under-resourced entrepreneurs lack the knowledge and financial capacity to get their small business ideas off the ground. The thoughts of owning a business may seem impossible for those who struggle to make ends meet. With ROBI, this dream and opportunity are achievable, feasible and within reach.
ROBI provides 25 weeks of intensive training, business coaching, licensing, chamber memberships, financial and digital literacy, websites, logos, business cards, industry placement, contract administrative support, mentorship, internships, continuing education, business and marketing planning and a chance to pitch for $5,000 cash. We give entrepreneurs the tools to launch, maintain, support the growth of their small business and create opportunities where none exist.
ROBI will strengthen communities and help create local jobs by investing in underserved, under-resourced small business owners and entrepreneurs through capital, capacity-building education, and networks of support. SIgnificantly reducing generational poverty, we will create jobs, increase incomes and spur economic growth for local communities. The project will educate, develop and support 30 of DC's most vulnerable yet promising entrepreneurs with a fair shot to the middle class and beyond.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
