For Southland Development Authority CEO Bo Kemp, fostering connections is key to achieving his goal of making the south suburbs a hub for economic development.
“All of that community is necessary to actually drive the engine of growth here in the Southland,” Kemp said Friday.
The Southland Development Authority’s Achieve summit, held Thursday through Saturday, worked to do just that by attracting and bringing together those interested in buying businesses or real estate and those looking to sell.
Every speaker and panelist at the business seminar was chosen with intention, in addition to the three-day event’s second-year location, at Wind Creek Chicago Southland casino, Kemp said.
“We want to create an event that encourages people from the entire Chicagoland region, but frankly, all over the Midwest and the nation, to come here and get a chance to show them all of the assets that are here, all of the reasons why they should build a business here, buy real estate here,” he said.
Nonprofit business loan provider SomerCor sponsored the event and at a booth offered assistance to those hoping to start businesses through its Down Payment Assistance Program, made possible thanks to a grant the company received from Cook County in December.
SomerCor CEO and President Manuel Flores said the program provides a grant equal to 5% the costs required to start a small business in Cook County, up to $25,000.
“Oftentimes you’ll hear, you need to count on a big company, a national brand to come in and turn things around in your neighborhood,” Flores said. “Baloney — right here are creative tools in the toolbox that make it possible for people from a community, if they have a vision and they work hard, to be able to invest in their own business and their own family and in their own community.”
The event also awarded already thriving enterprises, such as the professional cleaning business in Oak Forest Laura Miranda launched three years ago, Queens of Clean.
Miranda proudly held up the two awards she won Friday, for change-making and excellence in customer service.
“It’s a hard job keeping everybody happy, especially cleaning houses,” Miranda said.
She said her path to the Achieve summit was far from easy, as her decision to launch her business followed the death of her husband and departure from a stable corporate job.
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“I had to think long and hard — what am I good at, and what can I do with no money?” Miranda said.
Miranda said after completing business classes, she took a job cleaning apartment buildings, often with her four young children in tow.
She got the idea for her business name from a boss who doubted her, calling her “princess” upon first seeing her. She said he changed his mind about her after seeing the first building she cleaned.
“I was like, I told you, I’m not a princess, I’m the queen,” Miranda said.
Miranda said she’s grateful to the Southland Development Authority for recognizing businesses like hers and connecting her with others in the community, allowing her “to take that minute to see where you’re at now, and have growth and resources and support.”