 This particular webinar is really special to me because when I first started, I actually presented this with our team back then, and I was just brand new to the program and had been here maybe a month or so prior to that. So everything was super new and all the information I get to share today has been part of the learnings that we've had over the past year. So, let's go ahead and dig in. And just to set some ground rules, my desire is to be able to answer all questions that might come up during this time. So, as your questions come up, feel free to either A, put them into the chat, or B, hold on to them because we'll definitely leave time at the end to be able to go over all of those. So, without any further ado, let's go over our agenda for the day. I'm going to start off just with a brief kind of explanation for those of you who maybe haven't heard of in the black yet about our mission and then a brief history about what transpired and our beautiful neighborhood and the Fillmore that kind of gave birth to this idea and the necessity for it. From there, we're going to look at the impact that we've had both with our internal. So, in terms of our program, but also covering the external in terms of the community outreach and impact. And then lastly, our vendors as well. We'll go over a few learnings that we've had everything has been really incredible as we've witnessed kind of like the birth of a new store, but we've learned a lot along the way. So we want to make sure that we're making time for both of those conversations. And then lastly, we'll just talk about a couple of things you can do to support us going forward and then leave some time for Q and A. And again, my name is Joshua. I'll be the host for this. All right. To get us started. I want to tell you just a little bit about in the black. In the black is a creative and entrepreneurial marketplace providing black owned businesses with access to affordable retail space and the historic Fillmore district. And a former cash or check cashing outlet at the bustling corner of Fillmore and Gary in the black is carving out a new path focused on black community empowerment, wealth building and prosperity. Black entrepreneurs can engage with in the black by sub leasing space on a long term basis via pop ups event activations and then also selling via our e-commerce website. The little symbol you see there on the side and our mission is hanging in our stores been imprinted on a wall since we began and what I love to tell people when they come in and they're like, Well, what is the store all about? Like we're all about creating opportunities for black owned businesses to experiment in a retail space, which is something that is as we've learned very not only cost prohibitive, but almost impossible given the current retail landscape within the city. So what we've were able to do through this program is create those opportunities with our original 18 businesses now up to 22. It's going to be 23 as soon as I get off this call today actually, but we're really excited to kind of share more of their stories as we go on. Before we can do anything else though we do have to look at what gave birth to this program and what was the unfortunate circumstances that, you know, our country and state sometimes found itself then, and that's a part of our history. The history of the film or started in the 1940s where black residents migrated to San Francisco facing red lining in the film or World War two led to African Americans being left to steward the homes left by Japanese Americans. And we know so much of the story and the tension that has transpired there. The wartime maritime industry attracted thousands of blacks my grandfather included in that fostering black owned businesses in the film or then into the 50s urban renewal displays black families resulting in the historic western edition community organization lawsuit. Ultimately, what ended up happening is, as the black community tried to get up onto its feet using what was left for them. The city didn't particularly care for that are the powers that be may not have so this led to this lawsuit, which ultimately brought about the 1975 federal uniform relocation act. But many couldn't return, even despite that due to the process of gentrification. The film or lost businesses and households during this period. Those numbers, the last we looked was up to 833 businesses and 4729 households due to redevelopment facing imminent displacement. Black residents formed the rest in addition community organization to say, securing their community renewal through a groundbreaking lawsuit that we mentioned earlier. Ultimately, as a product out of the birth of all of this, the birth of people experiencing kind of that, the pushback that you can experience through government process. We realized that in the black has to emerge from that to restart the process of reclaiming our neighborhood reclaiming the space and fostering collaboration with existing and new black owned businesses. The way this is transpired is, you know, again, back in December of last year we opened our doors for the first time, bringing 18 black owned businesses back into the Fillmore neighborhood. One of the incredible numbers from that was that 78% of the businesses that were in our store, where either current or displaced members of the Fillmore community. So suddenly we went from having, you know, a serious deficit to 18 businesses getting called their home. They're also the place where they do business at. As we look at our vendors, as I mentioned earlier, we've had over 22 soon to be 23 businesses who have been did that in the black. And through the process of the events that we've done in store and externally we've been able to create opportunities for an additional eight businesses to either. Educate people about their product sell their product in the store at particular events, or get access to new events because of their involvement with us. We've generated over $150,000 back into the black community in the Fillmore. And I think that number is something that I like to take a pause on because. When we think about the way that retail works and how often people are ending up spending so much of what they make just to put back into their business or put back into just the rents to keep the door open. Our program has always been designed is that that money is going straight back into the pockets of our businesses and we're not cutting anything off of that for them. So when we say $150,000 was generated in store and then $40,000 in addition were generated due to market opportunities. Some of the events that I'll mention in a second, we're talking about almost $200,000 that has gone back into the hands of rebuilding the Fillmore corridor and creating. The visibility of opportunities for our neighborhood as well. One of the great things that happens because we're on this corner of Fillmore and Gary, you know our. I love to bring it up when people come in or when we have a new hire around four o'clock, depending on what day of the week it is you're going to hear a thumb, thumb, thumb. And the reason for that is because right above us is the legendary Fillmore auditorium. So we have this corner of business where we got buses that come in the 22 the 38 we have Japan town right there so the tourist hub is real right. This has created global exposure. Very often we'll have customers come in and be like, I'm from Sweden. I'm from Africa. I'm from Kenya. I'm from Germany just recently. Who are coming into our store and getting to experience the products that our businesses sell and fall in love quite honestly. I can't tell you how many times a kid will come in and be like, I need that hat before I go home or someone looking for a brand new pair of earrings perhaps before they go to dinner or just before they hop onto a plane. So we're really fortunate that every day we're open, we create new opportunities for people to learn about our vendors and learn really about the mission that in the black. As we look kind of internally at what we've been able to experience as a program at in the black. One of the best things I think has transpired is been the different citywide partnerships and opportunities that we've been connected with this call in factor webinars and you know a perfect example of that. As I mentioned earlier last year, we had the opportunity to get to connect with the San Francisco public library to kind of just share at that time, what we were planning to do and you know the poor, the importance and desire behind in the black. From that point, you know, we've connected with different organizations and businesses within our own corridor, including glue and up the street from us. We are connected right now with food wise, which has done an incredible job of partnering with us to create events down at the ferry building. We've been talking with the ports and so many other orgs that are now seeing the viability of black owned business and wanting to create opportunities to expand and bring more exposure to that. But through all of that one of the things that has been most important to us is the commitment to accessible rent. And as we've watched the wheels. The retail landscape change over time. We've been able to adjust and flex our desires and what we charge and where we, and where we set at really in comparison to other businesses. Thanks to some of the wonderful partners and organizations that, you know, fund this program so we have continued to, you know, we started off with our businesses saying less than 50% of them we're going to pay $650 a month to be a part of this program. That still rings true. In fact, I think it's probably a little higher now, as we've learned how to best optimize the returns that the businesses are seeing. One of the other aspects of this that we take very seriously is our ability and the impact that we've seen and what we've done for small business development. As I mentioned, we have 22 businesses that have come through the store. And each one of those businesses we've been able to get hands on it's training to. In some cases, whether it's been just telling them, you know, here's how you scale your business. Here's how you think about expanding your product line or this is what your product is doing in store. Here's, you know, direct feedback from your customer base. Here's how your product is doing on the line, excuse me. Here's how it's doing via social media and beyond that, and also teaching them kind of the importance and different tools to use you know how to use Canva. When's the best time to post on Instagram these different types of things that occasionally we can think of as being very small pieces but when you're a business owner and you're doing every single aspect of that yourself. It's going to be incredibly important to have an ally to be able to share that to share that load with you basically ensure that balance out the need for you to have to know it all versus being able to have an ally to teach you some of those things. So let's keep moving here. Another big piece of what I don't think I really had the knowledge of before going into this is just how critical this is going to be to the community. It's one thing for us to say that you know we are community hub around the corner of football and Gary and we want people to come in and all of these things but one of the things that has been just beautiful to watch is that we have customers now who know that we're going to be there, to add us into their day. We have a lovely lady who comes in at least once every month sometimes you know once every pay period. And she comes in grabs the soda sits down catches up with us and just picks his load off of her shoulders and I think one of the aspects of community hub for black owned businesses and for the black community to know and know that they can walk into and kind of not have to put on that scene mask perhaps that we find ourselves wearing in some different spaces. We become a place for people to not only gather but also to rest. So sometimes they'll come in they don't have anything they need to purchase on that trip but they're just like I just want you to know I'm still here and I still know you're there and that's been wildly encouraging so thank you to everyone that does that. It means a lot to us. We've also had a great opportunity to share a few of our event or excuse me share event space with some external partners. What you see up here right now is we held up on talk and partner with on the SCGD, which is the Society of experiential graphic designers. I had never heard of that prior to this moment but now I have a whole new appreciation for people who value just what goes into furniture goes into architecture. This became a way for us to not only use our space for something different, but also everyone that came into the store that they left with something they were just so impressed with on the different products that we carried that literally everyone had at least one or two items when they went home. And so this became just a new avenue what that we learned from to be like, oh, we don't have to necessarily have each event be commercial based or be you know promotional in that regard, just by inviting people in, we can create new revenue opportunities for our businesses. The byproduct of all of this also, and the byproduct really of being open is that it is encouraged so many people in our community to get involved. Be it other local business owners who are looking for an opportunity to sell their products, or even businesses that are looking for the right way to get connected into really the black community. We've been able to be a liaison really for those moments and helping people to recognize that you know, this is how you approach a business or this is the language that you may want to use or the involvement necessary and really just helping to create structure where, you know, before there's sometimes can be a fear of how to connect or how to become an ally. We get to kind of help people way through that is, you know, way through those moments so there's a lot that happens on the community and because of a store like this. You know, we are focused as ever to making sure that we do more of this we create more opportunities for the Fillmore community to rent out the space to utilize it for you know, I always say birthdays for a shopping trip for a wedding, any kind of thing you can think of you know we really loved and want you to reach out to us and let us know what you think about that because chances are we'll be into it. Before we jump into the learnings that we've had, I want to share two of our success stories. As I mentioned, we've had a few businesses since the beginning of in the black, but these two have really highlighted what the, what the opportunity has done for them as business owners. Starting with Bill Noir, Nicole has been one of the businesses that we enjoy sharing the success story of because she's been a part of it since the beginning. When we very first opened the store she recognized, you know, that moving her earrings to a different area in the store would potentially increase her sales and so we partnered together because we have this space that we get to kind of be free form with and shifted things around to create more of a, what you would expect from a retail experience. This changed the experience, the whole process for her business, she doubled her sales, sometimes tripling her sales. And as the kind of like the power that came out of that experience for her was then to start hosting bigger events in store and leading to some of the, like her trunk show that we mentioned here being one of the highest selling days we experienced last year. So the learning lesson from that for us was just, you know, A, get the customer, get our vendors into the store as often as possible so that they can really feel what their product looks like and what the, how the customers and they're acting with it, and then listen so that we can make those changes with them. Siany from sick apparel on the other end. She, if you've ever been by a store if you've ever seen a picture of our store she is the mastermind behind the black girl magic hoodie. And that hoodie has been incredible it is a handmade hand embroidered product that just looks really top notch really high quality and the sales have shown, you know, people come in they see it they're like really impressed by it. And then they also get to realize like, Oh, they actually have to change sometimes their expectations of what they might expect our store to sell. Because sometimes let's face it you go into certain stores you may not think that they're going to have a hand embroidered top notch, you know, hoodie available. And so once you see that it changes how you view everything else inside. Even as the season went on, we started to realize that we had a lot of tourists who were coming into the store or people who were looking specifically for something that could be a souvenir from their trip. And I'd like to share this information with Siany because she has such a close relationship with her production. And within weeks we got a new patch that said the city on it, and it's been one of our top selling patches ever since so we really value kind of being able to have vendors who we can insights with and watch their reaction because then we get to share that story that success story with some of our other businesses so that they can see that, you know, change can happen for you at the drop of a dime, even within the, you know, restraints of working within retail. Alright, it has been a romance story for us definitely since the day we've opened the door but we also work in retail so that doesn't come without its learnings and different opportunities and roadblocks along the way. I think one of the biggest things we've experienced and can be summed up for us has been in just the staffing challenges that many businesses have been facing. You know, we are a unique platform in that we are retail and we're also a part of a nonprofit so we have a desire to go beyond just what you may normally experience within retail. And so we have, you know, everyone's wearing many hats, as we find in most businesses, but that can also, you know, bring with it a certain amount of stress, a certain amount of turnover as well so while we had these problems starting off, we've been able to partner with wonderful organizations such as Jobs Now, which has gotten us connected into the system so that we can find people who are looking for jobs and provide them to them. So anytime I think one of the takeaways from that for me has been if you're finding yourself needing something, reach out, be at your community, be at your partner organizations, be at your leadership because chances are especially in a city like San Francisco, someone else has come up against that and had the opportunity to create a program to support you in it. So be sure to ask those questions. Another aspect that we've really had to learn to balance is the doom loop and I even hate to bring it up. I wish I could just like bleep myself as I say it. But on that conversation has really taken hold of I think a lot of people think of when they think of retail and I think of San Francisco and shopping. We are removed from downtown being in the Fillmore corridor. And so we tried to remind people often that you know and even in how we thought about the events that we were going to throw in the store. We wanted to create a sense of vibrancy on our corner we wanted to create a sense of community. And so even in the conversations we have with people who came into the store. Because we became a safe base for the community to gather a part of that is the conversation of like you know, whatever that internal fear of like well I see all these businesses closing are you going to be next, and so on and getting to kind of share with them just here's what's happening, you know from the I live in a store manager from our sales associate, and the beauty of how much shopping is still transpiring in the city every day. And our Fillmore corridor being an example of that. But then even in that conversation is the realities that we are still reiterating and bringing new life into the Fillmore corridor. And at the moment, as I say this we actually can celebrate that you know the opening of new restaurants and the, you know, reestablishment of the film or to heritage center. These are all things that are coming that we can look at as being byproducts of what we were able to do. But the conversation that had to happen for the customer is that hey, yeah, add us to the you know add us to your list like, as you're you know, that's the goodwill there's still another few stores in the lower Fillmore area. And it's taken really this long I would say up to a year now for us to really be able to get people to continue that walk down, you know, especially during the day prior to dinner or anything like that, or to come back around instead of trying to do it on a commute day, come back over the weekend or something like that. So, there's always so many different things in that that we're continuing to experiment with you and we're starting to do direct mail so that we're reminding people just one other way like hey we exist here we're a store, but one of the best ways we can always recommend or encourage people to do is if you see something from us if you get, you know, see us on Instagram, Facebook, if you receive something in the mail, share it with someone. I share it with the neighbors share someone with someone the story that we're sharing today so a lot of learnings and I'm love to share more of those as we go along but as we look forward, always we're looking for ways to participate with the community and create additional opportunities for black owned businesses. As we are looking forward to 2024, one of the things we're hoping and desiring to do is bring in larger businesses that can also become mentors for some of our smaller businesses to kind of complete that process of you know it's one thing for us to be like you can do this, we can show you exactly how you know you're on the path, but when you have a larger business or someone, a mentor someone you can look up to, who can share with you, you know, here are the steps that I may have ran into, or here are some of the different issues I ran into that so you can avoid those. I think that can be really impactful for your business so we are starting to you know expand what type of businesses we're looking for, but we still want to offer and encourage people to look at our spaces being a place to host an event, a place to you know if you have your own business to be a pop up at our pop ups are really incredible we bring out, you know, we have our own music system we have our resident DJ that we can tap if necessary, so we can really create that environment that brings the people in to buy, and then ultimately also we still want vendors in store or on our e-commerce our website is a great opportunity if you aren't necessarily ready to have your product customer facing every day, but you know you have something that you're looking for online or get the exposure globally. Our website is a wonderful tool for that so we invite any and all businesses that are either looking for that permanent brick and mortar experience with the web, or just for e-commerce. So as we look towards this year we're trying to find new ways to create exposure for our businesses and so that looks like partnerships with your organization or your business to bring our craft market which we successfully kicked off with food wise last year to your business or to your organization, especially as we hear so many different conversations around DEI, we want to make sure that people still know that black business is good and is strong in California and in San Francisco so please reach out and we can definitely create some new opportunities within that realm. Alright I'm going to take a quick breath. We can't do anything without the organizations that really support us since the beginning. We always give a huge shout out to the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation, the Dreamkeepers Initiative, the Human Rights Commission, and the Office of Economic Workforce and Development. We are who we are because of the support of these different partners so we just give a huge thank you and shout out every time we can. And then lastly, please come into the store if you haven't been by, come by any day except for Tuesdays we are there. Our website is up in theblackshop.com and then of course you can find us on social media and the black shop as well. Our fundraising goal actually has been updated forgive me I didn't update that part of the slide, but we still do have a goal there and we're still are reaching trying to reach that so if you have the availability if you have the ability to share please do. And with that, I'm going to take one more breath and say thank you so much for joining and listening I see we've got a bunch of comments can't wait to look at them. But at this point if there are any questions I'd love to be able to answer those for you. And I'm going to bring up the comments while I thank you so much Joshua it looked like Leslie put some questions in the chat Leslie would you like to unmute or would you like me to read those out. Leslie see if she would like actually I just saw it. So Leslie you're asking about the type of events were open to, and then the capacity. Great questions actually those are both really important and hand in hand. We are open to a lot of different styles of events we've, as I mentioned, we had that panel that was done in the store that had posted kind of like a happy hour afterwards. We had an open mic night recently with an organization from the SF State. We have talked with different businesses about doing kind of like. I think it's like a bachelor at night where you kind of like a shop night where you can come in and buy and things of that nature we're really wanting to. I will say we want to experiment with what the space can be used for. We know that if we are hosting it's generally a cap of about 40 people, just so that everyone can be comfortable inside of the space also. Yeah, but feel free to, I will share my email actually in here, and you can reach out to me that way as well. Great question. All right, I see another question from Ayanna Ayanna. I'm saying that right. Okay, the question is, did you test out your concept before opening a physical store? What indicators led to you to feel confident and moving forward to lease the space for the store. Ah, this is a great question. There was a lot of market evaluation that went into us figuring out the importance of if we are ready to open a store as well as how to open the store. One of the things that is unique about our space and what I would say to anyone who's planning probably to open a store or to follow this type of model is that you want to look at where you're opening. And also look at just the, making sure you have the systems in place to be able to handle retail, as well as the aspects that come with a nonprofit. We wanted to be able to not only sell these items, but also to be able to provide the trainings and the teachings that go with it. And so the, when it came to us deciding like, are we going to do this and I read like an actual physical space or not, was just the realization that we had to start somewhere and on top of that, I think the film work community needed someone to start somewhere. So by us making that leap and with the trust and the support of our partners, we were able to kind of, I would say almost back into us being able to be like, yeah, actually the space works out for us. And not only does this space work out for us, it's working out for our businesses as well. So I would definitely would say like, if you are planning to open a physical space, you're right. And really with just the market evaluation of how the businesses in that area are doing and what it would take to, you know, to bridge that gap of getting the foot traffic to recognize that you're there as well. Hopefully that answers your question. You're most welcome. Alrighty, I'm going to check in one last time to see if there are any other questions. Joshua, I have a question for you, if that's okay. Of course. I'm just curious of the soon to be 23 vendors that you have. How many are from the original cohorts. Let's see, we have added, I would say probably almost a little bit under two thirds of our original businesses are still with us right now. And of those, like I said, we've added now these 1234 to almost five new businesses that are all either still members of the community or kind of expanded to across the bridge and, you know, kind of beyond. So it's really impressive that we still have that amount of at least around two thirds or so. Great. Thank you. There's lots of nice comments coming through in the chat. Thank you. Another question I would have is, where do most of the sales come from in person sales at the store or e-commerce or is it pretty equal? Great question. So far, a lot of our sales have come through our brick and mortar through people coming into the store. And I think that's been another wonderful learning. Earlier, we have experienced, you know, the necessity to wear many hats as we go. And so the hardest hat for us all the way at the same time as marketing actually and getting the kind of like digital experience gelled out. So the, we, you know, you have a social media presence, you have your email presence, you have your e-commerce. And so, as we have looked up from that, we've benefited actually by any time we get really busy on social media. It draws more foot traffic into the store. And I think people kind of look out on social media or Instagram as being kind of what am I going to do today or what am I going to do this weekend? And so even now as we've been connecting to different influencers are really tapping into some of these content creator markets. We're realizing that the power of that influencer is where that micro influencer really is getting them to turn back and get the foot traffic to come back into the store. So we are definitely looking to expand our digital presence and like our e-commerce presence in this new year. But, you know, we also really value having bodies in the store and kind of just the warmth that that creates in the community aspect it feels. Betsy, and then Joel I see your question and I would love to reach out to you actually and I can answer those questions maybe directly. Betsy, your question, do you all have a retail? Yes. So you can think of us. I love to describe it like a department store. You're walking into like a mini coals or for those of us who are old enough to remember Mervins. You can go into the store and you literally can find something for everyone in the family. There's our skincare line. We have jewelry and clothing, cards and so on and all of those take up a retail or a spot on a shelf or a or hanging every single day. And so that's kind of what our part of the process is. We tried to go from being more of what felt like a curation or like the museum space where our sales associates were kind of just, you know, like there to answer questions to more of the retail aspect where now as you come in, you know, we're shopping with you. We have our fitting room and all of these different things. So I hope that answers your question. I see another question here in terms of our owners working with banks and financial wellness. The beauty of our program is actually that we have a parent org, and we have a parent team in fact that supports us with making sure that the trainings that we may not be able to provide immediately. Our businesses still have access to. And so one of the cohorts that we've actually through our economic development team that we are giving access to our businesses is for financial health and for, you know, tax season and all these different things because one of the parts that we have realized that is imperative is that, you know, even if someone has the desire to open a business. That's just the first step, you know, and so you can get them to that point. And then the rest of that process is going to be that they are still going to be what I refer to as graduate school right. You're in the store, which is, you know, creating opportunities for you to experiment with your business, but there are still follow up classes that are necessary. As I mentioned earlier, scalability, marketing, branding, and also financial health. So we take that very seriously and we provide connections and contacts for our businesses to be able to get involved or at least get have that information available to them. As we look towards this next year, especially with our businesses starting the anniversary. We want to make sure that we are creating new opportunities for them to get connected to different financial planners or financial institutions so that, you know, that can help to also remove some of the workiness or just unsteadiness that comes with having to deal with, you know, the financial aspects of running a business. So if anyone in the call, if you have a business or if you run a business that you think would beneficial to our vendors, please reach out and connect with us. Yeah, no Leslie, you're totally right. And actually this is a great never learning for us. The comment here is encouraging us to expand and range type and then the sizes. And man, the greatest learning for all of our business owners is that you are going to be successful and people are going to see your product and they're going to desire to buy it. And so as a part of that is the acceptance that you know you need to purchase items for the client of tomorrow and not necessarily the client you know today. So as we go along a part of the trainings and the different learnings that we provide our businesses is hey, every day if someone comes in and they wanted to buy something and they couldn't. We're like, Hey, here's your tally, you know, in a certain case if it starts to happen a bunch we share the with them like a tally to be like hey, these are all of the opportunities to make that sell that we couldn't because we may not have had the right size or shirt or whatever. So we share that information with our businesses regularly. I attend a lot of different events here in the city and beyond to find new businesses, especially when it comes to men's clothing. I love to wear a good, you know, have a good shirt or have a good hat on myself. So please keep your eyes open. Please be sure to stop by because I'm hoping to change that here pretty soon. One last call out. And if not, I'll pass it back to you, Julian. And again, thanks everyone for joining. It means the world to us. Thank you for supporting us across the year as many of you mentioned, you know, the items you like to buy in the store we really appreciate that and come by still check us out and we'll see you soon. Thank you so much Joshua and thank you everyone who joined us today. We wish in the black continued success in 2024. And we encourage folks to go and check out the marketplace. Not only do they have fabulous products, but they also are curating a really thoughtful community space as we learned in this presentation. So I would encourage you all to go and check them out in person. Support them in any way you can spread the word follow them on social media. And happy new year to all. Thank you again Joshua. Not a problem. It was a joy. Thanks everyone. Thank you all.