Here are 4 Black entrepreneurs in Milwaukee you should know

Less than 2% of businesses in the Milwaukee area are Black-owned, but they are making an indelible mark in the city.

From restaurants, clothing boutiques, and art studios to the recycling industry, Black-owned businesses have carved out niches in almost every industry, offering unique services, products, and even inventive ways to carry dog poop.

And efforts are underway to grow these businesses with the help of federal, state and philanthropic dollars. Northwestern Mutual is providing $5 million to boost micro-lending through a partnership with two local community development financial institutions. And Gov. Tony Evers is using  $86 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to support local chambers of commerce throughout the state to help develop small businesses.

Here's a few Black-owned entrepreneurs and inventors you should get to know:

Natasha Broxton: Select Auto Parts & Sales

Natasha Broxton learned the ins and out of the recycling business by osmosis.

Her husband, Eric has been in the industry for 30 years.

He owns Tires Express, a tire recycling company, and All Scrap Metal Recycling. 

“He’s in and around this industry a lot picking up knowledge as he goes and then he is sharing it with me,” Broxton said.

The couple bought a 125,000-square-foot warehouse on 25th Avenue and Cornell Road that was filled with thousands of old tires. Eric Broxton had the idea of creating an indoor auto parts salvage yard.

“He had the vision, but then I executed it,” Natasha Broxton said.

Now Broxton believes she's the only Black female owner of an indoor salvage yard in the state.

She opened Select Auto Parts & Sales in 2015 a year after the couple bought the building, clearing 45,000 tires within a matter of months.

Since then, she has grown the business, carving out a niche that separates her from traditional salvage yards. Most stockpile junk cars where customers peruse huge outdoor lots seeking parts. Usually, customers either had to take parts off themselves or pay an additional cost to have them removed.

At Select Auto Parts & Sales, Broxton's team removes the parts and stores close to a million items from hoods and bumpers to heaters/AC control units in her warehouse. Her full-service company provides ready-to-go parts that meet customers' auto needs.

“When my customers come to me, they know they are going to be able to get their parts, grab it and go with pretty much no waiting,” she said.

But she admits learning the finer points of dissembling a car was a learning curve. One she mastered on the job.

“I didn’t know what an alternator was. I didn’t know what a starter was. I didn’t know any of those things,” Broxton, 41, said. “I didn’t know how to check an alternator to make sure it is good. My team is awesome. They would teach me these things.”

The company’s success comes from her willingness to learn from others and hiring the right team.

“Even though I am the owner, I want to be able to say, ‘Hey. I want to know how this works,” said Broxton, who majored in accounting and then worked for AT&T for 10 years.

Working in corporate, especially technology has helped Broxton create a full-service auto parts business. She has acquired a dealer’s license to sell used cars. She sells both domestically and internationally through eBay and she hopes to offer an auto parts delivery service to other auto-related businesses. She also buys scrap metal and sells new and used tires. As part of giving back to the community, she hires formerly incarcerated individuals and persons with disabilities.

In business for eight years, Broxton has encountered some intimidation in an industry that is male-dominated and white. But that has made her stronger. Often, she said, people doubt she's the owner or questions her knowledge about cars.

Broxton encourages other women to take a chance on businesses not traditionally thought of for women.

“When you think of women (owning businesses), you think of nail salons, hair salons, and all that. Let’s get out of those stereotypes,” Broxton said. “We can do anything that we put our minds to. I’m a firm believer in that.”

Fred Robinson Jr.: Greenwood Park Gallery and Framing

A trip to a Black college football classic in Indiana inspired a father and son to open a picture-framing company that morphed into a business that became much more than that.

Greenwood Park Gallery and Framing, 4233 W. Fond du Lac Ave., offers custom framing, including shadow box framing for family heirlooms and mementos and large printmaking.

The business doubles as an art gallery showcasing local and international artists’ work. It also sells an eclectic array of paintings from landscapes, contemporary Black and religious artwork to African masks, artifacts, and fabrics.

“One of the reasons why we got into the framing is because we wanted to offer our customers affordable framing,” said Fred Robinson Jr., who started the family-run business with his father Fred Robinson, Sr. 20 years ago.

Most people, he noted, have artwork or posters rolled up in closets because they can’t afford to get them framed. Or their walls are bare because they can’t afford artwork, he added.

The gallery also supports local artists. Robinson buys artwork from emerging creatives, which he displays and sells. This allows up-and-coming artists to have a venue to showcase their work and get their names out there. Robinson also has a podcast, The Artist Connection, where he interviews local artists.

“Everybody has to start somewhere,” he said.

The idea for the business came from a trip to Indiana to attend Circle City Classic in 2002. Robinson and his father saw a man selling 8-by-10 pictures of Afro-centric art from the trunk of his car.

“The line was around the corner,” said Robinson. “We waited in line to see what all the hype was about.”

Amazed to see Blacks buying art, the duo returned to Milwaukee and began learning the picture-framing trade. Father and son, along with the elder Robinson’s partner, Billie Nash, attended conventions, seminars and took classes to learn the trade.

“We had this bright idea. We had no idea about framing. We learned it,” said Robinson, a tool and die maker. His father is a retired mechanic for the city.

Five years later, Greenwood Park Gallery and Framing opened, taking its name from an area in Corpus Christi, Texas, where Robinson’s father grew up.

The business expanded over the years to touch all three aspects of the art industry – framing, printing, and now photography. They have turned a small portion of its 3,000-square-foot upstairs art gallery into three separate photography studios.

Local photographers can rent the studios to do graduation portraits, professional headshots, and model photoshoots. Photography equipment like lighting, tripods, and backdrops are provided.

Woods Studios, Robinson, said keeps everything in-house where people can get their photos taken, printed, and framed all in one place. The next step for the gallery is doing corporate accounts for hotels or the Milwaukee Bucks or bulk or commercial framing for retail stores.

Celeste Robinson: The Poop Tee-Pee

Tired of picking up after your dog? So was one Milwaukee resident who found a practical and stylish solution.

It's called the Poop Tee-Pee.

Celeste Robinson created a hands-free way to store a dog’s bagged poop on long walks in the park, along the beach, or around the neighborhood.

She researched, perfected, patented and trademarked the nylon pouch that attaches to a leash.

“Nobody wants to walk around holding poop,” said Robinson, 50. “You always see people walking down the street walking their dogs and holding poop.”

The idea came to her one summer’s day in 2019 as she walked her 6-year-old pit bull named Brodie. The walks can last 30 or 45 minutes. Robinson didn't want to hold bags of poop for that long. Over time, it begins to smell, attract flies, and eventually get heavier.

“He is not going to poop once. He's like 90lbs. He is going to poop like two or three times. Now, I am holding three bags of poop,” she said. “I was trying to figure out what I could do to carry his poop without holding it.”

She searched the internet looking to buy something anything to keep her hands doodie-free but came up empty.

“I was like ‘I need to make something,’” she said.

She sketched possible designs for a small pouch to carry the poop and have it attached to a leash, so her hands could remain free. She found old fabric and began stitching together pouches of varying shapes and sizes until she landed on a design that resembled a teepee.

Robinson got the bag patented and found a local textile manufacturing company to produce her prototype.

Robinson has so far sold about 500 Poop Tee-Pee pouches.

Robinson wants to grow her product and hopes to have it stocked at major pet stores and sold on Amazon. She hopes to also pitch her business on the TV show "Shark Tank."

“That’s my dream,” Robinson said.

Dave Bent: Jamaican Fair Trade

Jamaica is known for sandy beaches, reggae and rum punch. But there is another commodity the small island nation is also known for -- coffee.

“Blue Mountain coffee is one of the world's most sought-after coffee – it is like the champagne of coffee,” said Dave Bent, owner of Jamaican Fair Trade.

Bent’s company imports beans grown in the island's Blue Mountain region, then roasts them locally and sells the coffee online.

“Blue Mountain coffee is not that coffee that you drink every day to stay up. It's that coffee that you drink to enjoy and actually savor the taste,” he added

The fertile volcanic soil of Jamaica’s Blue Mountain region gives this coffee a smooth taste with notes of cocoa without that bitter aftertaste associated with most coffee.

Bent's first sip of the coffee occurred eight years ago while visiting the island for a cousin’s wedding. Bent admits he is not a coffee aficionado, but he loved the taste. He immediately wanted to bring this coffee from his parents’ homeland back to Milwaukee.

“I remember giving it a try and waiting for that bitter aftertaste, and I was like, ‘Oh, Wow. This is pretty good,’” Bent said. “It was my first time being able to drink black coffee.”

After that sip, Jamaican Fair Trade was born. But Bent’s business has a deeper mission than just bringing the taste of the island to the Midwest.

He wants to help build the island nation’s economy by supporting small family-owned farms. Bent said the biggest market for Blue Mountain Coffee is in Japan and Europe which already operates large conglomerates farms.

“I wanted to do fair trade to make sure I was working with a small family-owned coffee farm where the money is actually going back into the community,” he said.

His parents were born in Jamaica and emigrated to the U.S. in the late 70s. When Bent travels there, he is struck by the poverty. It’s a stark contrast to the island resort image most have, he said.

“I always wanted to do something for the culture, but I never really knew what to do,” Bent said.

Bent registered his business in 2018, having no idea how to bring the coffee to Milwaukee. Family connections in Jamaica helped him navigate the nuances needed to register with the island's agriculture department, get certified and find a reliable coffee farmer, which Bent said took a couple of tries.

Jamaican officials have strict protocols to prevent fraudulent labeling and to ensure quality.

“It was definitely a lot of trial and error,” he said.

He has partnered with Riverworks Development Corp. to open a café on the Beerline Trail. In early 2023, Bent and three others will open Kuumba Juice and Coffeehouse, 274 E. Keefe Ave.

The café will serve Bent’s coffee, other light refreshments and cold-pressed juices. The café focuses on health and wellness and includes a community center offering yoga and mental health services.

With just an online store, the café will expose more people to Blue Mountain coffee.  Bent hopes the exposure will allow him to grow his business, increase orders, and have a bigger impact on Jamaica’s economy.

La Risa Lynch is a community affairs reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Email her at llynch@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 4 Black-owned Milwaukee businesses to support