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michigan news
Greta Gast
January 15, 2024
The University of Michigan’s Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurship Project, which has supported nearly 700 small businesses since its introduction in 2016, has moved from its longtime home at the Ford School of Public Policy to the Ross School of Business.
DNEP Managing Director Christy Ayotte Baer said the move will better connect Detroit’s up-and-coming businesses with the full range of entrepreneurial programs available at the nation’s top business schools. .
“DNEP was successfully implemented at the Ford School as an intervention to address racial and wealth disparities because approximately 90% of the companies we work with are minority-owned. “It gave me an economic and community development perspective,” she said.
“As the program grew, it made sense to shift our focus to leverage greater entrepreneurship expertise and move to the Ross School. Additionally, both our accounting services and summer internship programs Both started in Los Angeles and are operated in Los Angeles.”
The Ross School is highly regarded for its entrepreneurship program and operates the Impact Studio, an incubator focused on student-led impact businesses. It is home to award-winning graduate courses focused on creating green businesses in Detroit and hosts the DNEP/Impact Studio summer internship program that supports Detroit businesses.
Jerry Davis, Ross School Business + Impact faculty member, said that as DNEP has grown, so have its contributions to the Ross School. DNEP has been sourcing clients in Detroit for a variety of classes for several years.
“So it made perfect sense to move DNEP to Ross’ Business + Impact department to continue its great work,” he said.
The program has always been a collaborative effort involving faculty from Ford, Ross and other schools, as well as students from across campus. This includes students from the School of Engineering, Stamps School of Art & Design, Law School, and School of Information.
“We strive to continue working with companies until they can afford to hire professional staff. We provide them with accounting, legal, business strategy, marketing, and whatever else they need. We want to help,” Baer said.
As part of that, the program plans to expand its number of faculty advisors to increase its ability to serve Detroit residents and give more students hands-on experience in Detroit, she said. .
“An important part of doing this job is recognizing our role,” Baer said. “We tell our students that as consultants we are never Player 1. The business owner is always the hero of the story. But we are the very important non-player characters who help the hero succeed. You can become.”
In recent years, the program has focused on specific areas such as Jefferson Chalmers, Southwest and Six Mile/Livernois. Part of that effort is recruiting businesses to these regions.
Lutalo Sanif, director of neighborhood resiliency, safety and business district services for Jefferson East, said he is excited about the connection with Ross.
Jefferson East has worked with DNEP for several years and has a strong relationship, he said.
“We are grateful to the team at DNEP for the added value we can create for business owners by getting them serious about their business and thinking about what they can do to improve it. ,” Sanif said. “Most of our business owners are small business owners or sole traders. Having extra people at the table to help build processes is critical to success.”
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