BizStarts Community Market fosters Milwaukee’s budding entrepreneurs

Small business owners fight every day to get their products in front of potential customers. Earning shelf space is no easy task, but one local venture is helping budding entrepreneurs sharpen their business skills and bolster their followings, in hopes that one day they’ll be able to open their own brick-and-mortar locations.

The BizStarts Community Market, located at 161 S. First St. in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood, officially opened in October with products from 18 different small business owners on display. Since then, the shop has added approximately 10 vendors to the mix.

As an organization dedicated to helping small business owners, BizStarts wanted to create a place where entrepreneurs who have completed its program could have a space to set up shop without having to spend time and money on travel and rent.

In just a few months, several BizStarts Community Market tenants are already experiencing noticeable growth.

Isabella Rivera, founder of Isla Bella Coffee Roasters, is not only working on building her own business, but also learning business fundamentals by operating the market’s cafe.

Isla Bella aims to bring a taste of Puerto Rico to the mainland through its hand-picked and roasted coffee beans, which are the market’s best seller.

Rivera initially began working with BizStarts in the summer of 2022. She recalls being a young child and spending time at her parents’ restaurant after school. That sense of entrepreneurship inspired her to start her own company.

Rivera has diversified her product offerings to include one-pound, half-pound and quarter-pound bags. She’s also navigating the challenge of maintaining inventory levels as the business sells out of coffee beans each time a batch is roasted.

“I’m scaling faster than I thought I would need to and increasing my wholesale ordering,” said Rivera. “In my first year of business, I was able to purchase my own roaster. It was huge, being able to afford a huge expense like that.”

She said BizStarts was particularly helpful to her as she was looking to apply for loans to grow her business. Isla Bella received financial support through a Kiva loan after gaining sponsorship from Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp. Those connections were initially made through BizStarts.

While it’s still too early to say when Isla Bella will make the jump to its own physical space, Rivera said being in the BizStarts Community Market provides her with valuable data, such as proof of sales and customer analytics. She hopes to get her coffee beans into larger stores through distributors.

“I would love to increase the quantity of coffee I’m bringing in from Puerto Rico and diversify the farmers that I’m working with,” said Rivera. “I can work with more women on the island and bring them more revenue.”

Tolu Ojesina, founder and chief executive officer of Modaheadwraps, started her business in Alabama in the middle of the pandemic. She sells headwraps and bonnets made from 100% African print cotton and satin.

What makes Ojesina’s products unique is how easy they are to use. Traditional African headwraps are made up of a single piece of fabric that can be anywhere from 20 to 72 inches long. Modaheadwraps are two pieces instead of one, and they can be tied together in a matter of seconds.

“When I show people the headwraps, their first thought is, ‘That’s gorgeous, but I could never recreate it,’” said Ojesina. “Then, when I show them how to use it, they’re like, ‘What, that’s it?’”

She moved to Milwaukee in 2022 after her husband took a new job at the Medical College of Wisconsin. This jump-started her decision to pursue her business as a full-time gig. She learned about BizStarts at a networking event and completed the BizStarts Institute program.

Before becoming a vendor in the BizStarts Community Marketplace, Ojesina sold her headwraps exclusively online.

“You can have an e-commerce store, but you still have to know how to drive traffic there,” she said. “BizStarts had this genius idea to create this retail space, and they just have shelf space for entrepreneurs.”

Since the grand opening of the marketplace, Ojesina has seen her sales more than double to between 20 and 50 pieces each month. She has hired two seamstresses from Nigeria to support Modaheadwrap’s growth and wants to grow that total to five.

BizStarts has helped advise Ojesina on everything from how to structure her business to how to price her products. The confidence she’s gained both in herself and her small business has been the biggest benefit of becoming involved with BizStarts and its new marketplace. Coming from a background in academia, Ojesina said she didn’t really “know a thing” about business before working with the organization.

“If you asked me three years ago if I thought I could ever have my own shop, I would say there’s zero chance,” she said. “I’m fully confident that at some time in the next four to five years, I want to own my own brick-and-mortar space.”

For Jenny Rey, founder of Mi Casita Herbs, the importance of having a presence in an actual store can’t be understated. The business sells organic seasonings, bath blends and herbal teas, some of which are featured on the menu at the market’s cafe. Her products, particularly her homemade sazón, are also among the market’s best sellers.

Rey had been making her own herbal-based products at home for years before launching her business. She’s since moved into a shared kitchen space where she can make her products more efficiently.

“This has given me a really great opportunity to grow even more and to have my products somewhere permanently,” she said. “It’s really nice. I go to markets now and people are like, ‘Oh, I’ve seen your stuff.’”

The feedback she gets from customers who visit the BizStarts Community Market has provided her with valuable business insights. Rey has broadened her company’s offerings based on customer requests, adding products like matcha to her portfolio.

“It’s made me become more open minded as to what products I make, not just what I’m used to drinking or using,” she said. “It just broadens your range of experience.”

In the future, Rey wants to establish herself as an herbalist and open her own wellness clinic focused on women’s health. She’s also considering partnerships with larger distributors, like supermarkets, but is unsure if mass producing her products is the right fit for her business.

“I want to help people with consultations and make them personalized herbal products,” said Rey. “There’s a little bit of a conflict between doing a mass production versus more of a one-on-one type of scenario, but it’s not off the table.”