'Michigan Matters' Small Business Is Big Business!
By CBS Detroit
With most job growth coming from small business across Metro Detroit, the topic of being welcoming for new and fledgling businesses was a hot topic on "Michigan Matters."
Chris Holman, Founder and CEO of MichiganBusinessNetwork.com, and Rob Fowler, of the Small Business Association of Michigan, sat with "Michigan Matters" Senior Producer/Host Carol Cain to discuss issues impacting small business.
Talent gap and finding resources were at the top of the list.
Holman, also President of Michigan AARP, talked about a new program they are testing in four counties including Wayne called Experience For Hire. It involves inviting baby boomers — folks born between 1946 and 1964 who are retiring in greater numbers each year — to come back from retirement or consider working part-time as a gap measure before they permanently step aside from the workforce.
Holman came up with the idea to help address job openings that both small and big businesses are having and to often being left unfilled.
Workers interested in participating can visit jobs.mitalent.org and companies can click here.
Then, Mark Lee, President of Lee Group, and Ken Harris, President and CEO of the National Business League, appeared with Cain to talk about growing more businesses in Detroit.
Harris talked about the recent merger of The Michigan Black Chamber of Commerce, a statewide group aimed at bringing together and promoting African American-owned businesses which he ran as CEO, with .the National Business League, a more than a century-old national organization with the same mission.
"We are now the National Business League," Harris explained .
Harris and Lee discussed issues impacting minority-owned businesses and how Detroit stacks when it comes to being welcoming.
Lee, who writes a blog on small business for Crain's Detroit Business, also talked about accessing capital to start and grow business.
You can hear more by watching "Michigan Matters" 11:30 am Sunday on CBS 62.
