Great Black Owned Businesses - 2015

Sojourner’s Truth Staff

Last year in October, we introduced to or reminded our readers of a number of terrific black-owned businesses in the Toledo area – from eateries, to day cares to plumbers and auto repair.

We are back again to recognize a few more. But before we do that, let’s just remind ourselves o those we recognized last year, based upon input from our readers.

They were, and are, in no particular order: Poor Clark’s, a barbershop what has served the inner city for decades; American Lawn and Snow Removal, a relatively new business – one of several in Sarah Bates’ stable; Cimarron Express, another long-time business that specializes in trucking; Ron Wingate Law Office; Tparker & Co, a marketing/media firm;

Matthew Coleman
RC Rent-A-Car Leasing and Sales

Sew Faithful, seamstresses; Aria Banquet, a catering firm; Leap Graphics, for design; Hair Trendz, a salon; R & L Plumbing; Little Generation Day Care; Quinsey’s Automotive – where “Honesty Is Back;” American Floors and Interiors, Ryan Rollison’s Dream Bodies – a personal trainer; Fabulously Fit – a workout for women; Parker Energy Solutions; Welch Communications – The Juice radio station; Powell’s Beauty Supply; Vince Davis State Farm Agent; J’Mae’s restaurant; The Peacock Café; Our Brothers Place; Toledo Urban Federal Credit Union and Genesis Beauty Salon.

Here are a few more to celebrate and to patronize.

RC – Rent-a-Car Leasing and Sales

Matthew Coleman, a long-time entrepreneur here in Toledo, has reached a crossroads as he explores his options and plots his business future. For years now, Coleman has operated various businesses related to automobiles – repair, detailing, customizing rims and tires, selling and renting – along with a handful of other ventures not necessarily related to the car business.

Now Coleman is focused on streamlining his business activities in an effort to develop that part of his operation that has the most growth potential – the renting and selling of cars.

“I really enjoy being an entrepreneur,” says Coleman of his long-time vocation. The next step, he says, is to go for investors in order to increase, most critically, his rental fleet. Coleman, who divides his time between his operations here and in Atlanta, GA, envisions a day in which his rental company – RC Rent-A-Car Leasing and Sales– will have multiple locations.

Currently Coleman’s Toledo business still has a repair component – a necessary arrangement to control shop expenses.

“It’s a unique mix,” he says of his present-day business mix. “You might say I have a major in renting and selling and a minor in detailing and repair.” Renting, first, and selling, second, will be the wave of the future for Coleman if all goes as planned.

For Coleman, a business can be divided into five components – products and services, daily operations, facility management, human resources and branding and marketing. The human resources component is the one on which he is currently striving to perfect – to put together a team of like-minded individuals who will share in the success of the operation.

RC Rent-A-Car Leasing and Sales is located at 1829 Dorr Street and is open six days a week. Call 419-536-7368 for more information or email info@rcrentacar.com.
 

Salon Onyx

Salon Onyx, a full-service salon located in the Davis Building at 123 N. Michigan Avenue, has been in operation for about four years, says owner/operator Alina Dunbar.

Dunbar’s business includes four stylists, two nail technicians and an aesthetician. Clients, who come from all over the greater Toledo area, have access to waxing, facial, massage and makeup services.
 

In order to bring her salon to the downtown area, Dunbar and her husband had to build the business from scratch – a gutted-out storage area in the Davis Building. The result is a large, well-decorated, inviting space that complements the other businesses in the building such as Sophie’s Sister and Pam’s Corner. Clients can park on the street or in the lot at the back and walk through.

“I am doing what I want and this has been my dream,” says Dunbar, a Toledo native who has been a cosmetologist for over 20 years.

Salon Onyx grants Dunbar the opportunity not only to practice her craft and make a profit but also to place emphasis on how she practices that craft – ethically and professionally. 

“Professionalism is first and foremost,” she says of her approach to customer service. One of these days, Dunbar hopes to go into teaching so that she can impart that approach to others and ensure that she is “laying a good foundation with young people.”

Ruby’s Kitchen

Ruby Butler opened her restaurant, Ruby’s Kitchen, at its current Dorr Street location in 2004. During those years she has done exactly what she always felt she was meant to do – apply the cooking skills taught to her by her mother for the enjoyment of many others.

It’s really been a labor of love for Miss Ruby, as her customers call her. “I love being here, I love this restaurant,” she says. “I love pleasing customers and meeting new people.”

As much as she loves what she does, she readily admits these past dozen years have not always been smooth sailing. The restaurant, Butler says, has seen more bad months than good ones. Nevertheless, she is still standing and the restaurant is still serving customers, almost a miracle in a business in which the average life of a restaurant is less than five years.
 

Butler is obviously committed to providing the very best dining experience for her customers. “I like Southern food,” she says of her product. After all her mother was from Alabama and Southern food was what Butler learned about from an early age.

Helping Butler over the years has been her chief cook, daughter Sonea Hicks. Mother and daughter have worked together from the very beginning pleasing diners with such delicacies as smothered pork chops, rib-eye steaks, chicken wings and Butler’s personal favorites – the catfish filets and the whole catfish dinners. Of course, no dinner would be complete if one didn’t sample the peach cobbler.

“People love the peach cobbler,” Butler notes with pride.

 “When you come here, you are going to be satisfied when you leave,” declares Miss Ruby.

We Be Ribs

James McDay, who has been in the food service business since 1989, started catering events by working out of his home. He eventually opened his restaurant – We Are Ribs – at 21 Wenz Road with sit-down and take out service.

Large groups, small groups, weddings, graduations, reunions, picnics … McDay has taken his ribs, rib tips, baked beans and pulled pork all over Toledo in the last 25 years – truly moveable feasts.
 

In 2007, 2008 and 2009, McDay participated in the Northwest Ohio Riboff and was voted – all three years – First Place Golden Rib Award and First Place Peoples Choice Award.

In the ensuing years, McDay has placed his products with Gladieux Enterprises and at the Huntington Arena and Fifth Third Field.

McDay’s award-winning barbecue sauce, along with his baked beans and pulled pork, are now found in grocery stores throughout northwest Ohio and in his mobile unit at the corner of Jackman and Alexis.

Quality Time Day Care

Year ago, while working at Mercy Hospital, Aletha Braswell adopted two young boys. Fascinated as she was by the thought of providing service to even more youngsters, she quit her job and went back to school to earn her two-year degree in early childhood education. And she opened a day care center.
 

Quality Time Day Care, now in its 15th year, has certainly had its ups and downs, says Braswell. She found the building, at 2315 Dorr Street, abandoned and condemned. She moved in with her four children and proceeded to rehab it, getting it ready to become a day care center that earned, just this month, a very rare five-star rating from the State of Ohio.

There was a bit of a jolt when the center lost Head Start several years ago – and because it is a Christian-based operation cannot become part of the program now run by Toledo Public Schools. Recently, however, Braswell obtained a federal grant – and Early Childhood Expansion Grant - that will help replace the lost Head Start funds and enable the center to expand and accept another 20 youngsters from its waiting list.

Quality Time now operates out of two buildings. The facility at 2301 Dorr tends for children 18 months to two years and, at 2315, those three years old and up.

Elegance With Style

Over the years, Marcia Hopkins’ Elegance With Style boutique at 2909 W. Central, has earned such a reputation that even the stars come calling. That was the case earlier this month when Detroit milliner, Luke Song, the same Mr. Song who designed the now-famous hat that Aretha Franklin wore during the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama, stopped at the boutique to share his designs and expertise with the shop’s clients.

 
The local hat, shoe, handbag and jewelry salon, which Hopkins opened 13 years ago has become a symbol of both elegance and style for numerous clients in the area, particularly plus-sized clients, her specialty.

When Hopkins returned to Toledo from New York years ago, she was disturbed to notice the paucity of choices for plus-sized women here, compared to the Big Apple, so she set out to correct that situation. 

“I wanted to avoid the matronly look that plus-sized women were forced to wear,” she says.

Over the years, Hopkins’ focus has expanded into providing such styles, elegant styles, for smaller women as well.

Elegance With Style is a perfect example of achieving success by filling a void in the marketplace.

Majestic Lifestyle and Fitness

Reginald Peacock moved into 618 Adams Street and opened Majestic Lifestyle and Fitness, LLC about nine years ago and established a downtown center of conditioning and training for everyone, he says.

There, amidst government buildings and attorneys’ offices, Peacock helps his clients focus on what he calls the three elements of conditioning – cardiovascular, muscle toning and flexibility. “I cross train,” says the workout guru.
 

And he works at adapting his program to the client’s specific needs.  “There are different levels of intensity. Most want a moderate intensity but I can raise the workout to a higher intensity if you want. It’s all about meeting the needs of the client.”

Majestic features an impressive array of equipment in its downtown location – from a variety of cardio equipment, weights and punching bags.

Peacock teaches calisthenics, step aerobics, muscle toning and even yoga motivated as he is by a desire to help others find their way to health and a healthy lifestyle.

Whittington Group Realty

When Emory Whittington decided to open his own real estate brokerage firm in 1997 it seemed to be such a no-brainer. He would no longer have to split fees with a boss or bosses, majority-owned firms weren’t paying much, if any, attention to those in the inner city seeking homeownership and there were no minority –owned realty firms in the area.

To his astonishment, almost 20 years later, he is still the only active African-American -owned realty firm in the northwest Ohio area. “I grew up here,” he says of the inner city. “I wasn’t going to run away from it.”

For Whittington, his business has provided a win-win situation for him and his clients. He owns the business and, therefore, all the fees. He provides a multitude of services for oft-neglected clients. Among such services is the education that other firms are not particularly interested in providing.
 

“I brought a lot of information that people didn’t know existed when it comes to buying homes, such as down payment assistance,” he adds. There have been many such programs over the years that he has brought to his clients’ attention – programs that are not widely known.

Of course, after almost 25 years in the business, Whittington has reached the point where he and his firm are no longer confined simply to the inner city – he has listings all over the area, including communities such as Perrysburg and Ottawa Hills

How is business these days in the volatile real estate business? Best year since 2008, he says, when the bottom dropped out of the house buying business. Business is looking up!

REH Systems Solutions

In 1996, Roy Hodge, a systems engineer, decided it was time to put his education and expertise to best advantage, and start his own firm. He founded an IT company, REH Systems Solutions, LLC in order to “collaborate with organizations and corporations as part of a strategic information technology alliance to provide development, implementation, training and support services for computer networking technologies and business solutions.”

REH Systems is now a reseller for Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Dell and Hewlett Packard, among others, specializing in infrastructure development, network switching/routing, wireless email/mobile applications and unified communications integration.

Why did Hodges strike out on his own?

First and foremost to enhance his earning potential.
 

“Second, it enables me to maintain current pace with energy technologies and, third, we are able to be exposed to a variety of challenges and opportunities when dealing with a diverse customer base – public, school systems and private.

REH Systems works as a consultant for companies and public entities in their network electronics. A new contract brings in Hodges and his staff for a look at an organization from the standpoint of workflow – the connectivity, for example, to the Internet and the company’s ability to communicate, internally and externally.

The key to ongoing success for REH Systems is to be able to be a prime contractor on projects or to be able to reach out to prime contractors directly for network electronics bids.

So far, so good.

Copyright © 2015 by [The Sojourner's Truth]. All rights reserved.
Revised: 08/16/18 14:12:22 -0700.

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