On September 13th, 2020 Growth Skills, LLC officially became a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE).
What is a Minority Business Enterprise?
A Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) is a United States (US) designation for businesses that are at least 51% owned, operated and controlled, on a daily basis, by one or more US citizens of an ethnic minority group. Eligible ethnic minority groups include: African American, Asian American or Pacific Islander, Hispanic American, and Native American.
The American Dream
For me this is a milestone and part of my American Dream. My parents brought my brother and me to America from Guyana for a better life with more opportunity. Hard work and entrepreneurship is part of our pedigree and in our blood. My grandmother had a shop in Guyana selling groceries, textiles and other goods the neighborhood might have needed. My mom helped fund our first business in elementary school selling strings for Jansport book bags. There was a trend and demand for strings so we made our own and sold them to our classmates at school.
I continued the entrepreneurial route, starting a video production company, while in college, called Footnote Films and then rebranding to Footnote Media Group (FMG). At the time I didn’t not know how to start or run a business so I eventually had to get a job. I left FMG to climb the ranks of the tech and advertising industry. It has been an incredible journey.
- MullenLowe Profero sold to IPG (I was the Global Head of Search and Content Marketing)
- Mediahub is one of the best advertising agencies in the world (I was the Global Head of Search and Content Marketing)
- Then JumpCrew helping to save their business and grow it as the Chief Marketing Officer
My work has helped me win several awards including making AdAge’s 40 under40 list. Lamont went into finance and climbed the ranks in Merrill Lynch and then to the level of VP at Bank of America, before joining Growth Skills as Managing Director.
The Chichester Brothers
And now with Growth Skills we both help people and business learn digital marketing to grow their careers and business. We are also proud to be a monday.com implementation partner.
Now that Lamont has joined the Growth Skills team, it is truly a minority, immigrant, family owned business. Of course mom and our extend friends and family are rooting for us. As you know it takes a village to launch a successful business in America.
Growth Skill’s Mission
When I grew up and went to school I never knew I could have a successful career in advertising. There were no programs that I knew about that were teaching these skills or giving paid apprenticeships to learn. I want to change that for the next generation. We want to help build a more talented and diverse workforce in sales, technology and advertising in America and the world.
Our mission is to help people and businesses learn sales and digital marketing so they can grow. We want to help anyone who needs help growing their skills in sales and digital marketing. Especially if you are poor, an immigrant, or a person who never had the same privilege or opportunities as others to build an amazing career.
Being an official MBE allows us access to capital, paid contracts, other great MBEs, and an amazing support network. This way we can help more people and brands grow their skills and feed their families.