Hazel Fox Business Plan Competition Awards $11,000 to Nonmajority Entrepreneurs

Dr. Joseph Fox, of Fox Management and former A-B Tech employee, partnered with the A-B Tech Small Business Center to create the Hazel Fox Business Plan Competition for Nonmajority Entrepreneurs.

Dr. Joseph Fox, of Fox Management and former A-B Tech employee, partnered with the A-B Tech Small Business Center to create the Hazel Fox Business Plan Competition for Nonmajority Entrepreneurs. This competition was established to honor Dr. Fox’s late mother, Hazel Fox, and targets Nonmajority Entrepreneurs based on race and/or ethnicity.

“My mother, Hazel Fox, was always dedicated to education and learning,” Dr. Fox said. “She wanted her children to go to college in order for them to have a better life. She was always entrepreneurial in nature in the way she used limited resources to provide for us.  She was also very creative in the use of her talents to find work that helped her budget for the family.”

Start-up and expanding businesses were eligible to apply based on some of the following eligibility requirements:

• Applicants must be residents of Buncombe or Madison Counties.

• Entrepreneur must be a current or past client of a Spark Tank partner (i.e., A-B Tech Small Business Center, Mountain BizWorks, WWBC, SBTDC, SCORE, etc.)

• The business must have at least 51% non-majority business ownership.

Seven finalists presented their business plans virtually for $2,000 and $1,000 prizes in the start-up business and existing business categories.

Winners each receiving $2,000 were:

• Marcus Kirkman—Momentum Coaching and Consulting

• Lakievia Johnson—S.T.E.P.S. Academic Advising and Education (Strategically Tailored Educational Planning and Services)

• Sala Menaya-Merritt—It’s Amira M, LLC

• Ramona Young—Kente Kitchen, LLC

The following honorable mention businesses each received $1,000:

• Shaina Simpson—Clean to Cuisine Cleaning and Catering Services

• Toshia Sitton—WNC Cleaning Service

• Calop Thomason—See No Boundaries Creative Group

“The intent of the business plan competition is to provide financial assistance to business owners of a darker hue without tying a lot of stipulations to the assistance,” Dr. Fox said. “Entrepreneurs of a darker hue do not always fit the dominant model of business financing due to system biases that have reduced their wealth creation, home ownership, and the ability to secure collateral.”

Fox’s mother was killed by a hit-and-run driver while in another state with members of her church. “I looked for ways to honor the ‘inherited legacy’ from her and saw first the Hazel Fox Minority Student Entrepreneurship Scholarship at A-B Tech as a way to honor her, and now the Hazel Fox Nonmajority Business Plan Competition,” he said.

For more information, please visit www.sparktanknc.org/opportunities. Contact Duane Adams at [email protected] with any questions.

About A-B Tech Community College

Founded in 1959 in the heart of Asheville, A-B Tech is the largest higher education institution in Western North Carolina, serving approximately 23,000 students a year in Buncombe and Madison counties. A-B Tech offers more than 125 degrees, diplomas and certificates, as well as a wide range of workforce training and continuing education programs.

A-B Tech includes the main Asheville campus, A-B Tech Enka (home of the A-B Tech Small Business Center and Business Incubation Program, Craft Beverage Institute of the Southeast and N.C. BioNetwork), A-B Tech Madison, A-B Tech Woodfin, the Goodwill Center and the ABCCM Transformation Village in West Asheville, and a new South location under construction at Biltmore Park West in 2023.

Learn more at abtech.edu.