NORWOOD, Mass. — In the coming weeks, Boston 25 News will honor the past while also looking ahead by focusing on future leaders in the Black community.
A younger generation with ideas about what they think the world should look like.
Quontay Turner graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute with an engineering degree, but now she’s forging a path in the business world as an entrepreneur.
She’s also trying to help other young women make the same leap.
Standing in front of a dazzling display on tropical plants Q, as she’s known, explains how even gardening newbies can help plants thrive.
She is the owner of The Emerald City Plant Shop on Washington Street in Norwood.
“It’s my oasis, it’s my baby. The Emerald City Plant Shop is kind of an accumulation of all the things that bring me joy.”
Q believes plants have so many life lessons to teach us.
After leaving her engineering degree behind, Q started working at a plant shop during COVID.
That led to some successful pop-ups on her own and fueled a desire to be her own boss.
“You have to be a little bit crazy to start your own business, but if it’s in your heart, there’s a reason why it’s there and you kind of have to see it thru.”
When asked if there were any specific challenges starting her own business as a woman of color, Q said “Absolutely and it revolved around funding, just being able to have access to a lot of the funding opportunities that a lot of other people were given.”
Q decided to start a GoFundMe page and the community responded. “I raised about $25,000 to start.”
“A lot of people are starting small,” said Dr. Bertie Greer, Ph.D., Dean of the Manning School of Business at UMass-Lowell. “I think it’s having a tremendous effect on the Black community.”
She believes small business are the foundation of the United States.
“Every minority population that has come to this country has started with small businesses. That’s how we have little Italy, Chinatown, and Cambodia town.”
Greer says each successful minority business becomes a catalyst for more economic growth.
“That money begins to circulate in that community, making it more stable. There’s an investment and then they begin to hire. So that has a tremendous effect on how vibrant a community is. And actually overall, without it, a community just doesn’t survive.”
Back at Emerald City, Q shows how she gives up shelf space to support other Black Business women.
It’s part of her commitment to help others find success.
She became one of the lead organizers of the Black Young Black Professionals when she first started out.
Still, more work remains to be done.
The Pew Research Center reported in 2022 that just 3% of all businesses were Black majority owned despite Black people making up 14% of the total population.
Q is proud she was able to swim against that current while creating a legacy for her family.
“Having something that you own, that you can share with the community is super important. I can’t imagine my life without the shop. . .and it’s better to try and maybe fail, than to not try at all and constantly wonder.”
Q also uses her store as a community meeting place, sponsoring book club, poetry readings and other special events,
In fact, in June she’ll host her first wedding.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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