DeKalb County area entrepreneurs graduate from Breakthrough Community Business Academy

DeKALB – Michelle Crayton said she is excited to be among those in the inaugural cohort to graduate from Breakthrough Community Business Academy.

“It wasn’t a long 12 weeks, but it was thorough,” Crayton said. “Now, I feel a lot better equipped. It all led up to today. So, it’s exciting to reach the end.”

Crayton was among nine DeKalb County area entrepreneurs who took part in a graduation ceremony, put on by Opportunity DeKalb, to celebrate participants' efforts in the new Breakthrough Community Business Academy.

Launched in the fall 2024, the Breakthrough Community Business Academy provides the foundation through a 12-week course to help area entrepreneurs gain skills necessary to navigate the business world.

Opportunity DeKalb Executive Director Chad Glover said he’s excited for the graduates and what their futures hold.

“We were really excited by the group of people that were involved. They were all supportive of each other, really rallied around the program,” Glover said.

Recruitment is now underway for the spring cohort.

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(Left to right) Danita Sims, Tonya Brown-Spicer and Glenn Roby pose for a picture Jan. 18, 2025, during a graduation ceremony to commemorate the inaugural cohort on completing the Breakthrough Community Business Academy. (Megann Horstead)

During the ceremony, Glover pointed to services that entrepreneurs may receive as post graduates.

“It’ll be a suite of ongoing support to help them continue to develop their businesses that’ll be aligned with where they’re at and where they want to go in particular,” Glover said. “Today is not the end, but it’s the start of a new chapter. And we’re really excited to start working with you.”

Crayton said there’s a lot to take away from the program about the value of networking.

“I think I learned more about how to tap into my network, which has more entrepreneurs in it than I thought,” Crayton said. “By combining and learning what they’ve gone through, it helped me avoid some pitfalls and money issues that I would have walked straight into as a new business that hasn’t been that far.”

Crayton runs and operates the DeKalb County C.A.R.E.S. Center, which are nonprofit and low-profit organizations that aim to create a multicultural resource in downtown DeKalb.

Crayton said the DeKalb County C.A.R.E.S. Center is all for promoting culture, arts, research, education and services in the community.

Her goal, she said, is “trying to be a giant community bulletin.”

DeKalb resident Tonya Brown-Spicer said she and her husband learned some new things and met some amazing people by participating in the course.

“I recommend for anyone that has a great business idea and does not know where to start or someone that’s new to this,” Brown-Spicer said. “Both of us come from families of entrepreneurs. My family owned a fish market when I was little, and his father owned a mechanic shop.”

Brown-Spicer said she and her husband envision starting a food truck and opening up a space for a wellness shop in town.

“Our business has been in existence in Chicago for three years, but we’re trying to bring it here to DeKalb, since we live in DeKalb now,” Brown-Spicer said.

Brown-Spicer runs and operates 4D&A Barbecue and Catering, which offers seasonings, barbecue sauces and more.

“They love it [in] Chicago,” Brown-Spicer said. “We get rave reviews. And from the people that we service out here, we get great reviews from them as well.”

When asked how he envisions the program evolving as the spring cohort forms, Glover said he expects the criteria for recruitment and selection to change.

“We definitely learned some things that we may adjust for the second cohort,” Glover said. “Even in thinking about the kind of businesses, where they’re at in the development in terms of who the academy is the best fit for, that’s something that we’ve really learned. The other thing that we’ve learned is we really to think the underlying community is the most important thing.”