It’s been a while since I’ve written on this blog. I’m excited to be back and share more of my journey here. I have a new focus now, but still on the same mission to empower and elevate people’s work, and create equitable opportunities for all.
I stayed away from it for several reasons. My domain was stolen, when I didn’t renew it on time, and I felt like I lost a part of my digital identity. I’ve worked up my site stats, posts and analytics for the past year through all my writing, publishing and engaging with my audience. Having my website being visited by at least 2.5k users a month was not only a huge accomplishment, it really meant to me that my words resonated with many.
Luckily, I’ve also been very busy with Parkdale Centre, growing the community, fundraising, making sure our programs are successful, that I’ve actually hardly had any time to write. As we’re wrapping up the year at the centre, I have a bit more time to focus on sharing our stories, and all the amazing things that we’ve accomplished this year.
So I wanted to give an update here an update about any upcoming writing I’ll publish here. I’m right now focusing 100% on Parkdale Centre, entrepreneurship, our growth as an incubator, and supporting women to access, start and launch successful businesses in this economy.
Over the past year alone, we supported 75 women to start and launch a project / business throughout Parkdale Centre‘s programs: Women in Leadership, Pre-Seed Entrepreneurship, and Media Arts & Journalism. Our programs have been successful because they’re grassroots driven. We truly work with community members to understand their needs, and how we’re able to support them. Mentorship has also been a big part in our success journey. Entrepreneurs at the centre benefitted from being connected with mentors who are in the industry, and are able to give them the time to learn about their businesses and support with advice, sharing experience and expertise, has been such an invaluable experience.
While we’ve had tons of success last year, I still have regrets. One of my biggest regrets is not sharing individual success stories of our entrepreneurs and who they are, so that others connect with them, and truly understand all the amazing things they’ve accomplished. Which is why getting this blog to be active again is one of my priorities for 2020. Our members deserve to have their stories shared so that others could be inspired by their work and success. We all also deserve to tell our own story, because people who have big PR machines that are constantly churning out press release after press release about their successes aren’t doing it any better than we are.
We’re here on the ground working together to support Black, Indigenous, people of colour, low-income, newcomers, LGBTQ, and those from differently abled backgrounds to start a business in an economy that favours those who have access to resources, capital, revenue and customer traction. You don’t have to have figured it all out to join Parkdale Centre. But you do have to have the drive, be able to take initiative, accountability, and hustle hard to make it work.
In 2020, I will share more of our success stories, failures, I will highlight members, and some themes that we see in entrepreneurship at Parkdale Centre. I’m also excited to start the Women in Leadership podcast, so I’ll be documenting my learning journey of this here as well. Who knows, if you’re reading this, you might be inspired to start your own podcast too. I hope you’ll follow along, and enjoy some of the stories I share here.
Yours truly,
Rusul
Inclusive Entrepreneurship 