Created by entrepreneurs and driven by a mission to build generational wealth within the Black community, the Black Owned Business Expo returns this month with a wide-ranging lineup of Black-led businesses in Northwest Arkansas.

“From a goods perspective, you can expect anything from apparel to accessories, art, candles, health and beauty,” said Jasmine Hudson co-founder of Black Owned NWA, the organization behind the expo. “From a services perspective, we have everything from insurance and accounting, which is great for the tax season coming up, to chiropractic services and massage.”

More than 60 vendors, including food trucks and restaurants, will be set up from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Feb. 22. in and around the Fayetteville Town Square for the event.

New this year is a $5 admission fee, which organizers say will help ensure the longevity of the expo and expand its impact.

“One of the things that we want to do is make the event more self-sustaining,” Hudson explained. To date, she said, the group has relied on grants and funding from local organizations to keep the expo going, which doesn’t always guarantee the funds needed will be there. Therefore, the organizers followed the lead of other pop-up markets which charge a small admission fee.

“Hopefully we have that same support and we’re able to kind of make this its own free standing event, versus having to rely on the whims of other organizations for funding,” she said.

This is the eighth Black Owned Business Expo since Black Owned NWA was founded in 2019. The organization was borne out an Instagram page started by Hudson and artist J’Aaron Merchant of JazzyJaeNWA. Hudson said it was a “chronicle of two Black millennial women trying to figure out Northwest Arkansas.” On the account, the friends posted about their favorite places to go, especially those ran by people of color. Soon their followers, especially Black people who were also new to Northwest Arkansas, started reaching out to them for all sorts of recommendations from salons to doctors and even churches.

“The questions came so often that we decided to create just a whole other Instagram page,” Hudson said. “It really served as an FAQ, but then it bloomed.” Hudson said she and Merchant brought the directory to life as a market for the first time in 2020.

“You know Northwest Arkansas, we love a good market!” Hudson said, listing off popular annual shopping events like Vintage Market hosted each year at the Benton County Fairgrounds.

“Why not have a Black-owned business expo as well?”

SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS

Hudson and Merchant moved to Northwest Arkansas nearly a decade ago to work for Walmart on the corporate level. Hudson said she liked her job and was part of the team who started the Pioneer Woman series. However, she founded a very successful business alongside Merchant and their friend Madia Willis.

The three launched Black Paper Party to create Black representation in products like holiday wrapping paper and greeting cards illustrated by Merchant. Since starting the business in 2020, they have expanded beyond the holidays and paper products to include home goods, apparel and accessories and more.

Merchant still oversees much of the illustration and character design for Black Paper Party’s products. A freelance illustrator and character designer, she’s also worked on the “Ariel” animated series on Disney Jr. as well as programs on PBS Kids and Sesame Street. She illustrates children’s books, as well.

Meanwhile, Black Paper Party has been featured on The Today Show and The Kelly Clarkson Show, as well as in Ebony, Bloomberg and, most recently, USA Today. In 2023, Hudson was named to the “40 Under 40” list by Arkansas Talk Business & Politics, that projected the business would clear $1 million in sales in 2023. Hudson said the company hit that milestone and is still going strong.

She said her experience as an entrepreneur has been amazing, but tough.

“If I knew then what I know now, I probably would have had a little bit more caution because being an entrepreneur is very hard,” she said. “It was a little nerve-racking at the beginning, but we’ve gotten our feet under us now.”

PASSING ON KNOWLEDGE

Hudson said she and Merchant pour all of their experience into the Black Owned Business Expo.

“We’re able to share a lot of our best practices with businesses here, especially those that are trying to scale and those that are product-based,” she said. Hudson said she has personally sat in with businesses to help create financial models and marketing strategy, and she gives feedback to her fellow business leaders.

Their mission, Hudson said, is to provide access and awareness for the community to know about the businesses as well as help those businesses to continue to thrive by connecting them with customers, leads and clients. Ultimately, she said they hope the expo and Black Owned NWA foster an economy where Black business owners build generational wealth.

“There’s a statistic out there that by 2053 the median wealth of the Black household is going to be zero. And that is extremely scary,” Hudson said, referencing to a 2017 report from the Institute for Policy Studies.

“Our little part in adjusting that trajectory,” she said, “is to cultivate an environment of entrepreneurship and cultivating small businesses.”

According to the most recent Arkansas Capital Scan, people of color constitute about 21.4% of the workforce, yet own only 13.8% of businesses in Arkansas. The report, collated by Northwest Arkansas Council and the University of Arkansas Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, projects “the racially and ethnically diverse population has grown from 24% to 29% over the past decade, and it is expected to increase to more than 32% by 2026.” In the annual report on capital investment in Arkansas, Black Owned NWA is cited as “an example of an organization playing a crucial role to provide support systems for small businesses owned by people of color.”

Since the first event in 2020, Hudson said the expo has grown from “30ish vendors” and “maybe 200 attendees” to an average of 2,500 attendees.

In a release about the expo, Hudson explains how the dollars spent at the expo impacts the community.

“Every dollar spent at a local Black-owned business does so much more than buy a product — it fuels dreams, funds families and builds legacies,” she writes. “We’ve seen firsthand how intentional community support can transform lives and create opportunities that didn’t exist before. This expo is a rallying point for everyone who believes in the power of small businesses to create lasting change.”