Cynthia Rhodes, of Rhodes-Porter, has been tapped for the American Express “100 for 100” mentorship program centered on supporting black-owned, women-led businesses across the country.
The program was created to support black women entrepreneurs and help small businesses from minority communities acquire funding for their ideas. American Express revealed that the 100 black women entrepreneurs selected for this program will each receive grants of $25,000 and 100 days of business resources. These resources would include business education, mentorship, marketing, virtual networking, hotel reservation credits and more.
Rhodes started Rhodes-Porter, a business development company in Augusta, GA, and has been involved with business strategies and outreach for over 20 years.
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“I am the mentor that these women will continue on with for six months or even after. I help them build that business up,” Rhodes said. “My background is in business development, and the women assigned to me, one businesses is entertainment, one owns a tea company, and others. They have goals and we come up with a plan to execute and move their business forward.”
Rhodes has five women assigned to her, and those businesses are spread across the country. The women in the program were selected after submitting business plans for review.
Her mentorship is all virtual, and will be made up a combination of phone calls, e-mails, and collaboration online. She works with designers to help build the brands for her mentees. Hands-on but virtual, Rhodes said.
In the press release announcing Rhodes’ involvement, it mentioned a business concept called ‘the box.’
“It’s something I came up with. Business owners might have the four walls of the business planned but what we do is help them put revenue in “the box,” making it a viable business,” Rhodes said. “They might have a name, the basic idea, but they may not have a plan, no targeted marketing. What else goes in to it, what builds the walls, and what type of customers come into the business? Let’s put some people in the building.”
Rhodes was thrilled to be a part of building up her community in a personal way.
“I was so excited because I was able to make a difference. You’re not getting an overview of business, it’s going step by step to move that business forward. You don’t need just motivation, you need to get moving,” Rhodes said. “It was so exciting to give them that real knowledge to step forward.”
Tyler Strong is the Business Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at tyler@theaugustapress.com
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