The second wave of creatives/entrepreneurs is about to hit the Detroit Creative Corridor Center this summer.
The New Center-based small business incubator specializes in helping creatively inclined professionals, like designers and graphic artists, find their entrepreneurial mojo. The idea is to enable them to start their own businesses and help populate the lower Woodward corridor (between New Center and downtown) with a growing number of creative entrepreneurs.
The Detroit Creative Corridor Center, which calls the
College for Creative Studies Taubman Center home, launched last summer with about a dozen entrepreneurs working to create seven start-ups and businesses. Each one of these businesses has grown.
"Each entity has hired on average of 2-3 employees," says Matt Clayson, director of
Detroit Creative Corridor Center. "They have blown us away with how they have been able to improve their margins and revenue and all of the things businesses are supposed to do."
The Detroit Creative Corridor Center has taken applications for this year's class of entrepreneurs and expects to enjoy similar success as the initiative gains traction. The new class will be chosen and inducted later this summer. "We're looking at potentially doubling the people we serve," Clayson says.
Source: Matt Clayson, director of Detroit Creative Corridor Center
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.