Learning the skills of an automotive technician at the age of 12 in his native Mexico, Salvador Mendia came to Waukegan with his family shortly thereafter, earned a living working with cars and opened Universal Auto Care in his hometown eight years ago.
Hard work, faith and relationships with mentors guided Mendia to entrepreneurship. After losing a job in 2015, he started looking. He saw the vacant building on South Genesee Street. Universal Auto Care soon became a reality.
“I met the landlord at the building,” he said, referring to the current home of his business. “He was a blessing. I had given my life to Christ. He found me in a place of darkness and brought light at that time. It saved my life.”
After spending her professional life in the corporate world, with seven years as a senior sales analyst with Grainger until 2020, Carmen Simpson learned her husband’s aunt, Jean Pope, was considering selling her business of 30 years — Pope’s Florist & Gifts.
Simpson said she helped her aunt at times in the past, but it was with administrative tasks. She had never done any floral arranging. In early 2020 — before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered many businesses — she became an entrepreneur.
“It was the right time for me,” Simpson said. “I had the desire to have my future in my hands and not rely on others. We had good flower arrangers, and I learned from all of them.”
Pope and Mendia are two of eight Waukegan small-business owners comprising the 2024 cohort of the Small Business Growth Initiative, working with a coach to help them develop their companies and receive a $30,000 grant upon meeting a number of requirements.
A joint effort of the Lake County Community Foundation and Allies for Community Business, Courtney Combs, the foundation’s director of strategy and community impact, said the businesses were picked after an application process. This is the second year of the program.
Combs said the participants must have annual revenue of $50,000, file tax returns, be Waukegan-based and have a plan for growth. Once selected, they are assigned a coach who works for Allies for Community Business.
“They have all owned a business, and can help in areas like accounting and marketing,” she said. “This gives the members of the cohort access to experience in things they may not have done before.”
Designed for businesses in “historically disinvested communities,” Combs said the initiative is concentrating on Waukegan, but may expand the program to North Chicago or Zion. Waukegan offers a history of small businesses and a variety of companies.
“This makes a commitment to the economic health of the area by investing in small businesses,” Combs said. “Waukegan is a great place for this because there are so many here.”
Along with the mentoring, Combs said the $30,000 grant will allow the business and coach to develop each company in “a very strategic manner.”
Mendia said the $30,000 will enable him to find a larger facility that can be more than an auto repair shop. He also wants it to be part of the community, which can help youths just as people helped him along the way when he was younger.
“I have this vision,” he said. “I want to be able to have an impact on the youth and community. A bigger place will give us space for an office, and where there can be meetings for the community.
Not long after Simpson bought Pope’s, businesses all around were closing because of the pandemic. While people could not come into the shop to purchase flowers, part of her market remained.
“We were an essential business because we provided flowers for funerals,” she said. “We took the orders and delivered the flowers.”
Knowing it is important to find ways to grow her business, Simpson said the $30,000 will help her develop a marketing plan to find ways to reach more customers and educate them so they are better consumers.
“I want to inform customers so they make informed decisions,” she said. “We want to make sure they make the right choice.”
Other members of the initiative’s cohort are All Our Children’s Center, Euforia Cafe, Glam’d by J & S, Hair Culture, The Raw Juice Bar and WWM Fitness. Combs said they are all working with their coaches and further developing their business plans.
All Our Children is a daycare center where Combs said the owner works to, “grow and integrate STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) with natural materials and scientific tools, as well as using interactive storytelling.
Open for less than a year, Combs said Euforia Café offers a variety of breakfast options, including natural cold-pressed juices, crepes, waffles, bagel melts and more. While the Raw Juice Bar sells juice and smoothies among its plant-based foods, Combs said there is also a healing room where people can relax.
Glam’d by J & S and Hair Culture both deal in personal appearance efforts. Combs said Glam’d by J & S specializes in “lavish beauty treatments” to empower women by making them feel glamorous and confident. Hair Culture specializes in hair coloring.
WWM Fitness is also a business catering to women. Combs said the company specializes in group and personal weight training for women to help them, “achieve more than they thought they could.”
