Today we’d like to introduce you to Kenya Renee Robertson.
What started out as a hobby for owner Kenya Renee has evolved into a promising business venture, she used her own money to produce hand-crafted bath and body products. Family and friends soon became very interested and after a while, her private label clientele branched out by word-of-mouth resulting in tremendous interest, response and vending ventures at flea markets, fairs and festivals.
Chicago-born native and former high school educator Kenya Renee is no stranger to entrepreneurship. Kenya holds over 25 years of retail experience, comes from a family of entrepreneurs and credits her grandmother, a known seamstress in Chicago who sold her handmade quilts, skirts and handcrafted lye soap to private clients at local markets for over 50 years, worked diligently to build solid foundations for her family, who taught her all about diversification and how to use her creativity to inspire others and deal fairly with vendors.
After receiving her big break in 2016 upon winning the Chicago Urban League’s business plan competition, she opened Absolutely Anything Essential, LLC in Chicago’s Bronzeville Douglas community. The certified MWDBE three-level judgment-free flagship incubator and retail space has maintained a steady record of growth, has been noted as Neighborhood Champions through American Express and for nearly five years continues to expand the creative village of community building artists, entrepreneurs, facilitators, and volunteers who exhibit solid competencies and hold an array of skills across many tiers of knowledge and craft professionalism, implementing inspirational projects to motivate others.
Now with the addition of her second location in Sanford, Florida, Kenya Renee strives to expand and encourage creativity within small business enclaves throughout the United States and continues to offer retail platforms utilizing magnitudes of ventures and opportunities to motivate locals and visitors to harness opportunities of doing, making, curating, selling, teaching, and distributing local products as well as offering coaching to entrepreneurs and hobbyists alike to use their talents to inspire insights of positive daily practices.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have been hiccups in the road but the journey of business ownership offers me great rewards of building solid and impactful relationships. Some of the struggles in retail that I have personally experienced has been partnering with like-minded entrepreneurs who know the value of hard work and what it takes to market their products to stay relevant as well as unauthentic entrepreneurs seeking to steal your ideas instead of working together to become a better unit.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Kenya Renee considers herself an entertainment extraordinaire who enjoys consulting authors, beginner playwrights and up and coming producers and business owners. She has produced an array of stage productions, independent films, and fundraising events as well as created platforms for small business owners and fellow artists to showcase their talents and ideas. She is a professional actress who, after being exhausted with viewing films and theatrical plays that contained no substance, put the pen to the pad and wrote the hit touring stage play “The Cycle” that toured five cities before its closing performance in the fall of 2009 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, IL.
For over 15 years now, Kenya Renee has implemented a complete array of entertainment instruments that act as confidence builders through her entertainment company, FAM Entertainment Theater Company NFP, where she focuses on achievement and motivation through entertainment.
When visiting Chicago, please don’t forget to stop by the theater company located on the top level of her gift shop, in Chicago’s Bronzeville/Douglas community to view a small stage play, hear a dramatic readings by storytellers tor watch an independent film.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
One of my passions is showcasing yours. I am always seeking local (Chicago and Central Florida) as well as national vendors to join our retail incubator space and coastal pop-up stations. If you are a business owner, entreprenuer, artist, author, crafter or designer who possesses a positive winning personality who has products and services to sell or highlight and enjoy promoting them but are unable to commit to running a full-service retail space on your own, email manager@absolutelyanythingessential.com and you can join as a member of Absolutely Anything Essential Chicago IL or Central Florida.
Pricing:
- $55 Virtual Body Scrub Making Class
- $45 Virtual Soap Making Class
Contact Info:
- Email: manager@absolutelyanythingessential.com
- Website: https://www.absolutelyanythingessential.com/
- Instagram: @absolutelyanythingessential
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/absolutelyanythingessential
- Twitter: anythinggifts
Image Credits
Credit: Black Women’s Expo, Chicago’s Navy Pier, Absolutely Anything Essential Chicago
