SOUTH SUBURBAN BASED MARKETING COMPANY CELEBRATES BLACK ENTREPRENEURSHIP

MBD Marketing, headquartered in South Holland, is preparing to host their third annual LEGACY Awards Gala on Feb. 23, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Malcolm X College located on 1900 W. Jackson, in Chicago. Photo Credit: MBD Marketing
MBD Marketing, headquartered in South Holland, is preparing to host their third annual LEGACY Awards Gala on Feb. 23, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Malcolm X College located on 1900 W. Jackson, in Chicago. Photo Credit: MBD Marketing

South Suburban Based Marketing Company Celebrates Black Entrepreneurship

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

WDB Marketing is a black-owned full-service marketing company, headquartered in South Holland, that was established in 2006. Over the last decade, the company has worked with over 3,000 black-owned businesses throughout the nation and witnessed firsthand the enormous impact black businesses are having in their communities.

The CEO of MDB Marketing, Keeana Barber, is a black entrepreneur herself and made it her mission three years ago to create the LEGACY Awards Gala which is an event that honors and celebrates black entrepreneurship while providing black business owners with the opportunity to network with each other.

The third annual LEGACY Awards Gala will soon be held on Saturday, Feb. 23, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Malcolm X College located on 1900 W. Jackson, in Chicago and will amplify the message that black businesses matter.

“The purpose of the event is for people to be able to celebrate black entrepreneurs but also to provide a platform for all of us to connect and ideally grow our businesses together,”

said Keeana Barber, chief executive officer of MDB Marketing.

As CEO of MDB Marketing, Barber has the first-hand experience of being a black entrepreneur and understands the importance of having black-owned businesses across the Greater Chicagoland Area.

“From an emotional level, black entrepreneurship is the success story in the community and shows people that they can do something on their own and be very successful at it. Of course, it also creates jobs because small businesses are the number one job creator and the number one employer in America and black businesses are a part of that.

The more successful we are, the more that we can hire and we generally hire from within the community,” said Barber. “As I’ve grown, I now have nine people that work for me

and I hire form the community so the more people that support me and support my company, the more we have been able to hire.”

In knowing the impact that entrepreneurship can have on a community through job creation and recirculation of community dollars, Barber said that she is motivated to help black business owners in any way she can.

“It’s easier to touch me and to make me want to do something and to impact these

communities as a business owner than it ever will be for these larger corporations because they, for the most part, don’t live in our community and they have never visited our community, so to them, pulling their big box out of a neighborhood, not that they necessarily want to do it, but they don’t feel that pain that we feel,” said Barber.

This year, The LEGACY Awards Gala will honor seven black business owners and community leaders for building LEGACY, which is an acronym that stands for leadership, education, growth, advocacy, community, and youth.

Tickets for the Gala are available now at www.LegacyAwardsGala.com

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