- [Will] Coming up on "One Detroit," we'll examine the outlook for small businesses in 2025.

Plus, we'll hear about the jobs expected to be in high demand in Michigan through 2032.

Also ahead, we'll visit the historic Avenue of Fashion to see the revival of this truly Detroit business district.

And we'll give you some ideas on how to spend Valentine's weekend.

It's all coming up next on "One Detroit."

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(upbeat music) - [Will] Just ahead on a business-themed episode of "One Detroit," we'll have a Future of Work report on the projected top jobs in Michigan over the next seven years.

Plus, we'll talk with business owners on Detroit's Avenue of Fashion about the district's resurgence.

And we'll let you know what's happening around town this weekend and beyond.

But first up, a new presidential administration, rapidly advancing technology, and changing consumer behavior are expected to have an impact on small businesses in 2025.

"American Black Journal" host and "One Detroit" contributor Stephen Henderson talk to Mark Lee, president and CEO of the Lee Group and Detroit PBS board member to find out about the trends, challenges, and opportunities for entrepreneurs this year.

(upbeat music) - So let's start with just your assessment of what we're facing and what we're likely, I guess, to be facing, especially from a business perspective, a small business perspective here at least in the first quarter or so of this year.

- I think one of the challenges as we begin to think about moving into the new year is we have a new administration obviously just took seat recently.

And the challenge as you think about a new administration, that means uncertainty.

And so from a business perspective, there's always been the old adage, "If the Democrats are elected, you can expect X.

If a Republican is elected, you can expect Y."

And so we think about the expecting Y now that we have a Republican administration.

Historically, they have been known to be relatively business-friendly, business-friendly, you know, cut the taxes, cut the costs out.

If you do that, that gives you the opportunity to spend more money and make more profit at the bottom line.

Not a strong guarantee that's gonna take place beginning of this particular administration.

So I think to answer your question, the expectation short-term is volatility because no one knows what the future holds.

- So the strategy then, if you're someone who owns a small business where every decision of course has tremendous potential impact on the business itself, do you hunker down for this period and just kind of protect what you have?

Or do you maybe lean into the possibility of something big happening?

I know a lot of people, for instance, who think that the stock market is gonna go pretty crazy in the first quarters of this year.

If you're a small business owner, can you afford to sort of take advantage of that and try your luck, I guess, and hope that this volatility, at least for the short-term ends up in an upswing?

- Recommendation to small businesses is to make yourself aware, pay attention, make sure you understand the policies that are be coming out of Washington DC, as well as quite frankly out of Lansing, because those have a major impact.

You think about the stock market, for example, only 50% of the American people are invested in the stock market.

And a lot of those people who are invested in the stock market are probably a little bit more well-off than those certainly considering starting a business.

Again, you and I chatted about this before, the average small business has less than $10,000 in the bank.

So can you afford to put that, for example, invest in stock markets?

What I tell businesses from a business perspective certainly is to make sure you pause, make yourself self-aware of the policies.

Every decision coming out of DC is gonna impact your bottom line.

Do not rush and certainly make any rash decisions, but be patient and hope that things fall in your place longer-term.

- What about access to capital?

Because of inflation, of course, interest rates have not been great for businesses as well as individuals, but small businesses need operating capital, they need investment capital for infrastructure and things like that.

What is the advice, I guess, for maintaining your access to that capital and making sure that that capital doesn't cost you too much?

- Access to capital is always the number one issue for small businesses, whether or not the economy is strong, whether or not the economy is not strong, access to capital always rises to the top.

My advice for small businesses is to diversify your income stream from a business perspective.

Look at all your financing options.

Historically, as you know, people have looked traditionally at banks to get a loan.

You wanna be careful with that.

I mean that's still a viable option, but don't forget to look at things or programs such as grants.

Grants, those are the types of programs where you can get access to capital or capital.

You don't have to pay the money back, but you simply have to prove what you're gonna deliver on that investment, also called a grant.

So look at your traditional financing sources, look at your non-traditional financing sources.

I still discourage people, don't use your credit cards to finance your business.

Ultimately that's gonna break your bank based on interest rates.

So be very frugal, be very methodical, very strategic, and do your research, look at both traditional and non-traditional financing for your business.

- [Will] The Michigan Center for Data and Analytics released a report last year on the 50 jobs that will be in demand in the state through 2032.

In this Future of Work report, I spoke with the organization's Research Manager Evan Linskey about the projections and the data used to predict the top jobs in Michigan.

(bright music) - What is the overall mission of the Michigan Center for Data and Analytics?

- Mission I would say is just trying to provide data-backed solutions and data-backed understandings of problems that were asked by policy makers, by legislature, by other departments, perhaps nonprofits, any individuals who are really kind of working in this space and wanna know more about how they can execute their programs or how they can execute their work.

- We are here to talk about a recent report that you guys did, which was Michigan's Top 50 Hot Jobs Outlook through 2032, I believe.

Can you just give us a little bit about what that report entails, what it was about, how it came about?

- The project as a whole really tries to start the conversation around what are some of the hottest jobs, fields, et cetera in Michigan.

It sort of helps summarize and get folks talking about some of the most in-demand careers in Michigan.

- How do you compile the data for these jobs, where does that come from, and how does a job make it to number five as opposed to number 10 on the list?

- We look at statewide median wages for these occupations as well as our projected tenure job growth, which comes from a program carried out here at the state level, but it's maintained by the feds, so it's like carried out at every state.

So Ohio has these projections as well.

And then three different types of opening.

When we compare these five variables, we weigh them all evenly, and so if you're doing very well in median wages and job growth, but perhaps a little bit less in openings, that kind of factors into it, but all evenly across the five variables.

So we take this mix, we find that we get a good healthy mix of jobs.

The list, as I mentioned, we've done this a few times now, usually has about 80% carryover.

So roughly about 40 jobs will carry over every two years.

So that's nice.

If we did a 10 year outlook and two years later, only four of the jobs were the same, we'd have some concerns, understandably.

- One of the things you just mentioned was the three different types of job openings, am I understanding that correctly?

Can you explain that a little more?

- So the feds define it as transfers, which is an individual who's leaving a job for another job.

And that's not like I'm a registered nurse at this hospital going to this hospital.

It's more like I'm a registered nurse here, I'm going to teach at Wayne State University.

Typical occupational change due to like exits.

So folks who are just leaving the labor market could create openings as well.

And those are defined as folks who are leaving for a certain period of time.

That could be maternal or paternal care, perhaps taking care of a loved one, going back to school, et cetera.

But some individual who's not leaving to go to a new job.

It's just an individual who's exiting the labor force in their totality.

- What are the top jobs that you're seeing, and what do they have in common with each other?

- Well looking at roughly just the top 10, we see software developers, both mechanical and industrial engineers, registered nurses, and a number of other financial, management, computer STEM-related jobs often appearing here in the top 10.

It's tough to narrow it down to just 50 in the total list, but that does represent almost 20% of employment within the state actually.

So one in five jobs is captured on this list, but really those STEM jobs, STEM-related fields are really appearing near the top list, and they have been for a while now.

- You guys are compiling lists of projected job growth areas.

In doing that, are you discovering jobs and industries that are going to be in less demand?

- Those that perhaps require a lower barrier to entry, such as data entry, manual data entry, perhaps telemarketers, very low barrier to entry production jobs as well, like folks who are maybe pressing T-shirts individually, things that like machines are starting to do writ large quicker than like one individual operating a machine that they were perhaps trained on in a week or in a day, that kind of thing.

There's a little bit more growth in all fields, but a lot of that does require some level of post-secondary training.

- What would you say should be the biggest takeaway from lists like these reports like these that you guys publish?

- So not only do we need to prepare folks for these jobs, train folks for these jobs, we need to retain these folks too.

We can't be losing them to Chicago, we can't be losing them to Columbus, we can't be losing them to Texas or otherwise, and we might even have to be competing to be pulling these folks in.

- Is there anything pertinent that you want to address about these lists?

- Again, that job 51 is still a great job just because it didn't make it.

I think this year, that was occupational therapist, elementary school teachers, HVAC mechanics, plumbers, they didn't quite make the list.

Still fantastic jobs.

So we certainly hope we don't dissuade anybody from any of these opportunities just because they didn't make the list.

We have a lot of the data at our website, but I always love to push our Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity as well as the state's newest Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential, MI-LEAP So LEO and MI-LEAP are two other departments of the state as well as local Michigan Works agencies that do fantastic work in this realm.

- [Will] Let's turn now to a truly Detroit story about the resurgence of the historic business district known as the Avenue of Fashion.

During the 1950s and '60s, the stretch of Livernois Avenue between Seven and Eight Mile Roads was a bustling thoroughfare filled with exclusive clothing stores.

The area declined after the arrival of shopping malls.

However, as "One Detroit's" Bill Kubota reports, the Avenue of Fashion has rebounded with high-end retailers, many of whom are African-American.

(upbeat music) - Livernois.

Everybody that I know always called it Livernois.

- [Bill] Livernoise might be called Livernois the further north you go.

But here around Seven Mile Road on Detroit's west side, it's the Avenue of Fashion.

A shopping destination once again.

Not just retail, there's fine dining too.

- The restaurants really create the foot traffic.

For each restaurant, you might have two, 300 people come through a day and they just walk up and down the street.

- [Bill] Six, seven decades ago, the Avenue of Fashion then, B. Sigel, a major Detroit retailer known for its women's wear with an outlet here, and more dress shops at a strip of stores called Williamsburg Row.

The 1967 rebellion led to the avenue's long slide.

But in recent decades, clothiers have come back.

Like the Times Square Men's Store helping hold down Williamsburg Row on Livernois since 2010.

What was it like down here back then?

- It was, it was a struggle.

A lot of buildings have not yet been occupied yet.

- [Bill] Far more recent challenges, a major streetscape project in 2019 that reduced customer traffic and sales.

Then came Covid, then the bounceback.

The streetscape appears to be paying off for proprietors like Algernon Bartell, a staunch Detroiter through and through.

Bartell tells us how his Times Square store came to be.

- I used to hate New York until I went to New York.

I don't know if you remember, Stevie Wonder had that song "Living for the City" when he was blind and he hear the sounds of New York, and that's just how it was, living just enough for the city.

Hmm.

And then I was like, wow, this city just blew me back.

- [Bill] Some of the merchandise sold off the rack, but Bartell specializes in custom tailoring.

- Custom named Algernon Bartell, then the shirt, Algernon Bartell, is some of the things I like in the little plaid, it's a older suit, but it still looks good on me.

My story is so unique because I started from a raggedy van.

The clothing business, someone was going out of business and asked me could I sell a suit.

I'm like, sell no suit.

So I tried it.

I would go to barber shops, go to churches, go to people that I knew and sold clothes out in my van.

- [Bill] To get outfitted by Bartell, it starts in black.

- Black suit.

Then you need this blue suit.

We call this the Obama Blue Suit.

It's my number one selling suit.

A tan, everyone need a tan.

You need a tanned suit.

Summer, this is a nine month year suit.

Can't wear it in December to April, but you need a tan.

It's a nice suit.

Gray, always need a gray.

You can never go wrong with a nice clean gray suit.

- [Bill] Bartell's friends and customers, a who's who of lawyers, politicians, celebrities on the Times Square Wall of Fame, along with the suits, the ties, the shoes.

He's dressing young men for the prom.

Well this is Detroit, the Avenue of Fashion, which offers what you might call Detroit swag.

- You can go anywhere in the country, it'll come up.

Where you from?

I'm from Detroit, yeah, we can tell.

So yeah, we do have a swag about us.

- [Bill] The kind of swag acclaimed collage artist Judy Bowman captures in her work, a swag she recalls growing up on the east side many years back.

- I show what I see, and I got this thing for the swag and a swag and a style and a presence and an attitude that Detroit has.

If you wanna make something out of yourself, you can do it in Detroit.

- [Bill] Here on the Avenue of Fashion, you might get that something from the Bartell family.

- Out of our family, we have about 15 businesses open.

- [Bill] While Times Square has shoes, the Bartell-owned Shoe Box a few doors down Williamsburg Row has more.

- This is the shoe that you need in your wardrobe.

You need, absolutely, without a doubt.

- [Bill] Algernon Bartell's nephew Aaron runs the Shoe Box.

- This is our most famous popular shoe that we sell.

- [Bill] Highly recommended, the LeBron, because like it's the best, comes in many colors.

- So this shoe is basically like made for that guy who has everything but just wants to add a little more.

- I love hats.

I'm never gonna stop wearing them.

- [Bill] Another Bartell outlet, the Mad Hatter on Williamsburg Row too.

- They used to say, "Oh, hats were for old men."

But I think the young ladies now starting to look at the older men dressed.

So they want their boyfriends to start dressing like a mature man.

What's real popular is the hats with the red bottles.

Those took off.

Young guys love those.

Some women like them also.

- [Bill] Outside the Bartell orbit, there's African Fabric and Fashion.

Moustapha Gaye does the tailoring, importing his fabrics from Western Africa.

- They bring them from everywhere, from Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, Ghana.

- [Bill] Gaye said his customers come from across the state for his garments for both men and women.

The store's been here since 2008.

- Yeah, but I need this color.

- You need that color, yeah, that's what that color.

African colors, that's the, you know, culture of Africa.

We like colors.

(laughs) Yeah, especially our women, they like colors, they like nice fabrics, nice pieces.

- [Bill] On the other side of Livernois, a new addition to the Avenue of Fashion, a bridal shop.

- My great aunt used to own a lounge in Milwaukee that was called Pink Poodle Lounge.

- [Bill] Raeshawn Bumphers opened her first Pink Poodle Bridal Store in Jefferson Chalmers on the east side in 2017 thanks to a grant from Motor City Match, a city program boosting homegrown businesses.

- Pink Poodle to me is more of vintage, you know, it gives that vintage vibe and elegance.

- [Bill] Bumphers' got another Motor City Match to start her second store, which opened here this spring.

She worked in the automotive and education industries for two decades before she started Pink Poodle.

- So I knew that it was a strong possibility that I was gonna get laid off of work.

So I started planning a business, but I started planning this business around what I was passionate in.

My story is connecting with young girls and women at the most happiest time in their lives.

Are you saying yes to the dress?

- Yes.

- We are just grabbing that baton and pushing the Avenue of Fashion forward with the helps of the businesses that's been here, that's been here a long time, and we're very appreciative of it.

- If you want a beautiful Lions Honolulu blue mink, there's no place but the Avenue of Fashion on Livernois to come and get it.

Go Lions, Super Bowl, baby.

- [Bill] C. Grantston Bullard, clothing designer and entrepreneur, another highlight on the avenue.

- There's ready-to-wear garments that we have in this location, but I would say about at least 60% of the garments here are samples that you order from.

- [Bill] This is, Bullard says, hot couture, custom made clothing, the kind more easily seen in magazines.

You can come by and shop, but by appointment only.

- This is a one of a kind sheared beaver and rainbow fox intarsia.

Of course you know this fur has been dyed.

If you see an animal this color, run for your life.

- [Bill] Bullard trained as a furrier in Chicago many years ago.

- That each one of these has been sewn in.

- [Bill] He learned this trade in which few are versed in these days.

- All these are hand-sewn in, and this garment retails for about $14,000.

My mother was a dress maker on Livernois, and fashion was always in my household.

My mom made all our clothes, so I basically was dressed like a prince when I was a kid.

- [Bill] Bullard started out making leather neckties right out of high school, some from Napa lamb and python, sold by the likes of Hughes and Hatcher, a downtown Detroit clothing store gone long ago.

With his furs and other high-end fashion accessories, he's built connections with apparel distributors around the world.

- These garments are engineered, and they have the latest in technology, the latest in technology and tanning, which has changed dramatically over the last 30 or 40 years.

Natural fibers are making a big comeback, and leather, lamb skin, wool, they are making comeback with people that wanna buy things that last.

They're starting kind of getting tired of buying disposable clothing.

- [Bill] Bullard's expanding with a bigger showroom next door to be open to walk-ins, and he's looking to build more Grantston stores around the Midwest.

In this online world where so many bricks and mortar stores have been lost, the survival of these stores on the avenue relies on that old fashioned approach.

- You're a Pink Poodle Bride.

- Personal service.

- You got an online presence, but that's not my customer.

My customers see, touch, feel.

- [Bill] Still room for redevelopment and growth on the avenue, the specialty shops, boutiques, restaurants keep coming, and maybe a multi-use project including residential, amping it up here on Livernois.

- We're looking for big things.

It's getting bigger and better.

- The Avenue of Fashion is it now.

This is it.

We are the ones.

- [Will] Friday is Valentine's Day, and there's plenty to do in Metro Detroit to celebrate.

From holiday-themed events to comedy shows and winter activities, there's something for everyone.

Peter Whorf and Cecelia Sharps of 90.9 WRCJ have today's One Detroit Weekend.

- Happy Valentine's weekend, Cecelia.

There's plenty going on for our viewers to enjoy the romantic holiday and more.

Why don't you start us off?

- My pleasure.

The performance "Broadway Love Songs" is on stage at Orchestra Hall as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra teams up with singers to perform some of Broadway's classic love songs, including music from "Wicked," "The King And I," "Cinderella," "West Side Story," and more.

The show runs tomorrow, Valentine's Day, through Sunday, February 16th.

- Another Valentine's Day performance is taking place at the War Memorial in Gross Point Friday when Ramona Collins and Cliff Monier present "Sing To Love: Valentine's Day Dinner and Concert."

Enjoy a delicious dinner and socializing with your Valentine.

- That sounds like a wonderful evening.

Through February 16th, "Disney on Ice presents: Let's Dance" at Little Caesars Arena.

The frozen spectacle features classic characters like Mickey and Minnie, the Little Mermaid, and more.

- It's amazing what those characters can do on ice.

Also this weekend is Winter Around the World at Robert C. Valade Park that will have an international food truck rally, dance performances, and a Lunar New Year celebration on Sunday.

The festival runs February 14th through 16th.

- Now I definitely will have to check that one out.

And next week is Sky Covington's Take 5 All Male Jazz Revue where performers will take on the personas of jazz legends Al Jarreau, Bill Withers, Donnie Hathaway, Louis Armstrong, Billy Eckstine, and Leon Thomas.

- Of course, there's plenty more to do this coming weekend in Metro Detroit.

So stick around to see a few more options.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

(upbeat music) - [Will] That'll do it for this week's "One Detroit."

Thanks for watching.

Remember to follow us on social media and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

- [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by Timothy Bogert Comprehensive Planning Strategies.

From Delta faucets to Behr paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Announcer] DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan-focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Announcer] Nissan Foundation, and viewers like you.

(upbeat music) (bright music)