By: The Pottawatomie County Economic Development Corporation (PCEDC) | 11.02.21
Pottawatomie County financial professional LaNiqe Brown recently started a new career as a financial associate with Thrivent Financial, a company providing personal advising and solutions related to finance, investments, banking, and insurance, in 2020 after spending eight years in the banking industry. LaNiqe’s work with Thrivent holds great meaning; it enables her to help families build and protect their finances to achieve financial stability. For LaNiqe, helping families navigate the process of acquiring life insurance is an incredibly important part of this work. In an interview with the PCEDC, she noted that she especially hopes to use her position to help change narratives regarding wealth building and life insurance within minority communities. Although LaNiqe’s perspective on her position with Thrivent reveals enthusiasm and passion for her work, she is also starting a new entrepreneurial endeavor.
Alongside an interest in helping individuals and families achieve financial success, LaNiqe has had a long-standing passion for helping business leaders manage their finances. She says this interest largely arose from her professional experiences in banking: “…I’ve seen a lot of businesses you know, fail, because of their financial-like not keeping up with their finances, and so that just sparked something within me to want to be able to help.” After considering launching a bookkeeping business for several years, LaNiqe decided to take the first steps towards starting her business in 2021. She initially saw an advertisement for the Entrepreneur Business Basics (EBB) course on Facebook through the Black Entrepreneurs of the Flint Hills Facebook page and decided to take the opportunity to enroll in the course and use it as a launchpad for finally establishing her new business.
The EBB course is specially designed to equip minority entrepreneurs interested in starting or growing a business with the fundamental skills, knowledge, and resources needed to build a sustainable business. Training provided in the course includes instruction on crucial business planning and management processes, including basic accounting, business plan writing, legal strategies, pricing strategies, and brand development. The course also helps connect entrepreneurs with valuable networking resources and support for wealth building and management.
LaNiqe, who started the EBB course in June of 2021, says that the course has helped her in developing plans fully tailored for her new business idea. She says that some of her biggest takeaways from the course came from a segment of the program that helped her identify her business’ target market. Additionally, LaNiqe said that the course helped give her new insight into how to value her own business’ services. Although still at the initial stages of launching her new bookkeeping business, L.B. Bookkeeping, LaNiqe says she has already had a few inquiries from prospective customers.
LaNiqe was joined in attending the recent EBB course by 12 other entrepreneurs, including her husband Eric Brown, who enrolled in the course to focus on building an audio production business. Spark of Manhattan administered the course, and the classes were sponsored by the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce, Network Kansas, and the Pottawatomie County Economic Development Corporation. The EBB programs include around 12 weeks of content and are currently being hosted virtually. Courses are currently being offered upon sufficient demand; interested entrepreneurs can visit https://sparkmhk.com/ebb to learn more.