Growing up on Detroit’s east side, Jennyfer Crawford-Williams never really thought she had a talent, other than maybe having the gift of gab.
Her sister was a great writer. Her brother could dance and was technically gifted, with an ability to put things together.
It seems Crawford-Williams has found her talent – helping others with their businesses.
Crawford-Williams has focused her efforts on shining the spotlight on small businesses in the city, particularly women-owned and Black-owned businesses. It started in 2014 with her branding and events firm, Ask Jennyfer – which won her a Best of MichBusiness Award in 2023 – and continues with her small-business showcase, All Things Detroit, draws more than 12,000 shoppers to Eastern Market to support more than 200 small businesses (The next All Things Detroit is set for Nov. 9).
She’s developed platforms for entrepreneurs and start-ups that include: a small business center, All Things Marketplace, a ticketing site, All Things Ticketing, a podcast and web series.
She is a driving force behind annual events like Downtown Street Eats and notably curates small business pop-ups – including the official roster at the record-breaking 2024 NFL Draft.
“Supporting small business is a passion for me,” she said. “I’m just inspired by people who can make things with their hands and actually do what they love to do.”
Her previous career in the construction industry had taken her to Florida. When she came back to Detroit, she saw people were coming here to start a business. She’d hear them talking about their businesses –- “I make handmade soaps because my daughter has eczema,” or “I am a wood worker. I can do all these things.”
“It was a passion of mine because I was just inspired by them and very intrigued as to how people run a business and how they’re able to get up every day and work toward something that they love and get someone else to fall in love with it,” she said.
Crawford sat down with Corp! Magazine to talk about her career and other business issues:
Corp! Magazine: Did your interest in supporting small businesses come from your background?
Jennyfer Crawford-Williams: I didn’t come from a family of entrepreneurs or anything. It’s like you go to work at the plant, you work there for 30 years and you retire and you figure something else out. So, for me, I was just really inspired by those who can have these talents and they’re actually putting forth the effort to make their dreams come true when their businesses happen.
Corp!: How did you get started?
Crawford-Williams: All Things Detroit came about in my one-bedroom apartment about 12 years ago. It was a big thing of people making earrings and making different things. And so, I worked part-time at Nikki’s Lounge downtown and I was like, “I should do a pamper party.” The first party I did was Pamper pick-and-purchase in my one-bedroom apartment in Lafayette Park.
As time went on, I did the event at Nikki’s a few times and I was like, “I should do something for local businesses here in Detroit.” I’m born and raised in the city of Detroit and it just goes back to that people making things and me trying to have a place for them. I actually couldn’t afford Eastern Market, but I put my rent money down and rented out the Eastern Market, praying that it all went well and everything changed from there.
Corp!: Talk about All Things Marketplace.
Crawford-Williams: I started All things Marketplace in 2017 as a way to kind of take what I did offline, online so that people can reach all of these businesses in one place, because at All Things Detroit, there’s 200 businesses and if you have a few favorites and you’re trying to shop with them, how can you get in contact with them immediately?
And so, it didn’t quite go the way that I wanted it to go at the time because people had their own websites, they had it where I want people to come to my website, I want people to just come directly to me. They didn’t want to have to ship orders from another place or any of that. It was just too much work. A lot of small business owners don’t have staff.
So, during the pandemic, I applied for and got a grant from Lowe’s for $20,000. And so, I bought a delivery truck and I flipped the website and turned myself basically into kind of like an Amazon Etsy where I’m a shipping and fulfillment center for local makers, nonprofit nonprofits. And so, we started to actually not only ship products for the businesses who have their products on our website and in-store because we opened up a small pop-up space at the Build Institute temporarily to see how it goes. And we were shipping, we were doing deliveries, and it was all to help businesses get their products out during the pandemic.
Corp!: How does it work?
Crawford-Williams: We’re a shipping and fulfillment center for small business owners. So, business owners have their own website on our marketplace, All Things Marketplace, and we ship and fulfill, we carry those products in store and we ship and fulfill any orders that actually come through. So, they have their own website on our platform and we carry the items in store. When we get a shipping order online, we actually pack up everything and ship it for the small business owner.
What I love about All Things Marketplace is that when you look at the stores and you look at the business owners on the website, you know exactly who you’re purchasing from. The company has a bio, whereas with Amazon, you don’t know exactly who you’re purchasing from. So that aspect of it was pretty important to me that people know who they’re supporting.
Corp!: I guess you’re not working out of your one-bedroom apartment anymore?
Crawford-Williams: No, not anymore. All Things Detroit was out of my one-bedroom apartment and then All Things Marketplace is our storefront at Michigan and Trumbull where the old Tiger Stadium was.
Corp!: So you’ve obviously killed the notion you don’t have a talent, because you found it.
Crawford-Williams: Yes. I think my talent is promoting others or finding that different unique way to get people to engage with these businesses and shop with them with All Things Detroit. We showcase 200 businesses and we get about 12,000 customers. We’ve had about 12,000 customers in one day to come out to this event and shop. We promote shopping, we don’t say, “Hey, come and just check this business out. We say this is the product that this business is going to have.” We share their stories, we talk about why they started their business, why they make their products. Because when you promote the people behind the business, that’s how you actually sell the products.
Corp!: You’re getting exposure on TV, aren’t you?
Crawford-Williams: We just launched a partnership with Live in the D on Local 4 (WDIV). We have a segment called Shop Small where we are doing shipping and fulfillment and telling the stories of the businesses.
Corp!: Where does the passion come from for you to help other businesses?
Crawford-Williams: My passion is people. I genuinely care about people. I think that being raised poor side of Detroit, being raised one way where I was taught to think a certain way where this is just life and this is how it is. And so, when I moved to Florida for work, I lived there for five years. And in that time, I saw so many different people than what I was used to in my area of being home in Detroit on the east side.
And so, I think that in that time of growth of being 25 then and being able to change my way of thinking and how I view the world and how I view people, that’s where my passion and my purpose comes from.
