This week on The Urban Business Roundtable, UBR Executive Producer TaQuoya Kennedy talks with Tyson Toussant, co-founder of Recovery Textiles Corp., parent company of the fashion brand Bionic Yarn.
Recovery Textiles, launched by Toussant with childhood friend Tim Coombs, began as a maker of outdoor gear, with the partners sharing a passion for camping and the great outdoors. Providing product for major brands including NorthFace and Cole Haan, Recovery Textiles has since launched the Bionic Yarn clothing brand in partnership with superstar music producer and artist Pharrell Williams. Bionic Yarn develops yarns and other fabrics created from recycled plastic containers with applications to the creation of everything from luggage and handbags, to denim and outerwear to home furnishings.
Also, UBR Contributor Renita Young speaks with Chris St. Hilaire, an award-winning message strategist and the author of 27 Powers of Persuasion: Simple Strategies to Seduce Audiences and Win Allies. Hilaire stops by the Roundtable to chat with Young about how entrepreneurs can best develop and use their own powers of persuasion to help build and expand business opportunities.
In addition, every week on UBR, you’ll get motivation and inspiration from author and entrepreneurial icon Farrah Gray, a weekly wrap-up of business news from USA Today business correspondent Charisse Jones, our Patient Investor Report from Ariel Investments and key economic intelligence for small business owners from our UBR economists Derrick Collins and Rasheed Carter.
And finally, in my “Alfred’s Notepad” segment, I talk about the allure and the risks associated with perhaps the boldest aspiration of big-thinking entrepreneurs: the initial public offering. UBR listeners who’ve registered for the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference, scheduled for May 22-25, 2011 in Atlanta, will learn more about IPOs and other important business trends and topics. Don’t forget listen to the show for the code to get a special discount when you register for the conference.
If you have a question you want answered or a topic you want addressed on The Urban Business Roundtable, connect with me at BE Insider, the social media network for people who are serious about Black Enterprise. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.
Alfred Edmond Jr. is the senior VP/editor-at-large of Black Enterprise and the host of the Urban Business Roundtable, a weekly radio show, sponsored by Ariel Investments, airing CST Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. on WVON-AM 1690, the Talk of Chicago. You can also listen live online at WVON.com. Check back each Wednesday for The UBR Morning Post, which features additional resources, advice and information from and about the topics, entrepreneurs and experts featured on the show.