This week on The Urban Business Roundtable, UBR Contributor Renita Young sits down with Ella Gorgla, the founder and CEO of I-Ella.com, an innovative online fashion marketplace where users can buy, sell, swap, lend and borrow the latest in designer fashions and accessories. I-Ella.com has been featured in numerous publications including Essence and Lucky magazines, as well as on InStyle.com.
Originally from Monrovia, Liberia, Gorgla received her BS in engineering from The Ohio State University with academic honors, MBA from Columbia Business School and a Masters from London Business School
with additional studies at Yale University, before embarking on a successful career with some of the nation’s top consulting firms, including Ernst & Young and Arthur Anderson Consulting. Gorgla sits down with Young to share how she built her business.Also, UBR Contributor Annette Flournoy speaks with Patricia Sigmon, author of Six Steps to Creating Profit: A Guide for Small and Mid-Sized Service-Based Businesses (Wiley) and an expert in the field of profit management, about how entrepreneurs can grow their businesses without sacrificing the bottom line. Sigmon is the founder of two companies: LPS Consulting Co. Inc., a computer consulting firm; and David Advisory Group, a boutique firm geared to helping small business owners to boost their profits.
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 share some of the key elements of developing a marketing plan for your business. Marketing with or without a plan will cost you money, but only the latter will deliver measurable results.
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.