This entrepreneur helps build a foundation for Kansas City’s Black business owners

Rising up in South Kansas Metropolis’s Marlborough neighborhood, Christopher Vernon Stewart spent summers watching his grandfather construct enterprise after enterprise to assist his household.

“He was a giant a part of my life arising. So he instilled a whole lot of ideas and self-discipline, like integrity and work ethic,” Stewart says. “He was a butcher, he did garden care and hauling. My grandmother owned a catering enterprise. It was subconsciously embedded in me seeing them take probabilities and inspiring me to do the identical.”

That entrepreneurial spirit ultimately led Stewart, a graduate of Raytown South Excessive Faculty, to begin his personal enterprise. Stewart is the only real proprietor and operator of Stew’s Harwood LLC and co-owner KCS Tradition, an actual property funding and residential rehabilitation firm trying to carry inexpensive housing again to communities east of Troost Ave., the metro’s historic racial dividing line.

A lot of his work occurs in the identical neighborhood the place he grew up in south Kansas Metropolis.

“Hire for a two-bedroom house is now $1,300 a month. ” he stated. “That’s steep for properties which were left largely unrenovated for the reason that Seventies. We don’t wish to be the slumlords of the previous. Our purpose is to offer trendy dwelling at an inexpensive worth for our neighborhood. It doesn’t need to be extravagant. Simply up-to-date as an alternative of dwelling in squalor.”

June 19, 2022, marked the nation’s second, and Kansas Metropolis’s tenth anniversary of recognizing Juneteenth — a vacation that denotes the abolishment of slavery in America.

As soon as little recognized, it has turn into a possibility to have a good time Black tradition in America.

For Stewart, the enterprise he began constructing again in 2011 is motive sufficient to have a good time.

“Juneteenth is a day that provides Black of us the chance to really feel proud. It’s akin to Independence Day,” he stated. “So, it feels fairly good simply having the ability to keep success as a Black enterprise proprietor.”

Beginning a enterprise is dangerous for anybody. However for Stewart, a single father and a Black man attempting to do enterprise in a traditionally under-invested a part of Kansas Metropolis, the challenges earlier than him had been nice.

“It was tough the primary couple of years and I went via some critical monetary hardships,” he stated. “The toughest half about beginning a enterprise is constructing the clientele. However I stayed targeted making the standard of my work the very best precedence, which constructed my fame. Now, 98% of my enterprise are referrals.”

Since 2011, he’s refinished greater than 1,000 flooring and fully reworked 5 – 6 houses.

“Everyone defines success in a different way, however I really feel like I’ve been fairly profitable since taking an opportunity opening a enterprise 11 years in the past,” he stated. “My household is happy with me. I do know my grandfather was. In order that’s success proper there to me.”

A household historical past in entrepreneurship

A 3rd era descendant of Jamaican immigrants, Stewart has a love for neighborhood and a dedication to Black possession that was instilled in childhood.

Along with watching his grandfather construct companies, he watched as his father, uncles and different family members all opened native small companies corresponding to Stewart City Espresso and SE3 Engineering Kansas Metropolis.

One other uncle, Charles Byrd, as soon as owned Byrd Development LLC, which helped construct Kansas Metropolis Public Colleges’ Richardson Early Studying Heart.

“Subconsciously, it was embedded in me. Simply seeing them do issues and take probabilities whereas encouraging me to do the identical,” Stewart stated. “There are some lengthy days. However I work for myself and I make my very own schedule. That’s the highest type of freedom within the black neighborhood.”

That tenacity can be an inspiration to different Black enterprise house owners within the metro.

“I do know for a undeniable fact that Chris does work to the standard that in all probability surprises those that it is Black-owned,” stated Charles Browne, proprietor of the movie firm Chuck Browne Productions.

“He principally units himself aside from the remainder of the pack,” Browne stated. “Within the Kansas Metropolis neighborhood, Chris is a job mannequin. An excellent optimistic consultant for the youth to repeat. Actually, he impressed me to begin my firm and I will probably be without end grateful for that.”

Exterior of Stewart’s enterprise, he’s had an influence by mentoring Black youth.

He coached and sponsored youth sports activities for the South Suburban Junior Athletic Affiliation from 2008-2015 and his daughter Aniyah’s YMCA basketball staff from 2015-2019.

One in all his former gamers, Jerome Jackson — Stewart affectionately dubbed him “JJ” — earned a basketball scholarship to Central Neighborhood School in Grand Island, Nebraska.

“He coached me in soccer and basketball from sixth via eighth grade,” Jackson stated. “I by no means actually had a father determine and Chris was that. Each time I wanted to journey to follow or something, he was there. He even gave me my first job. He’s a optimistic affect on my life that confirmed me arduous work and has been a mentor.”

Stewart stated leaving an improved legacy for his household to construct upon like his forefathers did, and proceed to do, is of utmost significance to him.

“I wish to be a very good chief and be a optimistic instance for each my daughter and my household. Instilling good traits will assist them make good selections,” he stated. “I wish to depart her one thing and being a enterprise proprietor is how I present her that.”

In that manner, Stewart stated, he celebrates Juneteenth by recognizing the progress of Kansas Metropolis’s Black tradition and constructing the financial basis for that neighborhood to continue to grow.

Lawrence Brooks is an intern for KCUR 89.3.