Miranda Moy opened Detroit-based Moy Hair Essentials in 2018 to develop an all-natural hair care line.
The Detroit Pistons’ SHOP313 program was developed to help entrepreneurs like Moy.
Moy joined more than 100 pre-selected sellers, entrepreneurs and small business owners at the Detroit Pistons Performance Center earlier this week for the Small Business Summit presented by Amazon.
The summit’s goal was to support area small businesses owners like Moy, whose shop is located in northwest Detroit near the Rosedale Park Historic District. Last year, Moy was a grant recipient of the SHOP313 program.
“The Pistons really help,” Moy said. “By receiving information during the panel discussions about how to grow your business and get it on Amazon, it’s been very helpful. To know you're being invited to events by them, it just helps with exposure and growing your business.”
The day-long event during Small Business Month featured workshops, panel discussions and opportunities for questions from Pistons marketing professionals and Amazon’s business development team.
Amazon vice president and global head of startups Howard Wright said the summit aimed to share best practices for selling and ways to support small businesses through brand marketing.
“It's resilience, dedication, preparation and teamwork,” said Wright, who played several seasons in the NBA. “Here at AWS (Amazon) we really like to focus on those same key metrics, the enablement of our partners in the startup community and we do that with compassion and a little bit of compulsion every single morning.”
The Pistons created the SHOP313 program in 2021 to promote local entrepreneurs and provide participating businesses with educational seminars, resources, grant opportunities and networking events.
Last year, the Pistons program was recognized by the NBA after more than 800 small businesses applied to the SHOP313 program. During the 2021-22 season, the program helped 82 small businesses through access to Little Caesars Arena during games, community events and digital assistance. SHOP313 proved to be an asset for Detroit-based companies Bea’s Squeeze, a lemonade company, and the K. Walker Collective, an apparel brand, which partnered with the Pistons’ G League team, the Motor City Cruise, to design its uniform.
“The SHOP313 program puts our business in front of people who might not have been able to see us before,” Good Cakes and Bakes owner April Anderson told Pistons.com last fall. “The initiative has helped because they go outside the program to utilize us for other events as well.”
According to Michigan Governor Whitmer’s office, Michigan was home to more than 900,000 small businesses in 2022.
“I think small business truly is the ethos of Detroit,” Pistons director of corporate partnerships Sarra Barnes said. “If you just look at numbers related to the small businesses, what the economic impact is and the cultural impact that they have on our community; it's super important to take our platform and utilize the game to unite people through basketball and take that platform for good.”
Following the panel and fireside chats, the afternoon concluded with a professional marketing photoshoot opportunity, networking and a happy hour. “Throughout the season we have businesses that we interact with throughout game days, but this being our inaugural off-season, post-season event is a really great way to tee up the rest of the summer,” Barnes said. “We look to integrate small businesses wherever we can.”