The ADS Agency is Among 200+ Black Women Entrepreneurs to Win National Backing Black Business Cash Grant 

• POSTED ON
• 5March2022

Atlanta – The Reimagine Main Street project today announced Andrea TheoJohn of The ADS Agency has been awarded a national Backing Black Business cash grant. The small business grants are designed to fuel the growth aspirations and boost the trajectory of 200+ Black women-led small businesses and entrepreneurs across the U.S. 

The ADS Agency is a 5.25 year-old Atlanta-based marketing and branding firm owned by Andrea TheoJohn (minority, woman, Native-American, Filipino) – created to helps brands figure out how to move through this world. “In order to grow and expand beyond the small boutique agency that we are now, we must obtain more talent – and excellent talent at that,” TheoJohn says. “So this Backing Black Business Grant would be used towards an initial investment in sourcing our next great hires so that as we go after bigger contracts to support our new team, we’ll have the revenue to sustain them as well as the infrastructure to support those contracts. Additionally, we do have a small building purchase in our vision that we’d want to put some of the funding towards – which would be the new home of The ADS Agency.”

The Backing Black Business Small Business Grants program winners, announced at the culmination of Black History Month, include women entrepreneurs competing in 10 industries including health care, finance, food and beverage, child care, construction, fitness and marketing, hailing from communities across the entire U.S. 

TheoJohn envisions the new ADS building in her five-year plan as a community asset-rich space: a three-story brick building, the size of an enlarged townhome – murals on the best street-facing side, trees to enhance the environment, a bottom floor for a café for additional revenue, a second floor for studio space (podcast / YouTube recording, photoshoot space), a third floor for office space and a rooftop area for small client and staff parties. “It’s our next level dream! This grant helps us get one step closer to realizing that,” TheoJohn noted.

“Black women entrepreneurs are vital contributors to our national and local economies, innovating products and services to meet customer demand and creating jobs,” said Tammy Halevy, Co-lead of Reimagine Main Street. “By providing Black women entrepreneurs with cash grants and other valuable support and resources, we can help these small business leaders in their communities keep thriving as we emerge from the economic effects of the pandemic.”

“This grant program could change the trajectory of some of the 207 amazing businesses led by Black women entrepreneurs across the U.S. who are the largest segment of new and emerging businesses,” said Renee Johnson, Co-lead of Reimagine Main Street. “Our $2 million commitment to Black-owned small businesses is unique in its support for not just women who had businesses prior to the pandemic, but also those bold enough to launch their businesses during COVID-19.”

Reimagine Main Street partnered with a national network of organizations dedicated to serving Black women business owners across the country, with support from Meta, to execute the Backing Black Business program. The $2 million in cash grants will be reinvested back into Main Streets across America and bear fruit for many years to come.

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About Reimagine Main Street

Small businesses and their workers must rebound from the COVID-19 crisis so that communities thrive and the benefits ripple throughout the economy. We are a multi-stakeholder, cross-sector initiative focused on advancing and uplifting innovative solutions via dialogue and data to ensure that MLK Boulevards, Cesar Chavez Ways, Chinatowns and Main Streets are at the center of our COVID-19 recovery. Reimagine Main Street is a project of the Public Private Strategies Institute. Visit www.reimaginemainstreet.org to learn more.

About The ADS Agency

The ADS Agency is a 5.25 year-old Atlanta-based firm owned by Andrea TheoJohn (minority, woman, Native-American, Filipino). ADS provides marketing and branding services to our clients in the southeast and overseas, offering marketing, branding and communications strategy, brand identity and design, and the tactical execution of those strategies, including website and landing page design, email communications, social media, videography, photography, animations and more. They help small businesses direct their marketing and branding meaningfully and purposefully. ADS was created to helps brands figure out how to move through this world. | theadsagency.co