This week on The Urban Business Roundtable, UBR Contributor Renita D. Young sits down with Chicago restaurateur Quentin Love. An interior designer, community developer, professional musician and barber, Love is a man of many talents and passions, but none more dear to him than his role as founder and CEO of the I Love Food Group. His company boasts a portfolio of several restaurants throughout Chicago, including Soul Xpress, Brown Sugar Bakery, Brother Tim’s Vegetarian Fast Food, 5 Loaves Breakfast Cafe, and the Quench! chain. Love launched his first restaurant, Quench!, 10 years ago in 2001.
Love is also the founder of the Love Foundation, a not-for-profit with the mission of enriching the lives of young people in the community. He joins the Roundtable to share how he parlayed his love for his community into business success.
Also, UBR Contributor Stephen Lewis talks with Morgan Stanley Investment Management Managing Director Carla Harris, author of the book Expect to Win: 10 Proven Strategies for Thriving In The Workplace (Plume). Harris, named among the Black Enterprise 75 Most Powerful Women in Business, heads the emerging manager platform at Morgan Stanley. She joins Lewis at the Roundtable to provide valuable insight into how to win in business.
In addition, in my “Alfred’s Notepad” segment, I explain why I’m taking LinkedIn (which went public in May), as well as competitors such as BranchOut on Facebook,
more seriously. My take: If you’re in college right now and you haven’t established a profile on a business and career focused social network, you are dangerously behind the curve. That goes double if you’re already in the workforce, whether employed full-time, a freelance or temp worker, an independent consultant, a self-employed business owner, or any combination of these.And finally, 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.
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 week for UBR Spotlight, which features additional resources, advice and information from and about the topics, entrepreneurs and experts featured on the show.