'I Just Like Helping People': Facebook Group Aims To Promote Local Black-Owned Businesses

AURORA, IL — Ask anyone for their opinion of Facebook, and you're sure to get a response in one fashion or another. If you ask Elogeia Hadley, she'll likely have a positive response about the social media platform.

Hadley, an Aurora resident and published author who has worked in the medical field for 27 years, spends a decent amount of time on Facebook expanding her network and cultivating a group called Aurora Black Business Connections.

As an author, she often took to Facebook to promote her books. Noticing others often did the same, she said she started the group "during a time when there were so many protests. ... African American people were going into businesses and being mistreated. A lot of our business during COVID had started to fail, even prior to COVID, because of lack of marketing, lack of being seen and noticed."

This gap in the market is one Hadley is hoping to minimize using Aurora Black Business Connections.

When users open Facebook on their phones or laptops, they'll likely come across posts where people are asking for recommendations — be it for food, boutiques or services. Once, Hadley said, she saw a woman looking for recommendations for a Black barber for her son.

"The response she got was not welcoming. ... It was just a basic question," Hadley, who is a mom of four, told Patch. "At that moment, I said in this moment when we have so many things going on in the world with the African American community, we need to have our own place where we can market, where we can buy and sell to each other, where we could support each other in our community."

When she created the page in 2020, it started with just two people. Now, a year and a half later, membership has grown to more than 2,400 people. Hadley has also tasked a few people to be administrators of the page as a way to alleviate some of her workload.

The group's purpose is twofold: to allow business owners to promote their work, and to provide members a space to ask for connections or recommendations.

To be accepted into the private group, interested people only have to answer a few questions, one being if they'll support Black-owned businesses. Once accepted, Hadley encourages members to be active by promoting their business or answering people's questions.

"If you're there to support the group, you can be part of the group," the 51-year-old said.

She continued: "To build a community, we have to support each other, especially the underdog, the people that aren’t being seen. I just like to see people just take a chance on going into a Black business or buying an item, even if it's just a pair of earrings."

Kyle Tyson, the owner of Tyson's Taekwondo, is just one of the couple-thousand members who are part of the group. His business, at 984 N. Lake St., has been around since 1995, and the Facebook group is one more platform helping promote his work.

"People in general are interested in a whole lot of different things, things I had never heard of before," said Tyson, who retired from the Illinois Department of Corrections after 30 years. "[I realized] I need to start getting my name out there more. Sometimes you have to let people know that they need your services, even though they're not looking for your services."

As the group continues to expand with members like Tyson looking to grow their businesses, Hadley said she has a few goals in mind.

"Right now, I would like to see more people on the group," she said. "The more attention the group gets, the better the businesses do. I can see ourselves at 5,000 [members]. … That'd be wonderful."

Hadley said she hopes to start meeting the business owners she has connected with online. Hosting yearly gatherings — "where we can share and support each other that way and have some fun" — is another plan, she said.

"I just like helping people," Hadley said. "I've always been this way. Even as a kid, I'd like seeing people happy, seeing smiles on their faces."

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