Former Robins Air Force Base member to host traveling business workshop

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — A decorated veteran and business advocate will return to Warner Robins.

On July 25, at 7 p.m. Nikki Porcher, founder of Buy From a Black Woman, will be doing a workshop at 1302 Watson Blvd. Porcher is a veteran and business owner.

She started Buy From a Black Woman in 2016 after attending a business event in Atlanta and seeing that she was the only Black woman attending. Beginning as a blog with a mission to empower, educate and inspire Black female business owners across the country, Porcher made it her goal to buy from a Black woman at least once a week.

“The blog took off, people were sharing the blog, other business owners wanted to be a part of the blog and others wanted to send me money to keep the blog going,” said Porcher.

At the time, she was also working at a nonprofit organization; after they threatened her to end the blog or she would be fired, Porcher decided to quit her job and make the blog a nonprofit. She continued to work as a teacher until 2019 when she decided to pursue the nonprofit full-time.

“Well, you [referring to the nonprofit she was working at] see something I don’t, so let me follow this through,” said Porcher.

Beginning in 2021, Porcher partnered with H&M for the Inspire Tour: “What we do is we travel the country the whole month of July to bring awareness to Black women businesses… in hopes to inspire other people so see possibility when [they think] there is none,” said Porcher.

When talking about why she started her nonprofit, Porcher said, “I know my purpose is to serve… working a nonprofit, serving in the military, being a schoolteacher, these are all service-based professions… I served the country; I served my classroom and now I serve my community.”

She also stated that it was Black women in general who inspired her, raised by her mother, aunt and grandmother.

As previously mentioned, the Inspire Tour will be stopping at Warner Robins, where she was stationed at Robins Air Force Base. She expressed excitement at being back in Middle Georgia since she left in 2009.

This workshop will show business owners how to improve their online presence, according to Porcher.

“We’re going to show business owners how to read their data and Google analytics for their websites to make it more efficient, more user-friendly and make sure people know how to find them on search engines,” said Porcher.

Ever ambitious, she is looking forward to further growing her nonprofit by branching out to other parts of America and globally. In addition, she is hosting the National Black Women Business Awards in November.

To support Buy From a Black Woman, a person can donate to their website www.buyfromablackwoman.com. Alternatively, a person can support the organization’s mission by seeking out and buying from Black female business owners.

HHJ News