June Perry-Stevens (seated) and her daughter Krystle Rogers say the success of their company, Best Ed Business, is rooted in relationships. (Photo provided by Best Ed Business)
By Edgar Mendez
This story was originally published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, where you can find other stories reporting on fifteen city neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Visit milwaukeenns.org.
Just like when June Perry-Stevens blazed a trail for women by founding the nonprofit New Concept Self-Development Center in 1974, nearly five decades later, she’s still breaking new ground.
But now she’s doing it alongside her daughter Krystle Rogers as the co-owners of Best Ed Business, an office, school and construction supply company that’s marking its 20th anniversary this year.
“I grew up with my mom in her lap watching her run a business,” said Rogers, who joined Best Ed as co-owner after her mother’s original partner, Beth Sampson Bauer, retired in 2021. “That sparked my interest in entrepreneurship and business.”
Perry-Stevens retired in 2006 from New Concept, which closed in December after nearly 48 years of operation. New Concept once served more than 7,000 families a year and ran a number of programs for youths, adults and families in Milwaukee.
She said when she co-founded Best Ed Business, 1916 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, in 2004, she did it to fill a void for companies looking to do business with women of color.
“We provided classroom supplies to Milwaukee Public Schools tutoring programs that had to spend money with minority and women-owned businesses,” Perry-Stevens said.
Eventually, she said, the business also began to sell office supplies such as furniture and personal protective equipment, or PPE, to construction companies.
Focus on community
One constant in their business model has been to work in support of community organizations, including the Running Rebels, a youth mentoring organization.
Dawn Barnett, co-executive director of the organization, said Best Ed Business helped Running Rebels renovate several spaces, including a new cafeteria. She said she appreciates the care and personal touch Perry-Stevens and Rogers use during the design process.
“They come to your space and talk through what you’re envisioning,” Barnett said. “You don’t get that when you get that type of personal customer service when you shop online.”
Other local organizations that have received services from Best Ed Business include the Sojourner Family Peace Center, Outreach Community Health Center and the Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy.
Another major client is the Gilbane Building Co., 101 W. Pleasant St., which receives safety vests and other supplies from Best Ed Business.
Nikki Purvis, president and CEO of the African American Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, first worked with Perry-Stevens while serving as the small business development director for the City of Milwaukee.
Purvis said she had facilitated her participation in the city’s Business Capacity Building Program as a member of a cohort that was contracted to work on the Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons project to expand its downtown campus.
“The program really helped to catapult their business,” Purvis said. “They were able to capture a space that at that time no other minority business was providing.”
Standing out
Being Black women providing goods to typically Anglo-dominated fields, including office supplies and construction, is a fact not lost on Perry-Stevens.
“Furniture is not sold by African American women and the reality is that PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), well, that’s just not something that African American women usually do either,” Perry-Stevens said. “We offer the services and as a result, there is no excuse to say: ‘I want to do business with minorities and women.’ If you want to do that, here we are.”
Rogers said she enjoys standing out in the field.
“Nobody else that looks like us is doing that and that’s a good thing,” she said. “We want to stress that we have just as much capacity as non-minority businesses. Actually, we do it better.”
Perry-Stevens and Rogers now pay it forward by consciously supporting others.
“If it’s a product that we can buy from another minority or women-owned business, that’s what we are going to do,” Rogers said.
Entrepreneurship a family affair
You can say that entrepreneurship runs in the blood of Perry-Stevens and Rogers.
“My family built houses on land we owned in South Carolina and rented them out,” said Perry-Stevens. “Just about everybody in my family has run some sort of business.”
From a grandfather who was the first Black licensed electrician in South Carolina to family members who ran daycare centers in governmental offices in Washington, D.C., Perry-Stevens and her daughter are the latest entrepreneurs in a family full of trailblazers.
Before joining her mother at Best Ed, Rogers launched her own businesses, first a bakery business and then Martin Perry Coaching and Consulting.
“It’s really important work because people don’t always see what it takes to have a successful business or career,” she said.
Business built on relationships
Perry-Stevens “has built so many great relationships over the years in the community, and those connections are still strong,” added business partner Rebecca Gaylord, president of Creative Business Interiors, 1535 S. 101st. St.
Currently, Best Ed Business and Creative Business Interiors are working together to furnish the Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy, 4030 N. 29th St.
As Perry-Stevens and her daughter move Best Ed Business forward, they also are enjoying the perks of working together.
“Managing the partnership is easy because she is the person who knows me best in the world,” said Rogers. “With her backgrounds in social services and mine in psychology, we know how to work with people, and we know how to treat people.”