FORT MYERS, FLA. — As the city of Fort Myers continues to grow, some entrepreneurs I spoke with say more small businesses throughout Lee County are looking to expand.
Your Fort Myers community correspondent, Miyoshi Price shows you how one group meets up monthly to create even more partnership and mentorship opportunities for those behind new ventures in our area.
It's called "Brewing a Buzz,' and it is a meet-up for entrepreneurs at various locations in Southwest Florida.
"Right now, we need more investors to be able to allocate their funds and benefit from impacting this, this community in a positive manner, by bringing in businesses, offering more jobs and building a better community," says Brian Sodre, general contractor/ owner of Miniopolis LLC.
Sodre is the event coordinator, and he is an entrepreneur and general contractor who specializes in building tiny homes.
He wants to positively impact the affordable housing crisis and believes that, by being in a space like the one he created with the help of Access Title, he can gain allies to make change.
"The way that we solve that problem is by building smaller footprint homes," says Sodre. "However, there are some restrictions in cities and county municipalities that don't allow for the concept we're advocating for the change."
He says every business needs capital, and people who can help will be at these events on the last Wednesday of each month.
While at the session on Wednesday, August 28th, at the Millennial Brewing Co. people were able to meet representatives from Flipworks LLC. "They're a private equity real estate-backed firm, and what they offer us is the ability to raise capital from private investors looking to make an impact in southwest Florida, which applies to real estate and businesses," says Sodre. "They'll be at this event with us, networking, getting to know what the community needs."
Every type of business can be a part of the conversation.
The group says donations from the event will go to Mother's Nest - a program that provides housing support to mothers in need.
