CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — Northeast Ohio will be featured during the Democratic National Convention this week. The DNC plans to air a segment with a Cleveland Heights boutique to highlight the challenges faced by small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gurneé Green, or GG as people call her, opened her boutique, Chemistry 11, this past December.
“When COVID hit, I did not know that it was going to hit me like it did,” Green said.
Green said the store’s closure was a big loss, with no profits and brand new inventory hanging in the store.
“I’m just sitting there every day, like, ‘What’s going to happen?’” Green said. “I lost employees. Even now, being back open, it’s to the point I still can’t afford to bring in new employees at this time.”
With businesses closing early and many places closed, Green is having a hard time selling items.
“You have a lot of people who really want to stay in the house,” Green said. “We really don’t have many events that are going on like that right now. I don’t think anybody has the motivation or energy to really get dressed or do anything."
In addition to being a small business owner, Green is also an essential worker. She has worked as a certified healthcare IT analyst for about 10 years, helping hospitals and providers install medical software and work through issues.
During COVID-19, she said, her work hit close to home.
“I’ve seen many patients that did not make it because of COVID, of all ages,” Green said. “I’ve seen many minorities. I’ve seen every class. It doesn’t matter. COVID does not discriminate.”
Family members contracted the virus, and so did Green herself.
“I ended up having COVID and it was rough. It was very, very tough. I’m just very thankful that I got out of that," Green said. "Being in the medical field, you know, seeing that and just even seeing babies come in that have had it, it’s been very tough. We have to do our job, get through it, be strong, and make sure we get these patients out of there and healthy.”
The last few weeks, in particular, have been tough for Green, as she tries to balance how to keep her business open and sell inventory, traveling for her healthcare job and having enough income to support her family, including her two children.
Davida Russell, who is a newly-elected council member for Cleveland Heights and state president for the Coalition of Labor Union Women, said she was contacted by Senator Sherrod Brown’s office and asked to find Black-owned businesses in her community that had been affected by COVID-19.
“In the communities, you walk around and you see businesses not doing well before the COVID-19 [pandemic], but then to see them really hurt by the COVID-19, it really was heartbreaking to hear some of their stories,” Russell said.
Russell, who is also the state vice president for the Ohio AFL-CIO and the president of the Northeast Ohio Association of Public School Employees, focused on finding businesses in the Noble and Taylor area, which she said needs some attention.
In addition to Green’s boutique, Russell recommended three other small, Black-owned businesses in Cleveland Heights. She said all four had compelling stories, but when asked which would be most compelling to feature at the DNC, Russell said she selected Green.
Prior to reaching out to her about the possibility of being featured at the DNC, Russell said she did not know that Green was an essential worker or what she did with hospitals.
Green said she received a call one night at 10:30, telling her she may get a phone call from a producer to go through the interview process to be part of the DNC segment. She got another call minutes later from someone asking a few questions, and the next morning, before she was even out of bed, Green said things started moving quickly.
“’ How fast can you get dressed and get there?’” Green said she was asked. “I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can get there, I’ll make it happen. So I was very surprised, I was shocked.”
Green said she was excited to have her story be part of the convention.
“Sometimes as a small business owner, you always say, you know, ‘No one’s really thinking about my little business, my small business,’ but you never know who is really looking, who is really watching on the back end and who’s really listening. You never know,” Green said.
She hopes those who watch the segment take away a message from the difficult and stressful experience she and other business owners have had.
“You have some strong women and men out here who have businesses who aren’t receiving the backup or the funding, and they’re still holding it down, and they’re being strong and we need to make some changes,” Green said.
She emphasized the need for people to vote to make their voices heard and the importance of having small businesses within a community.
“If you don’t have a business around, then you’re gonna have your residents going outside of your community to shop and to buy things, so then you lose revenue, so your businesses in your community are very important,” Green said.
Russell said she believes this is “absolutely wonderful” for the Cleveland Heights community and for Northeast Ohio.
“And these are true-life stories that we all can sympathize with. I think it’s amazing,” Russell said.
Green said she knows things will get better and that “being strong and prayerful” has gotten her through a lot during this stressful time.
“I just know things are gonna smooth out, I’m faithful that things are gonna work out soon, and you just have to have a positive mind,” Green said.
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