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West Palm Beach Jumpstart Academy graduates expand small-business ventures
Summary
Three West Palm Beach municipal employees described how the mayor's Jumpstart Academy helped them refine pricing, finance and business-registration steps for their small enterprises, including a faith-based products line, a children's-book brand and a kids clothing line.
Three West Palm Beach municipal employees described how the mayor's Jumpstart Academy helped them grow and refine their small businesses, in a segment reported during a city commission meeting.
The Jumpstart Academy, a mayoral program that runs classes over roughly two months, taught participants practical steps such as pricing, basic finance and steps to register a limited liability company, the graduates said.
Deputy City Clerk Yoneek Watkins said her business, God’s Words to Me LLC, sells devotionals, prayer journals, children’s books and candles “that are all inscripted with, like, the word of God.” Watkins said the Jumpstart Academy “helped me to price mark my products based off of how much it takes to to make the 1 candle, for example.” She said her two daughters help with the business and also received certificates at the academy graduation.
City commission aide Terrell Goldwire described a product line under the name Freckleberry, which includes two children’s books and a kids clothing collection. Goldwire said her mother’s encouragement shaped the books’ message about self-acceptance: “My mom then said everyone is different in some kind of way. She had freckles and I had freckles. She let me know, like, it was kisses from the angels above, like, every little spot.” Goldwire said the Jumpstart Academy gave her “the boost...to take it to the next level.”
Caitlin Kenny, marketing graphics supervisor for the city’s community events division and owner of a full-service marketing agency, said she has sold handmade jewelry and previously charged classmates to create Myspace pages in high school. “We specialize in social media marketing, graphic design, content creation,” Kenny said. She added that the academy filled gaps in her business knowledge: “Learning the finance part of things, signing up properly for your LLC.”
The segment, reported by Cheryl Conn for WPB TV, did not include details on program enrollment limits, funding sources for the academy or whether participants received financial support to start their businesses. No formal action, vote or city policy change was recorded with this segment.
The account highlights how a short municipal training program provided practical business skills for city employees and aides who run small enterprises, while connecting family involvement and personal narratives to product development and marketing.
