Eastern Michigan launches Empowerment Program to help low income entrepreneurs

A lot of business owners do everything right on paper - work hard, serve their communities, keep the lights on - yet may still feel like they’re running uphill.

Some of these entrepreneurs come from low-income families, and are trying to grow a business while also supporting children, parents, or relatives on tight household budgets. They rarely have extra cash to hire help, pay for training, or take a risk on marketing. Often, they don’t have a network of advisors to call when things get complicated.

The Director of Eastern Michigan University’s (EMU) Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CEI), Sanjib Chowdhury, has seen this up close.

That’s one of the reasons why they’re launching the Empowerment Program for Entrepreneurs from Low-Income Families in Southeastern Michigan; a new pilot designed to give business owners something many may not had much access to: sustained, practical, one-on-one support.

Lifting families, then neighborhoods

The heart of the program is simple: help the entrepreneur, and you help the family; help enough families, and you help the neighborhood and the region.

To qualify, applicants need to meet the federal department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) definition of low income: households earning 80% or less of the area’s median income, adjusted for family size. For a single person in Michigan, the state figure was $50,150 in 2024. 

The focus, says Chowdhury, is on real, tangible businesses. These might be retail shops, trades, food businesses, or service companies with a physical presence or employees. The business can already be operating or in its launch phase, but it must be more than just an idea.

And unlike many other local economic-development programs, this is not targeted at tech or ‘scalable’ startups. “This is (for) small business from any vertical,” Chowdhury told us.

Chowdhury spends a lot of time talking to funders and program sponsors and says he has noticed a pattern. That is that big checks and splashy headlines tend to flow toward high-growth, tech-driven ventures. Meanwhile, the smaller, harder-to-measure gains of supporting a neighborhood salon, landscaping company, repair shop, or small manufacturer often get overlooked.

Yet when CEI works with entrepreneurs from low-income families, they see the same underlying obstacles again and again. This isn’t just about money; it is about almost every kind of resource.

“They lack resources: financial, networking, knowledge of places and available resources… and then they lack knowledge of content, you know how to do this … what not to do,” Chowdhury says. “But they are in business… so they need a lot of help.”

The Empowerment Program is designed to surround them with that help.

What entrepreneurs receive

The program website outlines five clear benefits:

- Free short microlearning module with EMU–CFEI certification
- Hands-on coaching & mentorship
- Free customized business & technical assistance
- Free 100 hours of part-time work for participating businesses
- $6,000 in financial assistance

This s a carefully thought-out support system which includes”

1. Individualized skills training

CEI staff will sit down with each entrepreneur and assess where their skills and knowledge gaps lie. If someone needs help with basic accounting, they’ll get it. If another business needs support around digital marketing or operations, the training will match that.

“We have created modular skill development that are virtual but interactive," Chowdhury explains. 

2. Student consulting teams, guided by faculty

The program also taps into EMU’s faculty and student body.

Senior business and engineering students can work directly with participating businesses, guided by professors and CEI staff. At an orientation on January 13, 2026, entrepreneurs will meet these students, along with members of an advisory board made up of local community leaders.

3. A lawyer in residence

Many small business owners worry about legal issues - leases, contracts, employment policies, compliance - but can’t afford an attorney.

CEI will provide a lawyer-in-residence as part of the program, focused specifically on these businesses. That person “take a look at all the policies, procedures or whatever they have and make sure that they are… in sync with regulations,” says Chowdhury.

4. $6,000 in guided financial support

Finally, each business will receive $6,000 in financial assistance. The money is tied growth plans developed jointly by the entrepreneur and the CEI team. “There are equipment maintenance, hiring people or marketing, you know, advertisement,” Chowdhury says. “There are business expenses that are pretty… flexible where you can spend, but it has to be spent on the business and we would want it to be consistent with the plan.”

How selection works

Because the program is intensive and individualized, CEI will only be accepting a limited number of businesses in the first cohort.

Rather than focusing on industry or how ‘high-growth’ an idea seems, the team will look at two main things: Need for help – whether the entrepreneur and their family truly fit the low-income focus and are facing the kinds of barriers the program is designed to address. And EMU’s ability to help – whether the Center and its partners realistically have the expertise and resources to move that particular business forward.

The Empowerment Program is being launched as a pilot which, if successful, will be measured not by headlines, but by real changes in the lives of participating families. Chowdhury hopes it will become a permanent, fully staffed program that continues to serve low-income entrepreneurs across southeastern Michigan for years to come.

Who should consider applying?

If you are - or you know - someone who:

- Runs or is launching a small, tangible business in southeastern Michigan
- Comes from a low-income household as defined by HUD (earning 80% or less of area median income, based on household size)
- Is eager to learn, willing to work closely with EMU students and faculty, and ready to put new strategies into practice

…then the Empowerment Program may be exactly the kind of support needed to move from surviving to growing.

The application deadline is December 5, 2025, with decisions announced on December 15, 2025, and program orientation on January 13, 2026. 

More information and the application link are available at emich.edu/empowerment-program, or you can contact the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Eastern Michigan University by phone at (734) 487-9263 or email entrepreneurship_center@emich.edu.

If a family-owned shop, small manufacturer, trades business, or neighborhood service provider immediately comes to mind as you read this - someone who works hard, gives back to their community, and could do so much more with the right support - please share this with them.

As Chowdhury says, the goal is to uplift families first. When that happens, whole neighborhoods can rise with them.