Young Entrepreneur’s Work in the Midst of Protests and COVID-19

Jonathan Williams (right) and Dante Franklin (left) at a cleaning job at Uncle Bobbie’s in Germantown.

In light of the recent protests sparked by the unjustified deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others, young entrepreneur Jonathan Williams’ commitment to supporting his community has come into stark relief.

Jonathan Williams, 23, first started his business Chestnut Hill Cleaning at the age of 16. He was having a hard time finding a job and decided to start removing snow for local families with his friends to make money. One day while out doing snow removal, he had an idea: he could start his own business. “I used to read Forbes a lot,” Jonathan joked, “and they always talked about starting your own business.”

“Worst comes to worst, it doesn’t work out,” he thought, but “I may as well give it a shot and see what happens.” Jonathan bought business cards and started handing them out while doing snow removal, mentioning that people could call him for snow removal or different types of cleaning. With the support of the Chestnut Hill Business Association, the Community College of Philadelphia’s (CCP) Power Up Program and early clients, Jonathan was able to grow his business and gain many monthly cleaning contracts. He comments “I think there is help out there for any young entrepreneur, as long as you are not shy about what you are doing.”

Since Chestnut Hill Cleaning’s inception, Jonathan has gone on to successfully expand his business, graduate from the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) and inspire many kids to be entrepreneurs through his community outreach efforts. In 2017, while juggling his business and classes, Jonathan began to mentor school age kids weekly in entrepreneurship skills. This program grew into his nonprofit: “Sky is the Limit.”

When asked about why he started “Sky is the Limit,” Jonathan responded, “I always felt like it was needed… especially for minority groups, because we need those resources. I have seen a lot of kids fall victim to all the pressures outside, whether it be violence or drugs.”

He discussed how a lot of kids have a strong entrepreneurial spirit, a hustle, but that they don’t always have n productive ways to channel that energy. “Someone who is selling drugs is in a business,” Jonathan explains, “an illegal business, but if they have that passion for trying to make money, they might be able to find it in a legit business.”

“I feel like my responsibility as an older African American male is to try and help kids navigate that and find a legal business that they can do the right way.”

The recent killings of Black Americans at the hands of police have brought more attention to Jonathan’s outreach programs and similar programs. “I am very disturbed and disgusted when I turn on the news,” Jonathan says, “I continuously see people who are getting killed. We are talking about people like me. They could be saying march for John. It is really upsetting when people can’t see this is wrong. It makes me uncomfortable to go out into a world where if I get killed by police officers, who are meant to help, that people will say well John did this or that in the past. They will nitpick to find a reason to say it was okay, when it should never be okay for someone to kill someone like that.”

“I don’t see the problem going away and that’s the sad part,” Jonathan says, “I hope the city council can do something differently to make a change, maybe something with policing.” Until then, he hopes to minimize youth’s contact with police by engaging them with programs like his.

Unfortunately, Jonathan was unable to run the “Sky is the Limit” program this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus has taken a hit on his business, eliminating many of his monthly contracts which make up about 80% of his business. Jonathan and his team have been working to get more one-time jobs during the pandemic while balancing concerns over health and exposure.

Despite facing many challenges with the virus, Jonathan still remains ambitious and committed to his community. While Chestnut Hill Cleaning is limited in what it can do, the business offered to support other small businesses in the area, like cleaning windows for a local bakery doing a “windows for hope” initiative, where children put up inspirational messages for the community.

Jonathan hopes to continue the “Sky is the Limit” program next year and to expand it into a full-fledged summer camp to better support at-risk youth. As for Chestnut Hill Cleaning, Jonathan aspires to grow the business until it is a household name in Philadelphia.

To support Chestnut Hill Cleaning or the “Sky is the Limit” Entrepreneurial Program check out the business website and book a cleaning. 

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