PHOTO | MAYRA PARRILLA GUERRERO

Shamika Brooks, co-owner of Hip Hop Smoothies, shows off the menu at one of their three Charlotte locations.

When Carlos Brooks was laid off from his insurance job, he spent his free time making smoothies with his children.

“He just loved making smoothies with the kids,” his wife Shamika said. “We realized that there aren’t many places to get smoothies made out of fresh fruit and vegetables. We began this business because we wanted to bring fresh and clean ingredients to the community.”

Carlos, 39, and Shamika, 40, decided to pursue a new business venture to bring fresh smoothies to the Charlotte area. They called it Hip Hop Smoothies, a small developing franchise with locations in Mount Holly-Huntersville, North Sharon Amity and Uptown Charlotte.

The Brookses are the 2022 winners of the Lenovo’s Empowering the Carolinas, a contest hosted by the tech company in collaboration with the Carolina Panthers.

“The contest is part of our Evolve Small program. It is an initiative to aid small businesses,” said Lenovo’s chief marketing officer, Gerald Youngblood. “This is the second year we did this program and we have provided more than $1 million worth of small business grants and technology donations to minority-owned businesses.

“Small businesses are very important, and we know the many challenges they face and have faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, so this program is in place so we can provide support to those businesses.”

Out of 658 small businesses, the Brookses were nominated for a $5,000 grant that will go towards technology upgrades from Lenovo.

“We decided to participate after the contest was brought to our attention, we shared it on social media. We shared a link where people got to go and fill out for nominations,” said Shamika, “I was like ‘I’d be cool to win the $5000,’ not knowing all the exact items that you would get but we were in need of marketing, a work phone, etc. We found out we were nominated for the grant, by an employee who reached out and said he wanted to meet and talk to us about being nominated. He came with a big ol’ check.

“We were surprised because we thought we were going to talk about what all went to it, not that we actually won.”

Aside from the grant, the Brookses were invited to attend the Panthers preseason game on Aug. 26. During halftime, the 10 nominated businesses were going to find out who would go home with the ultimate prize of a $100,000 advertising package that will go into effect during the NFL season.

“So, all of us went down to the field, then one person from Lenovo and the Panthers pulled out a jersey with ‘Hip Hop Smoothies’ written on it,” Shamika said.

The Brookses opened for business at Mount Holly-Huntersville in August 2018, selling smoothies via several mobile units before opening their first brick-and-mortar location in April 2020.

“We planned our grand opening a few weeks before the pandemic,” Shamika said. “We had to reschedule and lost a lot but were able to stay afloat since we kept our mobile units.”

After their grand opening, the Brooks opened more locations, hiring family and college students to help with the business, while also participating in different events by continuing to keep their mobile units.

The Brookses are currently in the works to take advantage of both grants, planning some much-needed technology essentials such as a digital menu to be on display in their business.

Now with the Carolina Panthers also in their corner, the Brooks are ready to grow their business and continue to bring fresh smoothies to the community.

Comments