Dear Friend-In-UniTee,
Firstly, I’d like to thank you all for your support of my vision and mission to better educate our children.
November 21st will mark the first anniversary of UniTee Design, when I took that full-time “leap of faith” to devote my life to my “calling”, and it’s wonderful to have accomplished so much over the past 10 months and few days.
As you know, UniTee Design is a social entrepreneurial, ethnic empowerment and youth education research and program development enterprise. “UniTee” tee-shirts feature the best of our colorful culture, and increase awareness and dialogue, and encourage movement among our people in actively working together to uplift our youth through better education. Each UniTee (other than the traditional RBG sphere) has a message to convey to our children, and I’ve seen how children (and adults) react to them, and, more importantly, how they give our children much needed “Pride” and “Power”. UniTees also help to fund various youth education initiatives to give our youth real “Purpose” to offset all the negative lashes of media, environment and society.
Over the past 10 months, about 125 online customers have purchased UniTees (without using any paid Internet advertising), and I’ve established several wholesale relationships as well as carried my products in a handful of stores and schools (stores in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and New York are also awaiting new inventory). I’ve made so many new friends online, and have learned a lot about the Internet from fine and gracious folks like LaShanda Henry and Ar-Lena Richardson, among others. While I’m pretty conversant in marketing and strategic business development, cyberspace is indeed an entirely different world that I’m still learning how to navigate best.
I’ve also done very well at some live events such as The African World Festival in Detroit this August where I sold more than 100 UniTees in a two-day span. But there have also been long road trips to events in Atlanta, NYC (my hometown) and Chicago, where I literally lost the shirt on my back. Alas, there are some things even a business plan just won’t prepare you for.
And while several key people who were with me at the start have moved on, and so I’m now back to being a “soul” proprietor, there is still a lot to be enthusiastic about. I have more than 5,000 My Space friends and have received positive comments about my products of purpose from kind souls all over the globe. These words inspire me to continue to make the sacrifices and embrace the struggles required to move my company forward.
Many of you know how much and hard I work for Detroit children and teens through my non-profit, The Better Detroit Youth Movement (www.betterdetroityouth.org), and we continue to makes strides daily. Be a part of our next Live in Peace ART pARTy at Wayne State’s Student Center on 10 / 25.
I’ve also had the honor of working with well-known author Carolyn Mattocks of Historical Inspirations on the “I Can Do Anything” professional development curriculum that is now available to junior high and high school students. And I’m ready to launch a new teen entrepreneurial curriculum that will teach young men and women the business, professional and social skills they’ll need to succeed.
There has been the ”not-so-wonderful” in terms of my dealings with a handful of unreliable, unqualified, unprofessional and unreasonable silk screeners I entrusted to produce UniTee shirts over the past year or so. This has negatively impacted some of my valuable customer relationships in terms of delivering my products on a timely basis.
Due to these issues, and because I want to create a new RBG Evolution by introducing colored and long sleeve UniTees, and other apparel to the marketplace, I’ve had to pour all my monies into developing my own production facility. I now need to raise about $12,000 to purchase the remaining equipment, supplies and shirts so that I can be fully operational.
I am asking for your support of my products of purpose so that I can complete the production facility, and generate enough revenues to provide for my family (including my beautiful and brilliant five-month old daughter), and make the teen entrepreneurial program available to Detroit junior and high school students free of charge. If you know of any school or group that would like to use UniTees as “funraising” projects, please let me know. An e-brochure that covers some of my other services is available upon request.
And if any “rich uncles or aunts” out there may be interested in investment opportunities with UniTee Design, I’d welcome your call. Do know the future is a bright red, black and green, and the best is yet to come in terms of new designs, products, programs and opportunities. I know we’ll do better than the Dow Jones.
To help fund completion of my production facility, I’d also consider a part-time job (preferably in the Detroit market), so if anyone needs an accomplished salesperson, and marketing / strategic business developer, please let me know, and I’ll gratefully forward you my resume.
As always, I insist we have all the resources among our people to improve the quality of learning for our children and teens. Please help me continue to encourage others to actively participate in the uplift of our youth in better education. For when there's a revolution in education, we will create an evolution for our children!
R. Lee Gordon
President / Co-Director
UniTee Design, Inc. / The Better Detroit Youth Movement
www.uniteedesign.com / www.betterdetroityouth.org
rgordon@uniteedesign.com / rgordon@betterdetroityouth.org
Toll Free: 888.OUR.RBG.TEES / Phone: 313.516.8384 / Fax: 313.342.6324
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