Young Black business owner encourages entrepreneurship

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — When she graduated high school in 2013, Chelsea Ellis-Hogan was given a choice: Attend college to earn a business degree or take a deep dive into the asphalt industry at Sam Ellis University.

The latter option, admittedly, was a fictional school dreamed up by its namesake, Ellis-Hogan’s dad.

But his pitch was enticing. The elder Ellis would teach his daughter how to run a company through hands-on experience. And eventually, the reins to the family-owned paving business would be hers.

She signed up for Sam Ellis U.

Now, Ellis-Hogan, a 26-year-old Black woman, is the majority owner of Jim Reynolds Asphalt, founded by her great uncle in the 1990s.

She leads the business from its original home in Smoketown, hiring most workers from the historically Black neighborhood south of downtown.

And she’s helping change the face of the overwhelmingly white, male construction world.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, just 58,000 of the 10.7 million people employed in the construction industry are Black women — less than 1%.

“I just laugh about it because I know everything about me is different,” Ellis-Hogan said. “I’m young, I’m a minority, I’m a woman, as well. I’m the complete opposite of what most people expect in the industry. I love it. It shows whatever we desire to do, we can do it.”

The idea that Ellis-Hogan could build her own path was instilled in her from a young age by her dad, who owned an outdoor clean-up company before joining Jim Reynolds.

Ellis was diagnosed with dyslexia and never attended college, his daughter said. He had his first child at age 16 and didn’t have the same opportunities as his peers.

“He had no choice but to be an entrepreneur,” Ellis-Hogan said.

Ellis’ hard work has enabled Ellis-Hogan and her two siblings — who also work at Jim Reynolds — to have choices he didn’t. But he’s always made it clear to them that other people aren’t as lucky. And if someone needs a leg up, you lend it.

“I remember even as a kid looking at applications that was on my father’s desk where it was grown men not able to spell simple words, but my father was giving them jobs,” Ellis-Hogan said. “People who was just coming out of the prison system, he was giving them jobs. Being raised around that ... it made us all want to give back and do more and be a part of something bigger.”

Ellis, who retains partial ownership of Jim Reynolds, said it means a lot for his daughter to enter into the family business, and he hopes to see her grow it to a level past where he could, taking on multi-million-dollar contracts for projects citywide.