Antoine Street, adjacent to the headquarters of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Her father, Michael Byrd, is the longtime owner of Flood's Bar & Grille on St. In 2013, she moved back to Detroit to join her family's restaurant business. for most of her 20s in marketing at H&R Block and XM Radio. How she got started: Byrd left Detroit to get a college education at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she studied marketing and communications. She also manages the adjacent Garden Theater, an events space for wedding receptions and banquets. What her business does: The Block is a casual, gastropub-style dining restaurant on Woodward Avenue between Selden and West Alexandrine streets. 'I have relationships with clients that are just like family,' she said. And client relationships are everything, Buckles said.

There will be some frustration,' she said. Keys to growth: Partnering with bigger firms to win a share of prime contracts, particularly when the client has specific goals or mandates to hire a certain percentage of minority or women-owned businesses.Īdvice to other entrepreneurs: 'It's a business where you have to be resilient and patient. Onyx Enterprises has offices in Cleveland, Atlanta and is opening a new office in Tampa. Buckles' firm has done engineering, general contracting or project management work at Detroit Metro Airport, Walker-Miller Energy's new headquarters in New Center and the Michigan Department of Transportation's multi-year I-94 reconstruction project, as well as out-of-state projects. Onyx Enterprises did the underground municipal utility inspections for that massive reconstruction of Woodward Avenue from downtown to New Center. Her firm began to grow when she partnered with the global infrastructure firm HNTB on construction of the QLine street car project. The next year, she became the technical adviser for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department's board of directors. How she got started: In 2011, Buckles, a civil engineer by trade, left an engineering firm to venture out on her own.

What her business does: Civil, electrical, mechanical, structural and architectural engineering, construction project management and permitting and underground municipal utility inspections.

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