It seemed like everyone had an opinion about Belief Emadamerho’s idea to open a pharmacy in Osborn, a neighborhood in northeast Detroit, and most were negative.
“A lot of people said I shouldn’t be in Osborn. They were conscious of security issues,” he says. “It was a matter of perception versus reality. I ignored that perception, and thank God I did. The environment hasn’t been like they thought. I’ve had the opportunity to grow, and I felt that happen right away.
Emadamerho, an immigrant from Nigeria, came to the U.S. through a certification program for trained, foreign-born pharmacists, spending the first decade of his career working in hospitals and CVS stores.
But being an employee wasn’t satisfying, and he dreamed of one day opening his own pharmacy. When scouting neighborhoods,
he spotted a perfect location on E. Seven Mile Road near Gratiot Avenue. Putting aside the concerns of others, Emadamerho saw
an opportunity to meet pent up demand in an underserved neighborhood. He opened Pharmacy 4 Less in Osborn in 2011.
Emadamerho immediately embraced his new neighborhood. Describing Pharmacy 4 Less as a “community pharmacy,” he says he knows practically every customer by name. The pharmacy also offers clients free home delivery, which is important in a neighborhood like Osborn, which has a large population of seniors and others with transportation challenges. And he’s done much, and has plans to do much more, to uplift that community.
In 2012, Emadamerho, along with several other small business owners and community leaders, founded the Osborn Business Association (OBA) to support local entrepreneurs. “We said it was time to increase our spending power within the community and give everyone a sense of belonging,” he says.
OBA first set out to build civic pride in the neighborhood by organizing cleanups, parades, and other community gatherings. But its primary function is supporting businesses, and it’s been incredibly successful.
“We started out with nine entrepreneurs in the OBA,” Emadamerho says. “When you go to meetings now, it’s so busy you have to look for a place to sit down.”
Emadamerho himself has made ample use of the increased access to resources generated by the OBA. He’s a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, and he won a $75,000 Motor City Match grant in 2016.
Part of that funding will be used to open the Osborn Center, a collaboration with the OBA that will be a pharmacy, mini-clinic, and business center all in one. Emadamerho says the choice to combine these services was a direct response to listening to the needs of residents.
In a low-income neighborhood like Osborn, where residents struggle to access quality healthcare, the Osborn Center will be able to diagnose patients in house and provide them with individualized medications at an affordable rate. That’s because the center will be a compounding pharmacy, meaning the pharmacist can design customized dosages and strengths of medicine to suit clients’ needs.
Emadamerho says he often gets asked by customers if Pharmacy 4 Less has a fax or copy machine they can use. So the Osborn Center will let residents make faxes or copies for free once a week. Emadamerho also expects to hire “as many students as they can” for summer jobs and internships.
The Osborn Center has an expected opening date of April 2018.
Emadamerho credits a lot of his success to the business support services that have helped him develop as a business owner. He’s received funding from Motor City Match, technical assistance from Goldman Sachs, and a loan from the Detroit Development Fund. The New Economy Initiative has been an invaluable partner, providing a network of entrepreneurs and specialists he can access, as well as funding for the OBA cohort program.
“I owe a lot to all [the support services],” he says, “because they really cleared a lot of bottlenecks that could have stopped us—stumbling blocks that would have been tough to overcome.”