By Hunter Gilmore
Amid National Black Business Month and back-to-school season, there’s a significant movement underway with Traffic, Sales and Profit (TSP) that promises to spark the entrepreneurial spirit in our youth.
TSP, led by renowned business leader Lamar Tyler, is launching the TSP Youth Initiative. An innovative program to inspire and equip young minds with the skills they need to become the future of Black business leadership.
Tyler, known for building his successful TSP community, has long been an advocate for Black entrepreneurship. As he reflects on his journey with his wife, Ronnie, he explains, “We started TSP to share what we had learned from building our own brand. Now, nine years in, we’re gearing up for our 10-year anniversary, and it’s time to expand our reach to young people.”
At the upcoming TSP Game Plan 2025 conference in Atlanta, Tyler will introduce the groundbreaking TSP Youth Initiative. Scheduled for January 23-25, 2025, the event will feature trailblazers like keynote speaker Janice Bryant Howroyd, the first Black woman to build a billionaire dollar business.
For the first time, the conference is encouraging young aspiring entrepreneurs ages 13-21 to attend for free when accompanied by a paying adult.
This initiative is designed to expose youth to the world of entrepreneurship by connecting them with industry leaders and providing real-world skills they can apply immediately.
As the back-to-school season unfolds, students are returning to classrooms with dreams that extend beyond the typical subjects of math, English, and science. Many harbor entrepreneurial aspirations, and TSP’s Youth Initiative is poised to cultivate these dreams.
Caleb Jacobs, a 20-year-old Kingdom speaker, CEO of Joyionaire Enterprises, is a prime example of the transformative impacts TSP has on young people.
Reflecting on his experience at his first TSP conference in 2023, Jacobs said, “I was super excited to come and just soak up so much knowledge and information. It was just a new perspective seeing so many entrepreneurs. Six, seven and even eight figure entrepreneurs in one room, in one space. I never even thought that was possible,” Jacobs recounted. “It completely blew my mind, just because, you know, growing up, I’ve always seen the statistics of Black businesses. I didn’t see it being as prosperous as I saw it at TSP.”
Furthermore, Jacobs, who penned the book “Shedding Pounds, Gaining Purpose: The Weighty Joy of Surrender,” credits TSP with helping him refine his personal brand and giving him the tools to succeed.
“Before TSP, I was just laying the groundwork. They literally helped me solidify my personal brand, get a clear offer to my audience, even how to make a thirty second elevator pitch,” Jacobs continues, “They made it very clear to me, even in that first conference, and that led me to where I am today.”
According to Tyler: “Our young people can leverage what they hear in ways that some of our adults can’t even because of the access they have technology, the access they have to social media, the access they have to digital that a lot of their parents or generations older may kind of struggle with a little bit.”
Dubbed the ‘HBCU Homecoming for Black Business Owners,’ TSP creates an atmosphere that is both motivational and actionable.
The youth initiative isn’t just about sitting in a classroom setting—it’s about real exposure to the entrepreneurial world. “We want them to be able to sit in the room and take in information at a high level. And when I say in the room, we didn’t want them in a breakout. We didn’t want them down the hall doing kiddie stuff. We’re bringing in subject matter experts,” Tyler emphasized.
The TSP founder also stated the significance of the conference: “A lot of times you can have all the information and tools, but business and life can just wear you down. Now is a chance for people to come into a room where you can get something poured back into you as well. In addition, you’re sitting beside people that are making Black history and hearing from people that have already done it,” Tyler said.
Jacobs echoed these same sentiments for young people: “There are people that want to see you win and TSP is the place for all that to happen, for those connections to take place, for the networking opportunities that you need to move into the next step of your destiny,” Jacobs said. “It can happen if you will put yourself in the room, if you will take a chance on yourself, on your ideas and on the dreams that you’ve already had in your mind.”
Whether you are an entrepreneur looking to grow your business or a parent wanting to expose your children to possibilities that can change the trajectory of their lives, this conference is an opportunity not to be missed. As Jacobs aptly put it: “This is a once in a lifetime experience that keeps happening.”
For more information on TSP and their brand new youth initiative, visit their website here.
