“People come here to flex their business muscle,” says Christine Forbes, one of the founding members at Akins Business Centre. “Sometimes people coming here just need that little push.”
Forbes knew that she had a good thing going, and that meeting people interested in exploring business ideas and connecting to the wider community could only generate a positive outcome. So she tricked her son into coming into pick her up.
“He loved it,” she says. “He was in high school, and is now taking business, and loves public speaking.”
The Akins Business Centre opened its doors at the corner of Arlington and Sargent in 2023, and provides shared workspace for rent and different levels of memberships. But it also holds free monthly breakfast presentations open to the public to introduce Winnipeg business owners with an interesting or inspiring story.
Many are newcomers to the country, like the breakfasts’ host Mubarak Nsekarije.

Nsekariije bases part of his approach to organizing his monthly breakfasts on a book called Never Eat Alone, by author Keith Ferrazi. But he also organizes them as a way of giving back, and sharing what helped to him to turn things around after he arrived in Manitoba.
Nsekariije arrived in Winnipeg with high expectations, but found it tough to find his footing. Eventually a business mentor took him under her wing, and helped him to set up a business.
“I’m grateful for what I have been blessed with so why not share in that,” he says. He has also found a wealth of business owners and community leaders who remember their early days, and are happy to discuss what might help potential businesses to succeed.
Recent speakers at his breakfasts included Donette Odidison, the first Black woman to own a real estate company in Manitoba, and Kamta Roy Singh, originally from Guyana, who started out as a baker, and is now an owner of eight Tim Horton’s locations in the city.
“My hope is that at least one person can go do the same, the way those mentors did for me,” says Nsekarije. On the wall at the business centre is a simple mantra that sums up a basic philosophy that Nsekarije knows works: Show up, Share, Shine. What ever that business idea might be, or whatever stage it is at are a part of the neccessary steps to figuring out how to prepare for what might come next.
Although many people have suggested to Nsekarije that he should charge a fee for the breakfasts, Nsekarije says “thats not the kind of culture I want to build.”
“I get to learn, I get to bring exposure to my business,” he says. “I wasn’t born like this. If you ask my wife I am an introvert.” But because he and other business leaders have been in the same situation as people starting out, “we help other people go there without the same pain.
Together on the same journey,” he says.
It’s like the experience that Forbe’s son had. “He loved the conversations, he loved the business talk, and then they couldn’t keep him out of here,” she says. “It’s like a business gym where we can all come and share and talk about the things that are in our head and find other people that can add to it, or give you another idea. “It will tickle your brain. Here we are meeting all kinds of people from all walks of life.
More information at Never Eat Alone-Monthly Breakfast with Mubarak Nsekarije at Eventbright.