Deidre Ali is a shrewd investor. No, she’s not the Wall Street type. Instead, Ali uses her dollars and sense to help her business, her clients and her community.

Ali decided in 2003 to start her own web design and graphic design business after gathering on-the-side clients during the several years of employment in the design industry.

Her community investment started while she was still in college as a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Years later, Ali co-founded Kwanzaa-Year-Round. The idea grew from their desire to invest their talent and energy to the community at large.

“Earning a living and being engrossed in the day-to-day responsibilities of raising a family and running a small business are all important,” Ali says. “But I’ve learned that a life that is most fulfilling is only achieved by making time to offer my resources and talents to the community.”

But to help the community, Ali first had to have something to offer. She started by building her own career.

It started at UPS where she worked as a communications assistant, while still a senior at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She wrote speeches, press releases, and brochures. She became involved with the more creative aspects of public relations while contributing to UPS’ internal magazine, The Big Idea. In 1996, the magazine won the Crystal Quill Award, a distinction awarded to business publications by their peers.

After graduating, the Tuscaloosa native went to work in 1996 at BellSouth Yellow Pages. There she developed more of her creative skills, designing materials for BellSouth’s sales forces. She also edited SCAdvantage, an internal company newsletter.

About that time, the Internet began changing the way people did business. Ali said the sales representatives began requesting sales materials that could be downloaded to their laptop computers. “I saw the change in technology coming, but I knew I didn’t have the skill set to meet the demand, so I left Bellsouth in 1999 and went back to school.”

Ali invested in herself by pursuing her Internet Webmaster Certification. Within four months, the Birmingham YMCA offered her a job to redesign its website. Ali worked from her home, completing the work well ahead of schedule, and to the YMCA’s complete satisfaction.

That job led Ali to Southern Progress Corporation in 2001. The Birmingham-based media conglomerate owns magazine titles such as Southern Living, Progressive Farmer, Coastal Living, and Health.

When Ali went to work there, she was only one of two women in the department, the only African-American, and the only team member with a graphic design background in the company’s web development department. “There are very few African-American women working in information technology, but more minorities should be encouraged to pursue this field because of the enormous opportunities” she says.

Ali helped developed the company’s Intranet website and designed on-line advertisements and websites for nationally-recognized corporations such as Dodge and Ford motor companies, Slim Fast, Reebok, and Ace Hardware.

At the same time, she was invited to teach several software training classes through the University of Alabama at Birmingham Special Studies Department.

One of her clients started out as a student. Rachael Grammer took an Adobe Photoshop course from Ali. Grammer was so impressed with Ali’s creativity class that she asked her to design a website for her employer, Vision Research Corporation. Ali designed the website and other marketing materials for the company, which specializes in large-scale screening services for the early detection of eye problems in children. Grammer is general manager for Vision Research.

Ali also designed a website and other work for Grammer’s own business, Two Hearts Wedding Consultants (www.2heartsweddings.net). “She’s very creative,” Grammer says of Ali. “You can give her a general idea of what you want or load her down with specifics. Just about every time we gave her a project, she came back with two or three choices. They usually come out much better than what you have in your head.”

Grammer says she’s impressed that Ali could keep up with the demands of a full-time job, a family with two small children, and on-the-side jobs where she got in quality work to her clients on time, in addition to her volunteer work. “I don’t know where she fits it in, but she does,” Grammer says.

Ali says community service has always been important for her. In 2002, Ali and two friends formed a non-profit agency called Kwanzaa Year-Round. They wanted to create an outlet to spread Kwanzaa's spirit of empowerment beyond the annual seven-day celebration.

The group – under Ali’s leadership – organized a Women's Empowerment Initiative and an HIV/AIDS Awareness Summit. They also started the annual Ujima Math & Science Fun Day, an event aimed at encouraging African-American children to excel in math, science, and technology. By far the group’s most successful venture, the Math & Science Fun Day attracts between 200 and 300 children each year.

Kwanzaa Year-round boasts an impressive network of individual supporters and corporate sponsors including: 100 Black Men, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Vision Research Corporation, UAB, Compass Bank, Operation New Birmingham, ITT Technical Institute, and many others.

Clients like Grammer were so impressed with Ali’s professional work and her timeliness that they kept coming back and they brought referrals.

“I decided to step things up a bit,” Ali said. “It got to a point that my client base had grown so much that, in order to keep up, I had to make a decision.”

She left Southern Progress in May 2003 to start her own business. Being an entrepreneur hasn’t been easy for her, but business, for the most part, has been good.

“The thing that has helped me weather the storms is being consistent and on time,” Ali says. “It can be challenging to be self-employed. You constantly have to market yourself. But it’s important to stay focused, set clear objectives, and stay on course with what you want to accomplish.”
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Deidre Ali Creative Services, LLC, "i design nice things" can be found at www.deidreali.com

More information on Kwanzaa Year-Round can be found online at: www.kwanzaayear-round.org