Building entrepreneurs, empowering communities
By Molly McGowan / Times-News
2011-08-26 10:39:02
It’s undoubtedly been a trying year economically, with “layoffs” and “unemployment” becoming buzzwords. But a local housing association has started an entrepreneurship program, that’s successfully injecting new business owners into the local work force.
The Burlington Development Corporation (BDC) is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization under the Burlington Housing Authority (BHA) through which it offers numerous youth and adult enrichment programs. The “Empowering Communities through Self-Employment and Small Business Development” course is just one of these programs, churning out informed small business owners in the past year and a half.
Patricia Gilliam oversees the program and seeks funding for it, as the BDC’s grants and marketing coordinator. She said the adult entrepreneurship program is nine weeks of training, two hours per a week, and there’s a five-week training option for middle school and high school students.
“We’ve actually had about eight trainings,” Gilliam said. She said the courses utilize a “Rural Entrepreneurship through Action Learning” training curriculum, developed by N.C. REAL Enterprises. The curriculum teaches market feasibility, marketing strategies, and the legal and financial aspects of starting a business.
“All of these are the ingredients (students) need to develop their business plan,” she said.
Those trainings have resulted in 126 program graduates, 60 of them adults. Fourteen of those adults anticipate starting their businesses in the next two to five years, six plan to start within the year, and about eight already have opened their businesses.
Each student — or group of students, if they plan on going into business together — is required to create and maintain a business plan for their future company, giving them a hands-on opportunity to visualize actual expenses.
That part of the curriculum — the financial literacy section — seemed to be the most beneficial to students venturing into the business world. Diane Davis and Nora Jordan are in the process of establishing “Unique Adventures Childcare Services,” and Jordan said it helped when Truliant Credit Union visited the class and explained the loan application process, and “the do’s and don’ts of taxes.”
Ernest Mangum, executive director of BHA, said Truliant is a program sponsor that joined forces with the Mills Foundation in Winston-Salem, after the “Z. Smith Reynolds (Foundation) provided the seed money for this program.” Mangum said the visits from Truliant bankers and business teams are especially helpful to beginning business owners who may not know how to apply for small business loans.
Maurice Middleton, who’s already started his hat-making business, “Hats With an Attitude,” said the Truliant representatives went as far as counseling students on which questions to ask loan officers.
“They actually build up your character,” he said.
The small business loan information also helped Angela Bowman, Teresa O’Neal and Kim Horton when they began “Exc!te Printworks” in March. The screen printing equipment they needed to even start the business was about $14,000, and Horton said they didn’t want to go broke right off the bat.
“We each came into it with our money, but we didn’t want to go through all our capital,” she said.
From the looks of things, the printworks company is doing well and already has an office and manufacturing space, despite how unconventional it may look. Exc!te Printworks operates out of Bowman’s large garage at 2897 Rocky Cliff Trail, Burlington, and is completely functional.
Bowman said she and her co-owners completed the entrepreneurship program in March, and, “At that point, this was still my husband’s man cave,” referring to the office. “He willingly gave up his spot,” said O’Neal.
The three women had all worked together at an office support company, and were laid off in December. They immediately thought of starting a screen printing business after seeing so many shirt designs at their children’s PTA events, and after unsatisfactory experiences with other screen printers.
“We never really could find a company that was good with customer service,” said Bowman. O’Neal added, “A lot of (companies) want to deal with the big orders, not the small orders.”
Exc!te Printworks got its start creating the youth mission trip shirts for New Covenant Fellowship Church in Graham and has since created logos and shirts for three girls’ Burlington Soccer Club teams. “We’ve done a lot of foot traffic,” said Horton. “We’ve hit every school in Alamance County.”
Their marketing has paid off, and the ladies recently sat down with 23 teachers at Altamahaw-Ossipee Elementary School who each wanted class shirts. And, Horton said, “We just won the bid to do the Carousel Festival shirts.”
O’Neal found out about the entrepreneurship program at the Burlington Job Service Office on Mebane Street. Mangum and Gilliam said the program isn’t just for BHA residents; in fact, classes are often taught in different locations throughout the state.
Middleton, for example, lives in High Point and was still able to attend the course.
“Burlington had brought the class to Winston-Salem,” he said. For Middleton, marketing is an aspect of owning a business that is crucial to getting his business more clients. Right now, he operates Hats With An Attitude from his home and fashions the hats at his kitchen table.
Middleton started making hats five years ago after being inspired by the fare worn by ladies at his church. Since attending the entrepreneurship courses, he said, “I’m starting to pick up new people.” Middleton has about 10 to 15 regular customers who either special-order a hat design or purchase hats Middleton already has created.
“By going to the workshop, it caused me to come upon new contacts,” he said. “Doors are opening up.”
Middleton advertises by setting up booths at church conferences, and he wants to do the same in Burlington nursing homes. He’s working on a website and a business Facebook page, but he relies heavily on word of mouth.
“Word of mouth is a powerful tool,” he said. “And it’s free.”
Middleton’s next goal is to acquire a more permanent location, though it probably won’t be in High Point since his clients are spread out across Burlington, Winston-Salem and High Point, Middleton wants a more centralized location.
“That’s my goal now,” he said. “To get known in different places.”
Davis and Jordan aren’t yet worried about advertising — they’re still getting the paperwork in place to run Unique Ventures Childcare Services out of Jordan’s home. So far, they’ve attended another BHA program, Home Daycare Training Program, earned their CPR certifications and applied for a loan.
With the loan from the State Employees’ Credit Union, Jordan was able to set up a fence and swing set in her back yard and purchase cubbies, pencils, crayons and storage. She’s also been fingerprinted and had a criminal background check run.
But the business is still in its very early stages; the house needs to be inspected by the fire department, the zoning must be approved by the state, and Jordan needs to make sure her homeowner’s insurance covers home-based child care.
The women are starting small and getting ready to take in five children, since that’s the maximum amount her home’s zoning allows. Davis said they’d take on more children “if God blesses us and we get bigger and bigger,” and are able to secure a building.
Davis lives in BHA housing at Crump Village and heard about the program through Gilliam. She convinced Jordan, her godmother, to go with her and the two developed a plan for a childcare business. They’re natural nurturers — Jordan has five siblings, four children, seven grandchildren — and used to teach and counsel pre-K through 12th-grade students in Bertie County. Davis has been baby-sitting and raising extended family’s children for the past 20 years, raised two foster children for 10 years, and are raising her friend’s child.
Since they want to keep it small and local, the ladies mainly just operating by word of mouth, “especially churches,” Davis said.
Eventually, they want to give back to the BHA, in thanks for the entrepreneurship program. Jordan said they’ll provide day-care opportunities for BHA residents. They share the opinion of many other program graduates, who are thankful for the new start.
“It’s a good thing to see a housing authority … offer education,” Davis said.
For more details on the program, call Patricia Gilliam at (336) 226-3397 or email patriciagilliam@burlingtonhousingauthority.org.
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