The News & Observer

News & Observer, The (Raleigh, NC)

August 13, 2004

Entrepreneurs learn to prosper

By Cindy George, Staff Writer

RALEIGH -- William Hall plunged into the cleaning business full time a few years ago, after 15 years working a "regular job" and a side-hustle building a janitorial service.

His cleaning company, Ever-Ready Maintenance Service, is available to powerwash exteriors, strip floors and clean after construction. Now he's looking to take on more jobs and hire more workers.

Hall's latest entrepreneurial move, becoming a Pacesetter, lifted him into a cadre of new business owners who are creating excitement in Southeast Raleigh's economic development circles.

The Pacesetter Fellowship Program guides business owners through a curriculum designed to help them strengthen their companies. The program, a "virtual business incubator," is designed for Southeast Raleigh entrepreneurs with active businesses that will support future expansion and jobs in the city's southeast section.

Bob Robinson stresses the role of Pacesetters as employers in Southeast Raleigh.

"There's a community here that wants you to get healthy and to grow, and then hire folks within this community," said Robinson, executive director of the Raleigh Business and Technology Center and Pacesetter's program manager.

The program is a pet project of the Southeast Raleigh Assembly, a three-year-old, city-appointed group of volunteers leading the economic development charge in Southeast Raleigh. It graduated a class of 18 businesses last year and brought in 22 more this year.

Though the 2003 Pacesetter course was essentially a business software training class and networking opportunity, this year's model has grown into a new, master's degree-level curriculum that includes accounting, business planning and leadership.

Terrance Dunn, who owns Dunn's Grading/Hauling, does 80 percent of his business in Southeast Raleigh but wondered if his application would be rejected because he doesn't live in Southeast Raleigh.

Dunn was accepted into the 2004 class.

"I'm trying to spend my career in Southeast Raleigh," said Dunn, who founded his business in 1998. He mostly works alone but sometimes calls on two part-time employees.

According to an analysis by The News & Observer, roughly 26 businesses, or 65 percent of former or current Pacesetters, are in the Southeast Raleigh Assembly area.

About 16 participants, or about 40 percent, reside in the southeast section of the city.

In the past three fiscal years, the city has provided about $500,000 through the assembly to set up the Pacesetter program, train and graduate one class and begin a second set with a curriculum covering 24 business-related topics.

Some assembly members have questioned the wisdom of assisting businesses outside of the area for the purpose of creating economic development in Southeast Raleigh.

"The end game is jobs for people in Southeast Raleigh, and to do that sometimes you must cultivate businesses in other places of the city," Robinson said.

One example is Carolyn Covington, a stylist who founded D'Zire, a hair-care line with everything from chemical straighteners to shampoos. The products are manufactured in Chicago, have been on the market eight years and are distributed from a Raleigh warehouse north of downtown by Covington and four employees, she said.

Covington wants to teach stylists salon management and envisions hundreds of D'Zire concept salons that use and sell her products exclusively. She said the Pacesetter program was the missing link between her dreams and reality.

"I've never been through a formal business training," she said. "If I had known about the Pacesetters in 1986, I would be so wealthy. That was at my peak. I had so many ideas. If I had a solid business plan and a solid business background ... I would not have wasted as much money and as much time spinning around."

Robinson said Covington fits into the overall scheme of boosting economic development in Southeast Raleigh because she plans to manufacture her products there and has the potential to hire more employees -- from chemists to line workers.

"It's going to create some jobs, but we also knew she needed some support and assistance," Robinson said.

'It's helped me'

Covington and Hall are among the 22 current Pacesetters. Hall's home-based business is in Roberts Park, an established Southeast Raleigh neighborhood east of downtown.

Of the 40 Pacesetter firms, 17 are home-based businesses, according to an N&O analysis.

"It's helped me in a lot of ways," Hall said of the program. "The main thing is that it helped me organize my finances with the Quickbooks [computer] program."

Others, such as Kasual Kelly, are keeping up financially with their business plans. Kelly hopes her Bootsey Bear Childcare, an in-home day care off Barwell Road in Southeast Raleigh, will one day cater to autistic children.

Automated Cable Connection, Jonathan Hansley's home-based company in Southeast Raleigh, installs network wiring for telephones and computers. He often works in the two-year-old firm alone but calls employees when he needs extra help.

"It's just helping me broaden my mind," Hansley said of the Pacesetter program. "They introduce a lot of information as far as record-keeping and how to handle your finances."

The Pacesetter program is getting attention outside of Raleigh for itself and its home base, the Raleigh Business and Technology Center.

The center, which opened a decade ago on South Wilmington Street, offers small businesses office space at a low rent, as well as support services. It was called a "chamber for black business in Southeast Raleigh" in the July issue of Black Business Ink, a magazine based in Winston-Salem that is distributed across the state.

On the cover, Robinson stands with four Pacesetters.

Financial networking

Besides creating "a community of dedicated and financially viable entrepreneurs," the Pacesetter program is also grooming a new class of business leaders. In the ranks of Pacesetters, Robinson sees independent movers and shakers who will make things happen in Southeast Raleigh and beyond.

That's why he's making other connections for them by agreeing to visits by bank executives, attorneys and accountants. They have called Robinson, interested in talking to the Pacesetters.

After their training, the Pacesetters are more attractive to banks, bringing them closer to the loans and credit lines they need to grow their businesses.

That's why a city banking executive, who usually leaves business loans to his bankers, would be interested in scouting entrepreneurs in the program.

"He's out here because he wants to make loans to a new market. He wants to make money," Robinson said. "What we are providing is capacity opportunities for some emerging businesses."

(Staff researcher Toby Lyles contributed to this report.)

Caption:
Richard Pullen of Pullen Construction, with his wife, Terri, is getting financial expertise in the Pacesetter program.
Staff Photo by Lisa Lauck