A Message from DLT Director Charles J. Fogarty
Great advice from The Great One.

 

� Hakan Dahlstrom

1997/Wikimedia Commons

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"Don't skate to where the puck is. Skate to where the puck is going." NHL Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky had been asked to explain his success in hockey but could just as easily have been advising the rest of us how to succeed too.

 

Successful businesses and organizations are always scanning the horizon, ready to steer toward their next opportunities or away from trouble. Successful people navigate their careers, workplaces and the job market in the same way. The RI Department of Labor and Training also is becoming more responsive - and innovative - in how we're trying to connect unemployed workers with their next jobs more quickly.  

 

In this edition, I want to highlight a program that DLT launched in 2013 and, in August, committed to fund for another year. It helps entrepreneurial-minded job seekers who are collecting Unemployment Insurance (UI) to launch their own businesses. It's called the Self-Employment Assistance Program of Rhode Island (SEARI).

SEARI : Helping Unemployed People Launch Their Own Businesses
The Center for Women & Enterprise President and CEO Susan Rittscher speaks to SEARI grads at the Aug. 7 recognition ceremony.

 

Photo courtesy of CWE 

Rhode Island's recovering but still challenging economy has challenged DLT to assess the way we do what we do, and to try to do it better. We continue to examine our entire portfolio of programs and services, streamlining wherever possible to provide more bang for the buck. The Self-Employment Assistance Program is an innovation that we're proud of. Our partner, the Center for Women and Enterprise (CWE), leads this collaborative training program with assistance from local Small Business Administration (SBA) staff.

 

SEARI consists of three weeks of classroom instruction, by the end of which participants must develop and write a business plan. Basically, it's a "boot camp" for entrepreneurs, covering everything from capitalization and cash flow projections to customer service, marketing and merchandising.

Lieut. Matthew Connors listens to one of his SEARI classmates' presentations.

 

Photo courtesy of CWE

For the next six weeks, participants must promote and defend their plans in a series of one-on-one mentoring sessions with both local businesspeople whose skills and experience match the students' ventures and with CWE staff including RI Program Manager Carmen Diaz-Jusino, Sandra McNamara, Doris Blanchard, Claudia Cornejo and Nicole Girard.

 

"The first day of the mentorship was a big eye-opener. They're basically warning you that completing the program is going to be tough and there are no shortcuts," said recent SEARI graduate Matt Connors. "My big takeaway was, if you don't plan, you're planning to fail."

Although being able and available to work are the two bedrock requirements of collecting UI benefits, DLT waives the work search requirement for SEARI participants. To be considered for eligibility, a claimant must have at least 13 weeks of their current UI program-year claim (of the 26-week maximum) remaining and be able to start SEARI no later than the eighth week of their claim.

 

Lieutenant Matthew Connors, 26, knows a thing or two about Basic Training. A native of Cumberland now living in Pawtucket, Matt earned an Army ROTC scholarship to URI, where he studied communications and graduated in 2011. After learning to fly UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters at flight school, he came back to Rhode Island in 2013, and looked for work for months but did not find it. He applied for UI. A few weeks later, he received a letter from DLT informing him of his eligibility for SEARI. He went to the orientation session at CWE in Providence to learn about it.

 

"I knew it was 100 percent for me," said Connors, who serves as a member of the RI National Guard's I-126th Aviation Battalion out of Quonset Point. "Being in the Army, I'm kind of a natural risk taker. You know that anything bad can happen. That's what you sign up for. But just like in the Army, the teachers in the program give you all the tools you need to succeed."

 

Remembering an idea he had when he was still at URI, Connors banged out a 14-page business plan by the end of his first week and defended and refined it during the rest of his SEARI training. He recently launched Ameri-Lips, "a patriotic lip balm company created by soldiers for soldiers." He has a catchy slogan: "They protect our country. We protect their lips."

 

He sells tubes in three flavors (with two more on the way) and has segmented his product line, offering merchandise for each branch of the military. Connors charges $3.49 per tube and is pledging 25 cents of every unit sold to the Wounded Warrior Project.

 

As of August, 110 UI customers have gone through SEARI, 25 of whom are earning income through the businesses they have launched. Between 60 and 70 more participants have opened or are opening businesses and are marketing their products and services on websites and through social media. This program has shown us that for the right UI claimants, entrepreneurship training can be a viable alternative to traditional re-employment training and services. We're hopeful that some of these one-person businesses become profitable and hire employees, becoming small businesses and then medium-sized businesses. It would be great for the Rhode Island economy.

Matt Connors lays out the case for his new business, Ameri-Lips.

 

Photo courtesy of CWE

Entrepreneurs in the United States should be able to come from all backgrounds and perspectives - including people who are collecting UI. It's why I was glad to announce at our most recent graduation ceremony, on August 7, that DLT will fund SEARI for another year.

 

"The quality and success of the Self-Employment Assistance of Rhode Island Program, a result of the strong partnerships between USDOL, RIDLT and SBA-CWE, is truly impressive. The outcomes speak for themselves and we applaud RIDLT for deciding to fund the program for an additional year with state funding," said Marisol Lopez, of USDOL's Employment and Training staff, who attended the graduation.

 

As for Matt Connors, his next concern is raising the money to buy 1,000 eye-catching point-of-display boxes. "Obviously, today you've got to have a website and a social media presence, but I knew going into this that lip balm is more of an impulse buy. So, I've got to be at my customer's point of purchase and that's where I'm planning to be."

 

We all look forward to hearing about Matt's success - and his company's first donation to the Wounded Warriors Project.

 

Ameri-Lips lip balm comes in three flavors and is segmented, offering merchandise for each branch of the US military: the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. // Photo courtesy of AmeriLips.com
 
On Deck
DLT is responsible for many regulatory functions that affect companies throughout Rhode Island. In my next newsletter, I will highlight some of the regulatory fees we've eliminated and other actions we've taken to make it easier for businesses to do business in the Ocean State.


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