Passion a key to success in biz plan competition

PLANNING AHEAD: Brendon Calazzo takes notes at a Rhode Island Business Plan Competition workshop. The annual contest encourages entrepreneurship and supports companies that will create local jobs. / PBN FILE PHOTO/JAIME LOWE
PLANNING AHEAD: Brendon Calazzo takes notes at a Rhode Island Business Plan Competition workshop. The annual contest encourages entrepreneurship and supports companies that will create local jobs. / PBN FILE PHOTO/JAIME LOWE

One year ago, jewelry-design company Haverhill Inc. was little more than an idea on a piece of paper. Today, CEO Alison Cariati is preparing to file the Providence company’s first corporate tax return after a strong holiday season and has begun talking about the day when Haverhill might be able to hire full-time employees and move into an office of its own.
“To get a small business off the ground in this environment is really difficult,” said Cariati, who works out of an office in the Founders League at 95 Chestnut St. “You really need people that have been in the business and know what they’re doing.”
It was just that sort of professional counsel and guidance that Haverhill Inc. was able to take advantage of after winning the 2013 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition. Cariati and co-founder and designer Haverhill Leach took home the top prize in the entrepreneur track last year, and walked away with $45,000 in cash and $24,000 in professional services.
“That was the money we needed to spend on marketing and launching the business,” Cariati said. “It got our photo shoot done. It got our website up. It got our first samples made and our collection produced.”
However, the rewards of winning the Business Plan Competition, an annual contest founded in 2000 to encourage entrepreneurship and support companies that will create local jobs, are not all as tangible as a cash prize or free legal services. The deadline for submissions to this year’s competition is March 31.
“It makes you become the CEO and the person that you have to be,” said Cariati. “If it’s a hobby, it’s not going to happen. The competition makes you stand up and say, ‘This is what I do and this is why I want to do it.’”
Lynell Masterson, founder of wellness management and coaching service Nell, based in Providence, resolved to enter the 2014 competition for exactly that reason. A mother of three, Masterson created her business around her long-time ambition to help others move their lives forward through integrated life coaching, expressive arts therapy and physical techniques like yoga. Unlike Cariati, who worked in corporate professional services and strategic management consulting before launching Haverhill Inc., Masterson has no prior business experience beyond a business-plan writing course she enrolled in through the Center for Women and Enterprise.
“Putting yourself out there in a competition like that, there’s definitely that fear of rejection,” said Masterson. “That’s the reason why I’m [entering the competition]. My business and my life, it’s all about stepping into my fear.”
Masterson had already begun reworking her business plan before deciding to enter the 2014 contest, and met with an adviser from Rhode Island SCORE to start tightening her vision for Providence-based Nell. Now set on submitting her plan to the competition, Masterson has one final week to perfect it.
Nearly 90 percent of Business Plan Competition applications are submitted in the final days leading up to the March 31 deadline, according to Rhode Island Business Plan Competition General Manager Peter Lowy.
“A key thing you want to see is a real passion for the product,” said Ray Mathieu, investment screening committee member for Cherrystone Angel Group and Ocean State Angels. “You want to see a guy who gave up law school to do this, or gave up a job on Wall Street to push this product.”
Mathieu was one of three panelists featured at the final event of the Business Plan Competition’s free workshop series on March 12. Blaine Carroll, vice president of strategic initiatives at Delta Dental of Rhode Island, and Steve Lane, co-founder and chief venture officer of Providence-based Ximedica, joined Mathieu to share anecdotes and counsel from their experiences working with first-time entrepreneurs. Their advice to the crowd of about 40 aspiring founders and CEOs ranged from business basics such as dress code to the nitty-gritty of researching and connecting with potential investors. Passion combined with objective data validation and proven experience comprise the trifecta of a successful business pitch, the panelists said, but even that formula must sometimes give way to accommodate the “it” factor – an indefinable quality that manifests in as many different ways as there are entrepreneurs.
Among the workshop attendees, some like Masterson were beginning entrepreneurs with limited business, while others, like Robin Robinson, have already made their first customer sales and honed their business plans, and attended the event to meet fellow competition hopefuls.
Robinson and her husband, retired BMX athlete and X Games champion Kevin Robinson, have undertaken four separate ventures in the last three years, leveraging Kevin’s name in the industry to launch a motivational speaking and event-planning business, a nonprofit organization serving underprivileged children in East Providence, and a skate park in West Warwick.
Their latest venture, Barrington-based Grindz Co. LLC, manufactures youth protective apparel to safeguard against injuries without bulky padding. Since 2011, they have sold about 3,500 pairs of Grindz, including to large retailers such as Target and Amazon.
Winning the competition could mean a chance to grow the company and add staff.
“Three of us … work on this constantly, and we’re stretched,” she said. “We feel like we’re bursting at the seams. If we had capital to pay somebody to come onboard, we have a lot of plans we could make happen.” •

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