PROVIDENCE – A new small-business hub expected to be open by early next year will focus on minority-and women-owned businesses, says Nina Pande, executive director at Skills for Rhode Island’s Future.
The Providence-based nonprofit is launching the Small Business Resource Hub with a $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration announced last month. The hub will connect small-business owners with access to technical services and specialists in several business-services fields, such as legal, accounting, human resources, finance, marketing, strategic planning and more.
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Skills for Rhode Island’s Future hopes to use this initiative to help disadvantaged small businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and “democratize” access to services.
“This is a pilot project to build a shared-service approach so that small businesses can access high quality, business expert advice at no cost to them,” said Nina Pande, executive director at Skills for Rhode Island’s Future. “This has been brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. It costs more to do business, so a lot of times, professional services are not accessed because the cost of doing business is through the roof right now.”
The idea behind the project was born before the COVID-19 pandemic, from the nonprofit’s desire to strengthen the workforce of minority-owned businesses in the trade businesses. But once the pandemic hit, Skills for Rhode Island’s Future soon realized businesses across the board were experiencing similar business challenges.
“Time and time again, what we heard from the small businesses is, ‘We need help with our capacity,’ ” Pande said. “Many small businesses start because they have an idea or a product, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to having capacity to do anything.”
While many already existing initiatives focus on training business leaders and teaching them technical skills, such as accounting, marketing or financing, finding the time to attend these classes or apply them to real-life problems can be challenging. And for businesses that are trying to keep their operations running, finding and hiring the right experts to meet their needs can be a “daunting and costly endeavor,” Pande said.
But the new business hub will bridge that gap, connecting small businesses with experts who will offer their services for free. This will allow businesses to hire a lawyer, an accountant, a marketing expert or a human resources agent, targeting their exact needs.
“We want to make sure that we strengthen those areas so they can focus on why they started their business to begin with,” Pande said.
For business advocates in the state, programs such as this are meeting the needs of many small businesses.
“As our small businesses continue to adapt and grow moving past COVID we need additional resources of this type to ensure a thriving future,” said Rick Simone, managing director for the Rhode Island Small Business Coalition. “These particular services that will be offered are vital to the success of any small business.”
And to make it even easier for businesses, business leaders won’t have to worry about traveling far to meet with the experts.
This will be a “decentralized hub,” said Pande, with a central location in Providence, satellite locations in the other five communities and remote access online. Also, to ensure access to all businesses, experts will have the option to travel to a business’ location to provide services.
“If you’re a small-business owner and you can’t even get away from your business to meet with us, we want to make sure that we come to you,” Pande said.
The business hub will include a small staff of specialists from various business services – lawyer, accountant, bookkeeper, marketing generalist, data analyst, among others – who will travel between locations. There will also be a program coordinator, who will work with businesses to identify what services they need.
The hub will also serve as a bridge between businesses and other already existing resources in the state, directing entrepreneurs to the right resources.
The $4 million grant that funds the pilot comes from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act Recovery Assistance, which provides financial assistance to help communities respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was obtained thanks to a $1.7 million matching fund provided by R.I Commerce Corp., through the RI Rebounds technical assistance program.
The RI Rebounds program is one of several initiatives R.I. Commerce has launched over the past year to support small businesses in the state. The “complimentary nature” of the two programs allowed Commerce to use RI Rebounds funding to secure the $4 million grant, said Chris Raia, a spokesperson for R.I. Commerce.
“The Small Business Resource Hub complements and enhances existing programs currently offered through Commerce as well as others that are in development,” Raia said. “Commerce will work with Skills as we do all partners to raise awareness for the resources available to our small businesses.”
Skills for Rhode Island’s Future partnership with Commerce will continue as the hub takes form: Commerce will help the nonprofit find vendors and technical assistant advisers and direct small businesses to the hub, while Skills for Rhode Island’s Future will help connect eligible small businesses with Commerce’s programs and grants.
“We’ve been hand-in-hand with Commerce on this initiative,” Pande said.
Commerce is not the only partner supporting the new hub. Skills for Rhode Island’s Future is also partnering with 12 organizations that represent different sectors of business services, such as the Rhode Island Society of Certified Public Accountants and the Rhode Island Society for Human Resources.
“We really see this as a network approach,” Pande said. “We are making sure we’re building out this small business hub that is informed by the highest standards of expertise in the community.”
Over the three-year period, Pande said they are hoping to help several thousand businesses.
While the service will be accessible to all small businesses in Rhode Island, Pande said the focus during the pilot year will be on six communities: Providence, East Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, Central Falls and Newport. These communities, which partnered with Skills for Rhode Island’s Future to set up the hub, were chosen because they were hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and because they have a large concentration of businesses owned by minorities, women and veterans, Pande said.
“We really want to make sure that the communities that were devastated by the pandemic have a viable path to reach pre-pandemic levels of economic mobility through small businesses,” Pande said.
But upon obtaining additional funding, either through private funds or federal grants, Skills for Rhode Island’s Future hopes to expand the reach of the hub quickly. For now, the $4 million EDA grant is “critical,” Pande said, as it lays the foundation for the project. Most of the funding will go towards payroll, said Pande, supporting the work of the experts hired to help businesses.
Pande said they are expecting to open in Providence in January and branch out in the other communities within the first six months of the new year.
(RECASTS first two paragraphs to tighten, minor edits, including adding link in 2nd paragraph.)
Claudia Chiappa is a PBN staff writer. You may contact her at Chiappa@PBN.com.
Another taxpayer funded fiasco.