Honoree | Tuni Schartner, TS Consulting/TRS Strategies
Tuni Schartner is an energetic facilitator and unapologetic cheerleader in growing the state’s economy, especially in southern Rhode Island, where she lives and works.
Having branded herself “Rhode Island’s economic gardener,” the moniker resonates, she said, as it is both figurative and literal.
“I do my part to grow the Rhode Island economy,” she said, hyper-focusing on small businesses – work that has earned her local and state accolades.
But if businesses need actual gardening advice? She also happens to be a landscape enthusiast, able to offer opinions on plantings and bushes for the exterior of an office building, for example. Whatever it takes to help small businesses, she says.
It’s this kind of wide-open perspective on her strengths and the strengths of others that has helped Schartner serve entrepreneurs and startup business clients of her North Kingstown marketing firm, TS Consulting/TRS Strategies. It’s just one of her many roles: Schartner is chief marketing officer at North Kingstown’s The Mill at Lafayette, as well as director of The Hive co-working space in the mill – the first such space in southern Rhode Island – which she founded with mill owner Mike Baker and Larry Zevon of Zevon Media LLC.
In helping to create The Hive about five years ago, Schartner had to research, gather information and pivot from an original plan.
At the time, she was working individually out of a coffeehouse, as was Zevon. It was not always a conducive setup for things such as conference calls, she said.
Ultimately, the idea of a business incubator morphed into a co-working space proposal.
“We are southern Rhode Island,” said Schartner. “It’s different down here; it’s not downtown Providence. For an incubator, we were not ready, but we did need a co-working space … it was the perfect alternative: space to work alone, together.”
Schartner helps small businesses – generally those with under 50 employees – grow from the inside out but also from the outside in, peeling back the layers of who their customers are. Variants are very individualized for small businesses.
“It’s about the audience you’re trying to reach, how they like to receive communications. Now more than ever, people are paying attention to that; they are bombarded with messaging,” she said, whether via text, social media, television or other content channels. “It’s more and more important … the human side of business.”
Ultimately, Schartner says, being aware of change and able to be agile, banding together, using small-business resources, maximizing educational opportunities and knowing one’s customer base will position small businesses for growth, and grow the Rhode Island economy even more.
“Business owners can absolutely empower themselves,” she said.