Volunteer group aiding minority businesses plans to gear up in '06

Volunteer group aiding minority businesses plans to gear up in '06

Economic Development

Don Dodson

News-Gazette

18 December 2005

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CHAMPAIGN – For six years, Seon Williams has been cutting hair at The Whip Hair Designs. Two other stylists work with him at the barbershop on North Fourth Street.

But he might not have gotten the business going without help from the Community Collaboration for Economic Development.

That volunteer group encourages minorities and low-income people to start their own businesses. It does so by offering business workshops, mentors and even a loan program – and it plans to make a new push in 2006.

In 1999, Williams was still in school at Concept College of Cosmetology. He paid a visit to local businessman Robert Hambrick, hoping to get advice on opening a shop.

"I went up to Mr. Hambrick's office and told him I was struggling with 'How can I get my business started?'" Williams said. "He said, 'We have a program that's going to start up next year. Stick around, and you'll be one of the first to be enrolled.'"

Williams attended a series of weekly workshops and discussed his plans and aspirations with mentors from the group.

"I was working with Robert Hambrick, Joe Page, Thom Moore and Al Griggs," Williams said. "Those guys were instrumental in getting my business started."

Now many of those volunteers are at it again. The Community Collaboration plans to offer workshops and mentoring services again next spring, said Page, president of the group.

For several years, the organization offered workshops at the Ridgeway Center in northwest Champaign on topics including business basics, computer basics, credit repair and preparing business plans.

But now, after a quiet period, the group is ready to become active once more.

"We'll have a meeting in January, and we'll pull together volunteers and set up workshops and a mentoring program," said Page, who does training for Worden-Martin Inc. in Champaign.

The group will coordinate its efforts with other community agencies that help people start businesses, he said.

"We coordinate things with the University of Illinois, Parkland College, the Small Business Administration, the Urban League," Page said. "We try to make sure to work with and through these agencies so we're not duplicating things. We want to help facilitate what they're doing, rather than create new things that are counterproductive."

Alvin Griggs, treasurer of the Community Collaboration, said the group has located a place for an office and is looking for staff.

"All of us are volunteers ... and we want to find someone who can help do some of the administrative things," Page said.

Griggs said several area residents went into business as the result of previous workshops, and calls continue to come from people wanting advice on starting a firm.

The turnout for workshops was traditionally good, said Griggs, a retired educator who operates Colony Square Cleaners in Champaign.

"We didn't have one session with under a dozen people. Generally there were 15 to 20 people at the weekly sessions," he said.

Assistance went beyond class lectures.

"It's easy to tell someone to write a business plan, but in many cases you have to show them how," Page said.

Besides offering mentors, the group had a loan committee that reviewed applications for loans.

Thom Moore is secretary of the Community Collaboration for Economic Development. Other board members include Mable Thomas, Al Anderson and Avon Morgan.

Thomas estimated that between 125 and 150 people took part in Community Collaboration workshops and about 40 of them "moved on the idea" of launching a business.

She said participants were warned that if they thought operating their own business meant working less, they were mistaken. They should plan on tripling their workload and not having any profit or vacation at the outset, she said.

The Community Collaboration has received financial support from banks, as well as municipal, state and federal sources. Its workshop series was conceived by Robert and Hazel Hambrick, who operate Hambrick's Maintenance Service.

Williams said having his own barbershop has given him the opportunity to work with young people in the community and encourage their growth.

"It allowed me to work with some of the youth and tell them some of my ideas about life and about business," he said. "It set a big presence, me being a young guy and having a business."

Since Williams opened The Whip, Antonio Turner has been cutting hair with him. Odell Wesley became the third barber in the shop about a year ago.