Today we’d like to introduce you to Leah Ward-Lee.
Hi Leah, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
If you’ve ever thought of opening a business, you’re in good company. There are more than 31 million entrepreneurs in the United States. At $1,000 Start-Ups, they believe owning a successful business puts you in control of your financial future. They offer their entrepreneurship, financial management, and life skills training program at no cost with up to $1,000 in business start-up or growth funding to those who complete the program.
They’ve designed the program around the needs of working adults and caregivers. By teaching the classes on Zoom, cohort members don’t need to spend time driving back and forth to class. They record each class so that if a cohort member has to miss a class, she can watch the video and keep up with the learning and homework assignments. Additionally, they don’t hold classes on holiday weekends to allow cohort members to spend time with their families. The program is offered once a year. This year’s program starts May 10, 2023, and the Cohort graduates in January 2024. During the course, cohort members walk through every step of starting a small business together. The program includes four small business fairs to allow cohort members to test their products or services and grow a customer base.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Starting a nonprofit organization in the best of times is difficult, but creating a nonprofit during a pandemic is overwhelming. Fortunately, the founders didn’t know what they didn’t know. For example, most funders and grant-making organizations don’t invest in a nonprofit organization with no established track record and with good reason. Like many businesses, many nonprofits fail. They mitigated this primarily by self-funding the organization, volunteering full-time to fill the necessary roles, and contracting with local small businesses for the services they could afford. As the organization has grown, like many other businesses, particularly nonprofits, they continue to work to attract part-time staff to fill its staffing needs.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about The $1,000 Start-Ups Consortium?
In 2020 when, at the start of the pandemic, service industry workers and hourly employees were disproportionately affected by the shutdown, Leah Ward-Lee and her son, Tony Lee, wanted to do something to help people who were losing their jobs through no fault of their own.
They put together a program based on books and courses they’d developed, offered the program locally and over the next six months, and taught all phases and aspects of small-business development, from selecting the right business to business planning, financial management, marketing, prototyping, licensing, and business management.
To provide real-world experience, in that first year, the six startup businesses were joined by more than 30 established local small businesses who shared their success stories with the startup class. From this experience, it became evident that this type of non-competitive networking significantly improved the success of both the startup and the established businesses.
That same year, a board was formed, and the $1,000 Startups Consortium was recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. They’ve come a long way since then. On Saturday, March 25, the 2022 $1,000 Startups Cohort graduated with a ceremony during the annual Spring Into Action Small Business Fair at the Peck Center Gymnasium. The graduates bring the number of small businesses started in the $1,000 Startups program to 30 in the three years since it began, with close to 100 area businesses displaying at their small business fairs.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
The board and staff are vocal in their appreciation of their community’s support and effusive in acknowledging so many by name. A diverse faith community was instrumental and continues to support $1,000 Startups. The congregation of Macedonia AME Church in Fernandina Beach and their previous pastor, Anthony Daniel, were essential. The small business fairs were held outside on their church grounds for the first two years. The congregation came out to help set up and break down each fair. Without their support, there would be no $1,000 Startups. The New Vision Church of Christ congregation was among the first and continues to provide financial support and encouragement. Members of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Jacksonville (UUCJ) and the East Nassau Branch were early and continue to be financial supporters.
The $1,000 Start-Ups team has received countless hours of mentoring. When they realized how little they knew about operating a non-profit organization, they contacted Jodi Henson at the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in Nassau County for help. She referred them to Melinda Powers, Esq., who became their non-profit coach. For close to two years, they met with Melinda bi-weekly. When Melinda left the SBDC, Taylor Kennedy stepped in to help the organization continue to mature.
They operated for the first two years with a homegrown website with severe limitations and many bugs! In 2022, Lynnette Najimy, CEO of Beansprout Productions, began redeveloping their website and customer relationship management system. She has revitalized their social media presence with her experience in marketing, photography, graphic design, and non-profit management.
The Community Foundation of Northeast Florida’s Janet Allen and James Coggin provided much-needed coaching when the organization wrote its first grant proposal by suggesting, “Just tell the story,” leading to their first grant.
Regina Duncan and her fantastic team at the Nassau County Chamber of Commerce have mentored and provided training and coaching to the organization since its inception.
Pricing:
- There is no cost for the program.
- Cohort members in good standing receive up to $1,000 in business start-up or growth funding.
- $1,000 Start-Ups will never ask a cohort member for money or an interest in their business.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://1000dollarstartups.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1000dollarstartups/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1kdollarstartups
- Linkedin: $1,000 start-ups, inc.
