Writing New York: Posts from the Boroughs and Beyond

When Hempstead Rebirth  went from store to store along Hempstead Village- from printing shops to Latino and Caribbean eateries- it found that business owners were glued to their stores. They could not afford to leave their businesses for moments on end. With the Roosevelt Field Mall eight minutes away looming as a threat to their sales, Hempstead Rebirth felt that small business owners needed a business know-how resource. They bridged the gap with mentorship; the kind that has to be logged into.

Hempstead Rebirth is a faith-based 501 ©3 not-for-profit formed in June of 2000 by Pastor Curtis Riley of the Reigning in Life Training Center. The organization’s headquarters on Fulton Avenue serves as a classroom, an office, and a church. First created to target affordable housing, it has since grown as an education hub, holding seminars on financing, business, food and fitness to name a few. It even held an extreme ride event as part of its Youth Initiative Program. On October 28^th, Rebirth partnered with Better Business Builders in Hempstead and launched an online business mentoring institute but they are facing the challenge of the next phase: showing owners the value in the program.

Throughout Rebirth’s community service initiatives, mentorship is a mainstay. Sharla Hart, 29, the Director of Food and Fitness, said that “education is a big part of it” and that it is not enough to give people information without showing them how to apply it. “We really want to make it interactive,” she said. They invite the neighborhood to seminars, most of them free, to calculate its caloric intake and learn how to cook with whole foods and spices in live demonstrations. Hart said that the Food and Fitness ties in with business. “Without health you can’t do anything,” she said. “Health impacts your bottom line.” Hart said that the challenge is getting people to fill the seats.

Hempstead Rebirth decided that online mentoring would be more convenient for small business owners. It partnered with James Nemley at Better Business Builders, a certified economic development professional, who delights in the popular phrase, “If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.” Together, they created an online institute that falls under the Business Mentorship Program (BMP) of the organization. Wanda B. Jones, the Director of the BMP, said that this corporate mentoring is geared towards owners currently in business or starting up.

To advertise the institute, Jones sends an email to existing and potential members of Hempstead Rebirth. The 1,300-word email includes pricing and all of the services they offer. An applicant signs up and is assigned a mentor based on their specific needs. For example, if an owner needs help with bookkeeping, an accounting mentor has them send what they have and they work on it, sending it back and forth. Mentees also have the option of attending live webinars. They are granted full 365-day access to videos, templates, and coaching for $97 a month. Rebirth offers a $5000 scholarship draw for group coaching if requested by the applicant. Nemley is one of the coaches who normally charges $2,500 to $5,000 to speak at events. They started empowerment seminars as far back as 2012 to show the community what they had to offer before launching the institute.

The link Jones provides takes mentees to Xtra Ordinary Business Builders where Nemley seems to be the point person. There are a few other websites run by different hosts that have the same layout as this site. Target Marketing Academy is run by Dan Murray and The Astute Marketing Academy is run by Brian Duckworth. What brings all of these institutes together is the E-Learning Marketing System by Karl Bryan, a leader of global consulting. Bryan admits he borrowed the foundation for this system by combining business models of several top marketing gurus. The program is created for joint-venture: a coach links up with a high-network organization, such as Hempstead Rebirth, and shares the profits. Coaches are encouraged to clone the program and name it; they have done so as far as Australia. Rebirth realized that Hempstead Village did not have anything like this for small business owners.

Online mentoring is not foreign. Score.org provides an email mentor for business finance, accounting, and strategy to name a few. They offer full access to templates, tutorials, and live webinars, such as how to get the neighborhood aware of a small business through direct mail. They are supported by the U.S. Business Administration and have 13,000 volunteers, as well as 348 chapters, allowing them to provide all of their services for free. The closest chapter to Hempstead Village is located in Hauppauge, 21 miles away. Xtra Ordinary Business Builders is the closest location for face-to-face coaching.

Jones said that the challenge will be getting people to sign up. Rebirth is uninterested in just doling out information and will remain an interactive organization. Jones said it is best explained by the proverbial saying: Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; Show him how to catch a fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.