Community Renewal Good Stories - Baltimore

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Baltimore EZ Helps Entrepreneur Achieve Dream of Owning a Business

Baltimore, Maryland, EZ

"I don't believe that a traditional bank would have loaned me money to start my business. I had never done this type of business before." -Joey Richards, Charm City Signs

Joey Richards had no experience in graphic arts, only a determination to succeed. Working in New York City as a paralegal, she had learned to survive in a sink-or-swim environment. That survival instinct served her well when, after she moved to Baltimore to be with her daughter, her company downsized and Richards lost her job. Undaunted, Richards decided to start her own sign company. As an unemployed single mother and novice entrepreneur, she stood little chance of finding a traditional lender willing to finance her business.

On the Internet Richards discovered the U.S. Small Business Administration's One-Stop Capital Shop, located at Empower Baltimore's business empowerment center.

Empower Baltimore, she would discover, administers the Baltimore EZ. At the business empowerment center, she found a wealth of services: one-on-one business counseling; access to computers and business-related software; research materials to develop a business plan and loan package; and a large reference library with guides to planning, marketing, legal issues, accounting, record-keeping, facilities, equipment, inventory, and advertising for different types of businesses. Suddenly, Richards' plan to start her own company did not seem so far-fetched after all.

Armed with a list of potential business sites available in the EZ, provided by the Baltimore Development Corporation, Richards began driving to check out each address. After one site she was interested in fell through, she settled on a site on Central Avenue in Inner Harbor East. With a $100,000, 7-year loan from Empower Baltimore's Small Business Loan Fund, Richards leased the 2,200-square-foot, first floor space that would become Charm City Signs. One-fourth of the loan covered her initial equipment costs, and she opened for business with no other funding beyond her own life savings.

Assistance from Empower Baltimore did not end there, however. Her business startup costs were such that the company operated at a loss for a while, and Richards worked hard to increase her business acumen and build up a stable client list. She attended a host of breakfasts, workshops, and other entrepreneurial networking opportunities arranged by EBMC's business empowerment center.

Her contacts in Empower Baltimore referred "everybody they knew who wanted a sign" to her shop, Richards says, and some of those early customers are still with her. Moreover, Empower Baltimore followed up to make sure she had plenty of networking opportunities and access to business expertise. Today, business is booming for Charm City Signs with contracts to manufacture signs for businesses across the Baltimore metropolitan area. For more information on the programs of the Baltimore EZ, please contact Tanya Terrell at (410) 783-4400.