Celebrating Innovation, Entrepreneurs » CBIA
“Celebrating innovation and entrepreneurship.”
U.S. Small Business Administration deputy administrator Dilawar Syed set the tone for the May 2 National Small Business Week SBA Awards & Resource Expo.
The event, a collaboration between the SBA’s Connecticut District Office and CBIA and held at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, highlighted the impact of small businesses across the state.
There are 350,000 small businesses in Connecticut, making up 99.3% of all businesses and nearly half the state’s workforce.
And since the pandemic, there have been nearly 10,000 new business starts every year in Connecticut.
“When I think about small businesses, two words come to mind,” said CBIA president and CEO Chris DiPentima. “And that’s resiliency and people.”
“Behind every small business is a person who has a vision, has a dream. And behind that person is an amazing team, a resilient team of people who helped make that vision a reality.”
Supporting Businesses
Syed spoke about federal efforts to support small businesses and entrepreneurs including lending reforms.
“What we have seen is when you have a stimulus of this nature going into the economy, it also creates an entrepreneurial stimulus,” he said.
Syed noted the importance of reaching out to under-served entrepreneurs in the state.
He also highlighted a rule change that allows people who were formerly incarcerated to be eligible for SBA lending.
Syed said one in three Americans has a criminal record.
“We are a country of second chances,” he said.
“This will lift literally tens of thousands and millions of people in a place where they can go and seek out an opportunity to start a business.”
Entrepreneurial Journey
The expo also featured a conversation between DiPentima and Lumi Hospitality founder and CEO Melissa Melonson.
Melonson shared the story of her entrepreneurial journey.
After growing up in Connecticut, she moved to New York City, working at different experiential agencies.
She moved back to Connecticut when she was pregnant with her first child.
She started working at a digital marketing agency, but realized she was ready to start her own business.
“I saw someone else creating a business,” she said. “And I wanted to take everything I had learned and kind of packaged it up into where I would want to work.”
Melonson and a partner started a digital agency, working from laptops and coffee shops.
“We had the vision and we had the energy and that’s really all we had,” Melonson said. “But we just started from scratch.”
Challenges, Lessons
Melonson said that in those early years, they ran into a lot of challenges and learned some important lessons.
“I think some of the things that we learned in those early years was just how important every single person you hire on the team is making sure that everyone really does fit the culture and understands the vision of where you want to go,” she said.
Melonson and her partner went their separate ways in 2019, and she turned the business into Lumi Hospitality.
“I started to look at our local hospitality, friends, neighbors, people in the Hartford area that were really hurting.”
Lumi Hospitality’s Melissa Melonson
She said that when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, she turned her attention from working with hotels and resorts in destination markets like the Caribbean to more local clients.
“I started to look at our local hospitality, friends, neighbors, people in the Hartford area that were really hurting,” she said.
“We created some different events that we could put together that were COVID safe, that would also support a lot of the local restaurants and hospitality.”
One of those events was Picnic in the Park at Bushnell Park, the first large-scale live event during the pandemic.
“Things like that that we did throughout COVID, which, not really meaning to, created a lot of momentum for our business,” she said.
New Ventures
One of Melonson’s recent ventures is Emrey’s Specialty Sweets & Sodas, an old-school soda shop in downtown Hartford that also includes a hidden craft cocktail bar called the 196 Club.
Melonson was able to open in part thanks to HartLift, a grant program from the Hartford Chamber of Commerce.
She said that it’s important for small businesses and entrepreneurs to know what resources are available.
“There’s so many resources out there, there’s so much education out there that we can take advantage of.”
Melonson
“There’s so many resources out there, there’s so much education out there that we can take advantage of,” she said. “But it does take time to find what’s right for you.”
Melonson said that not only has Emrey’s been a fun way to execute on her own vision and brand, it also helped her understand her clients better.
“Their operational pain points, what they have to go through on a day-to-day basis, all of the things that they have to go through, it’s really helped me to understand them and how we can support them better on the Lumi side,” she said.
Surviving, Thriving
Melonson also shared advice for people who are considering starting a new business, but worry about failing.
“You start to realize and learn that there is no failure,” she said. “It’s just changing. It’s pivoting, it’s rolling with the punches”
“The only way you’re gonna fail is if you actually give up and walk away.”
“The only way you’re gonna fail is if you actually give up and walk away.”
Melonson
Being able to pivot and be flexible was a key lesson for Sam’s Food Stores’ Naeem Khalid.
Khalid, Develomark’s Ruan Marinho, and SimpliCapital’s Rakesh Sahay spoke with M&T Bank’s Jerome Baier about the challenges they’ve overcome to find success.
“Don’t get frustrated, be ready to be flexible,” Khalid said. “If there is a bump, try to understand that there’s a bump, but you can overcome.”
Employee Focus
The three panelists, all first-generation small business owners, said they wouldn’t be successful without finding and retain quality employees.
“I learned that finding an employee and retaining an employee is a very difficult task,” said Khalid. “It doesn’t matter if you have two employees or 40 employees or 500 employees.”
Sahay noted that in the tech industry, he has to compete with big companies like Google to attract talent.
He said that as a small company, he offers the opportunity to make a difference for other businesses.
“Those are the things—bringing people up from an early stage, giving them exposure, connecting them with the real business issues,” he said. “And of course, you know, we have to pay them what, what they deserve.”
Khalid and Marinho both spoke about retaining employees through offering the best health benefits they can.
He and Khalid agreed that while it’s a big expense for the business, it’s one less worry for their employees.
“If our employees are worried about healthcare, they’re not going to be worried about our clients or what we’re trying to accomplish,” Marinho said. “So healthcare is a big part of our benefits package.”
Building on Success
The panelists spoke about building on their brands and expanding their businesses.
“We have built quite a good technology, we think that is really going to help the customers,” said Sahay.
“So our whole thing going forward is to get more people to know us and see what we do.”
“Our whole thing going forward is to get more people to know us and see what we do.”
SimpliCapital’s Rakesh Sahay
Marinho said it’s important to put yourself in a position to have the flexibility to invest in your business.
“If your competition is worried about driving fancy cars and owning huge houses they can’t even fill, you’re going to be able to invest more,” he said.
Baier highlighted the importance of organizations like the SBA to helping small businesses succeed.
“The SBA is an incredible partner, not only in the lending facilities that they can provide, but also the education and partnership,” he said.
