When Natè Billingsley got the idea for a dumping business, she wanted to do two things: help clean up her hometown and find work for formerly incarcerated individuals.
“What I was finding is when they come home, they can’t find steady employment, and if they do have steady employment, the salary isn’t ‘cutting the mustard’ for them to be able to be self-sufficient,” she said.
Starting a business is no easy task. Entrepreneurs must determine whether there is a market for their idea, identify licensing requirements, secure funding and develop a plan for growth.
Billingsley didn’t know where to begin until a failed city grant application led her to Indiana University Northwest’s business school. There, she discovered the SEED program, the university’s business incubator, where aspiring entrepreneurs learn those skills at no cost.
SEED, which stands for Supporting and Empowering Entrepreneurial Development, is an 11-month program that provides entrepreneurs with boot camps, mentors, networking opportunities, and hands-on support designed to help them launch or grow a business.
The program was created after university leaders identified a need for more intensive entrepreneurial support. While Indiana University Northwest already offered business boot camps and one-on-one advising, officials saw an opportunity to do more.
After seeing the work of the University of Notre Dame’s Urban Poverty and Business Initiative, including its assistance to entrepreneurs in overcoming the extra hurdles that come with living in a poverty-stricken community, they knew that a program like that was needed in Gary.
“It was very clear to me in that conversation that’s the program that we needed,” said Jana Szostek, director of IUN’s Business Academy, recalling an earlier conversation with initiative founder Michael Morris.
“Our goal when they come into the program is that they will either launch or scale their business in 11 months or shortly thereafter.”
Designed for those serious about starting a business, the cohort meets from August to May, several times each week. After starting the prep work in August, there are classes twice a week, with expected deliverables aligned with their business steps. They hope to help people refine their ideas, work on the steps needed to launch, and connect them with mentors and lenders.
The nearly yearlong program aims to reduce the uncertainty that often comes with starting a business.
“I was in the process of building a business, and I thought that it would be beneficial for me to be around other entrepreneurs with the same mindset as myself,” Billingsley said.
Her business, Simply Dumping Legally LLC, started from a desire to help her community. With blight elimination at the forefront of day-to-day work, she saw a need not only to combat illegal dumping but also to address what happens to debris after a building or home is demolished.
Knowing that construction-related work often provides employment opportunities for people with felony convictions, she envisioned a business that could address illegal dumping and create jobs.
“My long-term goal is to bridge that gap,” she said.
Knowing that the process would take a while, especially with new dump trucks costing upward of $50,000, her cohort classmates brought up a great suggestion: What can she do now?
From July to February, she earned money by renting a pickup truck to do the work she wanted. One day, she casually mentioned to Szostek that she had reached her goal of purchasing a truck.
“She just embodied everything she was learning in this program,” Szostek said.
Since completing the program, Billingsley has launched her business.
“I’m not done yet, but I’m just at a point where I feel accomplished because I’m actually seeing the fruits of my labor,” she said.
Billingsley is one of 10 entrepreneurs graduating from the program’s inaugural cohort.
“I’m feeling proud of myself for actually going through the program, sticking with the program, facing my fears as it relates to business decisions that I’ve made and actually executing them,” she said.
Szostek said watching participants succeed has been one of the most rewarding parts of leading the program.
“It brings tears to my eyes when I watch them succeed in that way, and see their dreams come true,” she said. “They didn’t come in the door as entrepreneurs; they came in the door as dreamers and walked out as entrepreneurs.”
Graduates also receive an 80-step guidebook designed to help them continue applying what they learned after the program ends.
“I can always fall back on the foundation that the SEED program provided for me,” Billingsley said. “I think it was very beneficial because without other entrepreneurs in my orbit, I believe I would have quit. I knew that I would be held accountable when you have other people looking at you and expecting you to deliver.”
For her, that was the motivation and even more reason to show up and deliver something. Even after the program, the cohort still often communicates, offering advice and ways to keep each other accountable outside the program.
“If anybody in the Northwest Indiana area is looking to start a business, I believe that the SEED program will be beneficial in more ways than one,” Billingsley said.
Applications for the next cohort are available through the Indiana University Northwest Center for Professional Development and are due June 20. The program begins in August.
“I would stress to anyone to come get help, even if they’re not in SEED,” Szostek said.
Whether it’s the business academy or SEED, the school would like to offer help to anyone in the community looking to start a business, especially if you can’t make the commitment that comes with SEED.
“I truly believe that if someone knows how to start and run a business, then they’re not going to go hungry, and they’re not going to be as impacted when life throws a wrench at them,” Szostek said.
