LOCAL

Helping people from public assistance to business ownership

Mike Lewis
mlewis@herald-mail.com

Tears welled in Alicia Crawford's eyes as she recalled the ways people helped her start her Hagerstown hair studio.

"Going back to college and (taking) business courses and stuff, and having kids and being a single mom, it was like, financially-wise, I didn't have it. So when I started hearing about these free business classes, I said, ‘I'm going to jump on it.’ And that's how it happened," she recalled.

The classes were part of the Public Assistance to Entrepreneurship program. The state, the Washington County Department of Social Services and the Small Business Development Center partner to offer the sessions. The idea is to help people who are on public assistance start businesses and support their families.

In mid-October, Crawford opened Alicia's Hair Studio at 45 W. Baltimore St. She offers braids, cuts, coloring and other services for children and adults.

"It's going great," she said. "In the beginning it was like, ‘Did I make the right decision?’ But then business started picking up."

Crawford said she has clients from the Hagerstown and Frederick, Md., areas, as well as Pennsylvania and West Virginia. An arrangement with the Hagerstown Housing Authority "is lovely," she said, and she gets some clients from those facilities.

"I am very grateful for the partnership that I have with Hagerstown Housing Authority," Crawford said. "And I'm just still amazed."

Several people came to Crawford's studio Monday afternoon to celebrate her success. Among them was Steven H. Benden, director of the office of strategy and performance for the Maryland Department of Human Services.

"We're very excited to hear that (Crawford) has started up here in Hagerstown and that she continues to move forward," Benden said.

He said the state program was inspired by the research of Gareth Olds, a professor at the Harvard Business School. The professor's research indicated that people on public assistance with dreams of owning their own businesses can be "excellent candidates" for entrepreneurship.

"His point was folks that have that yearning to be entrepreneurs that are on public assistance, they have an opportunity to succeed because that public assistance at the beginning provides that cushion for them to launch," Benden said. "And then the key ingredient is providing that training and that focus."

Currently, the Public Assistance to Entrepreneurship program is being offered in 12 jurisdictions in the Eastern Shore and in Western Maryland. SBDC offers the training in a series of eight classes. Participants must attend all eight.

"It's compact, but you get everything all together and it's not piecemeal," Benden said.

Another round of classes will start in Washington County in October. For information, contact family investment specialists Steve Chapman at 240-420-2507 or Jarena Griffin at 240-420-2559.

Steven H. Benden, director of the office of strategy and performance in the Maryland Department of Human Services, congratulates Alicia Crawford on Monday at her hair studio in Hagerstown. Crawford opened her business at 45 W. Baltimore St. after going through the Public Assistance to Entrepreneurship program offered with assistance from the Washington Department of Social Services and the Small Business Development Center.