One Step at a Time All the Way to Main Street

In 2002, Middletown's Director of Human Resources Faith Jackson told her sister Pamela Steele about a unique opportunity in which she might be interested — the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce Side Street to Main Street Business and Leadership Development Program for minority small business owners.

Steele saw it as her chance to move ahead with her home-based knitting business.

Since then, Steele has become one of the program’s success stories. If you walk through Main Street Market at 386 Main St., there are a number of graduates of the program doing what they love best.

Steele’s business, Pamela Roose Specialty Hand Knits, custom makes baby outfits, scarves, sweaters, hats, blankets — just about anything that can be hand-knit. The shop also sells yarn, needles and other sewing supplies. Steele's next step is to start offering classes.

Steele attributes her rapid success to what she learned from the Chamber. “The most valuable part of the program was that it made me really think about what I was going to do and what I wanted on both the short-term and the long-term,” said Steele. “It was a lot of homework and research. We had to write a business plan and research everything about the business we wanted to be in. It’s a tough program.”

The intensive, 16-week program with follow-up sessions covers a full calendar year. It is dual-tracked, teaching both best business practices and leadership development. The focus is on personal and business planning.

This was what Steele liked. “I do things in steps. Business people get into trouble when they jump into things too soon. I started my business at home, then I took part in the Chamber’s Holiday on Main Street event and had a kiosk in Main Street Market. I realized I could do this and I opened the shop.”

“Aetna has funded the program from its inception in 1995. That is unusual. Normally, a company sponsors the startup of a program and then you have to seek funding elsewhere. Aetna has supported it continuously,” said Essex Group President and CEO James Jackson, who facilitates Side Street.

Jennifer DeKine is Chamber coordinator for the program. “We want them to realize things they should know to be successful in business. We offer several layers of resources for them.”

In April, the Chamber hosted a graduation class for 11 more small business people, bringing the total number of graduates to 170.

For information, call DeKine at (860) 343-6924. To contact Pamela Roose Specialty Hand Knits, call (860) 788-2715.

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