Thomas Floor Care, LLC
Phone: (504) 419-2200
Website: http://www.thomasfloorcare.net
Email:
Years in Business: 3 Years

Thomas Brown’s dream to own his own business started with a ladder.

After working as a driver with waste management for eight years, Brown asked his supervisor how he could get a promotion from the menial work he was doing in order to give his life more purpose. The supervisor pointed to a six foot ladder in the corner of the room and asked Thomas to climb it. Once he got to the top, his supervisor coldly told him that the top of that ladder was the highest he was ever going to get and dreaming of anything better would be foolish.

Thomas Brown refused to believe that was the truth.

“I was nowhere when I started with Good Work Network,” Brown said. “I knew that I wanted my own cleaning business and I knew how to do the work, but the business side I didn’t know at all. Good Work Network showed me everything that had to do with business and worked with me until I really got it.”

Seeing business knowledge as a barrier to his fervent dream of eventual success, Brown took advantage of the training programs offered at Good Work Network and completed the full Entrepreneurial Training Course that gave him the skills necessary to start his business. He also benefited from the counseling that helped him develop his business plan and get Thomas Floor Care, LLC up and running.

“My name wasn’t out there and I was nobody when I started. Good Work Network did a great job of motivating me and moving me forward,” Brown said. “They made sure I stayed on track with what I was doing. Without them, I wouldn’t have known anything about business. Jordan Jones and Ms. Cassidy have been such a big help to me and my business.”

Getting its first significant contract with Celebrations Catering, Thomas Floor Care LLC is growing every day as it currently holds a janitorial contract with the Subway system, works for businesses in the greater New Orleans area and services homes. With the continual guidance of Good Work Network, Mr. Brown doesn’t see this growth stopping anytime soon.

“Success comes to those who want it,” Brown said. “I’ve been chasing this success ever since I climbed that ladder and I don’t plan on stopping. I thank God everyday for the opportunity of meeting the good people at Good Work Network.”

The Breath Is Life Spa
4300 Dumaine St., Suite B
New Orleans, LA 7011
Phone: (504) 430-1565
Email:
Website: http://thebreathislifedayspa.com/
Years In Business: 6 Years

“Good Work Network is a place where one can come to bounce ideas off of another person,” says Julie Singleton. “Adele is full of ideas, and Phyllis is a friend who is nurturing with genuine concern.”

Also known as Menhati, a name which means, “She who masters the breath in the grips of emotions and time”, Singleton practices the ancient art of healing through massage therapy. She is also certified in Thai yoga, healing touch, and reflexology instruction.

“Healing is this,” she demonstrates with a soft and gentle stroke of her hand: “Touch.”

The idea of a holistic lifestyle has become a major trend in the United States over the last decade and is gaining wide acceptance among western doctors, hospital and insurance companies.

Traditionally, the western philosophy focused on symptoms, where as the ancient addressed root causes stemming from spiritual and metaphysical levels. Understanding the Chakras, the seven spiritual centers of the body, is a key to it.

“As more people are making a conscious connection between mind, body and spirit, they are asking medical professionals more intelligent and informed questions,” she explains. “They are living in stress, which can lead to sudden death and terminal illnesses. Because of this, they are eating properly and exercising.”

Given the overwhelming situation in New Orleans post-Katrina, Singleton’s services are timelier than ever. “I observe clients are more depressed, more easily disappointed, and more vulnerable to everyday life. Everything’s urgent. I find clients are calling more often,” she confides. “It is important for people to be more conscious of relaxing, and taking time to breathe and relax.”

While her relationship with the Good Work Network extends long before the storm, she drops in regularly to attend seminars, to visit with the staff and to get financial advice.
Good Work Network recently supplied Singleton with a grant to purchase a handicap device attachable to desks to service disabled wheelchair-bound patients. The equipment is allowing her to expand her client base.

Modern Parenting Publishing
2536 Delta Pointe Drive
Marrero, LA 70072
Phone: (504) 339-5310
Email:
Website: www.modernparentsmagazine.com
Years in Business: 4 Years

Ideas are born as a solution to a problem. Carol Lewis’ problem: What to do with all of the information she had acquired.

Wanting to do more than keep her knowledge within her small circle of friends and family, she pondered on how to share it with the community which it was originally intended to benefit.

On furlough from her administrative job with the New Orleans Public Schools, Lewis, then a full-time mom, began to develop her dream.

“Before the storm, I was engaged in developing strategies to increase parental involvement inside the New Orleans school district,” Lewis explains. This experience coupled with the new joy of being at home to raise her second child gave her the groundwork to start a magazine.

“I had so much information and a network of contacts within the community that I didn’t know what to do with,” she says. “I heard about a grant opportunity on the radio and I took that as a divine sign,” Lewis remembers. “When I called Good Work Network and they said the entrepreneurial classes started the next day, I knew I was on the right path.”

“I’m most grateful for Good Work Network whose training and financial support helped to get my business going,” Lewis continues. “Without their help, my business wouldn’t have made it.”

Through Modern Parenting Magazine, Lewis has created a communications tool to connect home and school for parents. The publication shares information, research findings as well as offers strategies and techniques for improving the learning process.

Adrian’s Bakery
3570 Holiday Drive, Suite #1
New Orleans, LA 70114
Phone: (504) 282-2283
Email:
Website: http://www.adrians-bakery.com/
Years In Business: 8 Years

Sweets may not be what you come in for, but you will be leaving with something sweet when you go to Adrian’s Bakery.

Strong and vibrant before the hurricanes in 2005, Adrian’s is quickly regaining its market strength. Making everything from scratch as well as giving top customer service, the store is attracting new legions of customers at its new location on the West Bank.

“Our stores [Gentilly and East New Orleans] were in those hard hit parts of town. We sustained $3 million in damages,” says owner Adrian Darby. “We had to start over again.”

Surprisingly, he admits, the process was a lot easier this time around. “Actually, it was smoother than before Katrina,” he tells. “The city made improvements to permitting and then, of course, there was the Good Work Network.”

As many seasoned business owners have expressed, Adrian talks about the instrumental role Good Work Network has played in improving their business.

“Before I just did things I felt like I needed to do,” he compares. “But now, after working with Good Work Network, I look at the fixed budget items.”

Under the same terms, with more direction, he feels much more prepared.

“I can look inside as opposed to outside the numbers and project with accuracy,” he explains. “I’m avoiding those bumps in the road I used to hit before. You assume you can do “X-Y-Z” and can’t. We’re in a situation now where we cannot afford any more major setbacks.”

As Adrian can attest, the counselors and services at Good Work Network showed him the steps that go into writing a business plan as well as budgeting for a successful business. In an approachable and friendly manner, Good Work showed the Darbys everything they needed to know to lessen the effects of a Katrina-like disaster.

Now, Adrian’s “X-Y-Z’s” are not only done, but done right – making it possible for those delicious pastries to keep coming out of the oven and for the doors of Adrian’s Bakery to stay open for business.

The Amazing Place Day Care Center
2519 Bayou Road
New Orleans, LA 70119
Phone: (504) 920-2980
Email:
Years in Business: 6 Years

After raising a family of her own and working in the New Orleans school system, Pamala Thomas knows what it means to take care of children. What she didn’t know and what Good Work Network showed her, was her own potential.

Ms. Thomas, who was born and raised in New Orleans and went to Southern University at New Orleans, worked with the public school system for ten years. In 2003, after some time working for the city and then in secondary education, she got up from her desk and decided to start a home-based child care center.

Starting with six children, Ms. Thomas’s center was given a Class A license in 2004 and grew to 14 children and then eventually to 22.

“And then Katrina hit,” Ms. Thomas said in a somber tone. “I evacuated to Georgia after the storm and then came back in 2006. When I first met Good Work Network I was trying to rebuild for the 22 in-home child care center and I immediately bonded with Good Work Network’s business counselors including Adele (London) and Patrick (Anderson).”

When asked about her entrepreneurial knowledge before working with Good Work Network, Ms. Thomas described it as pretty broad and mostly pulled from research that she did on her own time on the internet. Good Work Network was able to take Ms. Thomas’s broad business comprehension as well as her extensive familiarity in child care and use it to make real results for her business.

“I’ve taken every business training class they offer at Good Work Network,” Ms. Thomas said with a laugh. “I was knowledgeable about child care, but Good Work Network really helped me out with the finances. They also showed me everything I could do with my business and all the possibilities that the center could be.”

Good Work Network was also able to get Ms.Thomas in contact with enough funding to turn her home-based child care center into an off-site child care facility, The Amazing Place Day Care Center. This center currently serves 46 low income families in the area. Never doing advertising, The Amazing Place prides itself on constantly operating at maximum capacity based purely on word of mouth about the quality of their services. Ms. Thomas knows that without the dedication of Good Work Network, her center based model would have never become a reality.

“Good Work Network was more dedicated to me than I was to me,” Ms. Thomas said. “I would sit down after work to relax, but my phone would ring off the hook with calls from Patrick and Adele getting me motivated to take classes and build relationships with people. They directed me to new resources to do more than just rebuild after Katrina.”