Our Story
One week after Katrina Gordon Rude and Linda Zuk from Fast Forward Process and Emile Paradis from The Referral Company met to determine if we could organize and provide business support to entrepreneurs whose businesses were destroyed by Katrina. It was decided that a series of workshops and follow-up coaching could be offered to assist entrepreneurs and small businesses to restart their business as the post hurricane environment evolved. Business Network International supported the original effort along with Eddie Esposito a Business Coach and evacuee from New Orleans. Harry Rodenhi from All About Enterprises signed on as the Director of Operations and Debra Hoffman from The Referral Company joined to manage finances, logistics and the enrollment process.
A not for profit 501 (c)(3) organization was established with the help of David Carter Esq. from Fergeson & McManamy and Mark Wyssbrod, CPA. Donner Weiner & Associates, P.C. Fast Forward Process licensed their products and training materials to Fast Forward Restart at no cost and Emile Paradis agreed to become the Executive Director
The first strategic decision we made was not to wait for funding to proceed with the program because of the need. We also knew that to build an organization capable of the task we were undertaking would require a great deal of work and we had no funds to pay the people we would need. We will always be grateful to and amazed by the people who stepped forward and continue to contribute to this effort. We did not ask them for money but for something much more valuable, their time and talents. Thus far we have paid people only to cover their out of pocket expenditures. We have asked them to invoice us at reduced rates for the services they perform with a promise to pay them sometime in the future when our fundraising is successful.
Our creative needs are met by a group of very talented people and the staffs in their organizations. David Taylor-Klaus of Digital Positions is responsible for our website, Michael Sater of Sater Creative does all of the design work, Emily Capps of Concepts and Copy handles our copy and Rich Fiallo of VisionCast Media creates our video.
Our state of the art communications is provided by Dinesh Narayanan of Digital Agent and our IT needs are met by Joe Santifer of NetWise.
We were also privileged to have 14 top notch professional business coaches and workshop facilitators participating in our program. Please see their mini-bios on the Coaches page of this website. This group provides coaching to program participants 30 minutes every week
On November 18-19, 2005 we held our first workshop 2 1/2 months after Katrina. Since then over 50 businesses have completed our workshops and are in the coaching program. We anticipate an additional 100 participants will enroll in the program in 2006.
As the memory of Katrina fades along with public interest, we are grateful to all of those who are still working with us just as hard as they did in the beginning. We are supporting the rebirth of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast -- one business at a time -- and we plan to be there until the job is done.
Gordon Rude
Advisor