Founded in 2004, Rising Tide Capital is a non-profit organization whose mission is to assist individuals and communities in building strong businesses which transform lives, strengthen families, and build sustainable communities. Over the last 12 years, they’ve helped over 1,400 individuals start or build their businesses.

The founders of Rising Tide Capital, two Harvard grads, were recently featured in Forbes as some of the nation’s “most promising social entrepreneurs”. Last week, they received one of the Manhattan Institute’s awards for Social Entrepreneurship.

Today, I want to focus on two graduates and what they have done with their businesses.

Property Maintenance Guys

Geoffrey Allen is the owner of Property Maintenance Guys, a construction company that focuses on small to medium renovations and repairs. “There were many reasons why I wanted to go to Rising Tide but in the beginning, it was because of the guidance. When I found RTC I was fresh off my first business failure, working 3 part time jobs at the end of the recession. I learned about what they did and made it my business to sign up immediately.” His first business experience highlighted the fact that he couldn’t build anything alone figured that maybe RTC could help him where he had failed. They helped him register his business, helped him with securing loans and are currently working with him during PMG’s expansion.

“PMG has come a long way since its start in 2012 with help from RTC. When I look back, having the pleasure of starting and failing at my first business made me want to really listen this time around. By listening to the advice from the experts, I got advice from people who had done it and know what it takes to stay in business. I was able to put a game plan together and do all the things I didn’t do the first time around like budgets, forecast, training and planning. These are the fundamentals to growing in life as well in business. So, since 2012 I have grown the business from just me to four employees, two vans and more work than I can handle. Now that I’m in the expansion stage, they are helping me with that too.”

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Bergen-Lafayette Montessori School

Myani Lawson attended Rising Tide Capital’s CBA Program in the winter of 2014. After visiting more than 30 schools in search of a high-quality preschool option for her daughter, she decided to open Bergen-Lafayette Montessori School, in an effort to offer what she was looking for, to a wider population of students. Bergen-Lafayette Montessori School is a dual-language preschool, kindergarten, and lower elementary school, currently serving 33 students from Hudson and Essex Counties.

“I decided to attend the CBA Program because though I was quite confident in my abilities as an educator, I really had no business know-how. I knew that if I wanted to keep my school operational, I would need more than a desire for every child to have access to a high-quality education. I knew I would need to understand how to sustain a business long term.”

The CBA Program provided Ms. Lawson with business skills that her teaching degree did not afford her. The concepts of cash flow, human resource management, and general business operations were quite foreign to her, but with the assistance she has received before, during and after the CBA Program, Ms. Lawson has been able to successfully start and grow her school over the past three years. She looks forward to serving many more children for years to come.

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Join the Rising Tide Capital community! If you would like to learn how you can support thier mission by volunteering, investing in our work, or learning about their programs, please visit www.RisingTideCapital.org