at reviving the local economy. It embraces small business development, workforce training, and attracting new and existing businesses and advanced manufacturing to the West Side. “T e mission of Bethel New Life is to transform the


West Side,” said Ed Coleman, vice president, community economic development.


Accessories business Riley conveys that same sense of mission when she talks about her goals for Accessory Me, the business she launched aſt er graduating from Bethel’s fi rst entrepre- neurial training class. Accessory Me (www.accessoryme.com) is a whole-


saler of fashion accessories with a showroom in a Bethel-owned building at a busy city intersection. Riley has been selling fashion accessories and costume jewelry for 12 years, mostly working on weekends and carrying her wares from beauty salon to beauty salon. Having her own business, she said, “is my life’s dream, my goal. T is is how I survive.” Riley earned enough to provide for herself and her


daughter and to get licensed as a real estate appraiser. When the bottom fell out of the real estate market, she decided to pursue the accessory business full time. T e Bethel program taught her how to prepare a business plan, promote her company, recruit employees, and raise money to help it grow and expand. As she moves forward, Riley has the advice and coun-


sel of David Onion, the mentor Bethel matched her with at the start of the program. Onion is CEO of Chicago Capital Holdings. From the beginning the program has


Back to the ’60s In the late ’60s and


’70s, Bethel Lutheran, Chicago, was part of a coalition of 20 West Side churches in a project called West Side Isaiah. Its aim was to build 250 homes in the area. When the other churches dropped out because of the expense, Bethel proceeded alone, and the project evolved into Bethel New Life (www. bethelnewlife.org).


The original project took its name and mission from Isaiah 58:9-12:


“If you remove the yoke from among you the pointing of the fi nger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the affl icted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually,


benefi ted from the partnership and participation of sev- eral major business and fi nancial organizations. All small business start-ups are risky ventures, but


Onion said Riley’s goals are realistic and achievable. Given the passion she brings to the eff ort and history in selling, he is hopeful she’ll succeed.


Successful accountant Ford was a member of the second class, or cohort, say Coleman and Curtis Roeschley. As director of Bethel’s Small Business Development Center, Roeschley is responsible for designing the program and recruiting participants. Ford completed the training program in December


2013, and in January 2014 she held the grand opening of I.N.K2 Tax Services (www.ink2taxservice.com) in the West Side neighborhood where she grew up. For the last 25 years she’s worked full time as an accounting supervi- sor for a computer company, 20 of those years also work- ing as a part-time tax preparer. Her new business serves individuals, small businesses


and nonprofi ts. As an independent tax preparer, Ford has some 300 clients all over Chicago. Ford opened her business at the start of the 2014 tax


season with two additional tax preparers and a reception- ist. She is heavily promoting her big strength: the IRS gives her a zero error rate for the past seven years. And she charges less for her services than her competition. She plans to retire from the computer company next


year and devote herself full time to the tax service. She hopes eventually to add more business clients and more tax preparers, and expand into the insurance business. 


and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.” Or, as a more recent


quote puts it: “If you build it, they will come.”


*The actual line from the fi lm Field of Dreams is: “If you build it, he will come.”


Author bio: Elliott is a freelance writer and member of Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit, Chicago.


May 2014 31


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