{"id":13195,"date":"2018-12-13T07:38:13","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T12:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/risingtidecapital.org\/?p=13195"},"modified":"2019-09-27T11:32:17","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T16:32:17","slug":"edna-rashid-sustainability-in-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/risingtidecapital.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/13\/edna-rashid-sustainability-in-action\/","title":{"rendered":"EDNA RASHID\u2014SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I was sitting in a staff meeting when Keith Dent, our Director of Regional Programs mentioned that Edna Rashid, one of our Rising Tide Entrepreneurs, had landed a six-figure deal as a subcontractor on the new Verizon building in Newark. I got excited because, in a sea of thousands of Rising Tide Entrepreneurs, Edna is unforgettable.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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After she graduated from The Community Business Academy (CBA) in June 2014, she came to every event and participated in every activity hosted by Rising Tide Capital (RTC). I would see her face at every single workshop or seminar we held for at least a couple of years. She would come in early with her granddaughter and sit in class–not saying much–but she\u2019d be sitting near the front taking copious notes. Sometimes she would bring her son and business partner Qasim with her, and they\u2019d work together through the workshop topics. It was clear to me that Edna was incredibly driven to learn and to grow her family business.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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You see, Edna and Qasim started their business when Edna\u2019s oldest daughter Naimah died at 31 years old. In that moment, not only did Edna become the primary caretaker for her two grandchildren, but she was catapulted headfirst into her long-held dream of business ownership\u2014she now needed more flexibility than her job could offer. To build on Qasim\u2019s knowledge of mechanical insulation and green construction, this mom and grandmother started looking for resources to learn how to start a business, and this is when she found Rising Tide Capital and entered The Community Business Academy. In fact, she launched NF Insulation\u2014named for Naimah\u2019s Family\u2014while she was still in the CBA, and she has never looked back.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Just about all our programs staff\u2013-from Alfreda Rogers who manages our 90-Day Action Plan program, to Fred Dominguez who helped Edna get her first business loan, to Victoria Rodriguez who matched Edna to pro bono legal, marketing, and business plan assistance\u2014would say that Edna took advantage of every opportunity that Rising Tide Capital offers.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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I remembered Edna as a quiet, shy person who entered our annual business plan competition, The Start Something Challenge, on multiple occasions. She would tell me that she was stressed about potentially making it to the final of the competition and having to pitch, but that she was invested in learning through the process of being in the competition.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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When I called to congratulate her on the contract and to see if she would be interested in a follow-up story for our website, however, I was blown away by the lady who answered the phone.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She\u2019s still polite, warm, and soft-spoken, but the businesswoman I spoke to had a quiet resolution in her voice when she told me she aims to be the biggest creator of green jobs in the City of Newark. Her contract on the Verizon building had been extended several times. She was negotiating another big deal. She told me that the next level of support she needed from Rising Tide Capital was about learning how to scale her back office operations to match the growth in her business, including hiring for a few new positions for NF Insulation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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And then, she told me that she was going on vacation; her first vacation outside of the country. \u201cI\u2019ve grown up, Esther,\u201d she told me. \u201cI\u2019m going on vacation. By myself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Of everything I learned from Edna on that call, this was the thing that touched me the most. Yes, I was thrilled for her that her business was doing so well. I was inspired by how far her hard work and determination had brought her, and so impressed by her vision to create jobs in the green sector in the community she has lived in all her life. But for her to understand that at this stage she needed to take some time for herself, to rest and reflect, and also to think about the next stage of her business, to ensure that she is ready for whatever comes next? That is a level of self-awareness that I found to be truly impressive.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Recently, Edna\u2019s story was featured on Pix 11<\/a> on the Friday evening news. In the video Edna and Qasim are seen hard at work, already building the next part of Edna\u2019s vision\u2014mentoring young people at the International Youth Organization, where NF Insulation is a contractor.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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I get a bit emotional when thinking about how far she has come because Edna\u2019s story illustrates everything we mean when we at Rising Tide Capital say that we are \u201cTransforming Lives and Communities Through Entrepreneurship.\u201d For our entrepreneurs, starting a business is often something they do out of necessity–whether it is a need to have more flexibility, an outlet for their creativity and leadership, more dollars in their households, or even a need to have more control over their destiny. Their margins for error are narrow because they often do not have many resources–time or money–to sink into a business. But these resources are truly all that they lack. They bring all the other attributes of the word \u201centrepreneur\u201d to the table.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Because when given access, more than business ownership, and even more than wealth, what Rising Tide Entrepreneurs build is opportunity\u2014opportunity that they extend to their families, and throughout the communities in which they live. Stories like Edna\u2019s don\u2019t happen with a one-time investment, by Edna, our RTC staff or our dynamic community of funders. They happen over time through deep relationships, trust, and an unshakeable belief that what our entrepreneurs are pouring into the world will create lasting change.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was sitting in a staff meeting when Keith Dent, our Director of Regional Programs mentioned that Edna Rashid, one of our Rising Tide Entrepreneurs, had landed a six-figure deal as a subcontractor on the new Verizon building in Newark. I got excited because, in a sea of thousands of Rising Tide Entrepreneurs, Edna is unforgettable. After she graduated from The Community Business Academy (CBA) in June 2014, she came to every <\/p>\n

Learn More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,33,28],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[147],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEDNA RASHID\u2014SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION - Rising Tide Capital<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/risingtidecapital.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/13\/edna-rashid-sustainability-in-action\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EDNA RASHID\u2014SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION - Rising Tide Capital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was sitting in a staff meeting when Keith Dent, our Director of Regional Programs mentioned that Edna Rashid, one of our Rising Tide Entrepreneurs, had landed a six-figure deal as a subcontractor on the new Verizon building in Newark. 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