LI firms wade into the federal grant process

Women and minorities who own businesses and others who want to start one gathered in a small basement room at the Hempstead Public Library one morning last week to learn how they might secure federal grants to help build small companies.

The quick answer: Not so easily. But some already knew that.

"You ask for so much paperwork," Elizabeth Rois, whose Hempstead-based Temp's Unlimited Llc provides commercial janitorial services, told Clyde Martin, a small-business development specialist for the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Martin, who was conducting a seminar on federal grants at a meeting sponsored by the nonprofit Hempstead-based Black Women Enterprises, said the government must do its checking to prevent "waste, fraud and abuse." About 30 people attended the two-hour session.

Later, Rois said that dealing with government agencies can be maddening. After months of filling out paperwork, sending in tax and other documents, and sometimes re-filing the same forms, Rois said, she has not even received a response to her requests. "I registered on all the websites," she said. "I didn't see anything."

Gina Slater Parker, Black Women Enterprises president and chief executive, said winning government contracts has become even more difficult as agencies face sharp cutbacks in funding. "The opportunities just don't exist as much," Slater Parker said. But women and minorities must redouble their efforts, she said.

That's what yoga instructor Santreessa Bent, of Uniondale, plans to do. "I'm just getting started, and time is of the essence," Bent said.

Taylor Ruth Raynor, president and co-founder with Jason Murray of Choice Concierge of Hempstead, which provides personal services such as baby-sitting and personal shopping, said she is determined to get the company off to a fast start.

"This," she said of government contracting, "is unchartered territory, but I'm not going to close myself off from anything."