Local Woman Opens Small Biz Thanks to 'Pathway to Work'

During the summer, Gov. Maggie Hassan, D-Exeter, signed into law the Pathway to Work program, a bill that she and others had been working on for a number of years, to help those who are collecting unemployment to start their own businesses.

On Jan. 28, about six months into the program, Hassan, as well as co-sponsors state Sen. Sylvia Larsen, D-Concord and state Sen. David Boutin, R-Hooksett and others, came together at the Legislative Office Building to highlight the program’s achievements so far, and announce a new $20,000 grant for the program.

Forty-six people who have been out of work are currently involved with the program with some launching their own businesses with the help of officials at New Hampshire Employment Security and the New Hampshire Small Business Development Center.

Julia Heinlein of Portsmouth said she and her husband were considering leaving the state to look for work after months of trying to find a job. She lost her job after the OB/GYN facility she was working at for six years shuttered. Three months into her unsuccessful job search, she received an invite from the state about the Pathway to Work program and enrolled in October 2013. Three weeks ago, she opened her own laser removal service, Vanish Laser Studio, a process she was performing as a service at the OB/GYN facility.

“I seriously don’t know how someone could work full-time or do a job search full-time while at the same time trying to pursue opening a new business,” she said. “I feel very fortunate to have been selected to have been participate in the program. Now I’m very proud to call myself a small business owner in Portsmouth.”

Reinig Morris of Manchester, who had previously worked in the newspaper and media business for about a decade, most recently, in digital marketing, shared a similar experience. The program assisted him in creating Platypost LLC, a company that has developed software to assist media companies with social media site promotion and interactivity with their customers. Platypost LLC has 20 clients and hoped to have more than 100 by the end of the year.

“It’s been a ton of work but a whole lot of fun,” he said. “Working for Platypost full-time has really taken what was an after work hobby into a viable business.”

Hassan commended the program and said it will lead to more people creating their own businesses and later, hiring more New Hampshire residents to work at those businesses. She also thanked Citizens Bank Foundation, which also announced that it was donating $20,000 to assist the program.

Both Larsen and Boutin, who didn’t speak at the event but had a staffer circulate a press statement for him, praised the public-private partnership and hailed it as a bipartisan initiative worthy of highlighting.