Chisel in hand, Chris Carroll peered into the bottom of the wooden bowl as it spun on the lathe. Sliding the chisel inside it, he smoothed the bowl’s inside edges with sawdust bouncing off his protective goggles.
Then Carroll handed the chisel to his only full-time employee — so far. What Carroll Woodcrafts Unlimited lacks in size, its owner makes up for in ambition.
“I’d like to put six more people to work,” Carroll said.
A decision to extend an innovative program for unemployed workers with an entrepreneurial bent means more people like Carroll could soon be putting others to work.
Carroll, of Mill Spring in Rutherford County, is one of 119 previously unemployed North Carolinians who have started businesses after participating in Project GATE. Formally known as Growing America Through Entrepreneurship, the project was launched in 2009 as part of a two-year, federally funded demonstration.
North Carolina was one of only four states taking part in the demonstration. With the federal program drawing to a close, the six organizations collaborating on the North Carolina project have decided its success warrants extending it through 2012.
They’re also expanding its reach. Although the core program targets unemployed rural workers, state workers laid-off by recent budget cuts will be eligible to participate regardless of where they live.
“Thanks to this program, we’ve got 119 new businesses out there – and twice as many jobs,” said Billy Ray Hall, president of the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center, one of the sponsoring organizations. “That’s no small achievement in this economy.”
The N.C. Department of Commerce is leading the North Carolina project, in collaboration with the N.C. Community College System, the N.C. Employment Security Commission, North Carolina REAL Enterprises, the state’s JobLink Career Centers and the Rural Center.
GATE entrepreneurs become educated in the bottom-up process of self-employment through a combination of personal assessments, business courses and one-on-one counseling. Services are coordinated through the small business centers of eight community colleges — Edgecombe, Isothermal, Lenoir, Randolph, Richmond, Robeson, Rockingham and Western Piedmont – and the Rural Center. (See Project GATE service area and sites.)
Project GATE has so far assisted 900 clients who have started 119 businesses, which in turn have created 229 jobs.
GATE is extending its services during a time of profound need. North Carolina’s unemployment rate was 9.7 percent in May, only a slight decrease from May 2009, when it reached 10.9 percent.
For Chris Carroll, 39, the need hit when he lost his construction job in December 2009. He enrolled in GATE after seeing a newspaper ad about the program. At Isothermal Community College, he took classes in bookkeeping and marketing while building a personal relationship with GATE counselor Faye Bishop.
Carroll applied an extraordinary amount of enthusiasm and motivation to his new endeavor, Bishop said.
“When he had the opportunity to enroll in the program, he was gung-ho to take the classes and build on his skills,” she said, which later translated into sales.
He started Carroll Woodcrafts Unlimited and opened a studio in the Mill Spring business incubator in May 2010. After learning about business marketing through GATE, he started a website and crafted advertising to use when he appears at craft festivals. Carroll also devoted time to selling himself and his business, building an elaborate bartering network with tree haulers and tradesmen in his area, trading his time and skills for others’ raw materials and labor.
Among Carroll’s woodshop strengths: building furniture, designing elaborate birdhouses and wooden bowls that bring $80 at arts and crafts fairs.
“If you have an idea, I can create it,” Carroll said.
But his creations move beyond the wooden arts. Carroll also creates jobs, so far hiring one full-time and one part-time worker. He dreams of soon adding equipment to expand the business.
Those interested in the GATE program should visit their local JobLink Center, which will help determine eligibility. Applications are available at the JobLink centers, as well as at www.ncprojectgate.org. Additional information is available toll-free at 1-877-9NC-GATE.
Chris Carroll is the owner of Carroll Woodcrafts Unlimited in Tryon, NC. After 20 years of building custom homes, he began focusing on fine woodworking and specialty wood sales. In 2011, he was chosen as the NC spokesman for the Growing American Through Entrepreneurship program. He currently teaches wood working classes at the Tryon Arts and Crafts Center. 