Case Study: KEILANI STINSON
Business: Owner, Servants
     of the Divine
Location: Riverdale, Ga.
College: Flint River Technical College

Flint River Technical College helped Keilani Stinson realize her calling to start a home healthcare business. When college brochures arrived in the mail, the nursing program caught her eye. Soon, she had quit her textile factory job, applied for a HOPE Grant and was pursuing a diploma in practical nursing.

“Nursing made me feel complete,” she says. “The coursework was difficult, but my teachers encouraged me.” After graduating in 2000, Stinson began working for a home healthcare company and decided to start her own company.

Within a year, she had received a preliminary license for her own home healthcare business, Servants of the Divine. The name of her company reflects her personal mission. “By helping others,” she says, “I believe I am serving God. He made this possible for me.”

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The center, which McDonald credits with directly creating more than 20 jobs so far, was also of great value in recruiting two new major manufacturers to the area. Pirelli Tires and Suzuki, which recently opened an ATV plant in Rome, both used the BEC for temporary site headquarters while their own facilities were under construction. “We housed Pirelli for a year while they built their facility; Suzuki was here for more than a year,” says McDonald. “We provided desks and Internet access, really free of charge. All they paid for were their long-distance fees.”

Bruce McClearen of Beocarta has nothing but praise for the BEC. Noting that his company, which does very specialized work for chemical and pharmaceutical companies, has very specialized needs, McClearen says the center went to great lengths, including installing necessary infrastructure, to accommodate requisite laboratory and storage equipment. “Everyone here has just been really great to work with,” he says. Even the location is an asset. “We needed to be near major universities and laboratories [in Atlanta],” he notes, but “at the same time, this is a very competitive business. We needed to be a bit out of the way, too.”

Ninety-five percent and growing
At 95 percent capacity, Augusta Technical College’s SBI is a definite success story. Opened near the college campus in November 1999, the SBI was envisioned as a high-tech incubator, says Director Laura Geddings. However, the 2000 recession and, moreover, the September 11 attacks threw an unforeseen obstacle in the new incubator’s path. “An obvious result was that a lot of the IT companies just left,” she says. “After 9/11, we had three that basically moved back home. They saw a real fall in sales over the Internet for Web design and online sales.

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“I didn’t expect for the business to become so successful this quickly,” says Hall, who praises the technical training he received from instructor Bobby Kimball. “I credit him for leading me in the right direction,” Hall says. “There are not enough people out there with skills anymore,” says Hall, who employs eight full-time employees. “Southeastern Tech offers that kind of training.”