Meet Sue Babin: The Woman Behind RI’s Small Business Saturday
On Business Over Breakfast, we met with Sue Babin, the Special Projects Coordinator at the Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council (RIDDC), and the woman behind Small Business Saturday!
The RIDDC is a nationally-funded statewide advocacy agency that provides information and support to people with developmental disabilities and their families. While working for the state in the Department of Behavioral Health in the Developmental Disabilities Unit, Sue became more interested and involved with assisting people with disabilities and has been working for the RIDDC for 11 years. The RIDDC is an advocate to publicize information that's out there and families turn to the RIDDC when looking for information, especially families of individuals that are transitioning out of high school and entering the adult service system in Rhode Island. At times it can be confusing for people in terms of what a family member is eligible for, what kinds of support are available, etc. and the RIDDC is here to help!
Within the RIDCC are a couple of committees that members can be involved in. One of the committees works on policies and laws that are potentially going to be passed at the statehouse which people and families have input. Sue works on the Systems Advocacy committee which is involved with “thinking about what are the gaps in services? What are the things that if we were in charge of a system and could make some changes, what would we want to do that would benefit people with disabilities?” Sue shares. It is required by the federal government to put together a 5-year plan which lays out their goals and objectives. This 5-year plan is put together with a lot of community input which is gained through focus groups and understanding their wants and needs. Some of the needs and supports that come up have to do with limited income, finding affordable and safe housing, and employment opportunities. Looking at the next 5 years the RIDDC is going to try and come up with creative housing strategies.
In addition to the RIDDC Sue is known for her work with Small Business Saturday. Small Business Saturday began 5 years ago due to the number of families that had approached the council saying their family members wanted to start a business and needed help publicizing them so that they could make money. The council collaborated with the Center for Women & Enterprise, Veterans Business Outreach Center, and the Small Business Association to brainstorm what they could do. They discovered the American Express Initiative which was focused on creating the national day of Small Business Saturday and getting the state governments and people from the general community to shop on that day. They became a community champion of American Express and soon the idea of renting the Crowne Plaza hotel sparked and in that first year they had 94 vendors and 2000 customers.
“When customers came to the Crowne Plaza they didn't see someone as an individual with a disability. What they saw was an individual who was a business owner. Made me really proud of our role in that process because one of the things that we try to do as a council is to get the public to see people with disabilities as more like everybody else than different.”
2019 was the first year that the event was sold out and this year the event was extremely sold out with 165 vendors, 26 of them being businesses that were people with disabilities and over 3000 customers. Average sales that day were from $800 - $1,500 and they had one vendor that made $6,890 at the Small Business Saturday event.
The Small Business Saturday event has vendors from every regionalized area throughout the state of Rhode Island. The most rewarding part of it all is that they are making no money off of this event. The table fee is to cover the rent of the hotel and this is something that they are doing to promote all businesses including people with disabilities.
To learn more about Sue Babin and the Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council visit riddc.org
Each week on Business Over Breakfast, marketing experts Lori and Ben are joined by Rhode Island entrepreneurs who are living their dream of owning and running a business. If you’re a Rhode Island business owner and want to share your story please contact danielle@visualthrive.com and visit ShopLocalRhodeIsland to learn about other small businesses.
