Alleyne & Co. LLC is a certified Black American Woman Owned Small/ Minority Business Enterprise created to serve as a resource to non-uniformed, civilian employees who work, or are interested in working, in the correctional environment. As a subsidiary, Civilian Correction Academy offers organizations and their employees consultancy, pre-boarding and in-service training, mentoring and career planning services; filling the knowledge gap and making for a safer environment and increasingly dependable collective intelligence.
As a civilian who worked for nearly two decades in corrections, Connie decided she would take everything she learned about corrections to provide guidance to those working in the industry, as often civilian employees are not equipped with formal training. Her gift back to the industry came in the form of the Civilian Correction Academy.
After a year of research to determine the business viability of her idea, Connie came to CTSBDC looking for assistance accessing operating capital, securing her first client, and reviewing her business plan.
Alleyne & Co. and CTSBDC: A Success Story
In particular, as Connie and her advisor, Sade Owoye, worked on securing financing Connie was able to see how in this niche market, a large part of her business would involve working with government contracts. “I didn’t know what to do about that,” commented Connie. “There were elements I didn’t even know needed to be in there.”
Sade partnered with the Connecticut Procurement Technical Assistance Center (CTPTAC) to provide Connie with the registration and procurement assistance she needed to start to contract with state and federal agencies.
Additionally, CTSBDC was able to provide market research from SBDCNet, IBIS World, and IndustriusCFO to help position her business plan and model to lenders. For Connie, the financial projection tool Bottomline proved extremely valuable.
“An MBA is wonderful, but when you are putting together your business plan you want it to translate into a manner that banks could use,” explained Connie, “It was much better than me trying to fumble through it.”
That collaborative effort paid off, as Connie was able to secure a $25,000 line of credit to support her initial operating costs.
As Connie looks to the future of her business she is excited as business prospects are now reaching out inquiring about her consulting services. “The pot is boiling, are we ready to eat finally?” Connie jokingly asked. “Working with CTSBDC prepared me for these conversations, we got everything together as we built the business plan, and now it is just picking those pieces out so I can have these conversations.”
“CTSBDC was a tremendous resource and I have referred quite a few people,” shared Connie. “There are things you may not know you need that they are going to be able to give you. We can be very myopic as entrepreneurs, but working with CTSBDC, it brought other things to the table.”
"It has been a pleasure working with Constantine Alleyne. It is inspiring to see her flourish and garner national attention as a thought leader, entrepreneur, professor, author, advocate and motivational speaker as well as podcaster. I am confident her dedication to servant leadership and passion for change will have an everlasting impact on the correctional landscape and civilian employees."
- Sade Owoye, CTSBDC Business Advisor
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