Ashley Taylor heard about Comcast RISE from a friend who is also a woman business owner – advice she has since paid forward herself, after being chosen as a technology makeover recipient by the initiative. Now, she’s applying again in the latest cohort. This window – which opened on Jan. 16 and closes on June 17 – is different from those that have come before, though: It’s the first since the program was expanded to include all women-owned businesses.

Comcast RISE stands for Representation, Investment, Strength and Empowerment, and since it launched in November 2020, more than 6,700 small businesses owned by people of color have benefitted from its distributed $60 million in grants, marketing and technology services. As it happens, nearly 70% of those small businesses have been owned by women of color. That fact prompted Comcast to take a harder look at the challenges women business owners face, and then, ultimately, to open eligibility for RISE to all women-owned businesses.

There are three additional services businesses can apply for, beyond the tech makeover Taylor received: marketing strategy consulting, a media campaign, or a media campaign that also includes production of a commercial for your business. This time around, Taylor is eyeing the media/commercial and marketing packages – “The more eyes on your business, it’s always helpful,” she said. But the first time around she wasn’t as certain.

“At first I didn’t know what package I needed, or I wanted, or I could use at all. … That was being small-minded for my business,” she said. But following her first experience with the program, her viewpoint has shifted. “I’m kind of glad the tech package was the first one because it allowed me to kind of centralize my thoughts and focus for what I would need to move forward,” she said. “And sometimes if you get the big ask before you’re ready for it, it jacks you up so I’m kind glad it went the way it did.”

The way it went

Taylor is one of nearly 150 New Jerseyans to win a package from Comcast RISE. Her business is Creative Motion Arts Center in Voorhees, where she offers professional and artistic training in theater, performing arts and dance, that it is affordable to the community. Her tech makeover included a year of complimentary internet and cybersecurity services, along with three iPads, two laptops and a desktop computer. Though she already had internet service, Taylor said getting a reprieve from paying for it was great. “[I]n a small business, you know every penny is counting, so that break of not paying for internet is amazing,” she said, adding that the timing was beneficial, as well, due to the pandemic.

As far as cybersecurity goes, Taylor, like many small business owners, didn’t think it was really something she needed to be concerned about before she had a system in place. Now, she’s checking weekly and monthly reports to review the activity. “I’m like, this is really interesting,” she said. “And that’s the other thing about kind of broadening my mind, because at first … I was not concerned with … internet security, but after I realized all that it did, I said ‘actually this is really great.’” Since she’s been able to access information on web traffic regarding her business, Taylor also has a newfound appreciation for her website.

“The more business-minded you get you understand, like you need the visits to your website to drive the sales and all of that works together.”
The physical equipment she received, though, really packed a punch. Taylor described the impact as huge. She no longer must use her personal devices – leaving her phone unattended to play music in a classroom – and gone are her days of paper registration and sign-ups. Now, she can use the iPad (which can be wiped clean). And it felt good to take a green turn by going paperless, she said. The equipment allowed her to expand her offerings with virtual classes.

Beyond the benefits Taylor received, Comcast allows tech makeover recipients to add additional services to their package, which could include adding a calling feature to their voice services – like an 800 number or a hunt group – or WiFi Pro, the company’s product for controlling public versus private WiFi.

If Taylor’s experience is any indication, though, devices aren’t the only takeaways from Comcast RISE. At first, she said she was a little intimated by the application, because of the ways it made her think about her enterprise. She said as an entrepreneur embarking with a small business that latter phrase can seem limiting. “Because you think small. You think, ‘It’s just me. I’m just teaching these classes at the rec center.’ … [Y]ou don’t want to think of it as a big deal, and really, the questions on the application had me to think of myself as a big deal. And I think that was honestly a turning point for me as a business owner,” she said. “Because, yes my business is small now, but it’s not always going to be small, so I have to think about it as a big business, even though it’s currently small.”

And she’s certainly thinking big: Taylor says she’s started two other businesses since becoming a Comcast RISE recipient. “I think it really opened my eyes to my own possibilities and business possibilities,” she said. “[I]t definitely opened my eyes to the ‘more’ that’s available and to think different as a business owner.” Taylor said being a Comcast RISE recipient has also opened doors for her. And she’s spreading the word the same way it was spread to her so that others can have a chance at the experience. “It makes it more attainable when someone – like a real person – you can say got the prize,” she said. “[B]eing able to say like, ‘Hey, no – I actually won this, they actually sent me what they said they were going to send me; it’s legit.’

“Then they say, ‘maybe I should apply, if she got it, then maybe I can do it.’ “

Comcast RISE opens applications quarterly, selecting approximately 560 businesses each time on a rolling basis.