We were lucky to catch up with Christine Howard recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Christine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job?

How you treat your employees and the culture you create within the company really matters. I firmly believe that if you treat your employees the way you want to be treated – they will treat the clients/customers exceptionally well. Many times, I took note of the good and bad and thought to myself – “if I ever am lucky enough to have my own company, I am doing “X” or not doing “Y”.

Example 1: In a previous position – 100% of my health insurance premiums were covered by the company. This allowed for the employee not to fret about how much was being taken out of their paycheck. Not thinking about healthcare – was a huge weight off of our shoulders. Today – if an employee needs coverage, 1) They can pick out the coverage carrier they want – we do this so that their Drs are in-network for them (we are remote based), 2) we pick up 100% of the insurance premiums.

Example 2: Time Off. In a previous position – PTO was earned and metered out over the calendar year. Everyone who is full-time gets their PTO at the start of the year and in full. They can use it. However, they like and when they like. If an employee needs an extra day – fine, they get an extra day. If that means the employee is happy so they can have time off the grid – then do it. I firmly believe that accrual PTO is a way of preventing employees from taking and using their time effectively. This also means that when they are off the clock – they are off the clock. That means no email or phone calls to employees who are not on the clock.

Example 3: Treating your employees like adults. Nothing like a micromanaging employee manual that says how they can dress at work. (e.g., no T-shirts or open-toed shoes (other than safety reasons), must wear stockings). I firmly believe that if an employee is given the ability to act like an adult and not be micromanaged – they will flourish. We still expect the work to be done and get the work done on time – correctly.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

How did I start? I think running a business has always been in my blood. As a kid, I remember playing “restaurant” or “office” on my parent’s front porch. It never occurred to me while growing up or through college, or even early in my career, that I could be an entrepreneur. There was so much static and pushback from the people around me – pushing me to go to college and get a job. A job. A job working for someone else. Business ownership was for them. I was not to concern myself with them and what they were doing. I was to focus on my education and JOB. And that is what I did all the way up to the summer of 2013.

That morning, before lunch, I was laid off. Not fired; laid-off. It is a funny thing when one is laid off. You have an identity crisis of sorts. You identify yourself by what you do. “Who are you? What do you do?”. In society, you are expected to be able to answer those questions with a resounding and confident response. How do you answer that you are between jobs without sounding like you are a failure? If you don’t have an answer, something must be wrong with you.

All of this came on the heels of an incredibly horrible year for our family. We had two untimely deaths in our family (March and May). In early June – we found out that my father had cancer. Then late June came – and I was laid off.

I filed for unemployment, and I began the process of interviewing for positions. I interviewed a lot. More than I thought I would. By the time I stopped interviewing and started working at my company full-time, I would know before the interview even started if I wanted to work there or not and if they were looking for someone more compliant, experienced, educated, etc… basically – not me. Just sitting and waiting in the lobby, I could get a sense of the type of company it was, their operations, how they treated their employees, how their clients were treated… all sorts of information. All of this I kept putting in the back of my mind – “Someday when I own a company… I am doing this” or “I am not doing that”.

November 2013 – We needed a vacation and to disconnect. I needed to hit the reset button (Interviews, death, cancer, job loss, identity crisis). On the way, we stopped in LA for a few days to see an old friend who my husband grew up with. We went to the Rainbow Bar and Lounge (a famous 80’s punk rock haunt) on the Sunset Strip. We were secretly hoping to see Motörhead frontman Lemmy.

I am sitting there just venting to my friend about 2013 and how much it has sucked and how much I hated interviewing for jobs and basically unloading about life over a cocktail or two. In the middle of one of my rants, he stops me… and says, “Let me tell you something…You haven’t arrived unless you have been fired or laid off. Anyone who is anyone has been fired or laid off. You don’t need a job. You know what you have to do. You have arrived, now change the world.”

I had so many nay-sayers (including myself) that I didn’t think it was even an option for me. Since I was laid off, I just kept putting out resumes and going to interviews. It was surreal sitting at this famous bar with a cocktail in my hand in a room with what I am sure was full of former or current rock and punk legends (I couldn’t identify any of them if you asked me to, though my husband sure could). This is what I needed to hear. Don’t get me wrong. I heard a lot from a lot of people after I was laid off.

Some people said really great things to me (including my husband, who has always been my biggest advocate and cheerleader). None of it, though… No one said it like this in a way that clicked. This is where and how E.B. Howard Consulting was started over a cocktail in the Rainbow Bar on the Sunset Strip.

E.B. Howard Consulting has come a long way since the Rainbow Bar in LA. I didn’t know it then – but getting laid off was the best thing that could have happened to me.

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Christine E.B. Howard is passionate about equal and equitable access to funding (dilutive and non-dilutive) for historically underrepresented founders of start-ups. It is her ambition to support the innovation ecosystem and promote inclusive economic growth. She believes inclusivity is imperative for innovation, and building a strong and diverse economy where all our citizens thrive is essential.

She actively mentors and advises small businesses through programs like the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps™), Columbia Technology Ventures, Verizon Forward for Good Accelerator, NYSERDA’s EIR Program, Startup Grind, and many others. She has also served as a pitch judge for start-up competitions like 43North, Female Founders in Tech & (FinTech and InsurTech) competitions, E^3 and NYBPC, and many others.

She is a Buffalo/Niagara National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) Past Board Member and Past President. She has served as Sponsorship Committee Chair, Programming Committee Chair, and Nominating Committee Chair. She is also an active member of the Chapter’s Diversity and Inclusion Task Force.

Her awards include being listed in the Haverling Hall of Distinction – Alumni Award in June 2019 and the Distinguished Alumni Award named as Parsons Community Service Award in October 2018 for her work with a small team of women business owners in addressing challenges encountered by the Minority and Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) processes in New York State.

Christine is a proud alumnus of the Corning Community College and the University at Buffalo – the State University of New York, holding two Bachelor’s Degrees and a Master’s Degree. She has 15+ years of experience in developing non-dilutive funding resources, grant writing, designing evidence-based projects and activities, monitoring the implementation of those projects, and evaluating and providing feedback for continuous program improvement.

She has extensive experience advising and working with various technical-focused projects that involve applying operational research theory and methodology, developing logic models, and projects that require applying knowledge of mixed-methods research design and experimental design and analysis.

Her firm is certified as a women-owned business with NYS, NYC, and SBA.

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E.B. Howard Consulting helps startups and those that support the startup ecosystem find funding, apply for funding, and measure the success of funding.

Our focus is to work with startups that have a common goal to develop, fund, and implement innovative STEM-based solutions to various social, cultural, or environmental issues, as well as venture capital firms, accelerators, and other non-profit organizations that have a focus on propelling the startup and innovation ecosystem.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Our pivot was really a process of elvoving into what we are today. When I started, we focused solely on providing evaluation services for grant-funded projects. After working with a client, they wanted help with preparing proposal. Eventually it esticlated into locating funding for clients.

During this evolution we were working with everyone and anyone. It really felt like we were being pulled in all sorts of directs and with no clarity on services we provided. One client would want a pitch deck and another would be a CBO and needing a logic model for strategic planning.

Going through business coaching really helped me refine who we want… Startups in the innovation ecosystem and those that support the innovation ecosystem.

This typically high-growth startups & small businesses that have a common goal to develop, fund, and implement innovative STEM-based solutions to various social, cultural, or environmental issues. These companies are typically in the pre-seed or seed stage, are ready to develop or have a minimum viable product, have founders that have domain expertise and a great team, have evidence of early traction, have revenue or a clear path to revenue within 12/18 months, and have a strong value proposition. We also work with venture capital firms, accelerators, and other non-profit organizations that have a focus on propelling the startup and innovation ecosystem.

Doing this allowed us to Yes to our ideal clients and NO to those that did not align with what we do as an organization.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Consistency with the same message of who we are and what we do. It sounds silly, but given our industry, being true to our word (in alignment with our message) really makes a big impact. There are all sorts of grant writers out there. Some have ethics; some don’t. Some specialize in certain industries (non-profits, higher ed, or education). We really spent time getting the word out about what we do and don’t do, and being consistent with the message has really paved the way for us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ebhoward.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cebhoward/
• Other: https://linktr.ee/brinkhus