Maplewood Business Owner Named $10,000 Prize Finalist

Maplewood Business owner Sandra Charlap, who owns The Craft Loft, has advanced to the final round of the Start Something Challenge business pitch competition organized by Rising Tide Capital.

In the Grand Finale, the finalists will pitch their ideas to a panel of celebrity judges for an opportunity to win $10,000 to finance their business.

“It's really more than a $10,000 prize because they opened my eyes to the necessity of social media,” she said Charlap. “I wasn't really utilizing all of those platforms and now in order to win this contenst, I have to access these platforms and think about how I wanted to find people to go look at my video and vote on it.”

Charlap saw an advertisement for the contest in a local newspaper and signed up and submitted her video just 24 hours before the deadline, she said.

“I'm a craft workshop business and it's a wide array of crafts. To be able to get the tools and equipment so I can continue to expand these kind of offerings would be great,” said Charlap. “A lot of this equipment is pricey like a kiln, dye cut machine, drills and sewing machines, all these things start to add up.”

“Just getting the studio outfitted with all the supplies and to be able to get people in there and excited would be a huge win for me,” she added.

One hundred and seven entrepreneurs from 38 towns and cities throughout New Jersey entered the Challenge, with 30 advancing to the semifinals of the competition on October 23.

The semifinalists used various online and offline marketing tools to drive traffic to view and vote for their videos on the Start Something Challenge website.

To prepare them for the second round of the competition, RTC hosted a free marketing seminar to provide SSC participants and the general public with information on crafting and enhancing their messages with effective design as well as engaging customers with video. Two entrepreneurs from each of the five Challenge business sectors advanced to the Finals of the competition.

“This has been a long journey for all of the semifinalists,” said Esther Fraser, director of communications at Rising Tide Capital. “They have all worked incredibly hard to build momentum around their businesses and business ideas, and this is what participation in the Start Something Challenge is all about--not just the $22,500 in cash prizes at the end of the competition. Rising Tide Capital is truly proud of each of the ten entrepreneurs who have made it to this stage of the competition.”

The Grand Finale and live pitch will take place in Jersey City on November 18 to determine the three winners who will win cash prizes at Start Something Champions Gala on December 10. An panel of ten judges, including Regina Gwyn director of marketing of The Apparel Group and Stacey Flanagan director of Health & Human Services, City of Jersey City, will decide on the winners.

Finalists include:

• Sandra Charlap, Maplewood, NJ, The Craft Loft
• Evan Feil, Demarest, NJ, Mountables
• Alisa Geller, Hillsborough Township, NJ, Great Helm Technologies, LLC
• Amy Williamson, Nutley, NJ, Food for the Soul Train
• Kendra Beelen, Jersey City, NJ, KGB Fitness
• Coretta Owusu, Irvington, NJ, aSuiteStay
• Vance Lavington, Irvington, NJ, Not Just Cookies
• Elizabeth Migliore, Jersey City, NJ, Jersey City Veggie Burgers
• Tiffany Perry, Jersey City, NJ, BODYCAFE
• Nicole Silva, West Orange, NJ, DollyMoo