R.I. expo will help businesses learn to cut red tape - Providence Journal

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, September 3, 2011

By Kate Bramson

Journal Staff Writer

Opening a business in Rhode Island can be complicated and can require people to fill out many applications beforehand.

For example, the state requires a retail shop owner to complete six applications, but someone opening a spa must hand in 14 state forms, ranging from applications that simply allow the business to open to Health Department forms to offer massage therapy, according to the secretary of states office. And those dont include the local paperwork that a city or town might require.

Two state agencies hope a free event theyre sponsoring on Wednesday will make the process easier and more understandable for potential business owners.

Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis and the state Economic Development Corporation will hold the We Mean Business Expo from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick.

In the grand ballroom from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the expo offers people interested in starting businesses or expanding existing ones the opportunity to meet face-to-face with employees from about 70 government agencies, including a number of individual towns and cities, who can answer questions about how to proceed, Mollis spokesman Chris Barnett said.

Its like speed dating for small businesses, Barnett said. Instead of leaving the usual voice mail or e-mail or surfing an agencys website, the expo enables you to sit down with a real person and talk through the issues that are important to your business.

In a separate area of the ballroom labeled the Smart Start Room, people can get even more specific advice about what type of corporation might work best for a particular business idea, patents, trademarks, tax documentation and federal identification numbers. That area will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The idea for the whole day is to make the process easy for business owners, in response to the biggest complaint people have about working with government, which Barnett says is too much red tape.

Additionally, the expo offers these free seminars:

10 a.m. Keynote address, Giovanni Feroce, CEO of Cranston jewelry company Alex and Ani, Reclaiming the future through American manufacturing;

11 a.m. to noon State fire marshals office session on the state fire code.

Those interested should pre-register by calling (401) 222-2185, or going online at www.wemeanbusinessri.com.

kbramson@projo.com