A licensed speech language pathologist, Calonda Henry is exceptionally eloquent when talking about JAX Bridges.
“It’s phenomenal. Entrepreneurs can’t go without this program. No matter where you are in your business, you will still get value. There are so many different things to learn to help you grow,” she gushed about the JAX Chamber program that helped take her business to unimagined levels.
Henry said her yearly gross profits have tripled since she participated in JAX Bridges’ Cohort 16 in spring 2022, three years after she founded Broad Horizons Speech Therapy.
Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, she worked in public and private schools, private businesses, hospitals and daycares providing speech and language therapy services to children up to age 18 struggling with such disorders as language impairments and delays, reading and auditory comprehension, stuttering, dyslexia, social skills and swallowing difficulty.
Because of her expertise in her field, people had encouraged her to see clients on the side and she got credentialed with Medicaid and some insurance companies. A high school friend who pleaded with Henry to help her daughter overcome significant speech difficulties became her first private-pay patient.
In spring 2020 she planned to celebrate her 30th birthday in Las Vegas, “not knowing the entire world was going to shut down,” she said. Homebound during the pandemic, she took advantage of opportunities to get more credentials and realized she did not want to go back to her school job and its massive caseload.
Although quitting was terrifying, her husband Michael was supportive and suggested that she pursue contracting her children’s therapy business with a school. By chance, Tiger Academy, a charter elementary school owned by the YMCA that serves students in low socio-economic areas of northwest Jacksonville, needed a speech pathologist and Charles McWhite, principal, offered Henry the contract in fall 2020.
Henry gained community exposure through a Black Entrepreneur Month episode on a local TV station and soon had her first office space in a building downtown, where she continued to see clients. Still feeling like she was “winging it,” she spotted an ad and enrolled in JAX Chamber’s Chamber 101 program that featured different aspects of business, such as contracting at the federal level and how the Chamber helps to enhance businesses.
“I think JAX Bridges would be great for you,” online class leader Anamaria Contreras told Henry.
Henry, who has a 6-year-old son, rearranged her schedule to attend the program that turned out to be invaluable to her business. By then she already had minority and woman-owned business certifications, and she learned about and went after others. She found sessions on value proposition particularly rewarding. “I did not understand what business profit margins were or what my verticals were. I rave about JAX Bridges all the time. That’s what really transformed my business,” she said.
Her capability statement drastically changed things from a school perspective because she was able to show everything she’s done, she said. Her pitch about needing more space was also a game changer.
“I started to get so busy, so busy… which led to where we are now, in our four-room office in our clinic on R.G. Skinner Parkway,” Henry said. “Everything escalated so quickly. The Chamber came and had a ribbon cutting.”
In addition to profit, Broad Horizons has considerably more staff, including six clinicians. It was awarded contracts for speech and occupational therapy services for Duval County public and private schools for the coming year. It also has contracts with Clay County School District and Kipp Jacksonville Public Schools. Henry was in JAX Chamber’s pilot program to be certified as a City of Jacksonville’s Small and Emerging Business and was designated a certified vendor in Duval County through JAX Bridges.
“After JAX Bridges, I was able to understand my numbers and where a lot of my profit was coming from, how to set my prices appropriately, and how to understand every different avatar,” said Henry, who admitted never using that word, meaning representation of an ideal client or customer, before hearing it in JAX Bridges. “We are treating kids but our avatar is the parents. They are our customers.”
Henry said she hadn’t realized what a leading city Jacksonville is for entrepreneurship.
“Often I have conversations with colleagues who are not attached to their chambers. Definitely, Jacksonville is on the rise for being innovative and staying ahead of the curve,” she said. “A lot of cities haven’t even touched on the topics we are talking about. That we have been given the tools and resources we have is amazing.”
To contact Calonda Henry:
Broad Horizons Speech Therapy
9191 R.G. Skinner Parkway, Unit 103, Jacksonville, FL 32256
(904) 428-8302
calonda@broadhorizonsspeech.com