From the battlefield to business: Disabled veteran Tawayna Peeples leaves her mark with a state-of-the-art fingerprint enterprise
Giving into serenity allowed Newark native and business owner Tawayna Peeples to latch on to her niche on Lock Street in downtown Newark.
Life and business can be seen as a beautiful struggle with defining moments that make or break us. On one hand, they contextualize where we have been. In other ways, they carve out paths we must travel. This perspective shaped Tawayna Green, who had to reach deep into her soul after unexpectedly leaving the military. When her career options veered from her initial plan, Green knew she had to craft her own story. After years of gig jumping and serial entrepreneur jaunting, today she owns, Project 850 Notary and Fingerprinting, a fingerprint and background check business in Newark’s central business district.
Located just on the outskirts of the thriving, diverse financial sector, Green’s venture is a multi-service biometric compliance and identity management company that was registered in May 2020. In November 2021, Project 850 officially opened up shop on 105 Lock Street. Hers is the only fingerprinting business in New Jersey to offer same-day fingerprint cards, where other places can set you back two weeks. Yet, it took her a decade to get here.
The South Ward, Weequahic section Newarker is a warm-toned woman with a beaming ivory smile and inviting, genial nature. Yet like her locs, her history is a fascinating cascade of intertwined experiences. Although Green is still completing a rugged road to remap her life, she remains committed to generational healing as she dutifully finds purpose.
“I have been on this journey of finding out who I am…[and,] I am still learning, everyday,” Green expressed to Ark Republic. “[But a]bout 10 years ago, the idea of entrepreneurship made me cry. I would have this overwhelming sense of guilt and it would make me feel [a]shame[d] to think that I could possibly be a business.”
With her business, Green finally found what she believes is a fitting amalgamation of offering security and legitimacy to a community lacking an essential resource for safety. Knowing firsthand that a healed community needs to feel protected, she transferred her formal military experience to white collar work. That said, she was able to do so while filling a void, as there are only a few places in Newark outside of identity-related service provider Identogo, or bureaucratic agencies that offer similar essential services.
Along with her husband, Green’s nuclear family–which includes six children–helps keep operations afloat. Ultimately, she wants to leave generational wealth and an enterprise that is easy to learn; which is a luxury many Newarkers cannot afford. According to the US Census, one-fourth of residents in Black-and-Latino-majority cities live in poverty. Now while rents rise in Newark specifically, the income per capita is about $21,000 from 2016 to 2020.
There are seemingly only three institutions that now thrive outside of the immediate region—the bodega, the liquor store and Chinese fast food. Even within these vice fronts, none or extremely few are Black owned or operated. This is the case for most enterprises in Newark–Black people are slowly bled out for a lack of mainstream information or resources.
Yet, once upon a time, Newark’s local African American commercial life was vibrant and vital. From downtown to Newark’s adjoining city, Maplewood, the Springfield Avenue corridor was lined with Black businesses servicing the community even during segregation. Butchers, barbers, bakeries, hair salons, clothing retailers, small grocers and laundromats dotted the major streets.
Missing the high-Black business activity in Newark, Peeples was born at a time when fiscal uncertainty awaited the average Black Newarker. Like many residents born as industries left urban America, folk like Green were almost forced to delve into multiple fields and entrepreneurial pursuits to find their footing. At 18-years-old, she enlisted in a three-year career in the U.S Army. Next, she received a Bachelor’s in social work from Seton Hall University in 2008. In a switch of careers, she went on to become a licensed cosmetologist then a state-appointed notary. The latter license obtained during the pandemic, is what offered the ultimate opportunity.
Located just on the outskirts of the thriving, diverse financial sector, Green’s venture is a multi-service biometric compliance and identity management company that was registered in May 2020. In November 2021, Project 850 officially opened up shop on 105 Lock Street. Hers is the only fingerprinting business in New Jersey to offer same-day fingerprint cards, where other places can set you back two weeks. Yet, it took her a decade to get here.
The South Ward, Weequahic section Newarker is a warm-toned woman with a beaming ivory smile and inviting, genial nature. Yet like her locs, her history is a fascinating cascade of intertwined experiences. Although Green is still completing a rugged road to remap her life, she remains committed to generational healing as she dutifully finds purpose.
“I have been on this journey of finding out who I am…[and,] I am still learning, everyday,” Green expressed to Ark Republic. “[But a]bout 10 years ago, the idea of entrepreneurship made me cry. I would have this overwhelming sense of guilt and it would make me feel [a]shame[d] to think that I could possibly be a business.”
With her business, Green finally found what she believes is a fitting amalgamation of offering security and legitimacy to a community lacking an essential resource for safety. Knowing firsthand that a healed community needs to feel protected, she transferred her formal military experience to white collar work. That said, she was able to do so while filling a void, as there are only a few places in Newark outside of identity-related service provider Identogo, or bureaucratic agencies that offer similar essential services.
Along with her husband, Green’s nuclear family–which includes six children–helps keep operations afloat. Ultimately, she wants to leave generational wealth and an enterprise that is easy to learn; which is a luxury many Newarkers cannot afford. According to the US Census, one-fourth of residents in Black-and-Latino-majority cities live in poverty. Now while rents rise in Newark specifically, the income per capita is about $21,000 from 2016 to 2020.
There are seemingly only three institutions that now thrive outside of the immediate region—the bodega, the liquor store and Chinese fast food. Even within these vice fronts, none or extremely few are Black owned or operated. This is the case for most enterprises in Newark–Black people are slowly bled out for a lack of mainstream information or resources.
Yet, once upon a time, Newark’s local African American commercial life was vibrant and vital. From downtown to Newark’s adjoining city, Maplewood, the Springfield Avenue corridor was lined with Black businesses servicing the community even during segregation. Butchers, barbers, bakeries, hair salons, clothing retailers, small grocers and laundromats dotted the major streets.
Missing the high-Black business activity in Newark, Peeples was born at a time when fiscal uncertainty awaited the average Black Newarker. Like many residents born as industries left urban America, folk like Green were almost forced to delve into multiple fields and entrepreneurial pursuits to find their footing. At 18-years-old, she enlisted in a three-year career in the U.S Army. Next, she received a Bachelor’s in social work from Seton Hall University in 2008. In a switch of careers, she went on to become a licensed cosmetologist then a state-appointed notary. The latter license obtained during the pandemic, is what offered the ultimate opportunity.
Foot Prints In the Sand
We have good brothers and sisters but they’re financially poor. REFAL stands for Reconstructing Economics for African Love. I like to provide a space and opportunities for us to understand “How do we take our money to do the things that need to be done.” It’s an economics problem but what we lack is love. Love of self. And you can tell because if we really loved ourselves, neighborhoods would be different now, but we aren’t control of things. It’s about power – but how do you get power? You get power by being in control of yourself. And we’re not really in control of ourselves. Because we don’t know who we are. The school system is not going to give it to us so I used to lend this space out a lot of times with little children. Its important to exercise and get knowledge.
This building we are in used to be an old ice cream parlor. We got this place, but we couldn’t hold events in it at first because it needed so much work. So we had all meetings outside in the summer. And we fixed many parts ourselves.
We have good brothers and sisters but they’re financially poor. REFAL stands for Reconstructing Economics for African Love. I like to provide a space and opportunities for us to understand “How do we take our money to do the things that need to be done.” It’s an economics problem but what we lack is love. Love of self. And you can tell because if we really loved ourselves, neighborhoods would be different now, but we aren’t control of things. It’s about power – but how do you get power? You get power by being in control of yourself. And we’re not really in control of ourselves. Because we don’t know who we are. The school system is not going to give it to us so I used to lend this space out a lot of times with little children. Its important to exercise and get knowledge.
This building we are in used to be an old ice cream parlor. We got this place, but we couldn’t hold events in it at first because it needed so much work. So we had all meetings outside in the summer. And we fixed many parts ourselves.
GNEC
Since Green registered Project 850 as an LLC in May 2020–just shy of the February deadline–she did not qualify for any pandemic aid. So, she had a short list of options. Since the internet had yet to fail her, Green searched for aid.
Attending a community business academy of sorts, it was not until her participation in the local non-profit Rising Tide Capital’s Community Business Academy. There, Green became aware of funding opportunities through their listed partners. As fate would have it, Green chose the Dream-maker loan in March 2021 with Greater Newark Enterprises Corporation (GNEC), which was founded in 2005 to assist the local business owner.
“I appreciate GNEC because if it weren't for them, I don't know where I would be. Before I reached out to them, I was in contact with the Veterans Business Office, they gave me no resources. Thank you, GNEC,” asserted Green .
Initially, Peeples took advantage of the loan because Black businesses often struggle to secure funding or start-up capital due to lacking business credit or having enough assets to leverage. In other cases, African Americans have limited relationships with banking institutions. Hence, GNEC offers loans at lower rates than bigger financial institutions who would ignore many of their clients altogether.
In the present, Peeples continues to take advantage of all offered resources, including technical training like KPMG Spark or Quickbooks webinars. Both essential to backend financial knowledge necessary to remain a viable business, but neither was previously explained to her. She has been working with the organization ever since.
“I want to give [GNEC] the biggest shoutout ever…[It] is a resource that I have been using throughout the time I have been [in] business…GNEC is closest to my business heart, we’re on a first name basis, they call and check on me to see if i am okay, if i need anything.”
Initially, she started her biometric business as a mobile notary. However, she also spoke up about needing an office space once GNEC Director of Programs Al Alvarez inquired about needs during a related webinar. Subsequently, he offered GNEC headquarters as a temporary space before helping her secure her relationship with PrintScan and her physical location on Lock Street in November 2021.
Before Peeples secured the Lock street location, she had been asking the city for help in finding an office space. Even seeking advice from other establishments, or attempting to nab a location like a non-profit housed itself at her former high school hair salon; but to no avail.
“Other people come here to Newark and get help with all types of stuff, [while] Newark residents, we get absolutely nothing. All of these storefronts that they got, even in my own neighborhood, they'll let other people come in and build up and rent them out, but I'm literally around the corner needing an office space, and no one would say anything to me. If it wasn't for GNEC I wouldn't even have an office space.”
Moreover, she detailed how she tried to secure funding with other companies, but GNEC was the only one that actually responded to her requests. Not only that, they walked her through the application process, even until now. From her business plan to her registration and articles of incorporation, their detailed guidance in her business preparedness has been a key to her fairly smooth backend operations.
Using their motto of walking with entrepreneurs every step of the way, a goal of GNEC is to ensure those they help know that their journey is not a solo mission.
“If you are a start up and you have a business plan and have all these things, it's easier for you to get through the loan process. But if you do not have all of these things, we [will] send you somewhere else first,” elucidated Development and Communications Director Khady Ndiaye.
The organization recommends one of its network partners like Rising Tide or the Institute For Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL) to help with an array of services. As community partners and pipelines, each organization seeks to share their wisdom and hopefully increase the financial viability of minority owned small businesses in the area. A necessary ecosystem that they claim is instrumental in owners’ future success.
Ndiaye emphasized, “GNEC’s goal–and the reason why we get so many people chances and low interest rates is because we want you to be able to pay your loan back and make you bankable.” She continued, “So, when you want to apply for a larger expansion loan that GNEC can’t provide, that maybe [Bank of America] does, you have all of those required documents and things you have already done in order to show it to them. So, you are pre[pared].”
GNEC Executive Director Victor Salama pushes it as far to say–expanding the ecosystem for micro and small-scale local businesses like Green ’, especially for minorities who traditionally find difficulties in funding. Namely, women and people of color with great products that simply need exposure. According to Salama, GNEC is not just about lending, but about connecting. For instance, their April 2022 launch of the Entrepreneurship of Color Fund attempts to “close the racial wealth gap and improve diverse representation of Newark business owners.”
Now, Peeples is grateful for the victories and lessons in her journey. Although she does not have every answer, she is a successful example of what happens when seeds that are sown are allowed to root themselves, sprout then yield the most perfect product. That is, once given the right amount of attention, resources, and care. Moreso, when considering all of those who came before her.
Hence, Peeples sees her opening a business as a tribute to ancestors who laid the groundwork. “I am [now] enjoying the space I’m in because I’m breaking all types of stereotypes about us as Black women…[also,] I am happy that I‘m breaking different types of generational curses [in my family]. Everything I am doing, I feel like I am doing it for my ancestors–this is all for them…This is my ancestral work.”
Since Green registered Project 850 as an LLC in May 2020–just shy of the February deadline–she did not qualify for any pandemic aid. So, she had a short list of options. Since the internet had yet to fail her, Green searched for aid.
Attending a community business academy of sorts, it was not until her participation in the local non-profit Rising Tide Capital’s Community Business Academy. There, Green became aware of funding opportunities through their listed partners. As fate would have it, Green chose the Dream-maker loan in March 2021 with Greater Newark Enterprises Corporation (GNEC), which was founded in 2005 to assist the local business owner.
“I appreciate GNEC because if it weren't for them, I don't know where I would be. Before I reached out to them, I was in contact with the Veterans Business Office, they gave me no resources. Thank you, GNEC,” asserted Green .
Initially, Peeples took advantage of the loan because Black businesses often struggle to secure funding or start-up capital due to lacking business credit or having enough assets to leverage. In other cases, African Americans have limited relationships with banking institutions. Hence, GNEC offers loans at lower rates than bigger financial institutions who would ignore many of their clients altogether.
In the present, Peeples continues to take advantage of all offered resources, including technical training like KPMG Spark or Quickbooks webinars. Both essential to backend financial knowledge necessary to remain a viable business, but neither was previously explained to her. She has been working with the organization ever since.
“I want to give [GNEC] the biggest shoutout ever…[It] is a resource that I have been using throughout the time I have been [in] business…GNEC is closest to my business heart, we’re on a first name basis, they call and check on me to see if i am okay, if i need anything.”
Initially, she started her biometric business as a mobile notary. However, she also spoke up about needing an office space once GNEC Director of Programs Al Alvarez inquired about needs during a related webinar. Subsequently, he offered GNEC headquarters as a temporary space before helping her secure her relationship with PrintScan and her physical location on Lock Street in November 2021.
Before Peeples secured the Lock street location, she had been asking the city for help in finding an office space. Even seeking advice from other establishments, or attempting to nab a location like a non-profit housed itself at her former high school hair salon; but to no avail.
“Other people come here to Newark and get help with all types of stuff, [while] Newark residents, we get absolutely nothing. All of these storefronts that they got, even in my own neighborhood, they'll let other people come in and build up and rent them out, but I'm literally around the corner needing an office space, and no one would say anything to me. If it wasn't for GNEC I wouldn't even have an office space.”
Moreover, she detailed how she tried to secure funding with other companies, but GNEC was the only one that actually responded to her requests. Not only that, they walked her through the application process, even until now. From her business plan to her registration and articles of incorporation, their detailed guidance in her business preparedness has been a key to her fairly smooth backend operations.
Using their motto of walking with entrepreneurs every step of the way, a goal of GNEC is to ensure those they help know that their journey is not a solo mission.
“If you are a start up and you have a business plan and have all these things, it's easier for you to get through the loan process. But if you do not have all of these things, we [will] send you somewhere else first,” elucidated Development and Communications Director Khady Ndiaye.
The organization recommends one of its network partners like Rising Tide or the Institute For Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL) to help with an array of services. As community partners and pipelines, each organization seeks to share their wisdom and hopefully increase the financial viability of minority owned small businesses in the area. A necessary ecosystem that they claim is instrumental in owners’ future success.
Ndiaye emphasized, “GNEC’s goal–and the reason why we get so many people chances and low interest rates is because we want you to be able to pay your loan back and make you bankable.” She continued, “So, when you want to apply for a larger expansion loan that GNEC can’t provide, that maybe [Bank of America] does, you have all of those required documents and things you have already done in order to show it to them. So, you are pre[pared].”
GNEC Executive Director Victor Salama pushes it as far to say–expanding the ecosystem for micro and small-scale local businesses like Green ’, especially for minorities who traditionally find difficulties in funding. Namely, women and people of color with great products that simply need exposure. According to Salama, GNEC is not just about lending, but about connecting. For instance, their April 2022 launch of the Entrepreneurship of Color Fund attempts to “close the racial wealth gap and improve diverse representation of Newark business owners.”
Now, Peeples is grateful for the victories and lessons in her journey. Although she does not have every answer, she is a successful example of what happens when seeds that are sown are allowed to root themselves, sprout then yield the most perfect product. That is, once given the right amount of attention, resources, and care. Moreso, when considering all of those who came before her.
Hence, Peeples sees her opening a business as a tribute to ancestors who laid the groundwork. “I am [now] enjoying the space I’m in because I’m breaking all types of stereotypes about us as Black women…[also,] I am happy that I‘m breaking different types of generational curses [in my family]. Everything I am doing, I feel like I am doing it for my ancestors–this is all for them…This is my ancestral work.”