Free one-on-one business support to help your business thrive

Are you a fisherman/business in the Fishing Industry?  
Do you have questions about:  

• Financial Planning 
  • ​​capitol construction
    
• ​Loan Application Preparation
• Accounting & Bookkeeping
• Tax and Retirement Planning
• Vessel Insurance
• Electronic and Integrated Monitoring
• Licensing & Permitting
• Legal Clinic
  • Corporate Structuring
• Expanding Access to Markets
• Marketing
  • Social Media
  • Website Building 

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Are you a business in the seafood restaurant/retail industry? 
​Do you have questions about:  

• Seafood sustainability
• Local seafood seasonality
• Rhode Island seafood and fisheries
• Local seafood focused staff training
• Diversifying menus/ markets
• Marketing of local seafood species
• Creating an educational dining or shopping experience for your customers (local seafood focused)
• Sourcing local seafood
• Underutilized species
• Maintaining quality in seafood

If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, now is the time to take advantage of the free and confidential business support offered through the Fish Forward Project.   

Request Business Support

Clicking the "Request Business Support" button above will take you to the Rhode Island Small Business Development Center website to register for business support. 

About the Project

Rhode Island’s seafood sector has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. But this crisis has also opened new innovations and opportunities. The Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island (CFCRI) has partnered with the Rhode Island Small Business Development Center (RISBDC) to provide free consulting to fishermen and seafood businesses. Known as “Fish Forward”, this new program has been established to help the community recover and then thrive in the long-term.  All services being offered are free and confidential and are informed by the needs of the sector. They include monthly webinars; a free legal clinic; a blog about the latest goings-on; and one-on-one counseling that can cover a range of needs, like identifying and connecting with new markets, building a web presence, accounting advice, and licensing, permitting, insurance assistance, and a host of other things. These services are available until September 2021, so take advantage now! If you have any further questions feel free to contact fredmattera@cfcri.org or shayerooney@cfcri.org. 

This project is funded through the CARES Act and the U.S. Small Business Administration. 

We Want to Hear from You! We want to understand how your business has been impacted by the pandemic and your specific business needs. Fill out this survey to tell us how we can better support you and your business. 

Meet the consulting team

Past Webinars: 

 Direct Seafood Sales: Moving Forward Tuesday, October 13th 4:00-5:30pm 
During this webinar we discussed opportunities to move forward on direct sales of seafood and alternative avenues with the RI Department of Environmental Management and RI Department of Health. You can view the webinar materials using the links below.  

Webinar Recording

Webinar Slides 

Webinar Notes 

​View the proposed regulations here
The public comment period for the Direct Sales License Program is open until October 25th. Comments must be sent to:                      

Peter Duhamel
Department of Environmental Management
3 Fort Wetherill Road
Jamestown, RI 02835 

Or emailed to:                                     peter.duhamel@dem.ri.gov  

Project Partners