How do I make a cell return a value based on the characters.

I have a cell that I want to use and IF statement to tell return information based on characters in the cell. I.E the cell has =M=WRFY, I want the statement to give me a start time based on the day within. I used this formula for the first set and it worked but for the next day it fails.

=IF(LEFT(I44,1)="S",H44,"")

I've tried entering the 2 where the 1 is to make it look at character 2 but its not working. Help!!