Mind Your Own Business; 105; Erika Davis, Mary Beth Petrell, Carmella Hoffman

Major funding for this program was provided by. There's a place where the ground is fertile for business. It's all here in upstate New York where the grounds for new business is shovel ready. Is it shovel ready dot com today. And right in and Syracuse University and gauging our city region and the world through scholarship in action the Rosamond Gifford charitable corporation dedicated to enhancing community assets in Onondaga Madison and Oswego counties the central New York Community Foundation dedicated to helping people with their charitable giving. It's where the smart money gives and the key foundation funded by key core joining in partnership with the U.S. and why to make central New York a better place to live and work. Hello and welcome to mind your own business. The show that offers local entrepreneurs the opportunity of winning a first prize of $50000 to invest in their young companies each week. We have been featuring three businesses that are no more than

five years old and have a total revenue of less than one million dollars. Deciding which of the candidates goes through to our grand finale is a panel of three judges. All of them experts in picking business winners Firstly are two regular judges Gail Cowley is executive vice president of Cali Associates an advertising and marketing firm based in Syracuse. And Tim Gaucher is co-founder of the cademy IP a Syracuse based company that invests in New York State University technologies. Tim is also heavily involved in technology in China and Southeast Asia this week. Gail and Tim are joined by guest judge Nasir Ali vice president of new venture development at the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce. Welcome to mind your own business Nasr. Great to have you with us. Well as usual we're first going to show you a short video profile of each of the three companies featured this week at the end of each one. The owner joins us here in the studio to try to convince our panel why their company deserves an investment of $50000 and most importantly how

they would use that money to develop their business. Our first contestant tonight is Erika Davis owner of Creekside books and coffee in skinny Atala. We want Creekside to be a destination place and a place where people can feel comfortable. It's very important for me for us to reach out to our community as an independent bookseller. We have had over 100 author visits at the bookstore. We also have live music in the coffee house every weekend and we have a lot of children's events too. We do have our weekly story time. We have scrapbooking classes and all of that is just growing. Oh my goodness. I don't know what we did before it was here. I truly do not. I think it has drawn together a community the way Creekside competes with other stores the bigger chains that also have coffee and books in that great combination as we do offer exceptional customer service and we are a locally owned business and I think we do offer a warmer environment. I came back to skinny Atlas

because this is my hometown. I have two small children I'm a single mother although I love the cities. I think I'm a small town girl at heart. As you come into the store you'll see our fiction section and also our bestsellers. As you walk further you'll see our home and hearth section which was actually the original kitchen of the in the building or in the house. And as you walk further we have our two sections of children's books. First the middle reader room which are for the older kids and then we have our own little space in the back for the younger children's books. We also have a little hiding space for the children that they absolutely love. We created the nooks and crannies in the store. Because we want people to have an experience when they come in the renovation process was quite an endeavor. It looks very different on the outside it's much larger in the back throughout the property and it's just a different building all around. The other big goal was to combine the coffee house and the bookstore in order to create a community gathering place. We have incredibly good coffee because it's freshly roasted every day.

The coffee is great. This is I mean I drink to get me coffee which is unusual I've never heard of it. But they grind it here and it really does a great job. The process of roasting coffee for us is actually fairly easy. It's just a small five pound roaster and we roast very many different temperatures and that's really where the art comes in. OK. It also allows us to bring on. Another plan where the business is moving our way throughout the place because we would be roasting all day long and also to continue our outside special events such as book fairs that will be doing. And beyond that I'd like to see it become a destination place for those visiting the center New York and Finger Lakes region. And joining us here in the studio is Craig sides Erica Davis welcome. We have one minute to persuade the judges to invest $50000 in your business. Thank you. I think Creekside books and coffee deserves the capital investment of $50000 because we are an independent business that has brought back a

gathering place to our community. And as we all know gathering places are an essential element in any vibrant community especially since the big box chains have major insurgents into our. Country. Independent bookstores also. Very much cater to their community and I hope that we are true inspiration to other entrepreneurs in the area and across the country who are interested in opening up an independent business in their area. What we do what we would what we would do with the $50000 is to increase our marketing efforts both regionally and locally. We would also increase our book store inventory in those sections that are showing high turns and one that has been mentioned before is that we would increase our ability to further roast our coffee and our capabilities that way and also to open wholesale accounts in the local area. Erica your time is up thank you so much for being with us tonight you very much for having me. We'll see you later.

Our next competitor tonight is an example of someone who brought a business back to life. The business is Syracuse Kubota. My name is Mary Beth to travel and the business I own is Syracuse Skoda. We bought the original business is in April 1st of 2004. The reason we bought an existing business is it was you know you already have your building you have inventory and you're. Kind of taking over a procedure. You know procedures are in place you can either improve upon them or just. You know go ahead and take it to the next level. The opportunity we saw was that there's a need now for service. Everyone has been so interested in putting out products at lower pricing that service has kind of gone by the wayside. When someone comes in here to buy anything they're greeted immediately and helps out once they've made their decision to purchase. Then we prepped the machine for them and will deliver it free of charge. We

have nine employees. Smart hiring has been the number one reason for our turnaround. We felt it was important to invest in good people to bring them on here so that when we did when we brought on these quality lines we had quality people behind it. John and right the general manager search your Skoda my responsibilities are to work with all three departments sure at the store. History departments are sales parts and service working were married best has been actually a very good experience. She has a lot of energy and looks for new ideas and she also listens to do employees. Hiring John and Wright was the greatest improvement that we made to Syracuse Skoda. I feel that he was one of the key reasons that we were able to secure the border line border is the number one showing a line of small tractors and equipment in the world.

You won't find it at your box stores and you will find it only at dealers that can qualify to have a product. I'd like to extend the building in the back so that when people's repairs are finished and we put them outside they're covered. And I'd also like to rewire the building to accommodate our service department. I'd also like to improve that back break room and make it a little more comfortable. Our business plan for the foreseeable future is to bring on some more quality lines so we can offer. Our customers a superstore. For quality and service which I really don't see a lot of out there right now and I think there is huge opportunity in that area. Here with us in the studio is Mary Beth patrol who now has 60 seconds to convince the judges why they should invest $50000 in your business. The reason I feel that you should invest a $50000 in Syracuse Skoda is that we

are on the cusp of becoming a larger more positive presence in Eastern Syracuse. I started with three employees and we're up to nine and we also would like to be able to provide more. Jobs. Good jobs with benefits that we didn't have in the beginning. I'd also like to expand my building and become a part of the revitalization of Eastern Syracuse. OK thank you very much Maritza. Not an easy thing to do but Job well done. Well finally tonight a business from the southwest region sunset view creamery is based on a dairy farm in Odessa where Carmela Hoffman produces cheddar cheese. Our business is up from so cheesemaking we started it because the milk price was historically low and we can't set our price. But we decided to make two to add value to our milk.

I started out making cheese in the house just playing around with two gallons of milk and then I had picked up books and Radley and went to Morrisville for a three day class. A lot of it is learned by doing. We do moderate jacks and chatters and cheddar curd. Our chatters are aged naturally. We flavor our jacks. Our chatters remain chatters and I do flavored cheddar curd cheese making the farm begins at 4:30 between 4:00 and 4:30 in the morning and then from there it's adding cultures and rabbits and then doing if I'm doing chatters it's a chattering process. It's typically anywhere from a 12 to 14 hour day. We have two retail outlets that we sell from this one here in the farm and then we have one in Watkins Glen. We also wholesale two wineries around Seneca Cuba and Cuba lakes and are working at wholesaling through Wegmans in the

local area. We'd like to obviously market more cheese. I'd like to get a few more wineries on board with us. We have contemplated purchasing the building in Lakin's that we're in. So that's kind of on the back burner right now but I guess our biggest goal is just to be able to produce born and market Morty's. We are all employed off the farm. I'm a town clerk and tax collector so my cheesemaking days are are based on when I'm not in my office. We juggle and squeeze things here and there and things that are important don't get done. But first and foremost is the farm and the and the cheesemaking. My hope is that within three or four years I can quit my job. Right now it's a secure paycheck and I know that every two weeks I'm going to have some cash to pay bills but I definitely would hope would help to be able to quit so sooner than later. This farm has been in my husband's family for 100

years. We celebrated our 100th year last May and. We're hoping it'll be in here for. Another Hundred and Arbeloa. Thank you for joining us here in the studio and mind your own business. You have 60 seconds now one minute to convince the judges to invest $50000 in your company. I think you should invest $50000 in science if you creamery. We are in the southern Finger Lakes area and Agra tourism is just beginning to become a big thing in that area. We would like to be on the cutting edge of that. Along with other farms in our area. We also would like to purchase the building as I said in the video and the money would go toward that. There are some remodeling that would need to be done there in order to make it a very viable business adventure. And also we would like to start

making another variety of cheese would like to go into Swiss and need to have an aging room temperature aging room. That I currently don't have so I would put some of the money toward that. And marketing is always a big thing. You need to. You need to market to be able to sell what you've got. There's avenues out there that I've not touched yet that I could touch with a little extra money. Carmello your time is up thank you very much. Thank you. Good job. Well all three of tonight's contestants have now made their cases to the panel. At this stage of the show the judges are going to leave us here in the studio and gather around the water cooler to consider what they have seen and heard so far. Now when they come back one of our three entrepreneurs will be eliminated. The two remaining will then have to answer some searching questions from the panel before will know who will be tonight's winner. Now as we wait here in the studio you'll be able to eavesdrop as the judges share their confidential opinions on this week's businesses.

So what we think of Creekside and Erica. I think she makes a great case. My question would be where is her growth going to come from it's going to be the coffee ciders are going to be the bookstores. I think there is this trend that she's tapping into and a need for this type of community building place. And she seems to understand her customers her customer base quite well in terms of who is coming to the bookstore but the question again I have is it will take something different to market the bookstore versus the coffee part of this. Is there enough enough growth in local coffee and local books I don't know. I'd be interested to see if she pulls her audience from outside the community. OK so Syracuse could go to Mary Beth. My worry is that she might end up getting squeezed between the big box and the Do-It-Yourself for years and so it becomes you know a question of how much growth is possible within that snatch. There are lots of things mentioned about how she spent the money which was written focused one of the ways in which you can measure success is the creation of new jobs but that cannot

be the goal the goal has to be how do you grow the revenues and the profitability. And then what is the strategy for doing so. We're going to be your third one since have you creamery. I'm not sure that the cheese is different enough. I mean it's not the Monterey Jazz. It's another cheddar. I think there is an issue of focus. I think there's a lot of issues with the fact that they're really trying to keep this form that's been in the family for a hundred years alive but the same time with the right bit of marketing and branding and the right positioning you could make this happen. As we wait for the judges to take their seats again here in the studio if you at home are interested in setting up your own business why not visit our website after the show. The address is easy to remember. It is w w w mind your own bit is dot tv. You'll find advice on what you need to think about and if you do decide to go ahead the Web site will guide you to those who can help you write a business plan and where to find investment sources. You also find out more about the three businesses we have profiled

tonight. Well the judges are back. So Tim tell us who are we going to say goodbye to. Well. First let me say that the quality was very high of all the businesses. They're all great examples of the entrepreneurial spirit in this area. There was a hotly contested debate wasn't there folks. But I'm afraid that there are only two that can go through. I'm sorry to say that we're going to say goodbye. I want to say that we all discussed this and. You've done a great thing to move to recognize what was happening in the milk market that was clearly restricted. You've gone up a value and you got into the cheese market. It's going to take a lot more to get to propel that beyond the local community which is loyal to you and you've got great distribution channels. So where you do get more capital if you can get more capital focused on further differentiation don't worry about owning property or things like that focus on further differentiating that product so that you can get it out there into the broader market. But we wish you all the best of luck.

Carmela thank you so much for taking part in mind your own business and good luck. So that leaves us with Erika Davis of Creekside books and coffee and Mary Beth to try to take questions from the judges. Nasser Let's start with you. Thank you Erica. Can you tell us more about what some of the actions are that you would be taking to grow the coffee side in whether the book side goes along with it or whether there's a split. Right. Well generally speaking there are two very different businesses that I've learned that I've learned that quickly. Fortunately I have the staff available right now to continue with the growth of the bookstore as well and do what needs to happen while I focus a little bit more on growing the wholesale accounts. You mentioned if you were to be awarded the $50000 that this would give you the dollars to increase your ability to roast the coffee. Right now we have a five pound roaster in the store and the initial plan and I do still think it is a good one is to have it out there so people can learn about it.

But as our coffee house gets busier regularly even throughout the day every single day of the week it's getting a little bit more difficult to roast as our roasting demands gets higher to roast there all day long. For instance it's a little bit disruptive at lunchtime I think I feel. So our thoughts are going to we have a barn outside to a renovation there and to bring the roaster out there or to bring in another roaster as our need to grow continues. You got coffee you got books is there also revenue from the community so why do you charge for this or is that simply to bring more people in. That's yeah as I was mentioning before a lot of it has been with the author events and I mean we don't usually pay for authors to come in so it's not a huge expense on our part to bring them in. But we also haven't been charging for them with these series of ads. The example being maybe a wine series it might be another opportunity for incremental revenue no nicer questions for Marybeth Where is the market growing that

growth that you see that will allow you to meet your goals of acquiring new lines and also hiring additional people. We've had probably our most success. With like high end homeowners and homeowners with large properties who who need quality large tractors to maintain their properties right now are in the process of going out to get back some of the accounts that were lost before we bought with the commercial end of the business and I actually hired a outside sales man to. Go out to the schools and the various businesses that would be interested in our products and services that there was one thing that you said that really excited me a lot of the ways that you were going to use the capital the wiring the front of the store that's OK. One thing you said which got me was a forgive me if I'm wrong a superstore of quality and service. Right. Right. Tell me about that and how you're not going to bump

up against the the the big box retailers. Well we originally we carried a lot of the same equipment that they did and we just felt that we could not compete with you know a billion dollar corporation so. We decided to do a regrouping and bring on these quality machines that you can't buy at the larger retailers and and have the service behind it because. There isn't a central location to buy equipment like that and a lot of them are located in. More like their cultural areas. So we thought that and there are homeowners that would you know appreciate that kind of quality machine as well so we figured you know let's get it all together and one place let's put the guys behind it. And I think we can really do well with that. So now all the questions have been asked. What do the judges think of America. Mary Beth Tim again there but I think you're starting from a very strong foundation got a great brand there. What I'm what I'd like to say is think Big think

bold go for that superstore idea and as Nestle was saying understand your customers. Erica. Excellent performance so far gives me a lot of confidence in your abilities. A bit concerned about the incremental angles for a lot of the stuff that the that you're doing because it doesn't just become a coffee shop. I think the that the community side of it I think that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts for you. I think you got a great business. Gail. We're about I I applaud you for coming into the area and buying a business and taking it to the level that it is. You know it sounds like you've got a lot of plans to move it forward. I think that big a big thing to remember is to know who your audience is and what those messages are that have to be delivered to them because I think that when you look at the homeowners versus big business two very different players there Erica I think you've created a lot of excitement in a very short period of time in a very close knit community and I think that.

You also have a. Solution in front of you for the coffee side with it with the roasting. And I think that's very solid and I wish you good luck. Thank you so much. Finally Nasir. I'll talk with Erika again everything that my colleagues have said I would. Agree with I think the most important thing to me that you said was that you're still in a learning process. Mary Beth again this is a great opportunity and and I think you have everything that you've said tells me that you're thinking about this business in the right way. Well now the time has come to find out who will go through to the finale to compete for the first prize of $50000. Nasser Let's start with you. This is very very tough. I almost I'm having to flip a mental coin here and I think I would pick Syracuse. All right Erica. I'm really impressed with what you've done in past performance. My vote is for you.

So tem you have the deciding vote. That is a tough one but it is remarkably close. Based on performance. I'm going with Erica. So there you have it tonight so where are is Erica Davis a Creekside books and coffee. Congratulations and well done to Mary Beth patro of Syracuse for putting up such a good fight. So that's it for this week. Thanks to Gail Cali and Tim Gaucher and this week's guest judge Nasser Ali. And thanks to you at home for watching. And don't forget to log on to w w w dot mind your own biz dot tv to discover all you need to know about starting your own business. I'm Tony HUTCHENS join us again next week same time here on WC NY where the ground is fertile for business. It's all yours. In upstate New York where the grounds for new business is shovel ready visit shovel ready dot com today and dig right in and Syracuse University and gauging our city region and the world through scholarship in

action. The Rosamond Gifford charitable corporation dedicated to enhancing community assets in Onondaga Madison and Oswego counties the central New York Community Foundation dedicated to helping people with their charitable giving. It's where the smart money gives and the key foundation funded by key court joining in partnership with W.C. NY to make central New York a better place to live and work.