Archive for category: Success Stories

Stream2Sea of Hardee County

As an avid scuba diver, Autumn Blum, founder and CEO of Stream2Sea, thought something wasn’t right with the current sunblock products being offered to the public when she noticed an oil slick coming off a group of snorkelers in Palau.

“I knew that couldn’t possibly be good for our aquatic environment. I decided to do something about it, and I started Stream2Sea,” Blum said.

As a cosmetic chemist, Blum would use her knowledge and love for nature to design a performance-based sunscreen and body care line for active adventurers. Next, she would need to get the Stream2Sea message out to the public. Making sure her target audience knew that, “if you care about what you put on your body and into the planet, Stream2Sea is for you.”

As an avid scuba diver, Autumn Blum, founder and CEO of Stream2Sea, thought something wasn’t right with the current sunblock products being offered to the public when she noticed an oil slick coming off a group of snorkelers in Palau.

“I knew that couldn’t possibly be good for our aquatic environment. I decided to do something about it, and I started Stream2Sea,” Blum said.

As a cosmetic chemist, Blum would use her knowledge and love for nature to design a performance-based sunscreen and body care line for active adventurers. Next, she would need to get the Stream2Sea message out to the public. Making sure her target audience knew that, “if you care about what you put on your body and into the planet, Stream2Sea is for you.”

Blum decided to reach out to the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at University of South Florida early on, to get help with a strategic business plan that was needed to secure local economic development grants.

Fast forward seven years later and Stream2Sea is growing at such a rapid rate that Blum finds herself reaching out to the Florida SBDC at USF again. Most recently, she was paired with business consultant, Scott Carpenter, who created an in-depth marketing plan, identifying new opportunities for the business.

“We’re growing; we’re launching on more cruise lines, and I need help on marketing,” Blum said. “We just recently completed a marketing plan with their help to optimize and improve our efforts out there in the world to help communicate our message better.”

“We started from basically nothing. We have doubled in revenue almost every single year in operation. We went from one employee to 17 in various capacities in our facility,” she added.

While business is good, there have been some challenging times along the way, including the COVID-19 pandemic. “We had to reshift our entire business plan,” she said. “We went from manufacturing sunscreen, which is great for outside playing – if you’re staying inside hiding, not so great – to manufacturing hand sanitizer. We were able to pivot from sunscreen to sanitizer to help meet the local needs and to keep all of our employees in jobs.”

As Stream2Sea pivots in hard times and expands in good times, Blum still attributes the business success to the loyal customers who spread the Stream2Sea message. “I would say that our biggest success in the seven years that we’ve been in operation is the amount of consumers and customer base out there that not only appreciates and understands it, but shares it with other people. We don’t have customers out there anymore, we have advocates,” Blum said.

Moving forward, she is leaning on the support provided by the Florida SBDC at USF as business moves on to the next level and she continues growing in her role as an entrepreneur. “Going forward, I’m excited to work with the team at the SBDC to help us improve our operational efficiencies. We’re growing at a rapid rate,” Blum said.

“I’m a great cosmetic chemist. Learning how to be a better entrepreneur and business owner, I know the team’s going to help me with that,” she added.

The cosmetic chemist and business owner is also very proud and excited to continue growing her business in Hardee County as she states, “The Development Group in Hardee County has phenomenal resources to help import small businesses and also help us grow.”

Blum also encourages other small business owners to take advantage of the resources that are available in their community. “I would highly encourage other small business owners to reach out to the team at SBDC. The resources are there to help you and the level of skill and expertise they can bring to the table is unmatched,” she said.

The Main Ingredient of Hillsborough and Pasco County

Christina Sweet, owner of The Main Ingredient, is no stranger to success as her artisanal health food store grows in both size and location. Five years after opening the original brick and mortar store, located in Lutz, Sweet has expanded into a second location in the Land O’ Lakes area, where she is able to help more customers with their health needs.

Although she understands what it’s like to be a successful businesswoman, she says that working alongside a great team of business consultants and partners has brought her to where she is today.

“I’m a very firm believer that your tribe isn’t just made up of you,” she said. “It’s made up of multiple people and you need them around and you need the best possible information that you can get so that you can stay in a successful peace of mind with your business.”

Before opening her first store, Sweet sought out the help of the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Hillsborough County to launch her business idea. That is when she was introduced to business consultant, Janette Blanco, for help with business planning and obtaining a line of credit. “I haven’t done anything without consulting with the SBDC,” she said. “My consultant has been with me since the day I went to her and said, I have this idea and I want to launch it. How do I go about it because I don’t need to lose money, I need to make money. I need to be successful.”

With the help of the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County, Sweet was able to plan accordingly, and most recently, she obtained a line of credit in order to expand. “I got a line of credit with the help of the SBDC; that I needed for my new store to open. Carol, the director, helped us immensely and worked with Janette, my consultant, and myself, on properly doing the paperwork so that we could get the line of credit the right way,” Sweet said.

Now that the second brick and mortar location is open, Sweet is concentrating on retaining essential staff members. “Training for our store is pretty extensive because we have so much knowledge, so much product, and certain ways that we blend our teas and that we make our smoothies to keep them healthy for people. So having that extra person trained inside of the store while you already have another person that you’re paying is a costly effect, but that line of credit really helped us.” she said.

Sweet says that her biggest success so far is being a helping hand in her community through The Main Ingredient. “COVID, which was really bad for small businesses, kind of turned into a good thing for us and the small vendors that we brought in, she said. “We started partnering with some of these local vendors that you only get to see at markets, and we started bringing their products in the store and doing food boxes and shipping them to houses and then selling their products. So they [local vendors] could go on their social media pages and say ‘hey, we can’t come to a market, but this is where you can find us’.”

Moving forward, as more health-conscious people move into the area and become aware of the purpose behind The Main Ingredient, Sweet expects sales to increase. “We anticipate this year, in 2023, doing almost a million. We’ve got just a whole slew of housing being built around us along with a highway that’s going to drop everybody right down the street from New Port Richey,” she explained.

And while she already has two pop-up shops and two brick-and-mortar locations, she has no intention of stopping there. “So moving forward, we obviously have some more locations that we’re going to open up, and that plan is already in the works,” she said.  “Whether we franchise, or I run them, that is where we’re working both avenues.”

Along the way, Sweet is a big believer in keeping her business consultant engaged in The Main Ingredient’s growth, and she tells other business owners to do the same. “Contact a consultant to start you from the very beginning,” she said.  “They don’t really say no. They’re going to give you the good points and the bad points and then make a mutual decision on what’s going to be the best way to tackle both of those at the same time because their job is to help you stay successful. I saw a lot of people not succeed during COVID. It was heartbreaking, but I really believe that if they had been part of the SBDC that they might still be here today.”

Dance & Circus Arts of Tampa Bay

As a dancer with a background in theatre arts, Beth Brier decided to open her own dance studio 23 years ago in hopes of helping children find themselves through the art of dance. By the time her daughter reached the age of 10, Brier expanded the dance studio to include circus arts in response to her daughter’s desire to become a contortionist, thus Dance & Circus Arts of Tampa Bay came to be. As business continued to grow, Brier would later find out that reaching her demographic was a bit harder than expected.

During the pandemic, Brier decided to, “take this downtime to improve myself. I’m going to help my business and I’m going to figure out my weak points and get educated,” she said.

During that downtime, Brier discovered that she needed help promoting her business correctly, and she knew exactly where to begin. “I am not very good at social media and my website sucks,” she said. “So I researched this whole thing; what is SBDC Florida? And I found out, it’s actually a national program and the state of Florida was one of the first states to become part of this program and I’m like, this is pretty much a no brainer.”

Brier quickly realized that she needed to take advantage of the no-cost business resource as it was readily accessible.

Brier was then paired with Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at University of South Florida (USF) business consultant, Scott Carpenter, who advised her on new ways to reach her audience through marketing efforts.

“Scott took a deep dive into my website and he spent a lot of time compiling information and comparisons and he took three other area schools and then compiled all the information on how they compare to us,” Brier explained. “I thought I knew my demographic, but he pointed out other things that other people were doing better for the same demographic. So, it was super helpful.”

Since working with the Florida SBDC at USF, Brier says the dance and circus programs have grown in in terms of attendance, even leading to having to cap classes. Business revenue has also increased. “This year, 2023, our revenue is now the highest it’s ever been since we opened 23 years ago, so that’s very satisfying,” she said.

Moving forward Dance & Circus Arts of Tampa Bay will continue utilizing the Florida SBDC at USF for marketing services including website consulting, Google analytics, and help with social media platforms. “The Google analytics [webinar] was way over my head but I have to continue to do more webinars on that to fully grasp that,” she added.

Regardless of what the future holds, Brier says she is constantly telling other business owners about the resources at Florida SBDC at USF. “Why are all small businesses not using this tool? I mean, it has been mind-blowing for me and it has educated me so much in understanding how to present my business,” she said. “It’s been really great for us as a school, and for me to [be able to] help many children.”

RMB’s Arts and Antiques of Pasco County

During the COVID-19 pandemic, passionate husband and wife team, Molly and Robert Schlenkerman, found themselves working endless amounts of overtime as ICU nurses at their local hospital. Being firsthand witnesses to the despair caused by COVID-19, the couple decided that life was too short not to follow their dreams of opening their own business.

“We were working a lot of overtime and after the whole situation with the pandemic we got so that we didn’t want to work overtime anymore in nursing, so I had started doing some furniture artistry,” Molly said. “It actually started with thrift store flipping and evolved into furniture artistry and then, that had gotten pretty popular.”

As Molly’s furniture artistry continued to grow, her online popularity grew as well. With the use of social media platforms, Molly showcased her artistic process and caught the attention of online spectators interested in purchasing her creations from all over the United States, but soon the couple would run into a problem with space.

Not having anywhere to display Molly’s furniture artistry in their home or in any booth rental location, the couple found that there was a need for an antique store in Pasco County. “Almost a hundred-mile radius,” Robert said. “We could not find spaces available for her furniture and so we came out of a store saying, we need to buy a building and do this. There’s a need.”

That is when the Schlenkermans decided to reach out to the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at University of South Florida for business assistance. “That week, we looked up buildings for sale in the area and found this one and decided,” Molly said. “So, we took a chance and contacted Bill and came up with a plan.”

The pair was initially connected with Florida SBDC at USF business consultant Bill Burnham for assistance with their business plan to acquire a business loan to purchase the desired building. Later, they were also introduced to Gina Smith, a business consultant at the Center who focuses on search engine optimization for business websites.

With Burnham’s business plan suggestions, the Schlenkermans were able purchase the building for their business. “We were able to purchase the building as a result because the loan officers that were involved were very impressed with the business plan and the goals that we’re trying to achieve with that,” Robert said.

Since starting RMB Arts & Antiques, the couple is happy with their decision to follow the guidance of both consultants and work toward their dreams. “We decided we can absolutely swing it, even if we had to sell the house and live in an RV in the parking lot,” Molly said. “It may be something that we do end up doing but we’ll be happy. There’s a big difference in life when living in a 3,000-square-feet home and working 36 hours a week and being miserable doing it versus living in an RV and spending your time and energy doing something that you’re really proud of, that is important to you, that makes you happy. And that’s really what it boils down to,” she added.

When asked how they would use the Florida SBDC at USF moving forward, Robert responded, “We’re trying to use any bit of resource that we can, any bit of help that we can, because we’re ICU nurses. We’re not really businesspeople and the Small Business Development Center of USF has been very supportive of this.”

“When we were learning new things, you know, we would’ve been good resources in our field, and so, it makes sense to use the SBDC when we can,” Molly added. “Go ahead and take the time to utilize the resources you can. This process isn’t inexpensive, as it stands, and to get free help from knowledgeable people with years of experience has been imperative to us being able to even do this.”