Angie Prchlik had been a nurse for more than 10 years when she decided it was time she do something else. “The first nine years of my career I was an ICU nurse,” she said. “I was getting very burnt out at the bedside.” Still wanting to be a nurse and gaining interest in holistic medicine, she decided to step out on her own and become a business owner.
Prchlik knew she needed assistance to get her business off the ground successful, so in December 2022 she joined the South Tampa Chamber of Commerce and learned about the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Hillsborough County Economic Development. She reached out for assistance and was paired with business consultant Retta Parsons.
After months of working with Parsons on her business plan, startup costs and financial projections, Prchlik officially launched Oasis IV Therapy, a mobile therapy business serving Tampa and St. Petersburg, in May 2023. “I knew nothing about business,” she said. “The Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County has helped me with financials, marketing, lots of things that you don’t want to do but need to think about. They helped me gain clientele and organize different business documents.”
Since launching, Oasis IV Therapy has consistently grown. “My business has grown month to month,” Prchlik said. “I’ve been having an increase in sales over time. It’s been consistently getting better throughout the months.”
Looking back at the last six months of progress, Prchlik says her biggest success so far is the amount of repeat clients she sees. “I think it shows that what I do is effective and they trust me and enjoy having me over to help take care of them,” she said.
She also says she recommends other business owners utilize the resources at the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County. “There’s so much that goes into running a business that you probably don’t even know about,” she said. “I’ve learned so much throughout the short time that I’ve been with them and it’s been super helpful.”
She added, “I want to thank Retta with the SBDC for giving me confidence…it means so much in helping me learn and grow and making me do the hard things that I don’t want to do through homework assignments. It really helps me.”
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Having come from a great company in Ohio, Michael Fieldson, a former intelligence analyst and engineer, knew he needed to create a space in Tampa where he and his team could solve some of the toughest challenges faced by the Department of Defense (DOD) through innovative technology solutions. Thus, the business owner started Ombra, a service-disabled veteran owned small business, where global security challenges are solved while always giving back to the community.
Starting out, Fieldson knew he needed to reach out to the Florida Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) at the University of South Florida to gain more information on local procedures as well as in-depth business guidance.
Once paired with Florida PTAC at USF procurement specialist, Karen Krymski, the business owner received help on an export marketing plan, market research, and making necessary connections that would encourage growth within his company. “I’m a former government employee so I was aware of the PTAC program. We’ve used a couple different services to date. One of those is an export marketing plan. We do a lot of small business innovative research and part of that, there’s an emphasis on commercialization,” Fieldson said. “We also had the PTAC help us with some of the financial analysis. We’re working through a program right now where they’re looking at our revenue over the last few years, some of our accounting systems, and helping us understand how do we scale to the next level,” Fieldson later added.
Since working with the Florida PTAC at USF, Fieldson also mentions how the company has grown in revenue. “There’s been tremendous growth. We often say that we either double, triple, or quadruple revenue every single year since 2018 and we expect that to continue to grow at that speed over the next five years,” he said.
With an impressive background in engineering, technology, and sciences, Fieldson also makes sure to create a space where lovers of technological innovation and engineering can thrive as he constantly opens his doors to engineering interns and veterans seeking to participate in meaningful work, which in turn has successfully grown the company in size. “We started hiring engineering interns out of USF, which was great, and we’ve really grown that engineering internship program. I think we’ve had about 20 interns that have come through that program. We’ve converted 25% of those into full time equivalents and so today we’re about 40 people,” Fieldson said.
The business owner attributes all of his success to the innovation within the company’s products and services as well as its people, stating that his biggest success so far has been due to “the innovative way that we’ve grown the business. Really what I would tell you, the innovation has really been about bringing in great people, giving them a great opportunity to expand their careers so we’ve had the engineering internship program. We’ve recently started using the steel bridge hiring heroes’ program, so we’re helping veterans transition into this type of work on the DOD support contractor side of the fence which is a huge opportunity for us to give back,” Fieldson expressed.
As the business continues to grow, the Fieldson says he will continue to take advantage of the services and resources offered by the Florida PTAC at USF.
“We’ll use the Florida PTAC to help us become more aware of other opportunities that are out there. Help us collaborate with folks in the local community as well as government organizations,” Fieldson mentioned.
When asked if there was any advice he would give his fellow small business owners, Fieldson happily gave the following response, “I would tell other small businesses that the Florida PTAC is a tremendous resource. We should definitely be using them and referring those other small businesses that are trying to grow. The Florida PTAC at USF is there to assist these companies to contribute into the local communities and also provide jobs, but also be prepared to work with the government and scale.”
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An animal lover at heart and a journalist by trade, Cindy Skop, owner of Kitty Cat Lounge, knew firsthand that she wanted to make a change within her community. Being aware of the colonies of cats in Polk County, Skop decided to start a business where she could help kitties find loving homes and bring a relaxed space for her community members.
Since the start of her business journey, Skop knew about the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of South Florida, so it was easy to reach out when she found herself needing business guidance. She was met with the help of several consultants, which ultimately led the business owner to her primary Florida SBDC at USF business consultant, Simplice Essou. “Florida SBDC at USF counsel was very easy to work with. I started out with a business mentor who helped me brainstorm and fine tune my idea and once we had that down and I needed to start working on my business plan, that’s when I got to Simplice and we really started working and researching the numbers and that was very hard because cat cafes, although they’re starting to become more popular now, there was no research,” Cindy Skop said. The determined business owner and her business consultant went on a mission to find the necessary numbers needed in order to complete her business plan and successfully open up her business.
“Working with the SBDC I think was a constant transitional process. From the beginning stages when we did this on paper, right, we were working on the business plan to when the city required me to do additional things to the building to make it animal safe.” Regardless of the unexpected challenges that were presented to the business owner by the city, Skop never ceased to mention how she and her consultant continued to move forward, never giving up. “As soon as that was done, we got our certificate of occupancy. We opened within a month and a half. It was not an easy process, but you [Simplice Essou] were there the whole way holding my hand and sharing kind words,” Skop said.
“My biggest success so far was the reason I even started this business. Knowing that there was a homeless cat population colony upon colony in Polk County, my biggest success is that we have had eleven adoptions so far in the five weeks we’ve been open. So, that makes my heart happy. Those are cats that are not on the streets, they’re not reproducing, they’re not spreading disease and they’re in homes and they’re being loved and cared for,” Cindy Skop said. Overall, the cat enthusiast is happy that she can have a positive impact in the lives of the animals and people in her community. “We’re reducing the colony numbers, the homeless cat numbers, but then we’re making happy homes and happy families,” Skop said with a smile on her face.
As the business grows, Skop is determined to reach back out to the Florida SBDC at USF and use all of the resources available in order to promote her business effectively. “I think for the future of my business, and this is where Scott [Scott Carpenter, Florida SBDC at USF business consultant] and marketing could maybe come in handy, I want people to know that when they walk in my door, they are welcome to stay,” Skop said. Since the cat café is split up into the front end of the building and the back end of the building, the Kitty Cat Lounge owner can offer different services including a lounge area with coffee options, lunch menu items, and relaxing activities while having the kitties visible to the public but safely kept in the back end of the building. “I want to see people come in, we have two well-known universities and two high schools within walking distance from here. I want to see students come in this space, kick off their shoes. They can totally kick off their shoes, relax on this couch, work on their projects, work on their dissertation, work on their master’s degree, work on whatever they have to work on, but I also want people to come in here and read their book, I want people to come in here and play games,” Skop said.
Skop will make use of the marketing resources offered to her by the Florida SBDC at USF consultant to reach her target market and effectively attract customers that are interested in all of the services that her business has to offer, including chess, crochet, and movie nights. “Those are the things that I’m hoping will bring people into the door. Not just the cats but that they can come, and they can get comfort food, the best coffee in town, and look through a glass and see cats or go in and pet cats. This is your place to come and relax and enjoy yourself,” Skop expressed.
When speaking about the Florida SBDC at USF and all the help she has received, Skop was eager to share how she mentions her experience to a number of partners and colleagues and encourages them to seek business guidance from the consultants. “My partners in the building who supply my food and drink are startups themselves and I have told several, I’ve actually given people Simplices’ name, and told them how wonderful and simple the process was,” Cindy Skop said.
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Husband and wife duo, Randy and Stacy Crews, became the owners of a local family bowling center in Hardee County when they were approached by the original owners with a proposition to buy the center. With previous knowledge from owning two other businesses, the couple decided to move forward with the proposition and purchase the bowling center. Their only concern was the funding they would need to purchase a facility of that size.
Reaching out to their local business development centers, The Development Group, and the Industrial Development Authority (IDA), to inquire about purchasing the bowling center ultimately led the couple to get connected with the Florida SBDC at USF, where they were paired with business consultant Greg Manning for help with creating a business plan in order to access the proper funding.
“We’ve used the information through the SBDC monthly. We’ve been in operation for two months now so doing the business plan, we’ve sat down and made sure we’re on track of where we need to be,” Randy Crews said. Since working with the Florida Small Business Development Center at USF, the business owners express that they’ve been able to use the information learned from their consultant successfully throughout the lifetime of their new business venture. “The business has grown using the information we learned from the Florida SBDC at USF, just the business planning in itself. Learning the economics of a business, the financials of it. We own two other businesses and I tell people all the time, we probably should’ve done a business plan for those two businesses because I do refer back. Like I do look at where we are at the end of the month, or I check the financials every day. Where we’re at, where we were the week before, where we were last month on this day, this week,” Stacy Crews said.
The business owners also attribute their success to the support they’ve received from their community, stating, “the biggest success so far for the Bowl of Fun Lanes is bringing the community together.” Becoming the owners of the bowling center gave them the opportunity to fill a need in the community that was bigger than they expected. “Opening day we had between 1,000-1,200 people here and it was insane. The first two weeks it was like that every day, and it started slowly tapering off. We knew the need in the community, we didn’t know how huge it was, but the community support has just been piling in and has not stopped since we opened the door. We have 10 leagues running a week and there’s a few more that’s coming, birthday parties, class reunions booked up. It was a big need in the community, and I think that was the biggest thing we’ve seen so far,” Randy said.
As the business continue to grow, the couple mentions that they will continue reaching out to the Florida SBDC at USF for guidance on their business decisions and to measure their success continuously. “Moving forward we would still continue to use the Florida SBDC at USF, especially in our year anniversary. We’ll go back to the business plan, hopefully meet with Greg again to make sure we’re on target, that I’m hoping we oversee the goal that we put. As it is right now, I think we will,” Stacy said.
When asked what advice they would give to other small business owners about the Florida SBDC at USF and their consultant, the couple raved about using the no-cost services provided by the Florida SBDC at USF in order to make sure the business thrives. “Pretty much just meeting with anyone at the Florida SBDC at USF to get that business plan, get that business model, to make sure it’s the right fit for you and the community that you’re in,” Stacey mentioned.
The Crews never missed a beat when showing their appreciation to their Florida SBDC business consultant and other organizations that have helped them throughout the process. “I think we’d like to really express our thank you to SBDC at USF for reaching out, and we’ve already said this but, helping so much, you [Greg Manning] and Stacey [Florida SBDC at USF associate director],” Randy said. “We were lost without that but a big thank you for all the time you [Greg Manning] invested in. I know there was some trouble that we had there, numbers that we just couldn’t figure out and y’all just figured it out for us and we thank you very much for it all and The Development Group for putting us in touch with y’all and we look for the future. There might be another business in the future that we want to do. We do have one in mind, we’re not going to say it right now but, in the future, maybe we can look back out and make that one work too,” Randy said.
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Kendal Lucas, owner of Dumpsters 4 Rent, was already an avid business owner when he decided to take on a new business venture. “The [dumpster] business was started in 2021, early, and it was the result of having issues with my current business in 2021, where COVID had basically brought that business to its knees,” Lucas stated. Since the pandemic affected his previous business, Lucas went on to research ways on how to start a dumpster business until he realized that there was more to the business than what met the eye.
The small business owner then decided to reach out to his local Florida SBDC office at the Pinellas County Economic Development (PCED) for guidance on the subject matter. “The reason why I reached out to the SBDC was because I was already a business owner entrepreneur. Already had a number of years under my belt in that capacity but recognized that I was going into a business that I had no knowledge about and so I felt it was prudent for me to reach out to someone who could sort of help me navigate the waters and that’s when SBDC came in,” Lucas mentioned. Once he reached out to the office, Lucas was paired with Florida SBDC at PCED business consultant, Kurt Forster, for help with business planning and forecasting.
“Kurt was instrumental in connecting me with a business forecaster. A program that was free by the way. So, I entered in all of the information, and this helped me to make projections. To come up with a very basic sort of, here’s what your business is going to look like in twelve months, here’s what you should expect, these are the things that you need to do to get to that point,” Lucas said.
With the guidance from his business consultant, Lucas was able to start small, make realistic projections for his business, and move on to acquire more assets to grow his business. “I started the business with a smaller vehicle, a smaller truck and a smaller unit and did that until I got my first big repeat client. Once I got that client and that unit was going to be rented for a number of months, I knew I had to go out and get another unit. I got a bigger one and, simultaneously, went out and got the bigger truck because that was necessary,” Kendal Lucas said.
Lucas is also proud to serve other small businesses in a manner that brings in positive return for his own company. “Rubber tires, rubber chocks, wooden blocks. We never touch the client’s property; the client’s property is never damaged. We leave it as it was seen and because I deal with a lot of smaller companies, smaller individuals, they appreciate that,” he said.
Since working with the Florida SBDC at Pinellas County Economic Development, the business owner has also managed to use subcontractors for his business and increase his business revenue. “My first year in business, I made a revenue, of just under 50,000. Basically, what that did was that it paid for my investments. I reinvested all of my capital in to get additional dumpsters. The second year was great, the second year I came in just under one hundred, it was a little over ninety,” Lucas said. The business owner credits his revenue increase to his business partnerships with people such as the subcontractor that pulls his dumpsters. “He’s still with me today, subcontracting, as a matter of fact, we just got done with a really super busy couple week period for one of our biggest clients, Kendal Lucas said.
Moving forward, Lucas states that he is excited to continue using the Florida SBDC at PCED to gain more knowledge that will grow his business, especially with the Profit Mastery workshop and the guidance of Forster. “So when I get to that point, Kurt will be an excellent resource for me to go to because he’s been down that road before to say hey, I’m ready to make this leap you know, help me, what should I do to get ready for that and how can I achieve that in a manner that’s going to be worth it,” he said.
When asked what advice he would give to other small businesses about the Florida SBDC at PCED, Lucas mentioned how letting go of fear and writing up a business plan with a local Florida SBDC consultant is essential to starting a business. “Fear was the thing that held me back before I started my business. So, you have to get over that fear, you have to just say, you know what, it’s going to be a lot of hard work but anybody and I mean anybody can start a business, but you have to have a plan and you have to have a direction and that’s where the SBDC and Kurt come into play,” Lucas expressed.
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When husband and wife team, Nate and Kelly Hammond, went searching for new ways to feel better and healthier, they stumbled upon an interesting practice that involved sauna and cold plunge therapy. “We decided to launch this type of business after we decided to use this type of therapy ourselves, for the physical aspects of it and the mental health aspects. Sauna and cold plunge as a combo have been really helpful for recovery and our mental health and mental clarity,” Kelly Hammond said.
After trying the exciting new therapy combo and seeing positive results the couple decided it was time to share it with others. That’s when they came up with the idea to create a mobile sauna business, specializing in sauna, personal sauna rentals, and contrast therapy between sauna and ice plunge therapy. The only problem? How would they turn this idea into a reality?
Knowing that they would need guidance for this unique business idea, the couple reached out to their local Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County office and were quickly paired with business consultant, Shawn Ferguson. Ferguson would then help the entrepreneurs turn their idea into a reality through business startup assistance. “We needed a starting point and Shawn was able to sit down, point us in the right direction and be there every step of the way to get us to our launching phase,” Nate Hammond said. The couple was guided through the business basics in order to set up a business foundation that would thrive. “Our business has grown from the starting point of permitting, licensing, just everything on the back end that we needed to get started to being pushed in directions of marketing, website development, social media,” Nate Hammond said.
“Our biggest success so far is watching this dream come into fruition into a completely tangible business,” Hammond said. The couple also expressed how fast they were able to bring their dreams to life. “I told Shawn, I had to take a step back and look and appreciate how much has gotten accomplished in such a short amount of time,” Nate Hammond said.
Moving forward, the duo mentions how they will use the services of the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County to move their business in the right direction. “As we continue to grow, I think we will absolutely utilize the resources that are available to us through the Florida SBDC here in Hillsborough County. Just being here and the different tools that he’s shown us I think are things that will absolutely help us throughout the life of our business. Our goal is to continue to grow and to get bigger and add more and we know we can’t do it on our own, so we plan to stay involved every step of the way” Kelly Hammond expressed.
Passing on their own knowledge based on their experience, the couple advises other small business owners to seek help within their community, saying, “if there is any question on where to go, this would be one of the first places I would reach out to. Their guidance has just been helpful beyond belief and through this continuing growth process every time a question rises, they’re always able to point us in the right direction.”
The small business owners also went on to express how grateful they are for having worked with Shawn Ferguson throughout the whole process. “I would just like to say thank you to Shawn, we had no idea where to begin and we couldn’t have done this without him, so we are super grateful. Our experience here has been wonderful, and we appreciate you,” Kelly Hammond said. Followed by an “absolutely,” from Nate Hammond.
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Garden of Love 3D/4D Imaging of Hillsborough County
Jessica Dixon, owner of Garden of Love 3D/4D Imaging, was to become a grandmother for the first time in 2022 when her daughter experienced an unexpected tragedy. Dixon’s grandbaby lived just eight days because something critical was not spotted early. After seeing her daughter go through the pain of losing her newborn baby, Dixon told herself that she did not want any other mother or family to have to go through that same pain.
“This is why I started Garden of Love Imaging,” she said. “So that I could be those extra eyes for those families.” As a licensed ultrasound technician, Dixon decided that she wanted to create her own business as a tribute to her late granddaughter, Jalaïa Nayali Sasser, where she could help expecting mothers see and spend more time with their unborn children through ultrasound imaging.
Thinking of the idea came easily to Dixon, but executing it was where she found herself needing a bit of help. This led her to reach out to the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Hillsborough County Economic Development, where she was paired with business consultant, Shawn Ferguson for startup assistance.
Ferguson was able to help the entrepreneur start with guidance on marketing, financing, and networking suggestions.
Since working with the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County, Dixon says she’s been able to start her business from scratch. “I didn’t know where to start. I didn’t know where to go. I had no idea what I needed to do,” she said. “He kind of paved the way for me. He held my hand through it, through marketing, through obtaining financing for my ultrasound machine, to networking events…and I’m here in my suite.”
With the assistance of Ferguson, Dixon was able to legally start her business in April 2023 and obtained financing from a commercial lender for the ultrasound equipment.
The business owner went on to talk about the success of starting the business in a time when she was still experiencing grief. “It’s overcoming the pain and the grief and to find myself overly ecstatic for somebody else…watching myself sit here and scan pregnant girls and thinking this was my daughter and their going to have their baby and she lost hers,” she recalled. “It was challenging because it was scary to have such a big idea and not even know how or when it was going to come to a reality.”
As her business continues to grow, Dixon says she will use her business consultant every step of the way moving forward. “He is literally on my speed dial; he’s stuck with me,” she said with a smile. “He believed in me, my idea, and my dream, and held my hand and turned it into a reality. She plans on using her Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County consultant for continued guidance on attending strategic networking events and market growth opportunities to reach more expectant mothers.
When it comes to advice, she gives other business owners about resources such as the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County, Dixon says, “run. If you have a dream of opening a business, they are your go-to. It does not cost you a dime; they’re there to help you. They’re there to make your dreams a reality and they’ll do everything possible. I can’t thank Shawn enough or Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County for what they have done for me.”
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Creativity is a superpower for Morgan Uhl, a Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society member who graduated from University of South Florida’s College of Education in 2005. As a former elementary school teacher and preschool director, this fourth generation Tampanian is also no stranger to getting creative during the holiday seasons. So when she decided to decorate her own home and noticed that her cabinet knobs were missing a bit of sparkle, she went on a mission to find cabinet knob décor.
“I went to buy something to decorate my cabinet knobs and realized there wasn’t anything out there for me to buy,” Uhl said. That’s when Uhl created her own cabinet knob decorations and shared it with the public, thus creating her business, Knobēz.
Knowing her strength is in her creativitiy, and not necessarily in writing business plans, Uhl reached out to the Florida Small Business Development Center at Hillsborough County Economic Development for help with developing a business plan that would grow and strengthen her business.
“I love to think on the fly and one of the things that you can’t do any of those things with is doing a business plan,” she said. “And so, where I was lacking, reaching out to the SBDC really just filled that gap.”
After reaching out to her local Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County, Uhl was paired with business consultant Retta Parsons, who helped her navigate through the necessary steps needed in order to complete a successful business plan.
Since working with the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County, Uhl says that her business has grown in sales with the help of a great business plan, as well as marketing her decorative products through search engine optimization and social media posts.
“I just am extremely grateful for just making a phone call and being able to have my questions answered and so I’m very grateful for that,” she said. “Scott was also a very intricate part of this development when I had questions about my website and just how to get people to my website to even know that my product is out there. He helped me put those keywords in there so I could share my product with the world.” Scott [Carpenter] is a business consultant specializing in marketing with the Florida SBDC at University of South Florida.
The creative business owner also mentions that her biggest success so far has been, “having the confidence of knowing where my business is going, knowing where it’s been and really wrapping my mind around my business plan to launch confidently with these new peppermints for the holiday season.”
With that confidence in mind, Uhl says orders continue to pour in from supportive clients that love her holiday Knobēz collections. “I was able to sell out my red peppermints within like five weeks of even bringing them to market and right now I’m already doubled in my sales with even the next order and so just seeing the happiness that this brings people and just the addition to their decorations that they get to decorate for the holiday season, brings me joy,” she added.
Moving forward, Uhl says she will continue using the no-cost services offered by the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County and the guidance received from the consultants. “As my business grows and as I start to develop, I will definitely be leaning into the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County for any questions that I have business related,” she said. She added the business knowledge that she receives from Florida SBDC Network consultants is a resource that she is happy to use, including the help of Retta Parsons, Scott Carpenter, and Gina Smith.
“As mentioned previously, I was a teacher in the classroom and I was not in the business side of things, so having them at my fingertips as a resource and just making those relationships work with my business has just been amazing,” Uhl said.
Uhl encourages other small business owners to seek the guidance of their local Florida SBDC. “If you are a brand-new business and you are looking for just some help, maybe somebody to walk alongside of you to answer questions that maybe you’ve never asked yourself before or you don’t know how to answer if someone asks you those questions, I would highly recommend that you reach out to the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County,” she said. “They’ve been nothing but helpful and I really enjoyed the relationships along the way, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds with the relationship that I’ve made.”
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Mariel McMurrey, a recent college graduate, has always had a passion for handmade jewelry and sustainability. Since she was a little girl, she’s been learning new ways to create unique jewelry pieces that would last. Thus, it was not a surprise that she would grow into an entrepreneur and one of the first businesses to make custom permanent jewelry in the St. Petersburg area.
“One of my biggest passions in life is sustainability – that’s actually what my major is in; environmental science,” she said. “So, permanent jewelry was a way, in my opinion, to slow down consumption by picking out quality pieces that are custom fit to you so you’re less likely to throw them away or get only a month wear out of it.”
Following her passions, McMurrey decided to start her own business, Sadie + Sky Permanent Jewelry.
Although McMurrey was passionate about making the personalized pieces of jewelry, she knew that she needed business guidance as she didn’t have any previous knowledge of how to run one. That was when she reached out to the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Pinellas County Economic Development (PCED), where she was paired with business consultant Debra Schweikowsky for business startup assistance.
“When I first started thinking about the idea of starting a business, I obviously had no idea what I was doing as a 22-year-old at the time,” McMurrey said. “And it quite literally could not be possible. I could not be where I am today without the help of Debra at the Florida SBDC at Pinellas County Economic Development.”
Schweikowsky helped McMurrey through business startup basics, such as setting up an Employer Identification Number (EIN), understanding quarterly sales tax, and thinking about the future of the business.
Now, she says that her Florida SBDC at PCED consultant is helping her grow her business further. “I had no idea what an EIN number was before, so we started with the basics and now we get to talk about franchising and helping with expansion and growth and focusing on adding other employees, independent contractor workers, to the business,” she said.
Since working with the Florida SBDC at PCED, McMurrey has moved her home-based business into a permanent location. “We were a home-based business that focused a lot on being mobile, doing pop ups, local markets, a lot of vendor things, private parties,” she said. “And while we still do a lot of those, we’ve now been able to actually branch out into our own space and have our own brick and mortar, which would not be possible again without the help of Debra.”
The small business owner also mentions how this has been her biggest success thus far as she is now able to accommodate her clients better and maintain more inventory.
Moving forward, the permanent jewelry entrepreneur says she will continue using the services offered by her business consultant and the Florida SBDC at PCED as her business continues to grow.
“There’s always something to learn,” she added. “I mean as a recent college graduate, that student mindset is very much there and this is such a new industry to be in that there is always something to learn and there is always something new that Debra can teach me and as I continue to expand and grow, I’m sure lovely, fantastic new obstacles will get in the way but I’ll be able to tackle them with confidence knowing I can just book my appointment with Debra at the Florida SBDC at Pinellas County Economic Development.”
McMurrey encourages other small business owners to make their dreams a reality by reaching out to their local Florida SBDC Network centers. “This [Florida SBDC at PCED] is such a safe space to go to whenever you’re so confused, you don’t know where to start, and you don’t think it’s possible,” she said. “It’s definitely a place to get your dreams from paper and then out into the real world and actually make them into reality.”
https://sbdctampabay.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/SadieSky-Pic-1.jpg10801620sbdclarry/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Locked-Host-Logos-Horizontal-USF-Small-e1635274663378.pngsbdclarry2023-08-25 17:21:302023-08-25 17:21:33Permanent Jewelry Business Finds New Home in St. Petersburg
After losing her job like many others during the pandemic, Lynette Domenech and her husband decided to invest in themselves and fulfill their dreams of owning a business, the Loco Mofongo food truck, where Domenech is happily cooking up Caribbean-based dishes for her clients.
“We started this business here in St. Pete because we moved from Puerto Rico to here like 10 years ago and we’ve been looking for a place like this that serves traditional Puerto Rican food, authentic Puerto Rican food, and we haven’t found that niche,” Domenech said. “Here in St. Pete, it’s so necessary to have Latino and Puerto Rican food and that’s why we decided to start with this new adventure.”
Knowing what to cook was never a problem for Domenech but starting an actual food truck business was something completely new to her. That was when she reached out to the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Pinellas County Economic Development (PCED), where business consultant, Debra Schweikowsky, gladly helped her learn about the various aspects of starting a business.
“When I started this business, I didn’t know anything about the business aspect of this adventure and she has helped me from financial information, with links and resources for permitting, licenses, all of the steps that I needed to follow to create my LLC and all of the business-related paperwork,” Domenech said.
Since working with her consultant and the Florida SBDC at PCED, the entrepreneur mentions how her business has grown as she constantly improves and interacts with her community. “My business has grown a lot since I started working with Debra,” she said. “She has helped me in learning how to come up with a new business, how to come up with financial information, how to hire people, how to go out there and find events.”
Domenech says that her biggest success so far is being able to start the food truck business and open her doors to the public. “This business has been a dream of mine, of me and my husband, for over 10 years now,” she said. “It has not been easy but certainly a lot of fun. We have learned a lot and we have grown a lot and I want to keep growing.”
Moving forward, she says she will continue to use the Florida SBDC at PCED and her consultant, Schweikowsky, as she works towards expanding and opening a brick-and-mortar store in the future.
“I will continue to use the Florida SBDC at Pinellas County Economic Development to grow my business and ask from them some more resources and more information so I can keep growing,” she said.
https://sbdctampabay.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Loco-Mofongo-Pic-2.jpg10801620sbdclarry/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Locked-Host-Logos-Horizontal-USF-Small-e1635274663378.pngsbdclarry2023-08-21 16:34:042023-08-21 16:34:28Flavorful Puerto Rican Food Truck Gets its Start in St. Petersburg
