Archive for category: Success Stories

Molly’s Suds of Pinellas County

On Christmas Eve 2005, Monica Leonard, owner of Molly’s Suds, suffered a tragic loss when her daughter Molly was delivered stillborn.

“At the time I was a pediatric nurse, so I knew a lot about the body,” Leonard said. “I just needed to know, what went wrong. So, I went into research mode to find out what could have happened and why.”

Her research led her to a study conducted by the Environmental Working Group, on chemicals found in newborns. This study reported that they found industrial chemicals in the umbilical cord blood that were known carcinogens and contained toxic compounds that were harmful to human organs.

“Our skin is our largest organ and those chemicals penetrate the skin and they are passed to our babies,” she said. “It was my responsibility, now that I was armed with this information, to do something about it.”

Immediately, she decided to replace all of what she deemed toxic household cleaners and personal care products from her home, with natural, safer solutions. She and her husband found natural replacements for personal care items they needed, but couldn’t find a truly safe laundry detergent alternative.

This inspired her to partner with a manufacturer in Oregon to formulate Molly’s Suds very first laundry detergent product. Molly’s Suds uses only human safe earth and plant-derived ingredients and is Certified Cruelty-Free by Leaping Bunny, and Certified Vegan.
“If you buy something from Molly’s Suds, it’s not only safe for people, it’s also safe for the planet,” she said. “We really pride ourselves on full disclosure and ingredient integrity. We know the suppliers and we know the testing that’s been done on each ingredient. Then we do further tests on the formula as it is as a whole.”
After attending a natural products expo in 2017, she discovered that there were local resources that could help jumpstart her business.
“We really are a Florida local company,” she said. “We manufacture in Florida with a few local manufacturing partners. Most of our packaging and product supplies come from Florida.”

Not only did Molly’s Suds find local manufacturing resources, but the company also turned to the Florida SBDC at the University of South Florida and Enterprise Florida for help with managing all of her business and exporting needs.

“There was so much we had to do,” Leonard said. “For example, we had to do a business marketing plan. We needed to know what countries are out there that would be a good match for our products. Because you don’t want to invest the time, the money and the efforts thinking that it’s going to be great in another country, only to come to find out that they don’t buy powdered detergent.”

International trade specialist Selma Canas, of the Florida SBDC at USF, has also helped Leonard secure a federal grant, guide her through Gold Key matchmaking, secure an international trademark attorney and help develop multiple websites to cater to various country language barriers and needs.

They’re not stopping there. After 10 years of being in business, Molly’s Suds is now in the first phase of Florida SBDC at USF’s Growth Acceleration service. This service takes a deep dive into a company’s financial health and operations.

“We are so thankful for the Florida SBDC,” she said. “The team has been amazing and extremely helpful. They never make us feel like we’re a bother. They’re always willing to give us the resources that we need. Which is so important, because at the end of the day, if we grow, it helps the whole community.”

Results Sales and Service of Pinellas County

David Hahn decided to take a leap of faith and leave the hospitality industry to follow in his father’s footsteps, as an entrepreneur. He decided to take what he’d learned in the hospitality industry about service and apply it to the construction business his dad had owned since 1985.

“I came on a few years ago and bought out my dad…and started going after some government business, specifically targeting Veterans Affairs hospitals and other government entities,” Hahn said.

Results Sales and Service focuses primarily on roofing maintenance programs, waterproofing, and painting and coating, and mold abatement and remediation. The rep side of the business was strong enough to allow Hahn to branch out and attempt to secure government business, but he wasn’t sure where to start. So, he reached out to Karen Krymski, procurement specialist at the Florida PTAC at University of South Florida.

“Without Karen advising me and helping me connect the dots, it would have been a much more treacherous path for me to get the certifications that I need to work with the Veteran Affairs Administration,” he said. Since working with Krymski, the business has been recognized as a service-disabled Veteran owned (SDVOSB) business.

Not only is Results Sales and Service a SDVOSB, it is also located in a HubZone, another government contracting hurdle that Krymski helped guide Hahn through.

As a result of the guidance from Krymski and the Florida PTAC at USF, Results Sales and Service was awarded its first government contract approximately one year ago. “The business, for Results Sales and Service on the government side, has grown 100 percent,” Hahn said. “We started doing really small jobs and I knew that we were getting tested out. The next thing you know, we started doing a bit larger jobs.”

Hahn considers growing the government side of the business a major accomplishment, and one he is very proud of, as an Army Veteran himself.

“I love helping Veterans so there’s a personal thing in my heart that pushes me to actually making the VA’s a different, better, and special place for all Veterans who have served,” he said. “It’s just a warm feeling that you get when you make where they go to get their healthcare something that’s better and more efficient.”

Moving forward, as Hahn continues to grow the government contracting side of Results Sales and Service, he looks forward to continuing collaborating with Krymski to improve the business.

“We look to establish a GSA Schedule using the products that we’re compiling and the PTAC has been extremely helpful in navigating that process,” he said. “We also look forward to teaming with some larger prime companies and maybe doing a mentor-protégé with the advice and guidance of the PTAC and hopefully spinning off into a joint venture at some point when we find the right person who’s willing to work with us.

In the meantime, his dad, Dale, continues to be involved in the business and is proud of his son’s accomplishments so far. “David has brought in so much from the other side of it, especially in government,” he said. “He’s actually tripled this business and it’s still a people business.”

Grand Hacienda of Pinellas County

The Grand Hacienda, on St. Pete Beach, took a hit when Hurricane Irma swept through the area in September 2017. The owners reached out to the Florida SBDC at Pinellas County Economic Development for assistance in applying for a bridge loan, and found much more.

“They guided us and taught us what to do and we obtained the loan,” co-owner Claudia Johnson, said. “That helped us a lot to sustain that restaurant and continue all the work and financing that we were doing for this one.”

Without the State of Florida Emergency Bridge Loan program, the owners of Grand Hacienda would not have been able to continue with their plans for growth, which included opening a second location. “If not [for the loan], all of our resources for this restaurant would have deviated to the other one and we could not have completed the goal,” she added.

The Grand Hacienda, which now boasts two locations, offers authentic Mexican food, focusing on foods from throughout a variety of states in Mexico. The management team – consisting of four dynamic partners with a wide range of entrepreneurial and restaurant experience – is keen on growing the Grand Hacienda footprint throughout Pinellas County, with the help of the Florida SBDC at PCED.

“From when we started working with them to now, we have opened a restaurant that has 25 to 27 employees and kept the other one going, which has another 10 to 15 employees,” Johnson said. The restaurants employ approximately 35 full-time employees, with the rest being seasonal. The second restaurant opened in June, which also happens to be the same month the partners were able to repay the Emergency Bridge Loan in full.

The Florida SBDC at PCED was instrumental in the planning stages of opening the second location, and business consultant Yolanda Cowart and center director Dr. Cynthia Johnson, connected the team with other economic development resources in the area to help them achieve their goals.

“Our business has grown tremendously since working with the SBDC at Pinellas County,” said partner, Luis Ortega.

“They have helped us by referring us to other partnerships here in the city of St. Pete, like the Greenhouse of St. Petersburg and also CareerSource. Without CareerSource, we could not have grown the staff when we were set to open. Also, the Greenhouse was referred to us by Cynthia Johnson as we were developing this location. We are a historic site and permitting can be an issue and she helped us out by connecting us to the Greenhouse of St. Pete to help us with permitting and also help us smooth the transitions so we could grow and get this business off the ground.”

As the partners look to expand the footprint of Grand Hacienda into areas such as Clearwater and Safety Harbor, they continue to work with the Florida SBDC at PCED to source new locations, find market data, and perform financial checkups on the business.

“We’re just so thankful for the support that all the team at SBDC has given to us,” Claudia said. “I think that we have done a good job together and it’s good to find the resources locally.”

Ortega added, “They are a great resource…in business you need advice and also support, and the SBDC has been both resourceful and supportive in our growth throughout our community.”

Prestige Fitness of Highlands County

“We chose to launch this type of business because my business partner and my board of directors are really passionate about fitness and we wanted to provide a different alternative to the fitness industry here in the Highlands County area, by doing something that’s locally owned and operated, that’s non-corporate and that was also going to serve the millennial market,” Derek Pierce, owner of Prestige Fitness in Sebring, said.

While Prestige Fitness, a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week gym that offers personal training and hydro massage, is open now in Sebring, it didn’t happen without its challenges. In fact, Pierce considers getting the doors open the biggest success so far.

“We had a lot of setbacks with the opening of this business,” he said. “We took over this building after Hurricane Irma and we had to totally rebuild this building from the ground up so the major accomplishment was actually getting the doors open and being able to serve the community and we’re really proud of that.”

Pierce also acknowledges that it couldn’t have been done without the assistance of the Florida SBDC at University of South Florida, located at South Florida State College, in Avon Park. Business consultant, Michael Noel, met with Pierce in preparation for opening to ensure all the boxes were checked in order to legally launch the business.

Since opening the doors in December 2018, Prestige Fitness has added 15 personal training clients to its list.

Moving forward, Pierce is working with Noel regarding marketing strategies on a shoestring budget, as well as how to emphasis social media and utilize clients to help grow the business.

“As we grow our business, while working with Florida SBDC at USF, we anticipate an ongoing working relationship with that organization,” Pierce said. “As we grow and run into new challenges we’re going to have somebody there that’s already been through those challenges who’s going to help us get through that with the least amount of drama and to go forward to be able to expand our business in a confident sort of way.”

Pierce added that having the Florida SBDC at USF as a partner simplifies the process of starting a business and makes the whole journey “much less scary.”

“It’s gonna help you sleep at night, because you’re gonna be able to organize your thoughts and really focus on your business and the details of your business and know that somebody’s got your back when you run into those difficult moments.”

Aspirations Winery of Pinellas County

After working with hundreds of small business clients as a business banker, Bill Linville knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur when the time came to make a change.

“We were looking at a lot of different types of businesses,” he said of he and his wife Robin’s research,” because what I learned as a young kid from Junior Achievement is that you don’t have to know how to build the widget in order to own a widget factory or company.”

Linville and his wife eventually settled on Aspirations Winery, a certified Florida Farm Winery, known for its small-batch, hand-crafted wine made on location using local juices and its own blends and recipes. “We make all low-sulfite wines,” he said. “We don’t put a lot of additives and preservatives into it, so that’s our unique little niche.”

The company also specializes in private, custom labeling.

Having had a background working with business owners, Linville knew there was assistance for entrepreneurs in the form of local resources, so when the company fell on hard times with the onset of hurricanes and red tide, Linville reached out to the Florida SBDC at Pinellas County Economic Development for help.

“What really has helped me a ton is in times of trouble and when the weather has gotten a little rough for us, they’ve really been a nice voice in the background saying, ‘hey, everything can be okay. We can help. These are some resources for you. Contact these people. These are some things that have worked for other people. Give this a try.’ Those things for us have just been critical for our success because being a small business owner and this being the first business we’ve ever had, when things kind of fall apart and you don’t know who to go to, they’ve been there for us. They’ve been the guiding light,” Linville said.

Kurt Forster, business consultant with the Florida SBDC at PCED, has helped guide Linville through the process of securing a State of Florida Emergency Bridge Loan in December 2017, as well as a U.S. Small Business Administration economic injury disaster loan in April 2018. In addition, Forster has guided Linville through marketing, cash flow, and employee issues.

Since engaging the Florida SBDC at PCED for no-cost services, Aspirations Winery has grown its tasting room sales levels, added four employees, been recognized by House Beautiful magazine as the number one winery in the state of Florida, and earned Small Business of the Year honors from the City of Clearwater.

“When we first started working with them a couple years ago, we weren’t really as focused as we could have been on utilizing this great wine front that we have here,” Linville said. “This year has really been a great year for us in terms of exposure.”

With a goal for Aspirations Winery to become a recognized brand in retail stores across the state of Florida, Linville says he intends to continue to engage with the Florida SBDC at PCED for business assistance.

“I will always lean on them to help understand what type of programs may exist out there to assist with small businesses,” he said. “It’s not one-stop shopping for anything. If you don’t utilize all the resources that are out there, you’ve just got to think that there’s a team member that you’re leaving on the bench that you need to put in the game. That’s how I look at it.”