Vanessa Drews was a paralegal at a giant Minneapolis legislation agency who dabbled with baking cheesecakes on the facet. She made the dessert for colleagues in the course of the holidays, offered muffins to an Irish pub and even handled musicians and the royal one himself at Prince’s Paisley Park when she offered merchandise there.
In August 2019, she stop the authorized occupation and determined to concentrate on her cheesecake enterprise — just a few brief months earlier than COVID-19 threw small companies an sudden curveball. 1000’s folded or shut down for months, laid off workers and scrambled to search out new methods to ship their providers at a time of pandemic and civil unrest.
Hennepin County officers rapidly acknowledged the significance of serving to small companies keep afloat, and used greater than $70 million in federal and state restoration funding for small grants to six,500 companies, almost half of which had been owned by individuals of colour.
Then the county launched Elevate Enterprise Hennepin County, a $1 million program that gives enterprise house owners as much as 25 hours of free consulting providers to assist them rebuild and reignite after the pandemic subsides and for the lengthy haul.
So excess of 700 enterprise, together with Drews’, have taken benefit of the assist provided with accounting, authorized, finance, advertising and marketing, social media and internet improvement points.
“With attempting to take care of my well being, the well being of my household and to securely provide desserts to a number of eating places and markets throughout the Twin Cities, the only real accountability to make this enterprise succeed has been mentally and bodily exhausting at instances,” stated Drews, who owns Cheesecake Funk, which she named in honor of Prince.
“For the times that I have a good time milestones, I’ll without end keep in mind the lengthy days and nights of preparation in baking desserts that in flip introduced a lot pleasure to individuals throughout this pandemic.”
Elevate Enterprise began within the fall of 2020 in partnership with the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce. This system has supplied 3,344 hours of consulting and instruction webinars. Whereas no statistics can be found exhibiting enterprise outcomes, the county might be conducting a survey of the 6,500 companies that obtained grants.
Earlier than COVID broke out, Hennepin County had just a few companions providing entrepreneurial assist. After convening a enterprise advisory council, county officers rapidly realized a disproportionate variety of companies owned by individuals of colour had been struggling financially, stated Patricia Fitzgerald, the county’s director of neighborhood and financial improvement.
“Small companies wanted technical assistance on find out how to pivot on-line gross sales on a dime,” she stated. “The companies did not have time or cash to entry consultants to resolve these challenges.”
Elevate Enterprise now contracts with greater than 20 nonprofit and enterprise advisers, together with the African Growth Heart, Latino Financial Growth Heart, Springboard for the Arts and Ladies Enterprise. This system is a one-stop mannequin for enterprise improvement, Fitzgerald stated.
Staying on monitor
The struggles of small enterprise in Hennepin County mirror nationwide surveys, which point out that just about 70% of small companies have not seen gross sales rebound to pre-pandemic ranges.
In October, the Hennepin County Board allotted $9 million to maintain Elevate Enterprise funded for the following three years. The board additionally earmarked $10 million for grants to supply long-term, inexpensive business rental house for small companies.
“It is actually tough to overestimate the significance of small and native companies to a neighborhood,” Fitzgerald stated. “Storefronts are a part of what makes our communities livable.”
Poh Lin Khoo owns Khoo Consulting, one of many companies chosen to work with Elevate Enterprise. An immigrant who speaks 4 languages, Khoo has labored with a house well being care enterprise, a Liberian lady launching a handbag retailer, a farmer planning to market avocado oil in Minnesota and a homeless man attempting to begin a stitching enterprise.
Khoo witnessed racial riots in Malaysia and stated she will relate to the disruptions induced in Minneapolis after the loss of life of George Floyd.
“I really like working with these purchasers as a result of the boundaries for individuals of colour make it tough to typically succeed,” she stated.
Victor Jones has owned a consulting enterprise since 2014 that focuses on the restaurant business. He has suggested companies in Hopkins, Brooklyn Heart and on Eat Avenue in Minneapolis on financing choices, enterprise plans and find out how to take higher care of staffers. His first shopper within the Elevate Enterprise program was Drews, who has slowly constructed her enterprise by phrase of mouth and social media.
Cheesecake Funk is just about a one-woman enterprise. She bakes and delivers her product whereas getting assist from her mom in watching her kids, ages 7 and 5. Her cheesecakes will be ordered on her web site or bought at a dozen-plus metro space eating places, markets, a rustic membership and vineyard. Although gross sales have been constant in the course of the pandemic, she went eight months with out medical insurance.
Drews wanted Jones’ assist with accounting and calculating meals prices. He additionally labored along with her to discover a monetary establishment keen to offer her a line of credit score to determine her enterprise — she was denied a small-business mortgage when she began — and permit her to use for bigger financing, he stated.
Drews rents house to do her baking within the kitchen of the restaurant on the Marriott Southwest in Minnetonka, however Jones is aware of she finally desires to open her personal spot. They’ve even mentioned having one other firm make her cheesecakes.
“I had one shopper who was excited about exploring a cooperative route for his restaurant, which was tremendous attention-grabbing to me,” Jones stated. “So many companies in bother aren’t asking the appropriate questions. I guarantee them success is down the highway.”
Drews stated that Jones has been an amazing useful resource to bounce off her concepts. “He makes positive you keep on monitor,” she stated.
