Small Business War Stories

Just over 5 years ago, David Swider was lamenting with a friend about how they wished there was a good record store in their hometown of Oxford, Mississippi. Finally, they asked themselves, "Why don't we do it?".  This simple idea led to the creation of the independent record store The End of All Music. Now, 5 years later, the business is stronger than ever and David is working his dream job. This week on Small Business War Stories, we sit down with David to talk about how he has managed to make an independent record store not only succeed but thrive. 

Embrace community. Serve others. Create culture. These are the words you will find on the walls of a coffee shop in Lexington, Kentucky. A Cup of Common Wealth is doing what the biggest and best companies in the world aspire to do, create an amazing culture.  A great culture not only inspires your workforce, but helps to promote your brand. A company's culture goes beyond their benefits and is not something that employees bring with them. It must be set by the founders of the business and it is reflective in the vision, beliefs and values of the organization. We were lucky to speak with Sal Sanchez, founder of A Cup of Common Wealth, about how they think about culture and how that has helped the growth and success of their business. This week on Small Business War Stories, Sal Sanchez of A Cup of Common Wealth Coffee.

Caroline Cook was a stay at home mother with three children (now four) when she decided to venture back into the workforce and become a real estate agent. The initial stage for this career change was tough. She was pregnant with her fourth child and attempting to sell $4 million worth of property during a down market in 2009. However, she not only persevered, but thrived. She still loves what she does and besides somehow managing to raise four children while working full time, she had time to write a book about her ministry involvement in Haiti. Carol is an amazing woman and we are excited to have her as today's guest on Small Business War Stories.

In 1969, a former coffin show room located at 3614 Jackson Highway in Sheffield, Albama was converted into the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. Huge names in music like the Rolling Stones, Cher, Bob Seger, Lynrd Skynrd and many more recorded songs and albums within its' walls. Only a decade later, in 1979, the studio would close. Following a documentary titled Muscle Schoals in 2013, interest was peaked in restoring the forgotten building.  Today, on Small Business War Stories, we talk to Andrew Kelly of the Muscle Shoals Music Foundation about how they helped restore this building to help establish an iconic music museum.

There has been an explosion in growth of the craft beer market over the past 10 years. Today, there are more than 5,300 breweries in operation in the U.S., up from just 2,000 in 2011. That means breweries have grown 21% annually since 2011! However, after 8 years of double digit market growth, in 2016, the craft beer volume fell to just 6% year of year growth. What does this mean for the craft brewery market? Is it time to panic or is this just a sign of the industry growing up? Have we reached a saturation point? We sat down with Mike Raspatello, founder of October, a beer magazine and website, to discuss where he thinks the craft brew industry is going.  This and much more in today's episode of Small Business War Stories.

We often underestimate the impact that a small business can have on their community while in reality, small businesses are the main driver of job creation in the United States. One small business has less impact than a major corporation, but as a whole, small businesses create more jobs, create a positive atmosphere within their communities, and create local role models for kids to look up to. One coffee shop in Clarksdale, Mississippi is a perfect example of such a business. Cali Noland and Ben Lewis of Meraki Roasting Company have combined their passions for education, community and business to use their local coffee shop to help teach kids necessary job skills.  With a poverty rate of 40% in Clarksdale, this program is filling an extremely important need for this community. These kids are learning necessary soft skills like time management, that will ultimately help them secure and keep a job in the future. We get into this program and much more in the latest episode of Small Business War Stories.

Great business people are able to adapt, think on their feet, speak and captivate an audience, and collaborate and communicate with a variety of people in a variety of situations. These also happen to be the exact types of skills you learn in improv. Improv training is fantastic business training. The skills necessary to stand on stage and improvise any topic thrown at you, is an extremely transferable skill to business. Jonas Koffler of the improv and training group Four Day Weekend, has been helping businesses learn these skills for the past 20 years. What started as a limited six week run at a local theatre, has grown into a 20 year successful business where the group has now worked the who's who of Fortune 500 companies, toured with the USO, and performed for two different U.S. presidents. We were lucky to sit down with Jonas Koffler, and get his story, company background and advice as part of Small Business War Stories.

Starting a photography business is simple, but making it successful and profitable is a real challenge. Between existing full-time photographers and those doing it as a secondary part-time job, there's a tremendous amount of competition in the market. But many photographers have managed to succeed by carving out a niche and building a sustainable lucrative business. We spoke with Dan Mitchell about his journey from budding school teacher to full-time music and events photographer. His modest beginnings started with uploading a video he created with his cellphone of a friend's open mic performance. That was compelling enough to be contacted about the possibility of making money from creating similar content. Fast forward to today, and this self-taught photographer has built a growing business specializing in music, portraits and special event photography. We are excited to share with you our interview with Dan in today's episode of Small Business War Stories.

The Shack Up Inn embodies the intersection between music and cultural tourism. A stay at one of their sharecropper shacks immediately immerses you in the history of plantation life while also immersing you in the live music scene at the birth place of the blues. The Shack Up Inn started nearly 20 years ago as a single sharecropper shack on a plantation in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Tourists interested in seeing what a plantation looked like started asking about renting the shack. Fast forward to today, The Shack Up Inn has 19 shacks, can accommodate over 100 people, and has its own live music venue that has featured legends such as Robert Plant, Tom Waits and Elvis Costello. In today's episode of Small Business War Stories, we spoke with Guy Malvezzi to learn how they got their start, why music tourism and much more.

Claire Flowers was in software sales and after years of suffering through poorly made shoes that would get caught in sidewalk grates and fall apart weeks after buying, she was inspired to design her own shoe. Now, it turns out, getting someone to manufacture a single shoe is not so simple. It's not like getting a tailored suit. Large manufacturers have no interest in doing one-off business like that and no one overseas will do it. This is what inspired Claire to start Claire Flowers Shoes. She wanted a woman's shoe that feel like a Nike, looks like a Jimmy Choo, and wears like a work boot. We sat down with Claire to talk about how she went from idea to full fledged business and much more in this latest episode of Small Business War Stories.

In the early 90s, Mark Baier was working as a stockbroker, playing music for fun. Having finally made enough money for the first time to buy new music equipment, Mark excitedly purchased a brand new amp. He was unfortunately disappointed. The new amp didn't sound anything like his old second hand amp. After comparing the electronics between his old and new amps, he realized that in order to have a new amp that sounded like his old amp, he'd need to build it himself. Knowing nothing about electronics, he taught himself 1960s electronics via his local library and then went to work. This incredible story was the modest beginnings of Victoria Amps. We get Mark's full story and much more on the latest episode of Small Business War Stories.

Like many entrepreneurs, Mike Dalle Molle and Jordan Gurren started out working for someone else.  Although they loved the work, they felt like there was not a lot of creative freedom. They had to do what they were told. After receiving a lucky break where a local restaurant asked them to design a shelving unit, which led to designing an entire restaurant, they leapt at the chance to start their own custom furniture business. They were only 23 and 24 years-old at the time.  Now, less than three years later, they have a 6,500 square foot facility with 8 people on staff, cranking out amazing furniture every day. For such young men, they have a lot of perspective and a ton of drive. On this latest episode of Small Business War Stories, we take a deep dive into how they got their start, how they learned and adapted along the way, and what the future holds for Goodwood NOLA.

Brooke Worthington got her start in the jewelry-making business after first creating pieces for her friends and family as a creative outlet. Others took notice and she started selling her custom-made jewelry at a local store in Nashville. One thing led and another, and her business started to grow. Recently, she opened her own retail store in Nashville, where she sells both her own works and an assortment of curated items from other lines. What began as a hobby is now a thriving business.  In this episode of Small Business War Stories, we talk with Brooke about how she got her start in the jewelry business, and how she continues to evolve and learn.

St. Louis is a BBQ town. Outside of St. Louis, what we know as "St. Louis Barbeque", is a pork spare rib cut where the ends of the ribs are trimmed so they're all the same length. However, within St. Louis, BBQ is much more than just a cut of pork.  We take a deep dive into the St. Louis BBQ Tradition with owner and operator of Pappy's Smokehouse, John Matthews. Pappy's Smokehouse was started over 9 years ago and now has multiple locations and lines out the door. What started as John, his business partner and 3 employees, has now grown into a 50-plus person operation. We speak with John about how he started, how he hires, markets and much more on the latest episode of Small Business War Stories.

Matt Eich knew he wanted to be a guitar maker.  After attending guitar-making school, he worked various factory and manufacturing jobs for 10 years before he was able to start Mule Resophonic Guitars, a custom handmade resonator guitar business based in Saginaw, Michigan. Everyday, for 5 years, he started work at 6:30am. Get up, do the work, learn, rinse and repeat. He had to make a lot of mistakes along the way and have incredible discipline to get to where Mule is today with a 12-month customer backlog. For him, building a guitar for someone is a personal experience. The customer is involved in every step along the way. People who buy a Mule aren't simply purchasing a thing, Matt and his team are putting their soul into the guitar's creation and connecting the consumer with their art. This is their passion and their story. This and more on the latest episode of Small Business War Stories.

There are a ton of benefits to urban farming.  Local food, farm to table, 100 mile diet, all of this is possible with urban agriculture. Further, urban gardens are often built over abandoned spaces in cities, converting them into green space, helping increase the beauty and value of the neighborhood. However, there are also many challenges with urban farming. There's potential contaminants from city water runoff, zoning laws that must be overcome, laws about owning chickens, bees, and other farm animals, as well as major space constraints. We get into all this and more on the latest episode of Small Business War Stories featuring Mel Millsap of Urban Roots Farm.

CD and digital sales are declining as music lovers turn to streaming services like Pandora and Spotify, yet vinyl records sales have grown 260% since 2009. We are in the midst of a vinyl revival. Third Man Records, a record label founded by musician Jack White, has been on the ground floor of this renewed interest in vinyl.  Vinyl, more than any other medium, has a timeless appeal, it's tactile. Ben Blackwell of Third Man Records, says that people have a strong connection to what vinyl means in their lives, it's a lifestyle.  To help us dig further into why people have started buying vinyl again, the background of Third Man Records, we spoke with Ben Blackwell, who shared some amazing stories in today's edition of Small Business War Stories.

Small businesses can give a lot to a community and in turn, those communities help support those businesses. Community involvement helps further distinguish your business from competitors and helps create customer loyalty. At Mother's Brewing Company in Springfield, Missouri, owner and operator Jeff Schrag sees it as their responsibility to the community to help local non-profits move further with their missions. By donating free beer to various fundraising events and charities, Mother's has established itself as a community-minded brewery. They hate to say no to anyone and this unique perspective paired with a fantastic product has helped Mother's establish itself as a must-visit location for beer lovers. Today, we are happy to share with you our interview with Jeff Schrag of Mother's Brewing Company's as the latest episode of Small Business War Stories.

Many of us dream of ditching our desk jobs in favor of a workshop. Working with our hands, crafting something out of wood or some other material. Something physical, something real. Seth Lee Jones worked at Whole Foods for 6 years while on the side building up his business as a guitar maker. Eventually he had to leave his day job because he had enough people beating down his door with requests for guitar work. He now builds builds 25 to 30 custom instruments a year and a handful of acoustic guitars. The journey to becoming a full time luthier or guitar maker, is not an easy one. Today, we are happy to share with you Seth Lee Jones's story as the latest episode of Small Business War Stories.

Nearly a quarter of the U.S. population consists of people under the age of 18. Kids, more than any time in our history, are influencing the spend of household income. Kids influence an estimated $500 billion in household spending. Further, spend on kids products is growing rapidly. Products targeting children between the ages of 4 and 12 are now responsible for $40 billion in revenue. Children and their parents are savvy consumers and there's great opportunities for those entrepreneurs looking to build a kid-focused business. To help us explore this topic further, we spoke with Maggie Tucker of Magpies Baby and Magpies Girl to discuss how she has built two successful kid-focused retail businesses.