Tuesday, Sep 21, 2021 • 25min
Small Business Survival Tips
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Starting a small business has always been daunting—but it was measurably more so for today's guest, who opened hers (Fulton Street Books & Coffee) in the summer of 2020, amid an unprecedented global pandemic and national protests demanding accountability for the police killings of Black Americans. Here's what she learned—and what she still hopes to learn—about navigating small-business ownership and the digital-first landscape.
Expert: Mary Kay Bowman, global head of buyer, seller, core and platform products, Visa
Learn more about Visa’s resources and tools for small businesses at visa.com/smallbusinesshub
For more on the topics covered in today's episode, visit glamour.com/money.
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Talking about
Speakers
(3)
Samantha Barry
Onikah Asamoa-Caesar
Mary Kay Bowman
Transcript
Verified
Break
00:16
It's super exciting that we're still here and we keep saying if we can make it through a global pandemic, I think we're solid and we can probably make it through anything.
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Samantha Barry
00:27
Welcome to She Makes Money Moves. I'm
Samantha Barry
, the editor in chief of Glamour
.Share
00:33
Covid has disrupted so many businesses, and small businesses are no exception. In April of 2020, the number of business owners in the US declined by 22%. That 3.3 million people. Black and women-owned businesses were especially hard hit. Black-owned businesses. saw 41% decrease in business activity that month. Women-owned businesses, so a 25% decrease.
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01:02
Starting and maintaining a small business has never been easy, but it's especially difficult now. Today's guest opened her business just a few months into the pandemic.
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Onikah Asamoa-Caesar
01:14
My name is Onikah Asamoa-Caesar. I am the founder and owner of Fulton Street Books and Coffee.
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Samantha Barry
01:22
Onikah's path starting her own business was a long one.
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Onikah Asamoa-Caesar
01:25
Yeah, so I would say my baseline is poverty. I grew up in various situations and lived most of my childhood actually in the foster care system.
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Samantha Barry
01:36
After graduating from high school in
Mississippi,
Onikah got a full scholarship to Cal State Fullerton
, and that's where she started learning how to manage her money.Share
Onikah Asamoa-Caesar
01:46
The coordinator from my scholarship program was like, "Do you have a budget?" And I was like, I don't think I'm that expensive, you know? I don't spend a lot of money a month. And she was like, "Onikah, the
Starbucks
that you're grabbing between classes every day, that adds up". She was like, "Let's sit down and talk about all the money you spend and the money you can save".Share
02:10
And I was like, okay, but I'm thinking, it doesn't cost a lot to maintain me as a person. Sat down, listed out everything. And even spent a week or so just logging every purchase that I made or expense that I had, and for the first time understood how much it costs to live each month, even as a student. So it was definitely the coordinator for my scholarship program, shout out to Julie.
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Samantha Barry
02:35
With this baseline financial knowledge, Onikah started saving the money she made working at a clothing store, for the county and for children's foundation.
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Onikah Asamoa-Caesar
02:43
So I basically had 2.5 jobs during my college career. I remember scheduling my classes to, you know, being able to take all my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I could stack the rest of my hours working my various jobs. So I worked all throughout college.
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Samantha Barry
02:58
Because Onikah had a scholarship, she was able to save most of the money she was earning. Plus she was able to participate in a transitional housing program for young adults who've grown up in foster care.
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Onikah Asamoa-Caesar
03:10
And so during the two years I was in that program, there was also heavy budgeting, and you paid rent, but part of your what you're paying for "rent" went to savings. And so, after being in that program for two years, you had this nice nest egg of what you had saved. And then in addition to that, t 10% of your income, it was strongly encouraged, went directly to savings.
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03:33
And so I was setting up these mechanisms where there was money I didn't see, it just went straight into, you know, a savings account and there was money that I was paying during that two years towards "rent" that was actually going into savings.
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03:44
And so that really allowed me to create a very solid safety net for myself in an environment in which I could take a year and go travel, and come back and feel relatively comfortable financially. I graduated from college in, oh my goodness, 2012, and spent a year traveling because I had saved up enough money based on being able to budget.
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04:07
After that year of traveling, she joined
Teach for America
, which brought her to Tulsa,
Oklahoma
. After that program wrapped, she was hired by a community foundation in Tulsa
that works with children and families. She continues to live and work there full time. Besides being a city where she could earn a steady income, Tulsa
was also the perfect place for Onikah to start her own business: a bookstore.Share
04:30
I am absolutely 110% a book lover. I loved reading as a child. Reading allowed me to experience other places, to get out of my context or my situation and environment, and to engulf myself in other worlds and possibilities, so have always been a lover of books. And then being from southern
California
but having finished high school in Mississippi
, I had a cultural shock in terms of understanding the layers of what we call the United States Of America
and the differences depending on geography.Share
05:05
And so as a college student, I eventually change my major to history, and that reading was different. As a child, what I was reading was a lot o, f you know, stories and you know, things that were not real. But as a history major I was reading the history of this country, things that were very real, that were very shocking, and that were still occurring, and yet less talked about.
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05:33
And so I always say that history gave me the language to articulate my experience as a black child in this country, and as a black woman in this country. And so I wanted that sense of, it was liberating, and I wanted that sense of liberation for others around me.
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Samantha Barry
05:54
To protect the new business and her bank account, Onikah decided to keep her full-time job.
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Onikah Asamoa-Caesar
05:59
So I work for a foundation, that is my kind of 9-5, and I also have a business. I think a lot about, there are a lot of folks who talk about like, multiple streams of income and all those things, but I do think that is a very real thing, and so I'm thinking about how do I build multiple streams of income for myself?
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06:17
Part of what has allowed the business to thrive is that I don't rely on my business for my own personal livelihood. I recognize that that is a seat of privilege to be in as a business owner, is that I was able to keep my full-time job, and spend the energy kind of getting this baby off of the ground.
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06:38
What it allows me to do is not make decisions based on money that the business needs, but really be true to our mission and vision. So we're not making decisions based on like, uh, we got to meet my bills, we're making decisions on what do we think is best for the business.
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Samantha Barry
06:52
Onikah had big dreams for the store, including a coffee shop space that she hoped would become a hub for the community. Those dreams came with a lot of uphill battles.
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Onikah Asamoa-Caesar
07:02
A lot of the challenges, as you can imagine, were barriers to being able to access funding to even start a business. Also, social capital that is necessary to have the networks to help you think through how to even start a business, how many businesses have been created in this country since the beginning of time? Like, it should not have been that difficult to get one off the ground.
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Samantha Barry
07:26
First off, Onikah needed money. In July 2019, she was able to get $110,000 as a small business loan from the Tulsa Economic Development Corporation.
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Onikah Asamoa-Caesar
07:37
But Before we could even get that, we had to kind of prove value add to community, so we did a crowdfunding campaign where we raised $20,000. And $20,000 financially, it wasn't huge, but it was more important than any other funding source, because it said that there were community members that raised their hands and I think this is valuable, and I'm going to put my money behind it.
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08:01
So there was a crowdfunding campaign, small business loan, personal equity, sweat equity. And then there were, you know, a few, mostly women, who said "I'm going to back your vision because I believe in women as business owners" and provided kind of seed funding as well.
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Samantha Barry
08:18
By the summer of 2020, amid an unprecedented global pandemic and national protest demanding accountability for the police killings of Black Americans, Fulton Street Books and Coffee was ready to open its doors.
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Onikah Asamoa-Caesar
08:32
So, for a lot of us, we were living in two pandemics. One is, you know,
Coronavirus
and the other is this crisis of racial injustice.Share
Samantha Barry
08:44
Onikah said the latter helped drive sales.
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Onikah Asamoa-Caesar
08:48
Our sales were wild our first few months, because you had so many white folks who were like, "I need to learn about race in this country, I need to learn about the history of policing and the history of racism and implicit bias", and all of these things. So we experienced a boom right as we were opening.
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Samantha Barry
09:09
More She Makes Money Moves right after this quick break.
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Break
Samantha Barry
10:09
I'm
Samantha Barry
, Welcome back to She Makes Money Moves.Share
10:12
When Onikah opened her business, as many businesses around the country were closing their doors, she knew she'd have to adapt. With social distancing and shelter at home, she saw that the coffee shop wasn't going to be a space where people gathered.
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10:26
But she also saw consumers seeking out books by black authors and stories from people of color and marginalized communities, the exact literature her store specialized in. There, she saw an opportunity. She created ally boxes, which can be ordered on the store's site and include a curated selection of books, as well as a list of resources and action steps.
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10:49
She also launched Little and Lit, a monthly subscription service that delivers diverse children's books. And so her business is growing, but a year in she's still not exactly sure where it's going.
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Onikah Asamoa-Caesar
10:60
I still don't know what normalcy in the book industry as a black bookstore owner looks like. It's really been a mixed bag there. So, the pandemic I think has impacted us in just so many different ways.
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Samantha Barry
11:12
Today, Fulton Street Books and Coffee has about 15 employees. While Onikah is thinking about what comes next for her business, she also wants to help her employees think about their own financial futures.
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Onikah Asamoa-Caesar
11:25
I'm trying to figure out what are avenues for small businesses like ours, to help our employees think about their financial future. So what are other things that we should be doing to take care of our people, you know? What should small businesses be doing to take care of their employees beyond ensuring that they're making a livable wage?
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Samantha Barry
11:44
Onikah's looking for advice on and managing her business. She also wants to make sure she's doing right by her employees. It's important to her that both Fulton Street books and Coffee and the people the business employees are financially stable and around for a long time. Both mean the world to her.
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Onikah Asamoa-Caesar
12:01
I get chills still every time someone walks into Fulton Street for the first time and they just look around and they realize "this is a space that was built for me, my identity, who I am, my culture is embedded in the fabric of this space". And because for black folks that is so rare, right? And seeing people walk into the space for the first time still just reminds me of why I set out to build Fulton Street books and Coffee.
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12:34
I am thankful every single day that I get to do this. I think it's a huge privilege and a gift and I challenge myself to continue ensuring that we are living out our mission and what we have promised to community.
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Samantha Barry
13:01
I love Onikah's story. She wants to do right by her business, her employees and her community. In addition to dealing with the challenges most small business owners face, she put a lot of pressure on herself and she's been doing it all during this global health crisis.
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13:18
Let's talk about how the pandemic has affected small business owners. For today's episode. We're welcoming expert Mary Kay Bowman.
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Mary Kay Bowman
13:24
Hi, I'm Mary Kay Bowman. I lead
Visa's
global core and platform products. That means we build products to help connect buyers and sellers all over the world, and make check out fast, secure and convenient.Share
Samantha Barry
13:44
So, Mary kate, you work with a lot of businesses. What are your initial thoughts on Onikah's story?
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Mary Kay Bowman
13:49
Well one of my first reactions is being completely inspired by her story and wanting to congratulate her for being so resilient and sticking to, kind of her mission. Many, many small businesses have struggled, especially during this time, to stay afloat. And this isn't just a small business story, this is really a challenge that affects us all.
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Samantha Barry
14:11
I agree, I love her resilience. I cannot wait to go to
Tulsa
and visit that bookstore. How is Onikah's story similar to those of other small business owners?Share
Mary Kay Bowman
14:21
Several of the challenges relate to the way that their businesses have changed. Many small businesses have been moved from being face to face with their customers in a shop or in a service experience to needing to become an online or digital delivery of their business. So this move or shift to digital-first, for a lot of businesses, especially small businesses has been one of the biggest challenges.
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Samantha Barry
14:49
Onikah certainly saw that she thought she was opening a bookstore and a coffee shop, and now she's shipping boxes all over the country. A lot of business models have changed, though, right?
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Mary Kay Bowman
14:58
We've seen a big shift to online, order ahead, pick up later, maybe in-app purchases. I, you know, I know I buy a lot more groceries by delivery.
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15:10
One of the things that within e-commerce that is also changing is customers are looking at what they spend, especially for larger purchases, and they're looking at options for buying now and paying later or paying in, you know 3, 4 or 6 equal payments for a purchase that they want to make sure that they've budgeted properly for.
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15:33
So not only are customers looking for limited contact and the convenience that some of these digital channels bring, they're also looking for the control that that gives them as they are looking at their own budgets.
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Samantha Barry
15:46
What's some advice that you have for people that want to go digital, or want to be more digital, or want to be digital-first? Like what, where should they be getting their information?
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Mary Kay Bowman
15:56
Yeah. So, similar to Onikah's story, people are trying to be fast on their feet and respond to what their customers are needing in this pandemic. One piece of advice that I would give is it may seem like it's a temporary experience, that this digital thing is necessary now.
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16:16
This is one of those shifts that, although it was absolutely mandatory during the pandemic, it's not going to go back to normal. Customers are going to still expect those digital experiences, that ability to order ahead or pick up at curbside. It's going to be something that sticks with us.
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Samantha Barry
16:34
Right. We're all used to these conveniences, small business owners are going to have to learn to keep pace.
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Mary Kay Bowman
16:40
I think it means that they're going to have to become more comfortable with maybe some technologies or capabilities that they weren't, and they're going to have to search a bit for the solutions that work for them and for their customers. Ultimately, I think small businesses, so their customers are telling them what they want, they want to be able to buy online.
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Samantha Barry
16:59
It's a big shift for small brick and mortar stores.
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Mary Kay Bowman
17:02
You know, we sometimes talk about the challenges that small businesses have. But one of the benefits that a lot of small businesses have is that they really know their customer well. They're very in tune with their customer, and they respond to what their customers really want.
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17:18
So one of the things that we know from this pandemic is that 78% of customers will change the way that they will pay based on how much contact there is. In fact, some customers will even choose a different store if they don't feel that they can pay with limited contact.
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Samantha Barry
17:37
That is so interesting. 78% of the consumers are changing how they pay, and they may change where they shop because they want to be more contactless.
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Mary Kay Bowman
17:44
Yes, 70% will change the way they pay. And then if those stores do not offer limited contact or contactless options, they may change where they shop as well.
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Samantha Barry
17:56
Wow. So get that sorted, small business owners. Back to Onikah, she had a hard time raising money. That's a common struggle, right?
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Mary Kay Bowman
18:03
She is not alone in the challenge. We see this as a common challenge among new businesses, the capital is very difficult to access. One of the things is looking for maybe capital that you didn't know about. So we launched a program a few years ago called She's Next, specifically for women entrepreneurs. And it's focused on closing that capital and equity gap by giving folks tools to run fund and grow their businesses.
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18:37
One of the parts of the She's Next program is a grant. There are many grants out there for women who want to start businesses. Our program is specifically aligned with a wonderful group called I Fund Women, which awarded 60 black women entrepreneurs $10,000 each as part of the grant for the She's Next program.
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18:59
So that was money, in many cases when we talked to some of the recipients, that they didn't really know was available to them. So getting dialed in and learning about these opportunities, I think is really helpful.
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19:13
I think friends and family is something that you hear in the origin stories of so many entrepreneurs, putting up your own capital and looking for investors who trust in you and who want to support you for that seed funding or that angel funding that we hear about in in so many of those stories.
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19:33
And then looking for opportunities like she's next, that are available in terms of grants or low-interest loans. So it kind of is a patchwork quilt of finding what you need out there.
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Samantha Barry
19:45
In your experience, what do small business owners need beyond money?
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Mary Kay Bowman
19:50
The grant recipients will say the money is nice, but the coaching and the connections and the networking was almost even more important than the money. And we all know how important capital is for small business, so for them to say that it was almost more important to have the coaching was pretty impressive.
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Samantha Barry
20:08
If they're small business owners that are listening and they haven't got an e-commerce solution at the moment, or they haven, a way to get their goods or their services to people digitally. What what's the first step they should take?
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Mary Kay Bowman
20:23
Is there so many resources that are available to small businesses. Visa, because of knowing how important small businesses are, we also have a small business hub. There's good learnings within that, things like how to access capital, what those options are, how to get your cash flow from your business in order, how to manage employees, how to manage paying suppliers or maybe even sourcing suppliers.
Share
20:52
So there's a whole bunch of practical skills that people can learn about. The Small Business Hubs from
Visa
is just one of those locations.Share
Samantha Barry
21:01
What else?
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Mary Kay Bowman
21:02
You know, reaching out to their network and getting advice from the business community as well from their funders, from their local business districts and commerce groups, from there are state. There's lots of resources out there.
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Samantha Barry
21:16
And the tech tools are made for small business owners who might not be tech savvy, right? People shouldn't feel intimidated by them.
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Mary Kay Bowman
21:22
It can seem intimidating to tap into a lot of these digital capabilities and in fact sounds a little intimidating calling them digital capabilities, but we all use digital tools, we use productivity tools, we use calendars. All of that have moved to the phone and to the web and to the cloud. And we know how to do those things, they're not intimidating, you can download something in a few seconds and be able to be up and running.
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21:48
These solutions for small businesses are geared using that same approach, they want to make them accessible. It can sound intimidating but it is quite accessible. That's one of the benefits of this shift to digital, is that we all use it in our personal life, and now we can use it effectively in our business life as well.
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Samantha Barry
22:07
Completely. And one thing that came across in Onikah's stories is how much she cares for the people that work for her. And one of the questions she asked was how does she go beyond paying a livable wage? I think it's the juggle for small business owners, right?
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Mary Kay Bowman
22:20
I think it's really admirable of Onikah to not only think about her position and her customers position but to understand that her employees are key to both serving her customers and serving her community. In fact, 90% of all businesses are small businesses, and 65% of jobs in the world are provided by small business owners. So I love the fact that Onikah is thinking about her role in the broader economy and the broader community.
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Samantha Barry
22:49
Right. I really love that.
Share
23:02
Starting a business can be daunting but you don't have to navigate small business ownership or the digital-first landscape alone. Whatever you're struggling with, there are thousands of small businesses that have overcome something similar. Look to your community, to virtual groups, and for online resources that will help you build a network and knowledge base that are geared for success.
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Samantha Barry
Onikah Asamoa-Caesar
Mary Kay Bowman