← From the Ground Up
From the Ground Up
The Boston Blueprint: Local Support, Lasting Success—FROM INC. STUDIO AND CHASE FOR BUSINESS
00:42:45
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- [00:02]
Ben Baer
Hi and welcome to this special podcast series, the Experience in partnership with Chase for Business. I'm your host, Ben Baer with Ink Custom Studio. And in this episode I sit down with Ben Walter, the CEO for Chase for Business, to get the latest insights on the economy and a look into the second half of 2025 and what small businesses should be thinking about. And then I'm gonna have a conversation with Alafia Spencer, the Boston based founder of Dream Kids Spa, and Johnny Charles, a senior business consultant at Chase Business Banking, to the to talk about the power of communities and mentors in supporting small business owners. Plus some insights into how to drive growth through a few different lenses. But first up, my conversation with Ben Walter. Welcome, Ben.
- [00:39]
Ben Walter
Thanks for having me.
- [00:40]
Ben Baer
As CEO of Chase for Business, you have a unique perspective in being able to look across small business nationally. So as we're entering the second half of the year, there continues to be a bit of economic uncertainty out there. What is your current perspective and guidance for the rest of the year economically based on what you and your team are currently hearing and seeing?
- [00:56]
Ben Walter
So we've seen a couple of things. We survey our customers every month. We also follow external surveys like the National Federation of Independent Businesses and other industry trades that follow the sentiment of small businesses. And then, of course, I spend a lot of time out in the field talking to small businesses. The first thing to know is that small business isn't one thing, right? So there's a big difference between saying, what do you do? I import toys from China and sell them versus I'm in professional services and I trade in real estate. So those are very different things. Even though they're both small businesses. I would say overall, while sentiment certainly spiked after the election dipped with all the tariff announcements, it has since come back. What's really interesting is we track two things, how small businesses feel about their own business and we track how they feel about the broader economy. You always feel better about your own business, right? Because if you weren't an optimist, you would never start a small business. You kind of have to be to do it in the first place. And what we find is when times get choppier or the news cycle certainly gets choppier, that spread widens. So I still think my business is doing fine, but I think the world is going to hell in a handbasket. And then when everything is good, I still think I'm doing better, but the spread is tighter. We did see the spread widen during that period of tumult. So we saw people say, you know, oh, the world is terrible, but actually the numbers for themselves barely moved. And when things really do get bad, we see the numbers for themselves start to dip. So in the end, actually, I'm optimistic that this was more of a blip than it was, you know, sort of people really seeing softer demand kick in. We see balances and cash flow on hand holding out. Now more people say they're feeling some strain in their cash flow, so it's not all giggles out there. But I would say that there has been more resilience in the economic outlook than even I expected right now.
- [02:35]
Ben Baer
Roughly again, stuff to say. So where things are going, second half, but the trend lines are looking fairly stable. Ish. Is that the way to look at it or no?
- [02:42]
Ben Walter
Yeah, I think so. And the number I tell everyone to watch is employment. I mean, look, I'm never going to call the economy's fine or it's not fine, because it's always fine till it's not, and it's terrible until it's not. And that's the way it works. And I advise all of our clients, they need to be prepared for any economic scenario at any time. Because, you know, in regular times, even when all this stuff isn't going on around the world, there's still an economic cycle. And you need to build a business that is cycle proof so that never goes away. I would say as long as employment holds out, I think we have a decent chance of a soft landing, not a guarantee. And we haven't seen the full bite of the tariffs. We don't know where they're going to end up. We don't know what the ripple effects are going to be. What we do hear from both large corporates and from clients is that they are holding on to their staff because people sort of have PTSD from COVID and from the sort of great resignation and having to retrain a new workforce. And they know how hard that is. And so there's a real reticence to give up the core of your workforce. And that seems to be, you know, having a dampening of, you know, sort of putting a floor on how bad things can get. Now if, if demand evaporates, that's a bigger problem, but so far it's held out.
- [03:43]
Ben Baer
What are some ways business leaders can build resilience during times of economic uncertainty? What are some of the other advice things that you, you guys share to the business owners that are out there and the companies that you work with and talk to?
- [03:54]
Ben Walter
I think there's a few things. One is make sure your Sources of revenue are not too concentrated. So I can't tell you how often I meet with a client that was doing fine and then suddenly the world fell out because they had one client that was 85% of their revenue. And when that client made a change, the whole business fell apart. Terrible. Obviously, even more common in smaller businesses. So I say, number one, a really great client that keeps coming back for more is like a drug. You just can't get away from it. Beware. Doesn't mean don't do that. But if that's happening, you need to spend as much energy and time as you can starting to diversify those streams of revenue, because that's, that's the number one thing you can do, is have diversity of income. I would say the second is think about the downside risks that you face and which ones you can offset. Some risks can be offset with insurance. Some can be offset with a line of credit. Okay, if I have someone who won't pay and I gotta work through that, I could have a line of credit. That's. Make those plans when times are good. That's the most important thing, right? Is people say, okay, if something goes wrong, I'll figure out what to do. No, figure out what might go wrong. And have as much in place as you can before it goes wrong and where you can't do something in advance, at least have a plan so you're not panicking cash flow, whether it has to do with dependence on an employee, dependence on a client, dependence on it. Tech services, cyber. You need to have a plan and you need to have a group of advisors who you already have relationships with. And that's an accountant, a lawyer, a banker, an insurance agent. All of the things that you need to help put your business together. And you need to build those relationships when times are good so that when something unexpected happens, you know who to call.
- [05:21]
Ben Baer
You talk about community. Which community can mean a couple different things. And in this case, there's the community that you're based in, but also the community that you work with and work into. So how should business owners tap into those communities for support? When should they do it? You just mentioned the best time is that when it's like, okay, planning ahead for what your next stages are, or when that emergency comes. What's your sort of advice in terms of, like, how to tap into your community for support?
- [05:44]
Ben Walter
The first thing is, as you said, always and every day. There's not a point at which you should not be building relationships, community connections. Those end up coming in handy. You Never know when they'll come in handy. And as I teach my kids, people want to get a call from someone that they already know. You don't want to hear from that person who only calls you when they need something. So that's first of all is build those relationships when you don't need something, in fact, when maybe you have something to give. The second is communities in general across the country have incredible depth of resource for small businesses. State governments, local governments, federal government, local chambers of commerce, banks, insurance companies all have resources for small business. Many of them don't get used as much as they could. So find out what's available in your area. Go to the nfib, that's the National Federation of Independent Business site. Go to the local chamber of commerce, go to your local government website. You will find that there are resources out there for you that you can leverage. To give you an example, at Chase, we have a free consulting program that we do for small businesses in our communities. You don't even have to be a client now. Most are because we win them over because they want to be, but you don't have to be. And lots of other businesses do things like that. So there are resources available and you just need to look around for them and take advantage of them. But the most important thing is what I said before. Do it always and do it when you don't need it.
- [06:57]
Ben Baer
Okay, we're heading in the second half of the year, as I mentioned earlier. What has you optimistic?
- [07:01]
Ben Walter
I think a few things. One is, one, as I said, is the resilience in employment has me optimistic because employment equals demand. It's that simple. And when we talk to small businesses, the number one thing that helps them grow is when they have demand and they see demand out there and the number one risk to their business is a slack in demand. I think employment holding makes me optimistic. I'm still optimistic that this tariff stuff will resolve itself in a way that's acceptable. I think I'm hopeful that Congress will pass some form of a tax bill, regardless of your political part. Elections uncertainty is just bad for business. So either pass something or don't, but move on and tell us the rules of the road so we can make a decision. And hopefully a few of those uncertainties are going to get unwound throughout the rest of the year. That has me optimistic. But the thing that always keeps me optimistic is just the entrepreneurial spirit across the country. I mean, new business formation has settled in. It spiked after the pandemic, and it's never gone back to where it was before. It has stayed high. It has stayed at a level that's at a run rate that's higher than anything we saw before the pandemic. And that tells me people see opportunity. It tells me that people are still coming up with new ideas. They're betting on themselves. They, they're finding the resources and they're launching businesses. And as long as the American economy is still generating that kind of risk taking, I'm gonna remain optimistic.
- [08:14]
Ben Baer
Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business, thanks for joining us.
- [08:17]
Ben Walter
Thanks for having me on.
- [08:18]
Ben Baer
And now I'm joined by Johnny Charles and Alafia Spencer. Jonny is a senior business consultant at Chase Business Banking. And Alafia is the founder of Dream Kids Spa based here in Boston. Johnny and Alafia, welcome to the show.
- [08:28]
Alafia Spencer
Thank you for having us.
- [08:30]
Ben Baer
Alafia, tell us a little bit about Dream Kids Spa. What was the origin story behind it and what led you to start the business?
- [08:36]
Alafia Spencer
Dream Kids Spa was founded by my two brainchilds. My oldest is 16, my middle child which is 10. All because we went on a vacation to Bahamas and wanted to be able to have them experience what a nail bar is like. And unfortunately, that experience was not what we thought it would have been for then a six and four year old. And then because of that, our journey to Bahamas, we realized that there may be an opportunity for, for us to be able to open a salon that catered to kids. And then after experiencing what a kid spa is like on the island, we realized that it was something that can easily be pivot and brought back to Boston because there weren't one in Boston at the time. Given the fact that I have an engineering background and event planning background, I decided to merge the two in order to be able to do a kid spa and a craft aspect so we can get the stems going and the kids activity going. So it's not only thinking about doing manicures and pedicures, but also doing creative activities and to be able to get the boys involved as well. Because naturally when you hear a kid spa, you only think it's for girls. But technically we are a fully co ed establishment for traditional experience.
- [09:42]
Ben Baer
For someone that comes to your spa that wants to do multiple things, what does that look like?
- [09:46]
Alafia Spencer
So, all right, so for some parents, the first thing they hear when they hear Dream Kids Spa, the first thought is we do manicure, pedicures and facials and that's it. Our team is trained to be able to refocus that parent mind to say, yeah, we do manicure facials and Pedicure, but it's not it. If you want them to be able to explore the materials and mechanism of what it takes to make a slime, we do that too. If you want them to know why does a volcano erupt, we do that too. We teach you how to bounce the ball with glue. We do that too. So we want them to be able to experience the stem aspect of something that they may not have brother in a classroom or their parents may not have that time at home to be able to explore that aspect. We're able to do that for them. And we have around 25 different craft and the customized option for them to be able to choose from. So what we do, we do a cartel service where they can come in for a day visit. They can just come and focus on the beauty aspect if they choose to. Before we get them out the door, we're gonna get them on a craft some way, somehow, we're gonna upsell that service in order for them to be able to say, hey, do you wanna experience something with us? What do you like? And then from there we build our packages. A lot of our entertainment packages, such as our party packages, like we said before, is embedded with a craft. So, like say for instance, you're doing a rock star theme. Like the other day we had a whole thing about Swiffy. Immediately I was telling Johnny, like, we had so many people calling about asking if we're doing a swifty party. And I had to put that in immediately. And being a business owner, you have to know how to pivot. And we put that in immediately. And what we did was we gave the kids the opportunity to be able to experience what it's like to be an entrepreneur. You want to customize a jacket, we can teach you how to do that. You want to customize a hat, a bracelet, we know how to do that. And immediately we got those crafts aligned with a particular theme. So we have a theme for everyone, whether it may be boy, girl, non gender. We do have a theme for them. We just want you to come to us and tell us what you like and we'll find it. So if you have a child that's an introvert, we got something for them. If you have a child that's an extrovert, we got something for them. If you have a child that likes to make mess, we love to make mess too. So we'll be able to find something for them as well. And we're giving you the opportunity to be able to go to work, do your 9 to 5, come back in and relax. You come in a salon, you don't have to worry about anything. You just have a seat, bring your parents, have a chat. We'll handle everything for you.
- [12:00]
Ben Baer
And so how did you make that jump from, hey, I'm sitting in my beach chair in the Bahamas thinking about this idea to, I'm going to go do this and be a business owner?
- [12:08]
Alafia Spencer
Well, the jump was fairly simple. We brought them to the salon, which was accessible on the resort. And after going to that salon, I ended up spending $400, $200 for a child without thinking. And then at that point, you realize as a parent, when you want your child to be happy, there's no, no, there's no no coming in. Once you see that smile, once you're creating that memories, once you just see the excitement and the joy of them actually partaking in activity, that it's tailored for them. After going back to our hotel room, I said to myself, wait, did I just spend $400 on you guys to do nails? And after thinking, I'm like, well, technically, you guys only did not do nails. So I started dissecting the service, the customer service, the offerings that they had, the products and everything. And I'm like, okay, we can make something of this. So I sat down with the girls and I say to them, how well did you enjoy this? And they just gave me their raw opinion. And as kids do, they leave no stone unturned. And on our flight back, I never forgot it. We were on a Delta flight heading home, and all I kept on doing is typing, typing, typing, typing, typing, typing, researching, researching, researching. And after finding out that there weren't not an establishment that fit our needs similar to it in the city of Boston and the state of Massachusetts on hold, we decided we're going to dive right in.
- [13:18]
Ben Baer
Johnny, that's kind of a natural sort of story. Hey, there's a business need. You mentor a lot of small business owners in your role. How similar of a story is this to most of the owners that you work with in terms of what do you say to them when they say, I have an idea for a business? How do you approach them and say, okay, is this really, truly a business or is this maybe just a good idea?
- [13:41]
Johnny Charles
So there's two ways to answer that. Number one, yes, I kind of hear a similar story every single day. But at the same time, they all have their own uniqueness by the way of creativity. So if someone is thinking about starting a business, usually I kind of put them through this kind of just this process. Of just kind of mapping out what that means. And I don't necessarily go straight to what is the vision, what is the mission? I guess representing the bank and the financial sector, for me, I want to make sure, is it a good financial model? Because after that, we can talk about everything else. The wording, the mission kind of validates what you want to do in the market. But before then, it has to make money, has to make sense in order for you to, at the end of the day, get to where wealth generation and legacy creation typically, I go, you know, a couple different ways. One is like kind of hearing the story out and trying to understand, all right, where did you get this? And I'm listening for what is the compelling story and the narrative that makes this special for you? Number two, how is this special in the market as a niche? And number three, financially, does it make sense? Because what I don't want to do is walk you down a path where you're creating a business that's financially insolvent.
- [14:48]
Ben Baer
Lafayette the kids spot concept has gained a lot of popularity in the past few years, but it's still relatively new business category. So what were some of the initial challenges you faced as you were sort of building this idea out and making sure that you got the buy in you needed to both not only get the funding and the financing, but also getting the idea off the ground.
- [15:05]
Alafia Spencer
The biggest challenge is to get someone to believe in the dream, to be honest with you, because that dream was something that they have never seen before. And because of that, I have used my current customer base as an event planner to be able to communicate with those customers, to say, what do you guys like? Would you guys do this? And then for the first year into our research, because I did a lot of extensive research to be able to think about it. And a lot of parents prefer to have a brick and molar that they can come to, opposed to us being a mobile spa. So because of that, we decided that coming out of the woodworks, we had to have a brick and molar. It wasn't going to start as a mobile spa because then we wouldn't gain that respect that we're looking for in order to be able to gain our customers trust. I had to do a lot of extensive research on the back end. Also doing a lot of research in different states who had also decided to make a challenge on that particular area of niche, because our niche is very niche to niche. Oftentimes, even trying to get a NSC code was more so of, okay, what are we doing? Kids entertainment, we're doing nail salon. What are we doing? So being able to be able to contact the licensers and to figure out what kind of license we need and stuff like that was a little bit challenging because they were like, what are you doing again? How does this work? Like, it was very new for a lot of officials. So being able to take that challenge out of it by doing our research and realizing what works and what didn't work was very helpful when we got our current customer base to be able to voice their opinion as to what they think was okay.
- [16:33]
Ben Baer
And that gets to the concept of community, right? And also location. So when you were deciding to pick the spot for your brick and mortar location, how important was not only the where it was for foot traffic, but also the idea of community to the, you know, selecting that spot?
- [16:49]
Alafia Spencer
When I migrated here, I migrated to Boston. My first school was in Hyde Park. However, my first location choice was never Hyde Park. It was somewhere near Newburgh Street. Boston, in the heart of the city, you can be able to get it. I had a nanny experience from being in college because it's always the first job as being a nanny. So you already know exactly where you needed to land your foot. So you were thinking Brookline, you were thinking Newton, you were thinking Needham, like those type of location, because you know for a fact that your target market is there in waiting. They understand the concept once it's been delivered to them. However, after looking, looking into spaces, the financial aspect of it hit me hard. Oh, it's not so cheap to go on Newbury Street. And at the time, Newbury was Newbury Street. It was a seaport of what we now know. And I had to be able to get a reality check by sitting back and say, okay, what capital am I working with? Because I didn't have a bank to be able to finance me at the time. And I worked with a very nice realtor who was able to bring a lot of different options to my plate. And then after thinking about it, I said, I need to stop looking into what we think is popular to us, but more so what we think the household dynamic is. And Hyde park was that dynamic. It was a city, but yet still was a suburb. It was halfway there. And then being able to find my location, I felt like it was just a lucky charm.
- [18:05]
Ben Baer
When you say dynamic, what do you mean by that? Like, what was the sort of dynamic that would be a fit for your business?
- [18:09]
Alafia Spencer
Because if you think about it, if you're deep in a city, then there's always a transportation issue. To be able to get to us, there's no parking. You have to also think about the fact that there's not necessarily a family atmosphere in that surrounding when the deeper in you're going into the city. We love the city of Boston, but we have to be realistic. Newbury street is known as a shopping center. I need to be able to engage families, so I had to be able to be realistic with my goals and not necessarily making my decision based on popularity. So when I chose Hyde park, you have the dynamic of having family, the home vibe, you coming home from work at appropriate time. Then you have your kids that you can go take for a walk or a stroll on Main Street. Rosendale and Hyde park was my last two choices. Where I'm right next to the T's, easily commute, there's parking there, but yet still they're so close to home. So even on a half day when it's raining or school's out, you can still say, let me just run down to dream to be able to do a craft mess at their location, opposed to me doing it at home to clean up. So when we chose that location, we were committed to to it. So even when Covid hit, we decided that we're not letting it go because if we do let that space go, we'll never be able to obtain another space like that.
- [19:15]
Ben Baer
So, Johnny, from your perspective and the mentoring that you do, what are some of the more important parts about a community that you guide your clients with in terms of like, what they should be looking for when they're trying to pick a location for their business, whether it's brick and mortar or even if it's virtual in terms of where their customer base needs to be.
- [19:30]
Johnny Charles
And just for context, as a senior business consultant, I typically work with existing firms that's been in the market for about two years. Right. In addition to that, there's some sense of a level of revenue coming in. I do talk to Starbucks from the sense of like, they're part of the community as well too, so why not? But our focus is really how do we help the existing businesses get over that infliction point to scale. Right. So if we're talking about it from that standpoint, a community, you have to have an ecosystem of multiplicity in terms of skillset industry in order for it to actually work. And so like, for example, if folks are looking for a particular location that they believe that can scale their business, I'm trying to put them in front of subject matter experts like a realtor, a brokerage firm, that we may notice local more than likely, I'm putting them together with a community based organization that has influence and that may have their target market already there as a constituency. In addition to that, I want to support them in understanding, all right, what is the market analysis from your industry, but from the immediate community that you're trying to go into. So what is it that that Boston offers that other cities do not? And is your product actually welcome in the market? And so, and sometimes that can be hard for folks to realize. And so what I do typically, and a lot of you talked about this in terms of NAICS code, North American identification codes, I would provide like a research. As long as you're part of the program, we offer that. And what that does is help kind of guide what are some of the components in order for me to make good decisions as it relates to my business and industry. And so that would kind of feed into the community aspect of where should I go and why.
- [21:05]
Ben Baer
So Johnny, I imagine as like business owners are thinking about expanding their business and thinking, okay, I want to look maybe at a second location. This idea is working here, identification of which community and ideally finding the right experts to help you expand into that are critical.
- [21:18]
Johnny Charles
Having a team is really important. And when we think about community, family, which has already been mentioned, you know, I think about it from the standpoint of do you have a trusted banker, do you have someone who is an expert or work in insurance industry? Do you have someone that's legal as a representative, do you have a lawyer? For me, those are the things that I think about. And then outside of that, do you have a subject matter expert as it relates to your industry that can support maybe not as a consultant, but as a mentor? And then are you practicing mentorship as a leader for others? Because sometimes I think it's hard for us to take direction. And again, I'm gonna call out some business owners who have a hard time taking directions at times because a lot of times it's my business is so niche that I cannot learn from another business. That doesn't make any sense. They're outside of my industry. And sometimes you can learn a lot from lessons learned from other industries and other businesses. And so my for me it's a matter of are you diversifying the voices, the thoughts and the ideas for problem solving purposes?
- [22:15]
Ben Baer
Alafia, I'd be interested to hear from you within your sort of business community, who do you turn to for mentorship and for guidance on things when you're trying to understand your business? Because we, you Know, as entrepreneurs and small business owners, it can often feel very lonely. It's like it's my thing, it's my business. I have to do this when sometimes there is advice and there's guidance out there and you're not alone. So talk to us a little bit about sort of who you turn to for mentorship and how that process went for you when you're starting to have conversations with others outside of your own mind.
- [22:44]
Alafia Spencer
To be able to get advice from business owners, I started looking into my inside circle. My first individual that I reached out to was a great friend of mine from Lion Entertainment, which is from the event planning world. However, being able to do a kids spa takes a lot of planning. So you need to be able to communicate with someone else who understand the incorrect details of planning events and coordinating families in order to be able to get a package. As I grow, I start looking into different kids spas that are across the state where I can reach out to and say, hey, do you mind if I ask you a question? Like, I'm not getting too personal, but I just want to know what are your headaches being able to start your business? I had a lot of shut doors because given the niche, a lot of people thought it as a competition. They may have assumed that you're in their particular state pretending to be in another state. I had to pivot and find different ways. So I'm glad to be able to have Hyde Park Main street as one of our resources who can be able to help Dream Kids Spa as it relates to the community aspect in Hyde Park. They were a very good resource for us as how to approach it, how to be able to introduce ourselves, how to get them to be on our side, coming into the community, not thinking that we're only for profit, but knowing that we're there as a family member for them. Because being a small business in a particular community, you want to be able to have that family relationship with the existing members that's in a community. In order to thrive, you need them to be able to tell you when you're wrong, when you're right, when to pivot, and what's the best thing because they're your customer base. So when I got the opportunity to be able to be introduced to Johnny, it was a big thing for me because at the end of the day, I'm so used to doing my processes by myself and having that one person to be like, hey, can you review it? Or talking to my friends to debt, like, listen, you guys have to think about this. Idea or bringing the kids along. Johnny was there to be able to approach it from the financial aspect, which I needed. And as much as he always commend me on saying, you know your numbers, it's good to have someone on the outside with his experience with, who knows, to be able to tell you you need to know your numbers, which is very important when it's running a business, especially a small business that you aim to gain profit from. So my mentors were very strategically chosen. Everyone who's a mentor to me gave me the opportunity to be able to look at different angles of my business, to be able to grow from there.
- [25:00]
Ben Baer
Johnny, that mentorship piece, how do you build the trust? Because obviously it's like you're an outsider, you know, trying to sit there and say, well, I'm sure you get a lot of, well, you don't understand or you don't understand my situation or my business. So how do you sort of find ways to break through to build that trust? Because it's important to have that sort of two way trust going with a small business owner and with a mentor.
- [25:22]
Johnny Charles
So a couple of things. So number one, you have to be able to prove or deliver immediate value pretty quickly. And that could be anywhere from I have a sense of your business, I get it. Or I may not be familiar with your industry, but here's some people or other businesses that I've worked with and been able to support. Right. So within this program in the past four years, been able to graduate over 200 folks out of the program initially. Our one on one consultation programming is about four months with each entrepreneur. And obviously, you know, once you have that trust and that relationship, they become longtime friends. So I'm, you know, now I'm a phone call away for the most part. The other way in terms of delivering value is I live in a neighborhood, you know, I live in Boston, grew up in Boston. I'm a byproduct of Boston, everything that there is in Boston. So what that means is also that when we think about shopping being a patronage at these local firms, I am a consumer, you know, so I'm not just also providing insight and support. I'm also a consumer of your product. And I make sure that is kind of centered in the conversation just so they know that I'm right here. The other aspect of it too is I've also had my foot in entrepreneurship. So I talk about some of my failures, some of my wins and gains. And so I think individuals are able to see, all right, well, you have a sense of what I'm going through when we think about the isolation piece. And so. And one of the things I think for me through this program, yes, there is this sense of I am helping small businesses, but I like to think of it that the small business is actually the asset. And what I'm doing is, yes, I'm providing some insight and yes, I can provide you projections and certain things, But I think the most important thing is, are you being seen a lot of times the relationship with individuals in certain communities, when we think about the relationship with them and institutions, particularly banks, they don't typically always have a great one. So. Right. So when you ask somebody, do they have a banker? They're like, well, I bank at. They don't necessarily talk about the banker. Right, right. And so what does that mean for a relationship? And so part of my work is, yes, I am a part of this banking institution, but there's a way in which that you can leverage this community asset to really understand exactly what are all the fruits of this? What can you get out of it in detail? I introduce them and try to make sure I refer them internally and say, hey, this is a private client advisor. This is our community manager. This is our branch manager when things come up. These are associate bankers and trying to give them a sense of whether or not you bank here. We have staying power. We're gonna be here, and we are not. Don't just see us as a bank institution. You should hold us accountable for that. But in the same token, we're also a neighbor. And so I think when you think about it from that perspective, I think it's easier for folks to at that point have that trust.
- [28:06]
Alafia Spencer
And then if I may add one of the elements, when it comes down to building trust with your mentee and your mentor is listening, and Johnny has that. And I feel like as a business owner, sometimes we have so much to offload. And when you have that individual is taking that time out to just listen to what you have to say so they can be able to offer valued opinion and critique and motivation and expectations for you, it means the world. Because then you don't want someone to be able to listen to a very unique niche. And all they're saying is that, oh, yeah, sure, sure, sure, sure, we'll get back to you. We get back to you. But then you have someone that's actually listening, digesting what you're saying, and be like, oh, wait, this is a pain problem. I can lead it to the right direction. That is very valuable when it comes on to mentorship. And with a small business running.
- [28:51]
Ben Baer
Listening goes two ways, though. How challenging was it for you to be able to listen to somebody else besides your own voice?
- [28:57]
Alafia Spencer
To be honest, it wasn't challenging for me to be able to listen to someone. It was the right moment is when I'm accepting that help as to coming out of my show for running a business for two years to say, all right, I need to hear voices. I went searching like, I need to find the right people who can be my circle to start speaking to me at the language or the level that I'm at. Because at some point, you're gonna have individuals who are there guiding you that you have outgrown that. You have to then find a stepping stone to find someone else up on that pivot ladder. So for me, it was more. So I need to find someone that is a little bit higher than what I've been listening to to be able to come in my space, tell me exactly what's going on for me to be able to accept the criticism. Because then if I'm at one level and I'm still listening to what I've been listening ago, there's no growth, you know, so it goes both ways, and you're correct. But as a business owner, you got to be able to identify when it's time to grow.
- [29:50]
Ben Baer
Alafia, right now, you've got the one location. What are you looking at when you're trying to think about growth for your business? And what now are some of the opportunities that you hopefully to see in the future?
- [29:59]
Alafia Spencer
Wow. Looking at my growth plan. So we did a growth. Johnny and I did a girlfriend where he has helped me establish one. And I remember when the first time I wrote my growth plan down, it was so massive. It was so massive at that point, I think I was gonna win the mega ball at some point, because I'm just like, these ideas are, you know, they're out the moon. So after having a conversation with Johnny, he was like, all right, we gotta scale this down. We gotta figure out how this works. So we started looking at the data and seeing exactly where it pivot. And for me, as much as in a few years from now, we do see that dream may have three or four different locations within Boston that is run solely by me, and then eventually trying to figure out if we can franchise to other single moms who love the idea and want to be able to bring that into their own community. For now, we're just thinking about doing our mobile growth, to be able to get our foundation a Lot more deeper our roots in different communities across Boston so they can know that we're here. We're the business you can trust. Whether it may be for your kids entertainment, your kids spa, whether it may be a relief for a rainy day, we're always here for you. And our biggest growth is to just get that mobile out. Last year we did a major step in coming out in our community by doing a lot of stuff with the city of Boston as it relates to Open Street. We were working with Johnson and Johnson for their employee Halloween experience. So there's a lot of corporate companies and city related community events that we've been lucky to be able to participate in and a lot of we have been able to give back to. We also did our Halloween trick or treat where they come to the store. Oftentimes we may offer free activities for High park residents to come into to be able to not think about the financial stake of it, especially with the current economy and finding ways to be able to pay for that on the back end with the business. So when it comes down to growth, our growth plan is immaculately huge. However, we have find the expertise that we needed to be able to cut that growth plan down and doing it in stages. For now, we're focusing on our mobile for the next two years. And then from our mobile then we can be able to establish to a different location and branching out.
- [32:00]
Ben Baer
So Johnny, for business owners that have kind of established themselves and are ready to kind of take the next step, what do you advise on a growth plan when they're creating one or when you're advising them to create one?
- [32:10]
Johnny Charles
One I think when I do, I don't necessarily emphasize on having multiple goals. I use the framework of the smart goals, right? So specific, measurable, attainable and realistic and time bound. And so I try to focus on three to four, four broad goals. We break those goals down into years and then the most important part of those goals are the action steps that you're taking to achieve them. In terms of some of the things that's already been said, when we think about the growth plan, we're also thinking about how do we get individuals whether to continue or get to a growth mindset. And Lafayette mentioned how you get to a certain point, even with the folks that you created with that, you kind of outgrow that. But you don't just outgrow the people, you kind of outgrow the stage. And so now, and I tell businesses all the time, the hardest thing about business is not just creating it because that's also hard, but it's growing it. And oftentimes because the hardest things about life is managing change. For us as individuals, it's no different from a business. Right. And so we are really supporting individuals when it comes around behavior change. In terms of how are you thinking about the numbers? Well, if you are the type of person who, you know, avoid reading your credit card bills for a couple of months because you just don't want to face it, that practice and behavior will fall into you as a business owner in the business. And on the back end, you'll be running and talking about, I need capital. Well, did you manage the capital? Right. The one that you actually had? Because if you did, then you'd have a certain level and certain story that you can tell that will allow you to leverage to get more capital. And then sometimes it's helping individuals really understand. All right, well, what is the behavior change that I need in order to really kind of grow? I just want to put it back. And I know you say I give you a lot of kudos and stuff, but I want to give you kudos. When you listen to individual businesses and what they're trying to do, there's always a story that needs to be told. And I appreciate this platform. We get to tell that story. But particularly for this business, they are leveraging beauty as a catalyst for stem. And that piece for me is amazing and beautiful in ways that you do it and how you deliver it. And when I listen to businesses, my job is to really kind of seep through all the aspirations and dreams. But what do you. What is this a catalyst for? And when you. When you listen enough, you realize it's really about changing the paradigms of not just their households, but the immediate community that they live and they serve.
- [34:39]
Alafia Spencer
Thank you. I really appreciate that. I'm glad individuals are able to understand that the beauty is the catalyst for the actual STEM work, because craft is one of our number one priority and our best seller in the store. And when I say that, they were like, but you're a kid spa. And I'm like, yeah, but our craft sells way more. The kids are way more excited, in a sense, excited in creating a science experiment. We're exploring a craft. And when you think about it, roughly about 25% of our clients that come in, they don't have the opportunity to be able to be in their rooms and make a mess. They will say to you, oh, I get to do this at school. But you rarely hear when they say, I get to do this at home. So for us to be able to say, all right, you can come to us and let's do it. It works. It's like when someone say, oh, I don't want them doing slime. But then when we get to an event, we're at 3 to 400 kids making slime and no breaks. You're like, oh, yeah, they do want to make slime. They want to make a volcano erupt. Like, they want to experience that. And for us, it makes us feel so great.
- [35:36]
Ben Baer
Continue on the growth question. As you're thinking through your growth plan, are you thinking through also of the other types of roles or people or advice you might need that you currently don't have in house to allow you to grow? Because right now you're doing everything yourself.
- [35:51]
Alafia Spencer
Most definitely. That is very important. And like I said before, processes for me is a big deal. Everything is a process. I should be able to walk away from my business, and it should be able to run without me being there with the guidance. Yes, definitely. But my manager should be able to know exactly how to be able to pivot in a particular situation when the time is needed. If we're doing trainings, we need to be able to do that. And oftentimes when we get to a roadblock, I see start searching for that additional help. Hence how we found Johnny. You know, at some point we're saying we need to be able to grow and expand, but then we need that banker with us to be able to guide us, to say, all right, this is what we need to get to that position for us, we need to be able to get a few more locations within three years. We need to be able to get our mobile aspects out and running and getting a team fully ready to be out there. But in order to be there, we're going to be spending money on profit. We're going to be, I mean, not profit, but supplies, organizations, uniforms, our capital funding with our trucks and stuff like that. So we need to be able to have all that in place. But when we spend that money there, what's the profitability? So we need to be able to have our growth plan solidly done based on time base. And for us, it's now for three years. But certainly when we reach that roadblock to find that individual who we need, at that point, we're gonna need it. For now, we have a lawyer that we can call on. We have a banker that we can call on. Now we just need someone who has been into that pinnacle to come in and say, all right, I'm a 10 year vet in this industry or a 10 year vet in an industry that's aligned with us, this is what you need to do to be able to do it. You have multiple location. Tell me, how do you run that multiple location? We know for a fact that the processes is important because you need to be able to not be at two locations at the same time so they know what to do. But what are the other pain stakes that you experience by having two or three locations? And that's how we look at how we need to be able to leverage someone else to come in to be able to give us advice.
- [37:36]
Ben Baer
And Johnny, as you're talking to the entrepreneurs that are thinking about their next stage of growth, how do you advise them on sort of or identify for them? Like what are the areas of need for them? Like what, what are the areas they probably could benefit from having a third party or somebody else to help them with? What's sort of the process that you go with to help them identify that?
- [37:52]
Johnny Charles
Well, it's a series of different questions. So there's a couple of things. Number one, when you think about growth, even in my own practice, so I will do research as it relates to like, you know, affordable research from the library database, local colleges, universities, and those databases. And the reason why that's important is because whether it's an article that I'm sharing or whether it's some type of research paper that I'm sharing, I always source them to business owners because what I realize is that they'll typically, if they're working with a consultant, they'll get a PDF of a document that says xyz. But what they don't always understand is what is the methodology to get to these results. What I realized in my tenure here is that I'm gonna give you a resource that you can constantly use for, for your own growing. And so usually what I'll do is make sure that I'm sourcing whatever information I'm bringing to them. The other piece is just active listening and trying to hear what are the pain points? Where are you trying to go? Oftentimes one of the first things when I met Alafia, first thing I talked about was it's great that you can talk about revenue and income. That's awesome. But the real conversation is, are you being profitable? Are you thinking about profitability from a strategic standpoint? And everyone was kind of like, well, okay, you know, that's kind of obvious. And then I go, okay, great, let's have a conversation about it. And everyone kept going back to how much they make and in terms of revenue. But when they think about breaking even, sometimes people are just satisfied with that. And so I'll give you an example, and I won't necessarily name the client, but we had a client who was comfortable with their prices because they felt as though the community was comfortable with their prices. But the reality was is that in terms of inflation in regards to the immediate neighborhood, costs are rising. So at some point you got to analyze and say, all right, well, we need to increase this and we may need to, as we increase, we may need to add additional value so folks can actually buy in to the new pricing. And that was a new concept for them. So I say all this to say that we focus more on profitability than just revenue. In hindsight, like revenue, yes, it comes in, you're getting paid and it gets into cash flow, but that's really about market share. If you're only breaking even, then you're only breaking even. There's nothing else if you're strategically planning towards profitability. Now we have a growth mindset. And so sometimes I have businesses that's been a business for about 20 years or more, 15 years or more, and they're still at break even. And I don't want to pretend that it's easy to make profit, but sometimes I think what's easier is to shift your mindset and to find focus on producing profit rather than just producing revenue. Because, you know, the reverse is typically when people are thinking about revenue, the only thing that they mind is kind of the cost. It's like, all right, I want to, let me limit the cost, let me cut costs here. But yes, costs are important, but profitability is going to lead to long term wealth. So if you're not planning that out, it's kind of hard. So a lot of those conversations, when you think about growing, for me, as a matter of fact, how often are you talking about profitability with the voices around you and then also giving them resources that they can use on their own? Because at the end of the day, like I said before, they are the asset. And my job is to remind them that they are. Because there are going to be different folks that come in to try to support you, but you're going to need to know exactly what you need. So if I'm giving you the resources, now we're having this conversation and now you've had a different type of mindset in terms of long term growth. It's easier to accept how it's easier to hear people and it's Easier to kind of navigate and have proper discernment in terms of this is what I need versus what I don't.
- [41:20]
Alafia Spencer
And that is why your growth plan is important. Because your growth plan forces you to look at these aspects without even thinking of it. So you're forced to look at the time frame that you need. You're forced to look at the money that you need to be able to start or get on that right track. And you're forced to be able to see your profitability off the bat. If you're not able to do that growth plan, you can't see it to make sense to see if you're going to break even or you're going to actually have a profit. And then halfway through, if you notice that you're not hitting those financial milestone, then you can say to yourself, okay, this wasn't. We need to pivot. We need to stop this immediately and start something else. Or we need to see exactly where's the milk or the cash cow coming from or where is it not coming from and then take it out. Because trends is hell of a thing when you are doing business, but you need to be able to identify when your trend ends. You need to be able to introduce new products to the market or new service to the market and be able to get that information back from your target audience to say, all right, this didn't work for us quite well. You realize it's selling too fast and you're like, wait, stick a pin. Is it the right price point? You know?
- [42:22]
Ben Baer
Johnny Alavia, thanks for joining us and being part of the Experience. We appreciate you sharing with our audience.
- [42:28]
Johnny Charles
Thank you.
- [42:28]
Alafia Spencer
We appreciate it.
- [42:30]
Ben Baer
That's all for this episode of the Experience in partnership with Chase for Business. This thanks again for joining us. I'm Ben Baer for Ink Custom Studio and my producer is Avery Miles.