Stay ConnectedSmall businesses are the soul of America. This is where they tell their stories. Three years, 16,000 miles and counting…
Small Business War Stories is a weekly show recorded in person with small business owners. We get the triumphs, struggles, and funny stories from our guests’ everyday lives.
Hosted by Pablo Fuentes, an entrepreneur and musician based in Austin, Texas.
For more on the show, please visit https://smallbusinesswarstories.com/
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.
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