Success Stories
Creative Cottage Illumination Arts Family Food Distributors Divine Inspirations Essential Blends
Creative Cottage
Creative Cottage is the brainchild of Mrs. Ani Riggs who is the heart and soul of the business and its most valuable asset. The business is a creative arts and crafts school for children and adults, summer camp programs, monthly seminars, hosting of themed birthday parties for children and serves as a drop-off center for parents. She now offer a menu of over 29 art, dance, ceramic crafts, game classes in addition to 10 birthday parties every weekend!
As a former teacher and navy veteran, Ani is highly focused, organized, motivated and exudes the passion that comes from her Dominican roots, but most of all she is a visionary.. She went to Seaton Hall to earn her degree in education, while pregnant with their third child. As soon as she was finished she started the process of starting the business. She looked for suitable locations and when she finally got the store-front building on Bloomfield Avenue in Caldwell, NJ she knew she could realize her business dream she did not hesitate go close in on the lease. Although her family and friends, she says, described it as a "dump" and implored her to keep looking, certain that she was making a huge mistake, Ani could see the beauty in that "dump" as she puts it. With the encouragement of her husband (whow is also ex-military) and dad the three of them began working on renovating the space. Together they were able to unlock the beauty and functionality that lay hidden in rubble and debris. Ani uses the same the same sharp instinct to make business decisions. Her constant reprise is that “it’s all in my head” as she pokes a right temple deliberately.
Creative was formed in April 2003 but did not open its doors until September of the same year because Ani encountered the worst business and personal challenges of her life - she was diagnosed with colon cancer which she survived. She persevered and did not quit her dream of succeeding in this business. As she put it "I could see exactly how I wanted the business to turn out, and I was so confident that the concept was a winner, I had to feed the children!"
Ani’s relationship with the Rutgers-Newark Small Business Development Center (R-N SBDC) began in February 2006 when she contacted the Center seeking counseling on marketing strategies, human resource management, and business plan writing. Once she started attending the Center’s event, she never stopped! Ani took full advantage of the event programs that the Center provides. Has been a frequent attendee of the RNSBDC Women Entrepreneurs Networking Business Breakfast, the RNSBDC Open House Small Business Networking Forum, the annual RNSBDC Small Business Bazaar & Expo and also participated in the 10hour Marketing Strategies, Planning and Implementation Course. Creative Cottage even hosted the RNSBDC Open House Small Business Networking event in October 2008. Through the Rutgers-Newark SBDC she was urged to join NJAWBO Essex County chapter where she was able to grow her client list further.
A business that she and her husband started with approximately $70,000 from their life savings, including funding borrowed from parents and close friends, Creative Cottage’s combine equity worth and gross revenues are approximately $1.8 million. She now hires 14 employees: 7 full-time and 7 part-time, She has also developed a franchising model as a means of growing her business in a new direction. Her first franchise is under negotiation from a franchisee in Seattle, Washington. In the meantime her other future plans for Creative Cottage, are to open three more locations in South Orange, Newark and possibly Union or Jersey City by mid 2009. She hopes to expand into ten stores within a three year time frame. Asked for her opinion of why she has been successful she say she loves what she does and that is why she is good at it, and the business allows her freedom and creativity to bring her ideas to life. "Besides", she says, "I get to play with kids all day, you can’t beat that."
Illumination Arts
Faith Baum and Ken Douglas are the founders/owners of Illumination Arts, LLC an architectural lighting design and consulting company that specializes in "innovative lighting designs" that address "both aesthetic and practical" requirements. Ms. Baum and Mr. Douglas both worked at the same architectural lighting firm and had tried to purchase the business unsuccessfully for two years. They finally decided to break-out on their own in January 2004 and formed Illumination Arts, initially setting-up shop in Mr. Douglas’s basement.
The business partners met with Denis Rasugu, Assistant Regional Director (Client Services) to review the business plan they had worked on and to discuss sources of financing and lending criteria. The Center then also assisted the company with successfully completing the applications for Women Business Enterprise (WBE) certification and Small Business Enterprise (SBE) registration. After meetings with bankers made it clear that a loan for soft costs and salaries would not be forthcoming, they decided to bootstrap it and relied on savings and home equity lines of credit to cover start-up costs. Work came rapidly, the company landed its first client in February 2004 and the client roster has been growing every since. The company has worked on projects for New Jersey Transit (Newark Broad Street Station), St. Phillips Academy (Newark, NJ), MAHER (Corporate Offices), St. Croix River Crossing (Minnesota), Gold’s Gym (NY), Sheraton Hotel (Delaware) and AT&T (Kansas) to name a few.
In August 2005 the company decided to give the banks another try. Denise. Rasugu arranged a meeting between the company and a loan officer from PNC Bank, the meeting went well and Illumination Arts was quickly approved for a line of credit. The business also recently moved to a commercial location at 330 Glenwood Avenue in Bloomfield.
Congratulations Illumination Arts!
Some Food for Thought:
Family Food Distributors Inc.
When Patricia Mendez met her husband John Rivas in 1999, they shared a common passion - food. Patricia had thirteen years’ management experience in the food distribution industry, and John had owned a supermarket and his family a restaurant.
An immigrant from Ecuador in 1989, Patricia recognized a niche that needed filling: supplying nostalgic food products to Ecuadorian immigrants who missed their favorite homeland foods. John and Patricia’s daughter Andrea were eager to start a family business.
With little money, they purchased their first vehicle, an old van for $700. Initially a partnership, Family Food Distributors Inc. of Kearny, New Jersey, was now open for business. They began operations in February 2002 from their home.Within two months, the house became crammed with pallets of products. Patricia found a warehousing company that rented them affordable space for two to three pallets, which quickly grew to two to three truckloads. Research indicated that competition was less fierce in outlying areas such as Connecticut, so they marketed to areas outside of the larger cities, selling into supermarkets, specialty stores, and travel agencies. "Smaller stores move as much product as large ones," says Patricia. "They are as important to us, and we give great customer service. We aren’t and don’t want to be the cheapest, but we do supply a complete line of products."
After two years, the warehousing company was moving, so the business had to move. In summer 2003, needing help and financing, Patricia met with assistant director Dennis Rasugu of the New Jersey Small Business Development Center in Newark. Dennis asked if she had a business plan. "No," answered Patricia. "What’s that?"
Under Dennis’s guidance, Patricia enrolled in an eight-week course at the Entrepreneurial Training Institute, learning valuable business skills and how to prepare a business plan. Upon graduation, she was assigned a mentor for eighteen months. Good things started to happen. The Star Ledger, New Jersey’s largest newspaper, wrote an article about the business. James E. McGreevey, the governor of New Jersey, was announcing at a conference employment statistics that the state had helped to create. Inviting the family, they were cited as great examples of a business creating jobs. Currently, Dennis is helping the business obtain commercial financing through the New Jersey Economic Development Agency. "The SBDC has been so resourceful and helpful," says Patricia, "and their help is free. You have to be persistent and willing to work hard - we work twelve to sixteen hours a day. My daughter Andrea is twenty-three, and she works full-time with us and studies business management full-time at Rutgers University." Family Food Distributors Inc. now has an office and warehouse of five thousand square feet, a subleased truck and new van, and six full-time and two part-time employees. Its continued growth and success of should give new entrepreneurs some real food for a thought. Contact Patricia at: familyfooddist@aol.com.
Divine Inspirations
Divine Inspirations is a bookstore and wellness center located in Nutley, New Jersey. The company's mission is to "provide an avenue to promote and enhance the spiritual, physical, and mental well being of the community at large. Divine Inspirations Bookstore is a full service retail bookstore, providing quality products and excellent customer service for those seeking spiritual education, products, and services. The bookstore specializes in promoting optimal health and well-being through books, music, gift products, yoga and meditation programs and other events focused on stimulating learning, self-exploration, personal growth and healing."
Gloria Brown is the President and CEO of Divine Inspirations Bookstore LLC. After 30 years in corporate America, and various middle management positions, she is realizing her dream of bringing together her love of books, and educational services and programs in the area of alternative health options to help improve the health and well-being of people in the community.
In 2004 Ms. Brown attended several workshops offered by the Rutgers-Newark Small Business Development Center (R-N SBDC) including our 5-week Business Plan Writing Workshop and our Keeping the Books workshop which instructs attendees on financial management. After completing the Business Plan Writing Workshop Ms. Brown scheduled a series of one-on-one counseling sessions to receive guidance on preparing a loan package, locating sources of financing, understanding lending criteria, and putting the finishing touches to her business plan. The Center referred her to a small business lender where she was approved for a start-up loan.
Divine Inspirations had its grand opening on November 8, 2005 at its new 2,305 square foot location at 217 Franklin Avenue in the city of Nutley, New Jersey."We’re doing well," Ms. Brown says. "People are very interested and stop in – partly because it smells so good."
Essential Blends, LLC
Essential Blends, LLC is owned by Mrs Shauyn Copeland. The company owns and operates a Juice Zone franchise located in Hoboken, New Jersey. Juice Zone is a "rapidly expanding" franchise with many new stores throughout the U.S. (California, Delaware, DC, Florida, Maryland, Texas, Virginia) Canada, and India. Juice Zone franchises offer delicious, nutritious, quick and convenient juices, smoothies and light meals. The "star performers" on the Juice Zone menu are the smoothies. These are delicious blends of various fruit, juices, yogurt, fruit sorbet, frozen sherbet, and additives called fortifiers.
In October of 2004 Mrs. Copeland, the sole proprietor/member of Essential Blends, was in the process of researching the franchise and sources of financing when she scheduled an appointment for one-on-one counseling with the Rutgers-Newark Small Business Development Center (RNSBDC). The Center assisted her with the formation of the company, discussed possible sources of financing and helped her understand the lending criteria that would be used to evaluate her application. During the next few weeks the RNSBDC assisted Ms. Copeland with the completion of a business plan and loan package and also referred her to a small business lender that was able to provide the sufficient financing she needed to cover the start-up costs.
Today Essential Blends, LLC, dba Juice Zone, is a thriving small business located on Washington Street in Hoboken, New Jersey. The company currently employs six (6) people, a majority of which have worked there since the business began operating. Essential Blends recently held a "Bike Night" where it was allowed to close of two blocks of the city and had over 200 motorcycle riders, in addition to local residents, participate in the event.
Asked about her secrets for success Ms. Copeland says it involves having an enormous amount of determination, conducting research, understanding your market, utilizing technology to be more efficient, hiring great employees and treating them with respect. She is also a person who is not shy about speaking up when she feels she in not being treated fairly.
As for the future Ms. Copeland as interests in opening additional stores, but since she has figured out the formula she won’t need the franchise.
