Kate Ellen owns Crown Nine, an Oakland, California-based boutique and art gallery that also handmakes custom jewelry. Kate, a former teacher and social worker, has always had a talent and passion for jewelry design, and launched her own business in 2011. Crown Nine is a fixture in the Old Oakland district, and often appears in the local press — and they’re a Yelp! darling. Kate is also a member of Ethical Metalsmiths, an advocacy collective that promotes sustainable mining and metalwork. She initially came to our program a year and a half ago, looking to address some concerns around wholesaling, marketing, online sales growth, and how to become a more effective team leader. Our team partnered her with advisor Greg Flood, and they’ve made a lot of progress working together. Kate told us that in the last year, working with Greg has enabled her to pivot how she’s approached everything … Read More
Texas Microfiber
Alisa O’Banion signed up with BusinessAdvising.org on a whim, despite previous negative experiences with business mentors both paid and free alike. . Her expectations were tempered, but she gave it a shot. Alisa owns Texas Microfiber, a certified Woman-owned Business Enterprise (WBE) that manufactures hygienic textiles for medical, automotive and janitorial use. She had recently launched a new online store hoping it would exponentially increase her sales, and she wasn’t quite sure which direction she should take her marketing efforts. Alisa was paired with advisor Steven Spector, Worldwide Learning Strategy Manager at Xerox, as part of an effort to develop a strategy to ramp up her sales and refine her branding. Since beginning her work with Steven, Facebook page has grown to over 4,000 likes. While her branding strategy has been successful, working with Steven allowed Alisa to realize that she needed to diversify her customer base, so she began to look … Read More
Discount Glass and Mirror
Discount Glass and Mirror in San Diego was hit hard by the recession of 2008, and after a precipitous decline in orders and revenue, the company faced possible bankruptcy. Our advisors helped owner Anthony Bortz tighten his cost structure to reflect the slowdown, shift his marketing strategy to target high-opportunity market segments, and position the company for renewed growth. Today Discount Glass and Mirror has regained positive cash flow and is expanding its customer base again. The company is hiring new employees to build on its momentum going forward. Want to read about their full experience? Check out our parent nonprofit Pacific Community Ventures for an interview with owner and founder Anthony Bortz.
Greenewall
Greenewall — founded four years ago by entrepreneur Robert Hodgson — builds privacy sound wall fencing composed of materials derived from nature, and formed into a post and wall panel system. Robert’s materials proved popular, and suddenly his small company was growing. Robert came to BusinessAdvising.org where we introduced him to Jeff Barney as a business mentor and guide. Jeff immediately embraced the company, and had a quick comprehension of the challenges that they had coming up. In their short span of existence, they had remained primarily a local company, but now they were looking to expand beyond their borders and to refocus on a broader market. With Jeff’s in-depth experience in marketing and knowledge of modern tools and approaches, Greenewall has started to see the effects of these efforts, and are looking forward to an exciting period of growth.