- 2 days ago
We're flipping the script on traditional small business funding! Discover why a strong brand and effective marketing are key to attracting investors and grants. Ditch the "money first" approach and learn how to build a sustainable, grant-worthy business that naturally attracts investors.
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00:00Awesome. Hi, everyone. Welcome. This is the next session called Brand Before Bucks. Who out here
00:10is a business owner and has been trying to raise capital? It's tough right now. So this session is
00:16going to talk a lot about building a sustainable business surrounded by your brand or based on
00:21your brand. So we have a panelist here, Tiana from the Wellness Apothecary. We have Jennifer from
00:27Lush Yummies Pies. And then we have Ade Bukola from For All Things Digital. So I'm going to allow
00:33them to do a quick intro of each of themselves, and then we'll get started. Hi, everyone. Good
00:38afternoon. I'm Dr. Tiana Reed, and I am the owner and founder of the Wellness Apothecary. It's a
00:43skincare and wellness brand for women that choose to bloom. We're based in D.C., but I'm originally
00:47from Louisiana, and I'm also a proud graduate of Xavier University. So I'm excited to be home. So
00:54I'm excited to share as well. Thank you. Hi, everyone. My name is Jennifer Lyle. I'm the
01:00proud owner of Lush Yummies Pie Company. We fresh-baked lemon butter pies with local ingredients
01:06and a fourth-generation recipe. We are, of course, from Detroit, Michigan. And I also work for
01:14Ford Motor Company. I manage the entrepreneurship division for Ford, so I help entrepreneurs to
01:19receive funding. Hello, everyone. My name is Ade Bukola. I am from Boston, Massachusetts,
01:25founder of For All Things Digital. We are a small business resource platform that was created
01:31to help small business owners get access to marketing resources and funding. In my personal
01:36life, I'm a marketing professor at Northeastern University, and I teach undergraduates and graduate
01:41students marketing and learning about entrepreneurship. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. All right.
01:47So let's start off with kind of setting the stage around funding. A lot of times people are trying
01:52to get funding for their company. So I'm going to ask the panelists here, what is kind of one of the
01:57biggest misconceptions around getting funding for your business? I would just say that the money
02:03isn't just flowing. So you'll see these Instagram posts that will tell you about all the different
02:07grants. So yes, they do have a multitude of grants. However, you're applying to a pool of thousands
02:14of different applicants. So you have to be mindful that you want to make sure your application is very
02:20strong, you're standing out, and you're making sure that you really come with as much authenticity
02:27as you possibly can when you're trying to get those dollars. Yeah, that's great. What about you,
02:32Jennifer? Yeah, I totally agree. It's a lot of grants out, but just from standing on both sides of,
02:39you know, applying for grants and also giving grants, you definitely want to make sure that you
02:44have super strong applications. It's a lot of grants out there. I think it's a misconception that
02:49entrepreneurs can just get the grant so easily. And I think almost to get like one grant, you have
02:54to like apply for 10. So that's what I would say. After having worked with literally hundreds of
03:02business owners on grant applications, I think the biggest misconception that I've seen
03:06is that funding, grant funding or loans are supposed to encompass all of your funding.
03:13And so your funding will come from many different places. You can't expect all of your funding to
03:18come for free, right? You should definitely look into having grant funding money. You don't have to
03:22pay back. You should look into loans, but you should also look into building your own fund for yourself,
03:26whether it's personal savings, fundraising, getting donations, like your funding has to come from a
03:31pocket and a mix of different things. Awesome. Thank you. That's some great advice.
03:36All right. So how did you guys approach building a strong brand identity for your business?
03:41And what role did marketing play in that process? Let's start with you, Jennifer.
03:46Sure. So I actually looked for marketing grants, right? And grants on technical assistance. People
03:51kind of, I feel like sometimes people just want like money, but I think that when you can get a grant
03:58in exchange for a service. So I, the first grant that I received, I received about $15,000 just in
04:05marketing services. So I had them like redo my website. They redid my logo. They did a whole
04:12marketing plan, a whole rollout for us. They did our kind of our messaging. And so I would say that's
04:19awesome. That's a strong thing to do. That's a hack. Write that down. That was a good one.
04:22What about you, Jennifer? I will say in my company, we have this saying that says,
04:26if you're in business, marketing is your business. If you're a business owner, I don't care what you
04:33sell. You are a marketer and you really need to have a very strong story that you're telling. So
04:37how I approach brand identity was really to figure out who is my audience and what do they want and need,
04:43right? You are in the business of selling to other people and people should be at the forefront. So
04:49in my company, we use like an empathy approach to figure out what does our community need? What
04:53do our consumers need? And we build our marketing around that. Anything to add? So, so I did kind of
05:01the same approach as Jennifer. So I participated in the new voices pace bootcamp. And so we received a lot
05:07of information participating in that accelerator. And then after you participate in that, you still get the
05:13mentorship from the new voices team. So they were able to help me find a contractor that did a
05:19creative design tool. So they helped me with the branding, the social media. They also helped me
05:30with my website, labeling, my brand pillars. I have all those things to kind of tell my brand story
05:37cohesively. And so when they produce the style guide, it also helps you to make sure that across
05:43all marketing channels, and then also when you're outwardly facing that, the brand represents exactly
05:48what you're telling your story about. Yeah. Yeah. Great. And so the idea is that we're hoping that
05:53you build a brand that investors or money will come flowing into. And, but as you're building your
05:59business, you have limited resources. You don't have endless amount of money. So how do you guys think
06:03about marketing efforts? And maybe you can even include in your answer or kind of what is included in
06:09marketing or branding? How do you think about that when you have limited resources, but you're trying
06:13to, you know, build that identity? Let's start with you, Adipicola. So I will say this. If you are a
06:19business and you do not have funding to build a brand identity or marketing, I would absolutely implore
06:25you to follow for all things digital. We literally created a free open source platform to help businesses
06:31like you find those opportunities. There are so many organizations that will help you do that for free,
06:37right? Like I'm a big believer, especially black business owners. We deserve opportunities and
06:42resources for free. We shouldn't have to pay for them. If you are a taxpayer, you already have paid
06:48for resources through the small business administration. That is all free to you. And you
06:53can get a free advisor. You can get free marketing. You can have someone help you get a, create a logo.
06:58And so definitely stay in touch with us. And you can speak to me after this and I'd love to get you
07:02I'm tapped in. Awesome. Go ahead, Jennifer. Um, I know for me, when I first started my business,
07:08I definitely had limited resources and I didn't have in, I didn't know you then,
07:13but for me, what I, what I did, I actually use my customers. And so, um, that's when I was like
07:21first getting into social media. I asked all my customers, no matter what they bought to post a
07:27review. Whenever I would go to a festival, every single person that was in line, and sometimes it
07:34made my line a little long, but every single person that was in line, I asked them if I could
07:38take a photo of them and tag them. That is how we first started building up our social media following.
07:43We also asked for their email address. And then I started sending them email, just continuing to
07:48communicate with them. And that was how I helped to build like our following and our marketing when we
07:53first started with limited resources. That's great. That's great. I know for me, we, my goal was to
07:58create strategic partnerships pretty early. Yeah. So if I could find another small business where we
08:03had some type of brand cohesion, then we would work together in different huge events. So we would
08:09monopolize on that. So participating in expos. So I did the Indie Beauty Expo with another, another brand.
08:16So it's expensive. So you have to kind of get creative with how can I position myself in front
08:22of people the best way that I can. And then you can also, same thing, get the email from every
08:28customer, get all of the testimonials. Testimonials really help, really helps your brand. And it also
08:34gives the consumers that's interested more trust in your brand. So if they know that someone else really
08:40enjoyed your product, they're more than likely to purchase it as well. So that, as well as
08:47continuing to consistently post on social media, because that's the cheapest way. So that's an email
08:53marketing. So you may not be able to start with, you know, 200 to 500. So you may want to do like
08:59a free email marketing platform where you can do it under a hundred consumers at a time.
09:05Good. And talking about that, the fact that some of these marketing efforts are expensive,
09:09how do you know or measure whether or not it's effective so that you can continue using it?
09:14So kind of, how do you guys think about what is effective? How do you test it? There are certain
09:17metrics that help you understand if a marketing strategy that you're using is effective. How
09:22about you start? Conversion. Conversion into money. Conversion. So you look at your conversion
09:28rates, whether it's from... And let's like dumb that down. Not dumb that down, but let's like bring
09:32that down. What exactly does conversion mean for some people who are new to this? So basically,
09:36if I'm on social media and I post a product, I can look at the insights from Instagram, Facebook,
09:43TikTok, whichever platform you have the most of your followers on. And you look to see,
09:48based on whatever your platform is to purchase on your e-commerce, I always recommend Shopify.
09:53I had to learn early on because I started out with Squarespace and I got some expert advice to tell
09:58me to change it. And I had spent so much money on that website, but I had to change it to Shopify.
10:03The Shopify is such a... It's a better platform where it has so many different interfaces,
10:09whether it's email marketing, whether it's capturing emails, whether it's the return of cart rates,
10:17abandoned cart rate, all of those different things interface with Shopify. So they can tell
10:22you what the conversions are as they're coming in. So we won a Be Good grant, for example. So
10:27that gave us a lot of traffic just being on that Be Good platform. So we were able to see
10:33whether it converted to sales from that site. That's helpful. Jennifer, do you have anything to add?
10:39Yeah, I will say the same thing. Just does it convert to sales? I know when we first started
10:44our business, just even going back to marketing, we had one celebrity to post. And then from that
10:51celebrity shared it with other celebrities. What I say is the gift of reciprocity. And so they wanted
10:57to give because something was given to them. And so because they gave a testimonial, other people
11:03then started giving testimonials. And we noticed like a dramatic increase in our online sales based
11:09on the testimonials that were given. So that's how we started. That's great.
11:13So I have a little bit of a different approach to this. I believe that the function of marketing
11:19is to help you reach people. The function of marketing is to help people to find you. So
11:24the way that I define success in marketing is how many eyes do you have? Once you get those eyes,
11:30then you can figure out, all right, what do I now do with all these people who are now paying attention
11:35to me, right? So I think sometimes as business owners, we get so quick to, all right, a million
11:40people follow me. Now, how do I make money? Well, maybe you should spend time with your audience and
11:45figure out who they are and what they need now that you have them in the room, right? So marketing
11:50is all about helping people find you and getting those eyes. And so when you have that, really start
11:55to create strategy around that because everything they just mentioned, I promise you has a million
11:59more steps that they did to get there. And I think that's really important as well.
12:04Awesome. And so I want us to share like an example. So you guys get a sense of something that they've done.
12:09So if you guys can share an example of how you use storytelling or content marketing to really spread
12:15your brand's mission and value, and has that helped you attract more customers, more investors,
12:20so something like that. So I'll start with you, Tiana.
12:23Yeah. So with establishing your brand identity, it's very important to be able to tell your why.
12:30And so for me, I'm a pharmacist, so I have to, there's a lot of different apothecary shops,
12:34so I have to make myself stand out in the crowd, right? And I also have to make sure that my consumer
12:39understands what I'm trying to do for them. So knowing my audience and being able to articulate
12:45to my audience exactly what I'm trying to give them and what services are products and what makes
12:52my products stand out and how they'll help them. So we always wanted to give the messaging that
12:57we wanted our products to be associated with education. So we wanted to do knowledge as well
13:04as provide you with the product. So a lot of ingredients that you see in your product,
13:07you may not know what they are. So at least we are able to give you that type of information
13:11so you know what you're putting on your body and knowing that it's something that you can actually
13:15trust to use each time. Awesome. What about you, Jennifer?
13:21I'd say in a time when I shared, so when I first started my business, again, limited resources,
13:27I wanted to share not only with customers, but I wanted to share with editors
13:31who could then share with their audience. And so one of my goals was to get on the Oprah's favorite
13:39things list. That was a big goal for me. And so I wanted to find the editor. So I searched high and
13:44low and I found the editors. And so I began sharing my story with them. I shared my story with them for
13:51about a year and a half consistently. And when you say share, you're like DMing them your stories.
13:57I was DMing them. I was mailing packages. I was sending out samples for a year and a half. And I did it like
14:04every other month until I ultimately was placed on the Oprah's favorite things list. I would say that's the
14:11biggest impact, I would say, from sharing my story. So it's not just about like sharing it with your audience,
14:17but also sharing it with people. Yeah. Like who can touch a lot more people than you.
14:23That's great. What about you? For me, because I own a marketing agency, I'm going to stay from the
14:28perspective of working with a client. And I always try to encourage my clients to use platforms that
14:35other people are not on. So we use the typical Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, but there are
14:41other social media platforms like WhatsApp and Nextdoor, who was actually, I think, here today,
14:47that we utilize to reach customers. And so if you find those other like applications that are not
14:53like super popular, Reddit. I had a client get her biggest catering order of the year on Reddit.
14:59Wow.
15:00Nobody goes on Reddit except for white men, right? So like, it's just so crazy how she found a client.
15:05So definitely make sure that you're utilizing or researching or trying other social media platforms
15:10as well. Awesome. That's great. So we focused a lot on building your brand, but you know, money is
15:16still very important. So wondering what role grants and philanthropic funding has played in supporting
15:21your guys' businesses? And have you been able to leverage any of those? I'll start with you, Jennifer.
15:26I'll start.
15:27Go ahead.
15:28For me, I want a 20, like personally want a $25,000 grant, but I've helped all of my clients and small
15:35business community owners. We've won, we've won about a half a million dollars in the past four years.
15:39Wow. That's awesome.
15:40And I think the biggest part of winning funding is that a lot of times the funding comes with
15:45resources and networking. It's not only the money that's important. So if you win a grant from
15:51Essence, for example, that doesn't just come with the funds, it comes with something that's
15:55honestly more valuable than that. And you don't want to just take the money and run. You want to
15:59make sure you're staying in community because that's how you're going to get more opportunities.
16:03And so I think that's like the biggest thing that getting grants has helped us is the community
16:07and connections and support that we've received as a result of it.
16:10That's awesome.
16:12I totally agree. For me, I won a lot of grants. Specifically, I won pitch competitions.
16:20So I've won about 17 pitch competitions.
16:24Whoa.
16:25Well, I like to talk.
16:29But no, I think, you know, I totally agree. For me, with the pitch competitions, it's not
16:33just about the money. You also want to be able to leverage those relationships. I've actually
16:39got invited to a lot of pitch competitions by being at a pitch competition.
16:43Oh, interesting.
16:44Like they'll say, like somebody come up to me and they're like, oh my God, it's another
16:47competition coming up. You should apply for this one, right? Because you did so well at
16:51this one.
16:52So I think definitely like leveraging those relationships. And even if you don't win, I
16:56feel like a lot of people go, I've seen this from now, like being a judge and then also being
17:00in the competition, people lose pitch competitions and they're defeated. And they think that they
17:05can leave with nothing. You can leave with so much. Like look at those judges. Who are the judges?
17:11Right? Like make relationships with the judges. Get feedback from them. Find out what could
17:16you have done differently, right? And then ask them for future opportunities. Can they
17:20be your mentor? Like there's so many ways. Like you can finesse that situation. So I say
17:25definitely try to leverage those relationships from competitions.
17:28That's great. How about you?
17:30Yeah. And I feel like sometimes they basically can save your business. So I know for me, once
17:36I won that, my first grant, that helped read a whole nother genre of life into the business.
17:43And then I won another grant. So that grant positioned me to be able to work with a highly
17:48qualified team to get creative design consulting work done with it. So, you know, sometimes people
17:57get afraid to do those videos. There's a lot of videos that they ask you to do when you're
18:00trying to apply for a grant. My sister videoed me in my mom's dining room. And that's how I
18:06won the Be Good NAACP grant. So never take for granted that you have to have something that's
18:13really refined and have a videographer. We did it through an iPhone. So keep that in mind
18:20and just try. Do your best. Awesome. So we're wrapping up here. So just looking back on your
18:26guys' journey, what advice would you give to other small business owners who are starting
18:30out looking to raise capital or, you know, refine their brand? Any advice you would share based
18:36on your journey? Go ahead, Jennifer. I would say, again, just being on both the philanthropic
18:42of giving grants and then receiving grants, I would say connect with your community organizations
18:47first and foremost. Like get on their newsletter, like their news list. Talk to them. Ask them
18:54do they have any upcoming pitch competitions or grants? What's an example of a community organization?
18:59Well, I'm from Detroit. So we have like build, we have, um, local things. We have so many,
19:06like look for your city, right? So with Ford, I have to travel. So I have to go to different
19:11cities. But when I go to the cities, I meet other organizations in those cities. So it's
19:16like hundreds of them. So just find a community organization in your city that gives out grants
19:22and build relationships with them and find out about different opportunities because they
19:26may know about a grant that's not even listed. Yeah. So you want to build those relationships
19:30with your community partners for sure. I would say start with a small business
19:34association, especially if you're a woman-owned business. I think just about every state or
19:40jurisdiction in the country has a women business center. A certification. Yeah, those women business
19:46centers, they do a lot. That's how I won my first local grant. They, I had someone approach
19:51me and ask me to participate in this accelerator program and won a grant from that particular
19:55program. So they have a plethora of, I mean, if you don't, if you're open to getting a loan
20:00too, they have small business loans, but they can position you with a lot of different resources
20:04as well as participating in different accelerator programs like New Voices. So I have to throw
20:10that in there. Thank you for plug. I would say, um, give grantors something to work with.
20:17So I actually came up with the idea for this panel, Brand Before Bucks. And that's because after,
20:22again, having reviewed hundreds of grant applications, I realized that branding and
20:26storytelling was the differentiating factor for a lot of winners, right? So you don't have to be
20:31perfect, but you have to come with something. Why should I give you money? Why? You know what I mean?
20:37Like you have to be able to answer that question. And so just consistently work on your why,
20:41consistently work on your brand and how you're telling your story, the people that you're trying
20:46to serve and what problem you're solving. And again, definitely stay in contact with some of us.
20:51You shouldn't leave here today without somebody's contact to help you get funding.
20:55This is why you're here and you don't want to leave the same. And so make sure you connect with someone.
21:00I'm happy to connect with anyone to make sure that your business has everything you need for marketing and funding resources.
21:06Awesome. Well, thank you. If you guys can give a round of applause for our panelists.
21:10I hope you guys got a lot out of this session. Thank you. Thank you.
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