Local Chico: Home Ec

          After growing up in Chico, moving to Seattle to try something new, and then returning to Chico, in 2011, Christianne Belles finally realized where her heart and future belonged. With past experience working for Macy’s and in Nordstrom’s back office, she learned all about retail, how to run a store, how not to run a store, and (after trying out working for a non-profit in downtown Chico) that retail was where she wanted to stay.

          Having a self-proclaimed “quirky personality”, it’s no wonder that Christianne had such an affinity with the downtown Chico area, and refused to look anywhere else to start her new business. With visions of a "Modcloth meets urban outfitters meets anthropologie" style shop selling home wares and gifts that customers would find ‘oddly appealing’, Home Ec was born. It is Christianne’s mission to have customers either fall in love with, or simply just giggle at each and every “random awesome” hand selected item that is placed in the quaint shop on Main Street.

 “For decorations in a home, everything should have a reason”

          Christianne’s favorite things about owning a business are having creative control, seeing her vision come to life, inspiring and making people happy, and most importantly scheduling. Being a mom of two delightfully beautiful baby girls is her main priority, and being able to create her own schedule for her shop and her two employees helps her balance all things that make her truly happy – family and her business.

          For Christianne, being an entrepreneur meant that she had to take risks and throw herself out there without knowing what the outcome was, but still doing it. It was scary, but an amazing adventure, and credits her ability to be an absolute optimist for giving her the strength to push on. She has no idea what the future holds for Home Ec, but just hopes that it continues to grow and inspire its customers.

For more information on Home Ec, please visit their website or find them on Facebook!

Recipient TidBits - Who Do You Wish You Had Met Before Applying For The Seed Fund?

As part of their participation in the Business Vitality Seed Fund, we asked each of our recipients a series of questions to get their view on entrepreneurship, the Seed Fund process, and other entrepreneurial related TidBits. The following is their answers to the question: Who do you wish you had met before applying to the Seed Fund?

I wish I would have been able to reach out and talk to a previous recipient of the Seed Fund. Since I was the first candidate and first recipient of the seed fund, I didn't have that chance. But if I were to give advice to someone who is thinking about applying to the seed fund, I would tell them to reach out to a current seed fund recipient and ask their advice for how to get the most out of their time in front of the review board. 

For more information about Social High Rise, please visit their website or find them on facebook!

I wish we had met someone who knew a little more about selling physical products. We have since met a few advisors who have helped us with some of our questions about product releases and pricing strategies. Most companies and advisors available are more into the tech start up then a product startup, so finding good advise is hard. 

That being said, I believe we still would have approached 3CORE in the same way. We knew what we needed to get us started and we got it. 

For more information about Upper Park Designs, please visit their website or find them on facebook!

Local Chico: Grana

              Working in the restaurant industry from an early age for his Grandparent’s restaurant, and then helping the new owners acclimate once it was sold was a great starting point that helped Jeff be the restaurant owner that he is today. From that restaurant he moved on to other food service jobs that he held throughout college. Upon relocating to Chico, Jeff had the opportunity to building many restaurants in the Chico area and learned all of the ‘behind the scenes’ tricks for a restaurant – kitchen infrastructure, best placement for kitchen equipment, how to build his own ceiling lights out of table lamps, etc.

            The concept of opening a restaurant like Grana in Chico had been on Jeff’s mind for many years, and when North Rim Adventure Sports opened a space on the corner of East 2^nd and Wall Street he decided to take the opportunity because of the great location.

            Jeff’s favorite thing about Chico is that the town has a smaller community with larger city traits. He is a big believer in what Chico stands for with its diversity and love of music and art, and wanted his restaurant to complement what Chico has to offer.  To Jeff, entrepreneurship means “what you feel your community can sustain and what you can give back.” It is this thinking, and Chico’s community support for programs like the farmer’s market and keeping things local, that made it an easy choice for him to follow the same thinking with his restaurant.

            Even with many challenges with some of the local farmers not being able to sell their produce to him for wholesale prices, he has been able to work with some who now are able to give him what he needs at the price that is still affordable. It is his aspiration to be able to educate his customers and the community about buying local and organic, and that being sustainable doesn’t have to be so expensive. “Food can be incredibly simple and delicious with the right ingredients.” Grana also gives back to the community by getting involved and giving away gift certificates.

            Some big challenges that Jeff encountered with opening Grana was the building and permit processes, and simply getting things done at the City level. “Chico could be a lot more friendly to the entrepreneurs that make this city thrive.” He referenced to the infrastructure work in Sacramento Mid-town and how that area built up really quickly because entrepreneurs knew that they were being supported by the city to go there, and now it is incredibly successful and strong.

            Jeff powers on with the drive to be a little better every day, just as he wants his food and wine to be that little bit better each day. Right now he is spending a lot of his time working on the business rather than in the business where he’d like to be, but is working on keeping personal staff morale high while he’s not so involved with them.  

For more information on Grana, please visit their website or find them on facebook!

Recipient TidBit : What Do You Wish You Had Done Before Applying For The Seed Fund?

As part of their participation in the Business Vitality Seed Fund, we asked each of our recipients a series of questions to get their view on entrepreneurship, the Seed Fund process, and other entrepreneurial related TidBits. The following is their answers to the question: What do you wish you had done before applying for the Seed Fund?


Five by Five Tonics

I always wish I knew financials better. Even after years of preparing and learning small business financials, I still wish I knew more. There is no substitute for rolling up your sleeves and getting very well acquainted with what “funding” means for a business. There are so many definitions for that term.

For more information on Five by Five Tonics, please visit their website or find them on facebook!

Social High Rise

I was pretty well prepared before I had met with the seed fund. I had recently closed an Angel Round of funding from a group of local Chico investors, so I was in fundraising mode. With that said, I wish I had spent more time crafting a more articulated pitch and slide deck. You can never be too prepared for pitching your business and this was no exception. Although I feel I gave a good pitch, I came away wishing I had spent a little more time rehearsing my talking points and keeping things brief. As a result, I was asked to prepare a more formalized business plan to give to the review board. It was a good experience to put together this plan, but I think I could have gotten away without it, had I been more prepared in my presentation.

For more information on Social High Rise, please visit their website or find them on Facebook!

 Upper Park Designs

There is nothing I wish we had done before applying to the seed fund. We came in knowing the plan for the next year and knew what money we needed to get us there. The only issue was showing a track record of sales to the board. We had only been selling for a few months and had proven our returns, although we needed a little more proof behind the numbers. I would suggest to anyone applying to the fund to have a track record of sales (at least a few months) and then build solid projections over the next year. We went in with our current sales and did not spend enough time on the projections based on those sales. I believe this would have provided a little better faith in the vitality of the investment from 3CORE. That being said, everything worked out in the end!

For more information on Upper Park Designs, please visit their website or find them on facebook!

Embracing Failures

Photo Credit: www.gsm.ucdavis.edu

Sometimes, failures can be the best thing that ever happened to you. It might not seem it at the time, but generally, failure leads you along a new path of success. The key is to identify and learn from the things that made the failure occur in the first place. Entrepreneur magazine’s Jane Porter wrote an article about how failure made some entrepreneurs (like Steve Blank of E.piphany), millionaires. “No one likes to fail, we are hardwired for success” says Blank, but he also helped create 5 keys to start “failing your way to success”.

1. Call failure something else. For serial entrepreneurs, the world failure is often replaced with the word “experience”. Not only is this true, but it also makes you feel better about the situation and positive that it will carry you forward.

2. Use failure as a stepping stone. It is essential to recognize what you did wrong and to be conscious to not repeat yourself. Always learn from your mistakes and move on.

3. Never fail alone. While most entrepreneurs tend to like to ride solo, making a mistake on your own can be devastating, and make it so much harder to realize what went wrong in your process. Another set of eyes that is just as invested as you are can be the key to turning that failure into an experience.

4. Don’t hide your failures. “I’ve never heard [a millionaire entrepreneur] say they hit it right the first time out” says Siebold, a consultant for corporations and entrepreneurs who teaches mental toughness and critical thinking. “Be proud that you were brave enough to take a risk in the first place” (Porter).

5. Redefine what you want. Remember what made you want to go into business in the first place, especially looking for emotional motivators. Make sure to keep those motivators in the forefront of your mind, and move your business to continue to follow that pathway.

What was your biggest failure, and how did it help you grow? What motivations kept you going? Please share your experience with us!

For full article: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227011

Recipient TidBits - How Has 3CORE Helped You?

As part of their participation in the Business Vitality Seed Fund, we asked each of our recipients a series of questions to get their view on entrepreneurship, the Seed Fund process, and other entrepreneurial related TidBits. The following is their answers to the question: How has 3CORE helped you?

Five by Five Tonics

Seed funding offered us a lot more than financial benefit. I think anyone in business knows how quickly any sum of money can go, especially if not well planned for. More than that, though, the seed funding offered a sense of affirmation for the business I had created. 3CORE has stepped up many times since seed funding to offer support and guidance, which is far more valuable than funding alone.

For more information on Five by Five tonics, visit their website or find them on facebook!

 Social High Rise

3CORE is comprised of very talented individuals who are passionate about helping local entrepreneurs succeed. Since becoming a 3CORE Seed Fund recipient, not only have we benefited financially from the fund itself, but have been recipients of other valuable and needed support. For example, we have received sales leads, business document templates, tax prep/filing help, access to their network of professional contacts, to name a few. They are quick to offer solutions to the challenges we face and have been extremely proactive in working with us to find even better ways to be helpful.

Execution is what separates successful entrepreneurs from those who never make it, and 3CORE has helped us shape and execute our business model in a significant way. We owe a lot to their dedication and desire to see others succeed.

For more information on Social High Rise, visit their website or find them on facebook!

Upper Park Designs

As a startup company still in our first year of sales, cash can be limited at times especially amidst working on product updates, new products, and preparing for inventory orders. While in these bootstrapping cycles, we need to focus on our customers while continuing to reach out and gain new customers. Through several avenues of social media we have been able to keep a constant conversation with disc golfers around the world. Although many of these posts are done for free, we have seen a dramatic increase in attention and interaction from sponsoring specific posts. We love to increase the reach of our marketing to as many people as possible, and 3CORE has helped us significantly grow beyond our initial projections. Thanks to their help we were able to build our marketing and online presence, gaining new insight on the needs of our customers. In the first few months we have learned more than we could have expected and it has really helped to propel our company forward in regards to growth.

3CORE has helped connect us to a range of people willing to advise us on any questions that arise. It is comforting to know that we can send an email asking for help with anything and they’ll do their best to understand the problem and utilize their network to get us in touch with someone who can offer advise on a solution. Working with an organization like 3CORE has shown us a company and individuals that there are reliable people willing to stand behind a startup through the good and bad.

Thanks 3CORE!

For more information on Upper Park Designs, visit their website or find them on facebook!

Digital Print & Design

 “You have to run the business instead of the business running you, and you’ve got to remember to have fun.”

It all began in 1996 when a former employer (Les) and his employee (Jessica), of Cumming’s Ceramic, needed a new career choice. With Jessica’s background being in printing, when they saw the old Copy Place was for sale for the price of 1 machine (which was still a whopping $75,000) they felt that they hit the jackpot.

After applying for a loan at a bank and being turned down, Jessica and Les were feeling rather gun-shy and were very nervous about trying to find anywhere else to get money from. Their banker, who didn’t believe in the bank’s decision, referred them to Marc at 3CORE (Tri County EDC at the time) where they received a loan and matching funds, which gave them the ability to buy the business.

18 years, a name change, and lots of happy customers later, Jessica and Les are now married and happier than ever. The business is what they always wanted it to be, although they had to wait for the technology to catch up to their visions. They started off being on top of technology by being one of the early web adopter and strongly believe that the fact that they have always embraced technology, and reinvented themselves and the business (while still holding onto the core meaning of the business) to guide it where they have wanted it to be has been the key to their success.

Right now the focus of the company is helping small businesses, emerging entrepreneurs, and freelance designers. They love working with businesses and helping them be successful. Their goal is to help them look like a Fortune 500 company, but without the expense. They also continue to nurture the relationships that they have with their long-term customers. Several of their customers are from over 3 generations of the same families who began coming since the very first day the doors opened.  With a large variety of customers, they say that they are trilingual – man, woman, and geek – to keep up with what everyone wants.

Jessica and Les are looking forward to the future with the company. They can’t wait for the next technology to come out and to help the new entrepreneurs coming in trying to make something of themselves. Les is considered retired but still spends a majority of his free time in the store with Jessica and their two giant but lovable dogs. Jessica says that she technically has 15 more years until retirement, but doubts she ever will. They love what they do and truly believe that they could not have done it without the help from 3CORE. “Having 3CORE as a resource is wonderful for the community, but the community needs to know that it’s there”.

For more information about Digital Print & Design, please visit them on facebook!