The Roanoker November/December 2022 - 36
" My kids had full benefits. Had I not been working in
the corporate world, we might have been in trouble, " she
remembers. " So we made sure we had things aligned. "
The couple enlisted an accountant to help them make
that move strategically: " A lot of money was coming in,
but a lot of money was going out for payroll... So we
had to figure out how many jobs we'd have to secure to
supplement my income, " she says.
You'll probably need
more start-up capital
than you think.
Beth Boyd Bell, president
of FemCity Roanoke and
publisher at Macaroni Kid
Roanoke, recommends creating
connections for local resources.
Think hard about when
to quit your day job.
Diane Speaks never envisioned herself as a boutique
owner. She'd worked for years as a flight attendant when
many in the airline industry suddenly found themselves
facing steep pay cuts. " I needed a Plan B, " she remembers.
That's how she founded She's International - a clothing
and accessories shop in downtown Roanoke. Speaks
began collecting and selling unique items from her travels,
and before she knew it, she was an entrepreneur. That
was in 2006. She continued to juggle the shop with her
full-time work for the airlines until her retirement in
2014, she says.
" I would not do that again, " Speaks admits. " I would
probably do both part-time, but these were both full-time
positions... It was way too much. "
That feeling of having a foot in both worlds is familiar
for many entrepreneurs, including Pascal, who continued
to work in banking for five years until she could make
the transition to full-time employment at her cleaning
company.
Almost every entrepreneur had similar advice for folks
starting out: you can always use more start-up capital ...
and you might need to think creatively to get it.
Quincy Randolph knows this well. Before moving to
Roanoke to help launch Roasters Next Door, Randolph
was making his way in the restaurant scene in Chicago,
trying to raise $550,000 to open a 24-seat fine-dining
establishment.
" I got laughed out of a couple of meetings with banks, "
Randolph remembers. " No one is trying to loan that kind
of money to a 21-year-old. "
So when his brother Steffon reached out to him about
joining forces in a brand-new coffee venture, Quincy
knew they'd have to be innovative and scrappy in obtaining
startup funds.
" We kind of just rubbed our pennies together to
get this location started, " Randolph says of his original
Wasena storefront.
The brothers then turned to crowdfunding to buy their
roasting equipment.
" As a new business, you have to be aggressive sometimes
and just do more with less, " Randolph says. " For
us, we probably should have raised $24-40,000 to build
out a really nice roastery ... but we raised, I think, $12.5.
And so that basically got us a roaster, some very barebones
equipment and allowed us to put a down payment
on a roasting facility we were renting. And we just had to
continue to rough it from there. "
And while there's wisdom in running as lean as you
can for as long as you can, Randolph suggests balancing
that principle with the healthy recognition that you'll
probably need more than you anticipate. " You never want
to jeopardize your business if something doesn't go the
right way immediately, " he says.
It's a balance he's continued to tweak as he's watched
RND open a brand new location in downtown Vinton,
and as he launched Crème Fresh, a shop offering plantbased,
dairy-free ice cream.
" I'm still very much learning, " he says.
36
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022
TheRoanoker.com
COURTESY OF BETH BOYD BELL
" As a new business, you have
to be aggressive sometimes
and just do more with less. "
QUINCY RANDOLPH
http://www.TheRoanoker.com
The Roanoker November/December 2022
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Roanoker November/December 2022
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Cover1
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Cover2
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - 3
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - 4
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The Roanoker November/December 2022 - 50
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining1
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining2
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining3
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining4
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining5
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining6
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining7
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The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining9
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining10
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining11
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining12
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining13
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining14
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The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining16
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining17
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The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining19
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining20
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining21
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining22
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The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining24
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining25
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The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining27
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The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining30
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining31
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Dining32
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The Roanoker November/December 2022 - 82
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Cover3
The Roanoker November/December 2022 - Cover4
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20150506
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20140910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20140708
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_201403
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_201402
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