In your questions and comments throughout the hour you can reach us in a grid at 550-8433 statewide The number is 188-835-3575 extension 2 we do welcome your e-mail at home town at Alaska public dot org I'll try to give those numbers up periodically through the hour and lastly just a one more reminder we have links to these 4 businesses on our website so you won't have to remember business names if you go to Alaska public that org hometown Alaska you will find the oyster fireman you will find the manufacturing of women's clothing or the baby vendor or the salt companies so it's all there so just remember one thing Alaska public that org And hometown Alaska I do want to get to our guests there's one thing I want to tell folks though small business has a lot to do with jobs in Alaska and I'm going to read a quick quote This comes from Gretchen Faust who's the associate director at the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development and she was a past co-chair of Alaska started week she says over the last decade startups in Alaska consistently added 40026000 jobs to the economy every year firms that are 5 years or younger accounted for 89 percent of Alaska's net employment growth in the private sector startup week offers a great platform to support and celebrate this important segment of our economy and one of the questions I have for our guest is what about our economy what about starting a business in our economy so that's something we'll talk about let's meet our entrepreneurs I'm going to start with Jasmine over here. Hi Jasmine I have or you know you I know have been in business for 10 years already with something called the business boutique Yes but you are launching something new called Baby van and I just kind of want to know where did the idea for baby I know you have twins so I guess I'm thinking I know. Where this idea came from but tell us were you when did the light bulb go on for baby bend Yeah the light bulb for a baby even went on when I was stuck at 5th Avenue Mall with my twins and they were babies I was buying Christmas supplies I didn't pack enough for the diaper bag my son went through all his supplies and I had a big go cart of things I wanted to purchase and I just said I never want to be anywhere and stuck without supplies again let me make a solution and that's literally where it came from give me a vending machine something that is be places when parents need it so not just traveling not just airports but but malls maybe a restaurant maybe something in the restroom where you can go in and a mom or dad can find something in the restroom with that's a vending machine exactly just wherever you know families out in they just want to make sure they get stuck they have the supplies they need as a back up that's where we want to be Ok All right. I'm going to go next to my curving my I met Mike before that I met all these folks or talk to them before the show and so I know a little bit about them and Mike has one of the most amazing resumes I've ever seen in my life if he were a cat he would be young and in his 7th or 8th or 9th life I think by now but he's just staring at me and what are you talking about I'm just going to tell folks you know you were a cowboy in Eastern Oregon you have been a contract a log or in Washington and Alaska you're a journeyman farrier shoeing horses dairy herdsman with Hamilton farms in Alaska and how do you say so so so bodged are dairy in Washington State. So that was your sort of dairy man era but then there was another air and aviation era where you were a flight engineer for Everts air Haglund aviation market where you've been teaching people how to fly with a call a gold seal instructor will tell you when the gold seal which means that the people you trained did well when they took the test something like that I've never had a student fail any portion of a written. Oral or practical check right which is a pretty big feather in her cap but you're not done you're also a barge master in Washington State and I found out what tank ship e.i.c. Means when you're transporting. Dangerous liquids would that be oil like like unload in an oil tanker or an oil bar right so you have all kinds of certifications in that arena and you've been the chief engineer of Delta Western towing but here we go are you are now it's 62 and you are in another venture What is your venture. Lask a special fish I've got an oyster farm actually a shellfish farm in the middle of Prince William Sound. And I'm permitted for oysters cockles and kelp right now Ok and I know because Thanksgiving is coming you're going to have a really big harvest coming up you were giving me some numbers thousands there's there's probably details on oysters on the farm right now ready for market Yeah so you can get your work cut out between now and the 1st few days of next week or the fierce few days yeah the 1st you have to so anyway let's see we have not done Casey we have not done the Alaska salt company which is k.c. And Brittany I'm going to try this now see Cannick nail it Ok. They are young entrepreneurs from Homer and they are in the salt business and they're going to be opening a store in the 5th Avenue Mall the they are already in business down in Homer but they're going to have an outlet pier in acreage almost any day now right hopefully this weekend yes yes lots of trips back up back and forth between your home or so I do know the answer to this question because I talk to Brittany on the phone here partner but where did the idea for the salt company come from so the idea didn't start as a business idea but it started as I used to be a commercial fisherman and germinated one day while wiping salt off the windshield of a boat to see if I could create harvest our own salt out of the water and that's how the hobby kind of started and from there kind of turned itself into a business does it dry in Little Chris I'm not a fisherman so all I mean I've been on boats but I don't it's like on a nice day sadist get splash on a window it's not raining or anything but in a day it will be kind of hazy and you can wipe it off need to see like on a really nice day it's kind of surprising how much salt on it because you know it didn't get that much water on it and it's not flaky it's like really small grained this kind of hazy salt yeah so the bulb went off and you went I wonder if wonderful I could harvest this when I could really clicked it was like how I remember. Was a nice day there wasn't that much water that got on the window but I was surprised at how much salt still accumulated so it kind of surprised how much salt might actually be in the water and I still am right to that that happened how long ago about 3 years ago I'm guessing there have been more like 4 or 5 Ok you know but the business started about 3 years ago Yes Ok So there you have our foreign trip for entrepreneurs and our goal today open sorry I'm sorry I did not do one of you my policies Jennifer Jennifer Love borough with Alpine fit so you normally only have 3 guests this is what I guess I'm sorry so Jennifer you have an outdoor clothing store designed. To sort of be a custom fit for women and you're some of the things I learned about you is that you were a chemistry major in college and I feel like that might be coming in handy here so he would tell us just a little bit about when you decided I'm going to do that Ok I just had this drive and need to. Kind of manifest some ideas that I've been working around in my brain for a long time and one of those was based on the fact that women get so up frustrated if they see a style that they like specifically for an outdoor activity that they want to do but the fit doesn't fit them the way they would like and in contrast to that how wonderful people feel when they find something that does fit them well so I had kind of had some pretty experienced is that fueled the sort of manifestation of an idea there with fits make a style that people like the look of but offer fits for different body proportions that they could just go and select and have that be something that exists already and then also the idea of merging in the idea of just spending more time outdoors so this is an excuse to get out so it is it is sort of the time inside what you have to do right and I said yes that's true that's true but you have a chemistry major came into play to work on the technical fabrics and also development of the styles to merge my ideas for that sort of body Russians but in styles that are kind of go to styles you could use for a multitude of outdoor activities and where for extended or multiple days outdoors so you don't stink exactly as you go to the next. You know 10 day hiking trip and you would just be fresh day 10 and yeah yeah there's a test that improve it you know when I 1st met you over the phone we were talking I was thinking well clash there's so many you know outlets for clothing you know and what emerged from that discussion was your passion for manufacturing the clothes in Alaska as opposed to competing it I mean you probably will complete on the. Market but the idea that they were made in Alaska is really important to absolutely yeah I think it's definitely important to exist in line with my own values and the values of the customers that are going to buy the products and something is really emerged as. Made in USA and specifically made in Alaska and has kind of a key thing there that people care about and certainly if you can make a product that's in line with people's values and your own then you're kind of right in the zone of. Values are going to are going to come in here because some of the things they read in various businesses and why people are in those businesses do have to do with with the entrepreneurs values and maybe the values that they see in their customers so yeah all right now. We're go back I'm going to offer folks our phone number one more time 550-8433 Anchorage or e-mail at home town Alaska public that org And now I have a series of questions for each of these entrepreneurs and. We'll go person by person but I do welcome our guests if they want to chime in on something that maybe one guest has talked about that resonates with them or it was maybe this a mistake they made one time or something like that that you just kind of go ahead and chime in so here's my 1st question. Do you come from a long line of entrepreneurs and if not when did you begin to suspect you might be an entrepreneur I'm going to go to you Jasmine I know you are you're the daughter of a military mom who was rather take ship Yes she did yeah actually I don't come from any entrepreneur is I can't really think of anybody in my family that owns a business I just always knew it was meant for me I had a lot of jobs growing up I always wanted to work it and make my own money so I told myself Well if I own it I could make as much as I want and I don't have to be limited to my mom's allowance so I think yeah just kind of something I always knew I wanted but I think watching my mom and her discipline and how she ran our house really military in orderly really helped me with discipline in my own business when it came time for me to actually start it my dad was a painter but he did a lot is jobs so I think I probably got my entrepreneur roles rest from them in that capacity Yeah yeah Ok Mike how about you you did so many other things when did you decide that you were an entrepreneur. I suppose I grew up on a on a cousin's cattle ranch in the summers and so they had their own business obviously and. Then I ended up log in and got crushed by a log spend I'm not ashamed I say that yeah then a couple of years learning how to walk again and then when it released me into the woods no more you know and so. I opted for horse show in school. And became an op and also you had a little entrepreneur business horseshoeing 1000 years oh yeah yeah one of the things you said in our chance when we got to meet before the show is that you sometimes like to work for other people because then you don't have all the burdens on all yak but then sometimes you're tired working for and you would like to be the boss and you've managed to go back and forth you know a life. I love working for myself but it's a 247 job every once in a while it's nice to work for somebody else and watch the stress on the back of their neck. Yeah so yeah it's given you the ability to go back and forth yeah depending on different jobs you have. But you kind of think Britney did mention to me that. That I think you're kind of able to fix anything and build things and you know what about that what was the entrepreneurial spirit for you I guess for me. I've always been since I can remember self-sufficiency has been very important and like self-reliance and in that aspect I wanted to be able to be responsible for providing for myself and for my family and in that neighborhood entrepreneurship is is that so nobody in your family were entrepreneurs your or would you say they maybe were you know they didn't know it possible you know yeah but there were not enough businesses around and in my immediate family. But you like this idea of self-sufficiency and being your own boss and being responsible for yourself which is probably why I got into commercial fishing so yeah and that's what led to and helped helped with create an assault company as well yeah and I know that you've done a lot of really was telling me way back in the beginning you bought a duplex you could live in half and rent out half and then eventually have became a work space you know so you've been sort of and you also have a near b. And b. Near your spit salt outlet for people can so you're like diversified that's the word right now like diversification so if it's a good year in one part and it's a bad year in the other part you're still afloat rightfully Ok. With Alpine fit. I think you told me that you were a had paper routes 3 paper routes when you were 12 or something like you early that you were going to be an entrepreneur is it Yeah absolutely so yeah my answer to your question would be when I was 12 I had 3 paper outs and I was babysitting so that if I wanted any money to spend on things that I needed or wanted I could take care of those expenses myself and it's just kind of gone from there yeah yeah so did you get into saving right away. Are you like a penny earned is a penny or the know whatever you know I was very motivated by what I was going to spend it on so it depends on what that was you know if I had something big I was going to save up for sure I would save it but if I had some sort of immediate thing that I you know was Ok Was it and it was Ok to spend it was it was really time dependent. Pendent Yeah so very goal dependent and something else I learned about you was that you have lived in where you're from Canada correct and you got your chemistry degree which we talked about which figures into your business and also I think finance miner and commerce and commerce but then you spent 5 years in Ireland and some an opportunity for your husband I think but while you were there you opened a shop. About that yeah so we wanted to move to Ireland during the recession and my husband was going to study at the university over there and if I want to stay longer than just a work holiday visa I had to find some other sort of immigration permission to stay and I stumbled upon it that they had a permission called business permission so if I could write a business plan apply to the Irish government and prove to them that I would have the viable business idea which ended up being a retail store that I opened that they would grant me the permission to move there and stay and then I would have to submit accounts to them the following year to prove that I did open the business and I was I was employing people from the local economy and they granted the extension for me to stay so I stayed there for about 5 years and then sold that business when we decided to move for you were you in Ireland I was in Galway go west coast Yeah Ok Ok And one other thing you know you about use you have background I think working in fabrics for Lou lemon that's correct and you had one other I forget what the other one was you did another. Business rule I worked with scoop the snow there yeah many here there are North American head office here in Anchorage Yeah yeah so I worked. I worked in the office worked at the wholesale sales teams. Placing production orders you know you are a lot of hats are different a lot of different shirts as they say you know. When were you working on the fabrics were you working on the types of fabrics and I was yes I was a materials developer so after I finished my undergrad with chemistry I had been working in the retail stores sort of on a managerial level and then I got hired into a position in the head office to work on developing materials and was fortunate enough to be sent on some textiles education and textile sourcing trips to Asia to the big fabric Mills over there and it was kind of my my door opening into this industry that I just so thankful for Yeah Ok. Let's see. I wondered whether. You had to teach yourself this is a question for everybody but we'll go one by one but did you have to teach yourself a lot about the product that you wanted to create Jasmine. I know you talked to me on the phone about working with these machines for years to figure out you know the design I guess how you wanted it to work Yeah so yeah for baby even I definitely had to teach myself I had no idea how to work when the machine I mean I put money in the machine and got candy and stuff but I never operated a machine and they read open the machine so when I 1st determined that that's the direction I wanted to go and I got excited and I just found a practice machine off Craigslist and I put it in my garage and it was interesting but I was kind of scared of it for as I like I seen it and I knew what I wanted to do but I didn't know how to do it and it was funny my kids actually taught me how to use it I put some stuff in there to practice vending in my son figured out how to put money in there and he comes there with snacks and like like you treat it like it was a little snack machine so yeah I had to learn everything from scratch and really get out of my comfort zone that I knew we needed these kind of machines on a bigger level and I knew that I wanted to do it and be the one to do it I just had no idea so it literally was countless hours of reading books learn. How to vend i would put hundreds of items in the machine to put the settings to 00 since to make it been for free and I would just sit there for hours and just been stuff over and over because you want to see it drops because like with our stuff it specialty vending So it's not like a candy bar or a soda you have to go yeah and customize packaging and see if it's going to vendor get stuck in you have to keep trying it to make sure it's not a fluke so we had packing parties in vind parties where I had my friends come over know my just been for hours and see if it's going to work and just figure it out and know who's making your machines Yeah so I work with the company out of Colorado a friend of mine he's a local He owns the loft and he was done pointer shots done he actually designed it we brainstormed it together so are our machine is actually made out of state but my hope is that I can you know figure out how to get my own engineer and do it here and how we're going to actually Alaskan made machines and where would we see a baby bend they are up and there are a few up and functioning right yes so right now Ted Stevens Airport our 2nd machine is going to be pretty secure and down where the regional machines are the regional carriers we just are going to be going up to Fairbanks Yeah so we've got a couple of patients coming. And after that we're working on like the military Bay where you got a request at the mall and then we have a few folks that want some machines down south so Texas and Florida is our 1st 2 out of state locations Ok Well we have to take a tiny break right now we'll be right back but you are listening to hometown Alaska and I'm your host Kathleen McCoy. You're listening to hometown Alaska Public Radio program. Region will be taking. Welcome back to home town Alaska I'm your host Kathleen McCoy our show today if you've just joined us has to do with Alaska startup week because actually this weekend and all of this week there are a lot of events going on in town that you know investors entrepreneurs' business leaders community members are invited to and to kind of highlight that we have for entrepreneurs on our show today just to hear from the real deal so we have Jasmine Smith who is the creator of baby Vand which you might see at the airport or you might see businesses around town where you can get that diaper that you need right now or what I want to find out what else is in your baby then she also has business boutique the business boutique which is a business service company that has been she's been working running for 10 years we have Mike Irving who is the creator founder of Alaska's best shellfish you are in Brave harbor outside of in Prince William Sound outside 30 miles 30 miles out of Whittier Ok and we have Casey sick Anik who is a commercial fisherman and a man of many skills obviously he's a founder of the Alaska salt company in home where you might have seen it on the spit you're about to see it in acreage and he's partnered with his wife Brittany and then we have Jennifer lived for borough. Who is with Alpine fit her goal is to manufacture in Alaska. Sort of custom designed outdoor base layers for women and really we've determined that it's an excuse for Jen to get outside and test her she wants to be outside a lot so we were just going through some questions trying to figure out you know when you started your entrepreneurial idea did you know anything about it or how did you see school up and look at you Mike because you had never been an oyster farmer before how did you school open and make that commitment. I was actually commercial fish and shrimp in the sound and down down in South Hall attempt an mc foods. Put the bug in my ear now it's back in 2010 so I just started studying oysters picked up every book I could read and was on the computer all the time and read and know a report in a weather report actually in 2012 that predicted a 15 year drought in the Midwest and. We knew it was going to raise the temperature in the Gulf a degree and a half which was going to lead to a bunch of bacteria closures the Gulf of Mexico in the Gulf of Mexico that's 50 percent of the nation's always so it was kind of a no brainer both to open up a farm and I know that you and I talked a little bit you brought in some equipment that had been used in Alaska but I don't know if it's too hard to describe that to listeners or it's just a floating cage system I was back in Virginia picking up some Coast Guard licenses and for one of your many lives for one of my many lives and. I spent the weekends looking at oyster farms. And came up I didn't come up with this system I found this system and brought it to this state Yeah yeah so you're the only one with this particular system but I think you tell me there's about 8 farmers in the state. There and I think 19 of us sell on oysters for Ok Now Ok maybe it was 8 in Prince when 667444 farms in Prince William Sound 67 farms permitted I believe but just 19 that are are really gone so lots of room for growth there Oh yeah yeah yeah it's amazing one of the things you said when we were talking was that you know even though you had not farmed oysters before you have farmed animals and you looked at it as another farm animal but maybe a little bit easier to take care of than. Different to take care of it is fairly exposed to what this system fairly easy if it's cut the labor down compared to what people were using up here by about 80 percent. And of course they feed. Us What swimming by I don't blank phytoplankton So so you don't have to you know they don't run away you don't go to look for him yeah you know have to get on a horse and go find him Yeah Ok so you didn't you had you had to start from scratch you had you had a farming background you understood things about operating something like this but you know shellfish was new for you yeah. I just when I decided to get into it I just I thought I would commercial shrimp and oyster farm. But in reality it's taken so much to get into it I'd just set myself it always to farm and right now and. Maybe start in a few cockles Now I got a company in Spain talking to me right Ron I want to talk to talk about that. And I think did you say you're 8 years into it I mean I applied. I researched I'm from 2010 applied for my permit January of 2013 and put oysters on the farm 2016 Ok Ok. Now I'm going to go to the salt company and everybody thinks all salt everybody knows what salt is and knows how to use it in everything so what you know I mean imagine it's a food product so there's all kinds of Department of Environmental Conservation things that you probably had to learn you probably had to learn how to dry it out I mean you can always scrape the windows on your boat to get yourself so you know what was your learning process like. A lot of you to do a lot of just self discovery too though it's obviously a 1000 year old industry that hasn't really been reinvented and I discounted it myself and discovered the techniques that work for us and spent a lot of time experimenting you know I remember being on the coast of Portugal in this little town called Arrow I if I'm pronouncing it right but he way there were salt beds out there and there was a beautiful photo display of people working out there you know and and they had big baskets and stuff and I thought. How is Alaska for drying salt so I learned that you had to create a facility Yeah you can do that the weather just doesn't permit so it's all climate controlled essentially we have to use fuel. Big big fans yeah big show evaporation pans for where the crystallizing happens unlike a mass reduction in boiling stock parts right there something you Britney mentioned about getting to 29 percent salinity or something like 2224 Ok Ok sorry 22 dreamer Ok so busy that that comes from the reduction Yeah yeah Ok and then you slow it down after that way you can get large crystals to form if you keep it hot if you keep boiling it'll form really fine grained crystals because they'll form super fast and then I mean if you just let it go all forming like a rock on the bottom so no one can kind of control it you can get some beautiful songs yeah and I do believe the that you 2 started out as giving This is gifts to friends just because you wrote that's a little homey given the holidays but people were like Why aren't you selling this just went over really well my wife has a beautiful eye for things and she I was in makes things like really well she did not so she put it in a paper bag to make it work and the whole appeal of it was it went over there well . And it became an additional business so. Let's move to Jan and fit you know a lot about chemistry you knew about maybe even sourcing material did what did you have to learn for your own business while a surprising amount I mean I came into it thinking that I had you know 10 years of experience in the industry but I had material sourcing and then I had retail and wholesale sales so there's a huge piece in the middle of what do you do to get from fabric to a refined sewing pattern prototype approved and then the ball cornering of those materials the production of it to then have the finished product for retail sale so yeah. Like my. Cohorts are called. Is here a lot of research a lot of reading of books traveled to a. Place in Albuquerque actually does some song product manufacturing training. People crazy people like me that want to have some product manufacturing space can travel there and learn the trade of how you would do that to have a proud of this main USA And so I did some educational pursuits like that that's actually a volunteer event that they do to make products for charity and you but you go there and you learn you know scalable industrial techniques so just a ton a ton of self discovery trial and error Yeah and combining what I didn't know on the contacts and resources that I did have and the knowledge I had for the materials development but yeah a lot of learning Ok You know I'm going to talk a little bit about money next and going to start with Jasmine again because she was so straightforward about this when I said Well have you gotten investors or are you self funding and I learned from talking to Jasmine that her 1st business was self funded through having 4 or 5 jobs at the time and getting that business up and running but you also told me that is it's difficult for women to get money it's difficult for women of color to get money and you have just self funded all the way yeah so you know with the business it was a little easier because it was a service company so I didn't really have to have a lot of supplies and things like that but I when it came to baby you know I was like I need a machine in most of those machines or at least $6000.00 so yeah I got a night job and all the money from that job I saved it for the business you know truthfully if it weren't for some great crazy friends who believed in me that is where my seed funding came from you know I. Was in business and you know it's hard getting you know traditional funding as a woman it is super hard as women of color and I think culturally we just get so use in a custom to knowing that we're going to get told no that we don't try so you know when I 1st got star. Or did most entrepreneurs that say where can I get a loan or where can I get a whatever just because culturally I didn't think that was a norm or an option I hadn't really seen it I was like Ok How am I going to raise this money how am I going to get a job who can I potentially ask so you know I got a couple. Amazing Friends who are like Ok Jasmine I want to give you you know the money that you need to do this but if it weren't for that yeah I would probably just people are going personally I was literally friends and it's so funny because like even you know nowadays. You know I can go to a bank and all that kind of stuff and I think I'm a pretty good business and I do really get my finances but you just saw the same opportunity so it's you know it's never do and that's just my experience so it's never something that everybody wants to hear because it does sound kind of negative but I guess for me it's important to be candid in say that so another entrepreneur who might come along might not feel like just because someone doesn't give you money doesn't mean you can't do it and there's a lot of folks who just had to do it on what we had in that's just what I had to do so I don't let them ever feel like if you don't get money you just don't go for it if you really want you're going to figure out how to go for it and I think that's that's that's interesting advice Mike I think you are at the stage where you're considering scaling up in a big way and I think one of the figures you gave me is. To scale up to an acre is $60000.00 if you have that right so you know you're really I guess you could say bullish about the opportunity for America in Alaska I think you we talked about a 34000 mile coastline though Alaska has lots of little nooks and crannies that might be great for farming and shellfish tell me where you are and your you know What's your dream in terms of funny did you do it all out of pocket to start I did it well all out of pocket to start and then I've had a great support network of friends that that have helped people who know you just like asthma and right you know exactly and they have a sense if you're sort of community here you know I got into the Alaskan ocean cluster blue pipeline last winter and what is what is a startup incubator Ok out of out of Seward Ok. The parent would be Bering Sea fisheries Ok. Yeah. Now I've to the point I basically prove the concept but kicked the can about as far down the road as I can with your dollars and with my dollars I can I can remain a small farmer and be Ok but there are 6 farms in the business plan and actually maybe more right now there. I'm talking with investors and they're they're pushing me to become bigger one of the interesting things you talked about when we met earlier was the idea that. You know there are I have Q.'s and villages involved in fishing along the sort of coastline and in your mind you're thinking this might really be a great opportunity for communities in rural Alaska along the coastline I really do with what the climate change. I just know from from flying in western Alaska for so long that. You know there's no snow in norm today and. All these coastal communities I've got more orders for oysters than the state has or oysters and. I have close ties out in the coastal communities from working out and you really see how there I see an opportunity there yeah that's pretty interesting yeah cases where to most to go well right right No they've just gone last year we did we did Seward have had a shoulder surgery all summer long but. Probably do Anchorage Seward and the majority did to the east coast right now because I do ship some out of state yeah I will yeah. You were telling me the bit about a was it a restaurant in the on the East Coast that reached out to you yeah originally. Another distributor reached out to me and. Put up on Facebook that we partnered little did you know thing Little did I know. What they do about 2 weeks every other distributor on the east coast called they wanted oyster and all this happened from last winter through the summer and like I say now a company in Spain and there's one in Singapore and 2 and yeah yeah. Hence your desire to scale up it's my desire to scale up and and at the other hand being in town to talk to everybody I'm not on the farm so yeah yeah yeah how about you Casey how do you have an interesting funding story there's a mystery person that emerged in well not a mystery person but a kind of celebrity who emerged in your neighbor Yeah well we did have an interesting set. Of guess we started with some fish in money some family loans. That kind of guys go and then we got a small business development loan from. Which you said Well now you know and so economic development project. That was what got us our kitchen built like actual d.c. Sort of occasion and everything like that and then you know one day Zac Brown walks in and around for listening Mike Brown from the Zac Brown Band is a country singer well more than just country and he has made home or a place that he likes to hang out to and he got involved in wanted to get involved . And we were open to the idea that one of the best things that we liked about it is that he wanted to mostly enable us to do what we wanted to do and what he wasn't there to like jump in there and change things out but he wanted to enable us and help us pursue the vision that we had and that has been a very we've been very fortunate with that very. Lucky and he has more than just say he has financial resources but he has a whole team and he gets along good Zac Brown collective He's an entrepreneur himself he has a multitude of different businesses that he's involved in and there's a lot of crossover and a lot of ways that they can help each other like the creative department and what they're advertising and interesting yeah as we've been we've done the small business lottery really and how long have you been kind of working with him since last June Ok June 2018 and I gather you weren't really looking for this just going. Yeah yeah I'm pretty good enacts Yeah yeah we have to take another little break you're listening to hometown Alaska I'm your host Kathleen McCoy We'll be right back. You're listening to hold of Alaska for Alaska Public Radio you can find all go as go on our 2 or listen at Alaska public. Welcome back to hometown Alaska I'm your host Kathleen McCoy and we were just doing a little roundtable here on where did you get your money you know and we had very different stories from 3 of our to printers we're now going to talk to Alpine Fitz Jen. Moved borough. And you know what's your story of funding we did hear from Jasmine that it can be difficult for women to get funding. What's your story Ok my story is I haven't yet sought any outside investors I have had a couple of conversations of people expressing interest which is exciting but I'm at the point where. I focused on I have participated in some opportunities where there might be prize money involved so I stayed in the Alaska business plan competition and I was fortunate enough to win the grand prize from that so that was some money that went into it as an early and then I also went to confluence the summit on the outdoors last year when I was Invalides and participate in their business pitch competition and won some money there as well which was wonderful. But other than that self funded and I'm just really lucky to have you know a supportive family that's kind of allowing me to continue to sell fund and I'm really appreciative also of all of the early customers that have bought our products in the sort of pre-launch edition and the official launch and pre-sales and things like that. And I probably will look to certain things like some crowd funding sources coming and coming up you know concrete plans. You know one of the things I was thinking about is. The 3 of the 4 of 3 of the 4 of you here have small children at home and Jasmine has twins I know Casey has kids at home Jen has kids at home I guess it's a question of. Work life balance. You know I feel like if you're thinking this is my business you could kind of maybe accidentally forget that you've got kids to raise So Jasmine Let's go back to you and talk about how you balance it out and yes I'm a single mom I got my twins full time they're 5 and they just started kindergarten so my house is overly organized an overly planned out just because that's kind of what works for us I mean we have like a little calendar you Vince in our activities so I just kind of learn that I cram as much as I can in while they're at school so and so they won't really miss me if I do Mom Time family time after school bedtime and then I cram work back in again until about midnight but like twice a week we have a little standing breakfast where I'll go and have breakfast with one twin if I rotate that day and I have standing lunch with the other twin in our house rule is just any time I have to do something in the evening I owe them an hour so whatever I do on the evening they know they're going to get it back on the weekend so yeah I mean it's hard because people who don't have a business they always ask me like what time do you get off work and I'm like I don't you know that's like the most frustrating entrepreneur question arrows of what time are you off and we don't clock out you just do what you gotta do and you have to do it so I think what has helped me is just like including my kids and when I have meetings like even when they were born I couldn't afford a babysitter so I had them with me in class in their pack and play the students help me so I think making it a family thing is help us with that balance you know yeah Ok. Hey. I'm going to skip over Mike because I think you're at the stage that you and you're all grown up you're going there going up and right now I think maybe it's more about having a dog dogs out there on the farm with you better friends and buddies how about you Casey you've got little kids at home. Both you and your wife are partners in this business so it's a family affair very much a family affair it's a lifestyle kind of for us very similar we take advantage we have therefore and they both go to a preschool and we take advantage of that and then then evenings but we're able to spend quite a bit of time with our children and I mean we work very close to home and out of. The one of the advantages at the office maybe yeah. We work very well as a team and have sympathy as a single parent I don't know how you do it but you have to get through that helps a lot yeah yeah. Teen parenting Yeah I have a huge in I forget you got 2 at home I think you know I have a 5 year old and a 7 year old boy all I really close in age yeah our system is a combination of everything else I've just heard here I do have a very supportive spouse at home I mean he works full time so it's a constant juggling of schedules and calendars and you know this that you know thing especially if we have a weekend market event where I'm selling product and it's a you know entire weekend day you have to plan those things ahead. Yeah it's just I don't know what you want to know about it but it's just hard like you know the kids I had to get some electrical work done at the workshop so they came with me on a Saturday and they made a little office in my little changing room for people to try and shirts and close a curtain and that's the little office lady coloring or whatever you know you do what you've got to do to be ironed out and by the way I know you do have a work space a sewing space in. Mid-town I think you know it and it's relatively new for you right and actually that's a question I'm going to ask everybody but I start with you Jen hiring help are you at the position where you're trying to hire people I have had to. So I have a great growing team. Of varying number of students or kind of students. People that have other things are going on their life so I have a very flexible work schedule so I have my employee number one Deb and Amanda is a recent addition to sawing and probably have to teach them. I mean I have a lot of expert as a lot of experience sewing but there is training on industrial equipment and and types of techniques that to you know may not have encountered ever before in a hall and a home sewing setting and then just recently trying to grow the team we have a new addition Ryan who can work a couple days a week to do odd jobs and learning sewing and and you in turn and then another named Kate and another girl the niece started so these aren't all like full time by any means but I just try to get a team together and see what skills are here what skills can be developed and try to grow grow a team because trying to products takes a lot of work and offering them flexibility like if they can do 4 hours or you know 2 choices week that could you know work for Yeah or like school and service day if you're a mom you got to leave and you know yeah that's are some sort of letting your workforce in and out like the tide if that's what's required. I think talking to Britney and we're back at the company I think that winter you have a certain number of employees and then in summer you expand up to like 12 possibly this summer. Yeah so we have a store on the spit that's only open in the summer and we hire to run that and then we have a core group of myself Brittany and then 2 people in the kitchen and one office person who does like the website. So maybe there are probably overworked. But they're great and they put it all together yeah do you find that well I mean if they're if they're working in the salt production area you probably have to train them because that's not something people grow up knowing do yeah but that I mean that's maybe not that complicated it's not to focus just process of yeah and then I know you're opening a store at the 5th Avenue Mall and where are you with that is going to be some employees you know we are still. In the process of deciding right now and if anyone out there is looking for a job you still have to apply but do it quick. Yeah we're looking for that has actually been harder than we thought it might be finding a few people want to store manager and a few people to work as a sales reps. Making some dishes and very soon so Ok I have heard that from other employers who are challenged by the job market and finding you know. Sometimes people don't have the skill but if you can find a good person you can teach them with rent Well that's what we're all about is finding that right person and because it is it's like a it's a lifestyle here and if we find the right people. We can really there's room to grow train about what they need. Mike are you looking for I mean you're at that point where you want to scale up you might need employees Yeah. I've actually got a gal flying out to to look at the place right after Thanksgiving but. This this year all have to have 2 people on the farm and and the one office person . That would be my weak link Yeah it's a hard pull right now with the the farm you had you know 3 years of permitting and basically 3 years before you have a marketable product Yeah and so. I've been the one man show one man show but and actually we have a picture of what I think is your farm I took it off your Facebook page it says Alaska's best shellfish and it's like a little floating boat house or something yeah it's a float house it's 32 by 12 and. I restored it all and a friend lent me as hangar Seward airport you did the Learn and yeah we restored it and it's a pretty nice house really toted over there and showed it over and and then do you get in a boat and go out to where your cages are or are they attached around this facility you know I've got a small bell picker and in a past life I was a Yukon drift fisherman and fish kings on mouth of the Yukon Yeah and so I go out with that picture and I just picked up another skiff now that will be a farm skiff. So basically you live out there right on the water yeah. I was going 90 days on 5 days off and. When I came in for this business incubator and I've been basically in town all year. Shoulder surgery older surgery and I can live 5 pounds right now doctors' orders Yeah and oyster cages about 2000 Ok Are you good for your Thanksgiving harvest are you going to be hiring people to get out there and how that will be a one man show person bribe I've got to when I was a captain in Everett or Ergo I had an engineer that got some free time he'll probably go out with me some folks that you know you can lean on right now when you have a big workload Yeah how do you just what are you looking to add employees. Yeah I think my goal is always a keep my expenses as low as possible so I'm pretty open in a little ruthless with talking to my friends like I know you can't give me money but can you donate 5 hours a week so I've been overly blessed with mostly having family and friends volunteer and just do stuff for me because they support me I have one employee right now Casey Oh give it work for Casey I don't know where maybe that would be like she literally is the opposite of me in terms of everything that she is great at but we balance each other well so like she's the technical fix the machine figure out of him things you know some work well so eventually yes but right now I rely heavily on like in turns out partner with the Gap program it's a high school program and in exchange for the kids coming in helping me working with me you know they get credit in school and I give a like a stipend and stuff so I just use those things that got to give back to the community but also help with my workforce in the bench they hire them if they want to stay and some go to college and they don't but they can add it to their resume right right one of the courses Oh we've got you know about 2 minutes so we're going to move a little bit past but I am going to ask what's a good mistake you made and what did you learn from it let's start with you Jen did you make a good mistake well in light of all the people that I said. Surrounding myself with the help me know it was not getting help fast enough not realizing I had to spend money on getting people to help me do the amount of work that needs to get done so I'm I'm in the process of realizing that transition I have had to show was yeah it was a bit exactly about you know young entrepreneurs when they reach that mom when they're like no I can't do it all myself anymore so like I had the one employee Deb I have her still I'm so lucky to have her because I couldn't do my business without her and we've just recently added all of these other gavel to the right right right so maybe you get to sleep a little bit at night right yeah yeah Katie haven't you you. See. We talked about your employees already. Mistake that's what I was talking about did you ever make a big mistake and did you learn something from it. I guess one of the biggest mistakes we made was a summer we did over hire so we quickly learned that and had to let a couple people go which is a terrible position to manage. I think we probably learned from that yeah but it was it was a mistake. Yeah it was we've learned I could hear from everybody how important hiring is because you know Jasmine is trying to keep her expenses low and you were trying to keep but you needed to people how did you did you make any good mistakes that you learned a lot from my own I go along with with hiring with help yeah. That's a fraught area. And I think that probably the biggest mistake I have and I'm learning from ways is start asking for money before you need it oh no Ok. Instead of just going down to nothing and then figuring out how you're going to do it Ok it was really easy when I could jump on a tugboat and go make some money or go commercial fission but once the oysters were on the farm that on there then you're there Ok Well you hear the music which means it's the end of the hour so I just want to thank our guests who are just awesome Jennifer from Alpine fit my curving with Alaska's best shellfish Jasmine Smith with baby bend and their business boutique and Casey 2nd it from Alaska salt company and I will be back as your host next week on hometown Alaska as you may realize next week is Thanksgiving so we're giving some thought to what gratitude means we invite listeners to join us and share with their thankful for find us on the web at Alaska public dot org Well Franklin was your audio engineer I'm Kathleen McCoy thanks for joining us today on hometown Alaska. Down Alaska is a production of Alaska Public Media which is solely responsible for its content views expressed through those of a host of British bunch of do not report underwriters or k. Is Gay up to an Alaska state or certainly blog is by killing more in it for learn more about hometown Alaska and listen online at Alaska public about org life informed This is Alaska public media support for Alaska Public Media comes from the sustaining members of Alaska Public Media thank you key players in the Ukraine affair have testified before Congress and the country will testimony from more former and current government officials affect the case to impeach President Trump this is a sham and should be allowed I do believe the truth will set us free I'm Audie Cornish join n.p.r. For a special hour long recap of the public hearings of the House impeachment inquiry Tuesday through Thursday at for peace. I am here on f.m. 91 point one. You're listening to. Alaska Public Media 91 point one RINGBACK. Hi there I'm Carol off and I mean in fairness coming up on as it happened so bad to worse Hong Kong's Polytechnic University is currently being held by protesters who are launching fire bombs and bricks at police but the police continue to close in and after 5 months of protests an already critical situation threatens to reach a new level of violence and he'll keep coming out on top until just as a football fan in Indiana promised to live on the roof of his restaurant until the Cincinnati Bengals win it's been 6 weeks so far and until they win the stock Those stories and much more coming up on the Monday edition of as it happens. From n.p.r. News in Washington and Joel Snyder the House Intelligence Committee will resume public hearings Tuesday and its impeachment inquiry into President Trump over his dealings with Ukraine N.P.R.'s Winsor Johnson reports a panel is expected to hear from 4 witnesses including a top aide to Vice President Mike Pence Jennifer Williams is a foreign service aide in the vice president's office in a closed door deposition earlier this month she testified that President Trump's request for specific investigations struck her as unusual and inappropriate and shed some light on possible other motivations for his decision to phrase military aid to Ukraine she'll testify alongside Alexander Vidmar and the National Security Council's top Ukraine experts and later Tuesday afternoon they also hear testimony from Kurt Volker a former u.s. Special envoy to Ukraine and to Morrison now in the outgoing national security council official now some Pietschmann committees have added another witness to Thursday's hearing David Holmes expected to offer details of a cell phone call he said he overheard at a restaurant between Ambassador Gordon SAGAL And President Trump according to a transcript of the closed door testimony he gave Friday homes described the calls extraordinary president John publicly signaling he might testify in the House impeachment inquiry in Paris Frank you were doing his reports on the tweet Trump sent in which he stated he was strongly considering it President Trump said he might accept House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as offer for him to testify in writing the impeachment inquiry begins its 2nd week of public hearings with the Intelligence Committee scheduled to hear from 8 more witnesses Trump charge the rules of the inquiry had been rigged by Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff Trump says he did nothing wrong it does not want to give the quote no due process hoax any credibility but he said he liked the idea in order to get the u.s. Congress focused again he blamed lawmakers of not making progress on efforts to lower drug prices and finalize a trade deal with Canada and Mexico Franko or down years. News the White House secretary of state bike bump aoe is announced a new policy on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank it's being hailed by Israel's prime minister and criticized by Palestinians as N.P.R.'s Michele Kelemen reports for decades the u.s. Has held that Israeli said.