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