Battle Creek small businesses level up. Here's how they plan to thrive

John Capers has a product people want.

Over the last several years, the Tennessee-born owner of Pops Family Kitchen has used family recipes in perfecting award-winning barbeque and soul food for catering and special events.

"The cooking side is easy for me," Capers said. "It’s the business side and logistics side I was struggling with."

To fine-tune and improve his business plan, Capers joined a group of 10 other business owners as part of a free incubator program through Northern Initiatives, a nonprofit community development financial institution with an office in downtown Battle Creek. The group recently celebrated the completion of a 10-week course that explored how they could improve the viability and future growth of their startup businesses.

“Once I started taking the class, it opened my eyes to the business side of things," Capers said. "I was breaking even at first because I was doing volume and I was undercharging. Now I understand what I need to be charging to be competitive with the market so I can get above that line."

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation previously funded a similar business program through a collaborative called Morning Light by SecondMuse. Northern Initiatives — which administers the Kellogg Foundation's $10 million Small Business Loan Fund — stepped in to create a revamped version of the course after the WKKF contract with SecondMuse ended.

"One thing we add is a boot camp," explained Jenny Mualhlun, business coach and development specialist at Northern Initiatives. "A two-week, high-level overview introduction of what they will learn in this cohort. Because it is so fast paced, the entrepreneurs are in an idea stage, so we really dive into the nitty gritty of starting a business."

The first group of business owners to pass through Northern Initiatives features a wide range of businesses and entrepreneurs from various backgrounds:

• Capers of Pops Family Kitchen

• Maria Rivera-Ayers of Absolute Connection (interpretation services)

• Jenequa Parson of Jeweled LLC (candlemaker)

• Lori Olsen of Aspidistra Naturals (soap and body care products)

• Jesus Grillo and Lucy Mosquera of Victoria Latin Market

•,Kellee Van Valkenburg of Cereal City Candles

• Jose Felix of Laredo Tex-Mex (restaurant)

• Treeonna Edmonds of TamedbyTree (hair braiding, beauty care)

• Ivan Ramos and Jose Tapia of TnR Auto Detailing

• Christine Stone of Blanco Luxe (beauty, cosmetics)

• Destiney Lesley of Load-a-Spud (potato bar)

Rivera-Ayers recently moved to the Battle Creek area, where she launched her business providing Spanish training facilitators, translation, and interpreting in education, legal and human resources. She already had a business background, but she joined the cohort to "meet people and make connections."

"It’s gone beyond my initial thoughts," Rivera-Ayers said. “My business plan is much more complete than what I had. Besides knowing them, I know they will be backing us. I learned more about the financial part, the statements and projections. It was a part I was rusty at. I learned that from this course. It was very complete, a lot of professionals coming in and out of the classes. They could hear the elevator speech. I’ve gained a lot good skills and friends because everyone is here for the same reason."

Using the "Kauffman FastTrac curriculum," Mualhlun said the cohort had about a 30% dropout rate. Business coach Justin Andert said program attrition is viewed as a success.

"We want to make sure people are not only successful, but, maybe, if they have an idea that won’t work, they won’t have to go through any hardships," Andert explained. "It builds confidence in people, teaches them what they should and shouldn’t do. Common mistakes we can help people avoid. A lot of similarities to the entrepreneurship journey, even if they don’t have similar businesses. It’s a lonely road as an entrepreneur, so you have classmates and people you can lean on for your business."

The Battle Creek Small Business Development Office has collaborated on each of the five small business cohorts since 2018, with another round slated to launch in August. Director John Hart said the incubator program has not only helped small business startups, but strengthened the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the city.

"We like it because a number of these clients in this cohort are already people Small Business Development has already been working with. And we said, 'Would you like to participate in a cohort to get you, a little bit faster, to the next step? And I can work with city resources to secure you can get to that next step,'" he said. "Building a culture and environment... All starting in similar positions; it’s a really fun an interesting time to explore your business idea."

Contact reporter Nick Buckley at nbuckley@battlecreekenquirer.com or 269-966-0652. Follow him on Twitter:@NickJBuckley

This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Program helps Battle Creek small businesses level up