Latest / Earn Your Leisure / The INSANE Reality of Being the Poster Child for Funding You Can't Get

Transcript

The INSANE Reality of Being the Poster Child for Funding You Can't Get · Earn Your Leisure

0:00
Speaker 1: How you doing.
0:00
Speaker 2: There we go, I'm good, I'm good. How you doing good?
0:04
Speaker 1: Good? Thanks for being here, well, thank you.
0:07
Speaker 2: For having me. I really appreciate it.
0:09
Speaker 1: Jessica Spaulding, this is an interesting and it's an important
0:13
Speaker 1: story to tell. So uh shout out to Adrian Walton,
0:17
Speaker 1: our mutual friend, a legend put us together last last year,
0:23
Speaker 1: and then you know, I had to reintroduce the situation recently.
0:28
Speaker 1: But long story short. Jessica is an entrepreneur who owns
0:32
Speaker 1: the Harlem chocolate factory Staple Staple and Harlem and have
0:42
Speaker 1: come up across some unfortunate situations. But it's a I'm
0:45
Speaker 1: gonna let you tell a story because you could tell
0:47
Speaker 1: it obviously better than I can. But it's an important
0:49
Speaker 1: conversation that I think we need to have as far
0:51
Speaker 1: as entrepreneurship, small businesses in our community, access to capital,
0:56
Speaker 1: brick and mortar, different things that nature. So can you
0:59
Speaker 1: tell it? Can you tell a story to kind of
1:01
Speaker 1: open it up?
1:02
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean the quick overview is we started the
1:06
Speaker 2: business in twenty fifteen after I joined a business plan
1:10
Speaker 2: competition and I was unemployed and I found out about
1:15
Speaker 2: the competition while I was at the library with my kids,
1:19
Speaker 2: and I wound up winning the competition to start my
1:24
Speaker 2: business for fifteen thousand dollars. But I started to learn
1:30
Speaker 2: right after that how media coverage can also thank you,
1:37
Speaker 2: because immediately that winter, we went into two hundred and
1:41
Speaker 2: fifty Media Kids given out by Sam Adams, and we
1:47
Speaker 2: were flooded with orders and I was working out of
1:50
Speaker 2: a little six foot table in a commercial kitchen, and
1:55
Speaker 2: so it was just like really a really rapid growth.
2:00
Speaker 2: Went from a two foot table in the back of
2:03
Speaker 2: a Brownstone selling our products to now being in like
2:08
Speaker 2: major tourist attractions and selling out every week. And then
2:13
Speaker 2: from there we went to the Fancy Food Show and
2:16
Speaker 2: got selected as like the best bites at the show,
2:20
Speaker 2: and so I'm like, Okay, we need to find a
2:22
Speaker 2: larger production space. At the time, Amazon reached out and
2:26
Speaker 2: wanted this huge six figure order, and so I'm like,
2:29
Speaker 2: let me find a production space. Let me find a
2:31
Speaker 2: production space. And I couldn't find one, and I couldn't
2:34
Speaker 2: find the capital to find a space that was big
2:38
Speaker 2: enough for us to really produce in. So we found
2:41
Speaker 2: the store. And the thing that I didn't realize I
2:45
Speaker 2: was doing was I was changing my business model. I
2:47
Speaker 2: had been doing wholesale and doing corporate gifting, and that's manageable,
2:53
Speaker 2: you know, with a small team. The introduction of retail
2:58
Speaker 2: and brick and mortar come completely shifted the model and
3:03
Speaker 2: it feels like, Okay, I'm making so much more money,
3:07
Speaker 2: or the sales are different because they're in the face.
3:10
Speaker 2: But now I have this very very important part, especially
3:14
Speaker 2: for a black owned business, which is customer service. I'm
3:17
Speaker 2: spending forty five minutes explaining to people why my chocolate
3:23
Speaker 2: costs more than what's at the corner store, and customer
3:26
Speaker 2: education and customer acquisition, and then distribution for each and
3:31
Speaker 2: every individual order. Where before I'm boxing one hundred bars
3:35
Speaker 2: at a time and shipping it out in one box.
3:38
Speaker 2: Now Tamika want six chocolates, and I got to spend
3:44
Speaker 2: a half an hour making sure every six chocolate is
3:46
Speaker 2: correct and goes to her you know office. And it
3:51
Speaker 2: really really really became a struggle to manage in such
3:55
Speaker 2: a small space. Our kitchen is two hundred square feet
3:59
Speaker 2: and we were pumping out thousands of bars and we've
4:03
Speaker 2: sustained and carried on this time, but at my sacrifice,
4:07
Speaker 2: and so people are like, Okay, well, let me get
4:12
Speaker 2: you more orders. Let me get you more orders. And
4:15
Speaker 2: I'm like, you're actually low key drowning me. You actually
4:22
Speaker 2: and and and trying to explain the economics of why
4:28
Speaker 2: more ordering actually has put us in a worser financial
4:33
Speaker 2: position has been really really difficult to communicate to people
4:38
Speaker 2: who are like, we support you and we love you,
4:41
Speaker 2: and people mad at us because you're not open, and
4:43
Speaker 2: I'm like, I have to be closed because I have
4:45
Speaker 2: to satisfy contracts that actually make us money because I'm
4:52
Speaker 2: basically breaking even in this retail space. So it's just
4:57
Speaker 2: it's led us to really, really really pay it attention
5:00
Speaker 2: to how we need to shift the model and do
5:04
Speaker 2: the thing that I was afraid to do in the
5:06
Speaker 2: first place, which is go after what we truly needed,
5:10
Speaker 2: which was a larger production space and satisfying larger clients
5:16
Speaker 2: and larger contracts.
5:19
Speaker 3: When you say larger clients, larger contracts, that's inside of
5:22
Speaker 3: the new model. I'm assuming what else is entailing inside
5:25
Speaker 3: the new model? Because this is interesting, right, people would
5:27
Speaker 3: think if I bring in more revenue that would help
5:30
Speaker 3: the business. But I'm like, you're saying, like, hold on,
5:32
Speaker 3: we have to catch up. To our obligations to actually
5:35
Speaker 3: make sure this makes sense. So what have you done
5:38
Speaker 3: internally to design the new model?
5:41
Speaker 2: So what we did is we I identified key partnerships
5:46
Speaker 2: that would allow us to scale out. So we have
5:51
Speaker 2: to reach a specific price point in a specific volume
5:56
Speaker 2: to have the profitability to grow the rest of the
5:59
Speaker 2: day business. Right Like, it's a it's a different model
6:02
Speaker 2: because now our terms are net sixty net thirty. I mean,
6:07
Speaker 2: I'll be trying to get due on receipt for certain
6:09
Speaker 2: certain partnerships, but identifying people that had enough growth for
6:16
Speaker 2: us to start at this smaller level, but then also
6:19
Speaker 2: scale with them, so we have I cannot mention I
6:23
Speaker 2: asked for permission to mention it today, but I cannot
6:25
Speaker 2: mention it today. But it rhymes with all Star. You'll
6:30
Speaker 2: be seeing a new partnership this week that we're that
6:36
Speaker 2: we're launching. That again just allows us to open up
6:39
Speaker 2: doors to larger volumes, because especially for chocolate, this is
6:44
Speaker 2: not like any other CpG business. The CpG business. The
6:48
Speaker 2: next you know, breakpoint might be twenty five hundred and
6:52
Speaker 2: then I can go to a cod packer. I'm competing
6:56
Speaker 2: at the co packers. I'm competing with grocery stores. I'm
6:59
Speaker 2: competing with big brands. So my little oh, I got
7:02
Speaker 2: a twenty five hundred bar order, They're like, baby, that's
7:06
Speaker 2: going to cost us eight dollars a bar to make
7:08
Speaker 2: for you. And so we're not really seeing a break
7:13
Speaker 2: point until we're in the high you know, we're in
7:16
Speaker 2: a six six figure kind of like unit number. So
7:21
Speaker 2: by having these partnerships, that allows us to like really
7:24
Speaker 2: negotiate with co packers or even if we're taking on
7:27
Speaker 2: production ourselves to increase our volume because now I have
7:31
Speaker 2: something to kind of like bet against with it. When
7:34
Speaker 2: it comes to funding, I just thought that I have
7:36
Speaker 2: all these eyes on my business. I can get funding,
7:39
Speaker 2: and it's not when I talk to venture When I
7:42
Speaker 2: talk to investors, they're like, you not going to grocery
7:46
Speaker 2: And I'm like, no, that's where our business would go
7:48
Speaker 2: to die because that's what everybody else did and that's
7:50
Speaker 2: where their businesses are closing. But it's a non traditional
7:54
Speaker 2: model and so they're like, well, prove that it works
7:57
Speaker 2: first and come back. So the parts are just at
8:00
Speaker 2: a larger scale for us to say like, hey, over
8:03
Speaker 2: the course of this year, we're going to do one
8:06
Speaker 2: hundred thousand bars with this one company, or we're going
8:09
Speaker 2: to do fifty thousand bars with this one company, And
8:12
Speaker 2: that gives us a little bit more leverage when it
8:14
Speaker 2: comes to proving that this has scalability versus I'm going
8:18
Speaker 2: to try to convince fifty more people to come in
8:20
Speaker 2: here per.
8:21
Speaker 4: Day, knowing everything that you know. Now, for the entrepreneurs
8:26
Speaker 4: watching tonight, how would you identify what's the perfect business
8:30
Speaker 4: model for your business?
8:36
Speaker 1: Because we always are taught.
8:38
Speaker 4: More is better, right scaling. I even seen a comment
8:41
Speaker 4: as someone's a water why not start a venture fund?
8:44
Speaker 4: More is not always better, right? So how if you
8:48
Speaker 4: can go back? I know you said your your business
8:51
Speaker 4: model is different, but often times a different business model
8:55
Speaker 4: is the one that's going to lead the way.
8:57
Speaker 1: How would you identify what your perfect business model is?
9:00
Speaker 2: I think that if I was able to restart, I
9:03
Speaker 2: would start with the equations that I've created now, right,
9:06
Speaker 2: Like what's the volume of products that I need to
9:12
Speaker 2: make in order to sustain at a specific margin for
9:17
Speaker 2: not only operation, but for my own life. Like there's
9:21
Speaker 2: all the statistics black women where the fastest group of entrepreneurs,
9:25
Speaker 2: where the you know, most educated, most everything but the
9:28
Speaker 2: reality is we make the least amount of revenue out
9:32
Speaker 2: of every group. We are over educated in degrees that
9:36
Speaker 2: don't actually make money, like we have the lowest our
9:41
Speaker 2: degrees are the lowest income generating degrees. So there's the
9:45
Speaker 2: other side. We're in a lot of the marketing around it.
9:48
Speaker 2: And I know for myself my face was used as
9:51
Speaker 2: a part of many, many, many campaigns to show love
9:54
Speaker 2: and support for black women. But I think that when
9:57
Speaker 2: I get back to the forefront of it, that I
10:01
Speaker 2: would really make sure that my business had me in
10:04
Speaker 2: it and was and whatever model I was choosing, made
10:08
Speaker 2: sure that there was some version of salary for me,
10:11
Speaker 2: maybe not a big ticket item, maybe not whatever, so
10:14
Speaker 2: that I can make these decisions more clearly. A lot
10:16
Speaker 2: of this business model shifting is out of a place
10:20
Speaker 2: of no for no better words, but desperation, like right,
10:25
Speaker 2: like I need cash in here now, this contract. They
10:29
Speaker 2: love us and everything, but they're not going to pay
10:31
Speaker 2: me for sixty days. And that's after I get all
10:35
Speaker 2: of my paperwork uploaded for them to even process the ach.
10:38
Speaker 2: And then what happens when Sheila go have a baby
10:41
Speaker 2: and then my invoice don't get processed you know, like
10:44
Speaker 2: there are real life things that can, you know, derail you.
10:48
Speaker 2: So when you're choosing a business model and when you're
10:51
Speaker 2: choosing a price point, I think that we have this
10:54
Speaker 2: idea that we want to be these like mega billionaires,
10:58
Speaker 2: But you might be more profitable at a at a
11:00
Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, you know,
11:03
Speaker 2: like price point, you might be able to take more
11:06
Speaker 2: margin out of that than if you was trying to
11:10
Speaker 2: I feel like sclare globally like I from myself, I
11:15
Speaker 2: realize we've been really boxing above our weight class trying
11:19
Speaker 2: to do this direct to consumer model and reach all
11:24
Speaker 2: these individuals. That takes money, like you know, and it
11:29
Speaker 2: takes dedicated staff, human capital. There was a real benefit
11:34
Speaker 2: to not having to pay for staffing For some other businesses,
11:38
Speaker 2: you know, they had five hundred years of free labor.
11:41
Speaker 2: I don't have that. My cousin want to come work
11:44
Speaker 2: for me. My cousin bills ain't gonna go nowhere. I
11:46
Speaker 2: have to pay her for the day. She can't volunteer.
11:49
Speaker 2: She might volunteer at night after work, but I need
11:52
Speaker 2: somebody during the day. I need somebody to answer the phone.
11:55
Speaker 2: And AI is doing a lot to help and assist,
11:58
Speaker 2: but they're a real physical human capital needs that I
12:01
Speaker 2: would consider and incorporate into whatever model I was choosing.
12:06
Speaker 2: And I think we confuse models with sales channels and
12:10
Speaker 2: thinking that like, oh, we're just adding another sales line,
12:14
Speaker 2: and you're really shifting your entire model. If it requires
12:18
Speaker 2: you to operate differently, then it's a different model and
12:21
Speaker 2: it's not an additional sales channel.
12:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wanted to bring you on. I want just
12:26
Speaker 1: to put it in perspective for people. So, yeah, you've
12:30
Speaker 1: become a staple in the community as far as hall
12:32
Speaker 1: them chocolate factory. But I thought it was is important.
12:35
Speaker 1: It's like a real life case study because we bring
12:37
Speaker 1: a lot of entrepreneurs on and a lot of times
12:40
Speaker 1: the stories are extremely success story your success story also,
12:43
Speaker 1: but you're facing hard times right now, right like, so
12:48
Speaker 1: I think that this is real education that people can
12:51
Speaker 1: actually learn from because it's ups and downs entrepreneurship. It's
12:55
Speaker 1: not always somebody making a million dollars a month and
12:58
Speaker 1: somebody that's killing it and stuff like that. Like we've
13:00
Speaker 1: highlighted that story a lot, but I think it's also
13:03
Speaker 1: important to highlight people that may have currently been going
13:06
Speaker 1: through rough patches right now, So talk specifically about where
13:11
Speaker 1: the business is right now. I know that you're in
13:14
Speaker 1: a business, you're currently closing the physical location, right and
13:18
Speaker 1: then also talk about how like the access to capital
13:20
Speaker 1: conversation and how you were actually on New York City's website. Yes,
13:27
Speaker 1: explain that, explain that part of it, right.
13:30
Speaker 2: Like, I do a lot of like behind the scenes
13:33
Speaker 2: work because I mean I literally needed money for myself.
13:37
Speaker 2: Because there's also a reality, right, Like I don't want
13:41
Speaker 2: to even participate in my own gas lighting where I
13:44
Speaker 2: pretend like there wasn't a sacrifice that went into scaling this,
13:48
Speaker 2: right Like the original SWAT analysis said that this was
13:51
Speaker 2: capital intensive and it was going to be hard, and
13:53
Speaker 2: the market is saturated and all these things, and then
13:56
Speaker 2: the only way in was through this niche. But the
14:01
Speaker 2: what I did is I built like a platform for
14:04
Speaker 2: myself because I am extremely I find myself to be
14:07
Speaker 2: honest about what it really takes to build a business.
14:10
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna front for you. I'm not going to
14:12
Speaker 2: pretend like you know, like oh whatever, I've been on
14:15
Speaker 2: Oprah's Favorite Things. I did and they called me twice
14:18
Speaker 2: and all of that, and I could do all of that,
14:20
Speaker 2: not the swing. But what does that do for anyone
14:22
Speaker 2: if the reality is when I go for funding, I
14:25
Speaker 2: get turned down. When I've tried to raise money for
14:28
Speaker 2: for for contracts, they shift the goalposts. And so I
14:33
Speaker 2: think I just got to a place of frustration because
14:35
Speaker 2: my face was on the New York City's fund Finder.
14:39
Speaker 2: I'd launched this GoFundMe campaign after I got rejected for
14:43
Speaker 2: accounts receivable funding. I don't want to close our store.
14:48
Speaker 2: The goal is to.
14:51
Speaker 1: Let's load down a little bit. Let's let's take that
14:53
Speaker 1: your face was on New York City's golain that.
14:58
Speaker 2: It's called the It's called the funds Finder, right like.
15:02
Speaker 1: From New York City. It's where you go to get
15:05
Speaker 1: money for your business.
15:06
Speaker 2: Yes, where you find funds. It's literally the funds Finder.
15:09
Speaker 1: So you were essentially to post a ch out for that.
15:13
Speaker 1: Your face was on there, Yes, but you couldn't get funding.
15:19
Speaker 2: Zero funding options available is what it said to me.
15:23
Speaker 2: And that becomes the thing, right Like people are like, oh, well,
15:26
Speaker 2: you have all these connections, like you're good, like you
15:28
Speaker 2: could get funding whenever, and I'm like, yeah, you know
15:31
Speaker 2: where the funding comes from me, I keep my salary
15:34
Speaker 2: in that business every year, like we are still here
15:37
Speaker 2: at my sacrifice. And so people were like responding to
15:41
Speaker 2: our go fundme by saying like, well, you're on funds
15:44
Speaker 2: finder or there's like hey, I found a link to
15:47
Speaker 2: the New York City funds finder. Go on there, like
15:49
Speaker 2: oh wait, your face is on there. So I kept
15:51
Speaker 2: getting it and kept getting it, so I literally made
15:53
Speaker 2: the video to show like there are no there were
15:56
Speaker 2: no funds, like it was zero from one hundred and
16:00
Speaker 2: fifty k plus to less than ten thousand, there was
16:03
Speaker 2: no funds.
16:05
Speaker 3: So how did they respond to have they responded to this?
16:08
Speaker 1: Like what, what's the update? Obviously you brought this to
16:11
Speaker 1: their attention.
16:12
Speaker 3: Obviously you're getting hit up, and it's like, yo, this
16:14
Speaker 3: is this press is actually working negative for me because
16:17
Speaker 3: people think I got it. They're not likely to help
16:19
Speaker 3: if they think I got it. It's just unfortunately, how
16:21
Speaker 3: have they responded since you brought it to their attention?
16:24
Speaker 1: Obviously they put you there, they know it.
16:27
Speaker 2: They called me to told me that they took the
16:30
Speaker 2: picture down and that I should find some grants to apply.
16:34
Speaker 4: For, which grants are not the easiest thing, just for
16:38
Speaker 4: those who don't know, they just don't fall off the sky.
16:42
Speaker 1: Why do they put the picture up there? To begin with?
16:45
Speaker 2: I think that I think that black women are the marketing.
16:52
Speaker 2: I think that it's very very easy. I think that's
16:55
Speaker 2: the way and to prove that you like, show support
16:57
Speaker 2: for the community. And I think black women sometimes are
17:00
Speaker 2: very very and and I can't let me not talk
17:02
Speaker 2: for all black women. I think that there are times
17:05
Speaker 2: that I've approached entrepreneurship happy to be invited, and it's
17:11
Speaker 2: encouraged an air that I'm easy to take advantage of.
17:15
Speaker 2: And so I snapped and I went online and I
17:18
Speaker 2: told the whole world that there was no funds. Because
17:20
Speaker 2: normally I'm quiet and I don't say nothing because maybe
17:24
Speaker 2: it can help someone else. And black women are very
17:26
Speaker 2: very amenable, and you know that we get this rap
17:29
Speaker 2: about our attitudes, but I've seen women cry after haircuts
17:33
Speaker 2: and when they nails was messed up, So we don't
17:37
Speaker 2: say anything. And I said something this time. So they
17:39
Speaker 2: took the picture down. Still no funds. They connected me
17:43
Speaker 2: to another funder who had already rejected funding me. But
17:49
Speaker 2: I guess people are moving now. But it's like a
17:53
Speaker 2: eight to twelve week process, and I'm like, I needed
17:58
Speaker 2: money years ago, and so it's just literally like I
18:04
Speaker 2: would never want to turn to my community that I
18:06
Speaker 2: already know is facing things to like beg for money.
18:10
Speaker 2: But this where we're at in this and especially on
18:14
Speaker 2: the precipice of these partnerships, I'm like, nah, I've taken.
18:19
Speaker 2: I've taken all the l's that I'm going to take,
18:21
Speaker 2: and I can only come to people and be transparent
18:24
Speaker 2: about where we are and what we have going on
18:27
Speaker 2: and ask for some assistance because my goal ultimately is
18:31
Speaker 2: to help my community. Like this ain't Jessica Spaulding's chocolate factory.
18:35
Speaker 2: This is Harlem's and so I feel like I'm just
18:38
Speaker 2: a steward of the opportunity. And so it's worth the
18:41
Speaker 2: fight and the embarrassment. Because somebody just left a comment
18:45
Speaker 2: before I came on here telling me I should stop
18:47
Speaker 2: begging and all different type of losers and whatever. I
18:50
Speaker 2: took a screenshot of you and you and my file
18:53
Speaker 2: of all the people who ever talked about me because
18:55
Speaker 2: I plan to come back around the block. But no, no, no,
19:03
Speaker 2: I go up on one of level between fifth lndaes.
19:05
Speaker 2: I've lived in home of my whole life. Stop playing
19:07
Speaker 2: with me. Y'all be talking very crazy on this internet
19:10
Speaker 2: and I'm trying.
19:11
Speaker 3: To be then stop playing on the internet.
19:14
Speaker 2: Please please When you never see nothing.
19:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, but a lot of people are going through pain
19:21
Speaker 4: and take it out on others to have a successful business.
19:26
Speaker 4: What pushback were they giving you for not giving funding
19:29
Speaker 4: for those who are looking to pitch? What what roadblocks
19:33
Speaker 4: were they putting in front of you?
19:34
Speaker 2: To tell you know, uh, I will tell you that
19:39
Speaker 2: the amount of goalposting that I have faced during this.
19:42
Speaker 2: So it's like when I first started and I was
19:45
Speaker 2: in there was money at the bottom. When I had
19:48
Speaker 2: the sad story, the single mom that you know, I
19:53
Speaker 2: have my two kids and and and I don't have
19:57
Speaker 2: my life together and I'm going to who you know,
20:00
Speaker 2: try to find a job, they was throwing money at me.
20:04
Speaker 2: I got a micro loan when I had no job,
20:07
Speaker 2: so it built in me that like, okay, well if
20:10
Speaker 2: I prove that I have whatever, I'm gonna get it.
20:13
Speaker 2: Then they gave me ten thousand and I paid it back,
20:15
Speaker 2: and then they gave me twenty thousand. I paid it
20:17
Speaker 2: back and then it was time to like put your
20:19
Speaker 2: money where your mouth is and I'm like, yo, I
20:21
Speaker 2: want to build out this facility. I think that we
20:24
Speaker 2: can really like grow contracts. I found a way in
20:27
Speaker 2: into this industry. Then it was like, ooh, to risk
20:31
Speaker 2: you don't know if you're too risky, Like ooh, what
20:35
Speaker 2: if you're gonna do? What? What do you everything? I
20:39
Speaker 2: just said I was gonna do the things that I
20:41
Speaker 2: did them and and so the goalpost moves. It was
20:45
Speaker 2: get a contract and come back. Come with a contract. Yeah,
20:49
Speaker 2: but how do we know it sells? Like airports? Like
20:53
Speaker 2: people don't even spend money in airports? Huh? Okay? Hotels?
20:59
Speaker 2: I mean are people even staying at hotels anymore? Is
21:02
Speaker 2: there any like what? Then I'm like, all right, let
21:06
Speaker 2: me come back with the invoice. I'm gonna come back
21:08
Speaker 2: with the invoice. Yeah, but you didn't ship the product yet,
21:11
Speaker 2: so you know this doesn't really funder, you know, fall
21:15
Speaker 2: under accounts receivable. You need growth capital. Okay, well you
21:19
Speaker 2: look at the growth give me the capital, yes, but
21:22
Speaker 2: you know what we would really want is the is
21:25
Speaker 2: the contract. I can't get the contract until I give
21:29
Speaker 2: them the product and they that they see that it sells. Yeah,
21:32
Speaker 2: so after it sells then we'll do it. But we
21:35
Speaker 2: know it sells cause it's been selling, because I got
21:38
Speaker 2: ten years of historical data that it sells. What. And
21:42
Speaker 2: that's when I realized, like, oh, everybody's lying to me.
21:45
Speaker 2: Y'all hate me, and let me just stop. And I
21:48
Speaker 2: just did the goalfundme and I was like here boom, like,
21:52
Speaker 2: let me do this, and then I'm gonna double back
21:55
Speaker 2: and charge everybody twice. And I have a list. I
21:59
Speaker 2: want you to know. You're in my little black book.
22:03
Speaker 2: We're just trying not to make that way, but just
22:07
Speaker 2: like yo, you know because these same people when the
22:10
Speaker 2: cameras come out, I know what y'all are gonna do.
22:13
Speaker 2: Y'all want to pull up, y'all want to oh, let
22:15
Speaker 2: me take a picture.
22:16
Speaker 1: I'm so proud of you.
22:18
Speaker 2: I'm so proud, and we knew you was gonna make it.
22:20
Speaker 2: I want you to know I know who all you
22:23
Speaker 2: are and I am it's me and Fifthy. You will
22:27
Speaker 2: not get in. You will be standing outside. You will
22:30
Speaker 2: not get in. I am very nice, I'm very sweet.
22:33
Speaker 2: I don't have I no no, but.
22:37
Speaker 3: Pray for them now we're gonna pray.
22:40
Speaker 1: Chocolate factory definitely a staple in the community. Explain the
22:44
Speaker 1: go fund me. Explain the GoFundMe, what's it for? What's
22:48
Speaker 1: the goal? Yeah, and uh yeah, explain that.
22:54
Speaker 2: So it's yeah, So what we're what we're trying to
22:57
Speaker 2: do is we have like some specific the debts that
23:00
Speaker 2: we need to clear in order to just free up
23:03
Speaker 2: cash flow. Then on the other side, there are deposits
23:08
Speaker 2: that we need to make immediately in order to fulfill
23:11
Speaker 2: these contracts. And the if we wait, we're gonna be
23:16
Speaker 2: outside the window and we're not gonna be able to
23:19
Speaker 2: fully take advantage of them. And so the GoFundMe, we're
23:22
Speaker 2: trying to raise fifty K. If we could get to
23:25
Speaker 2: a hunt it, y'all would literally be saving my little life.
23:29
Speaker 2: But fifty is what we need to, like you know,
23:32
Speaker 2: like really make these specific investments to have that leverage
23:37
Speaker 2: the way that we need to for our cash flow
23:40
Speaker 2: and really not be waiting for sixty days for the
23:43
Speaker 2: invoices to clear and be able to go out after
23:47
Speaker 2: even more contracts.
23:49
Speaker 1: And what's the what's the what's the website or what's
23:51
Speaker 1: the Instagram? How can people if they're interested.
23:55
Speaker 2: You can go to Harlem Chocolate Factory Dot com and
23:58
Speaker 2: we have the link there and then on our Instagram
24:01
Speaker 2: it's Harlem Chocolate Factory. The link is in our bio. Ultimately,
24:07
Speaker 2: I want to create an entity with like with community
24:11
Speaker 2: shares like. I'm still researching on how to do that
24:15
Speaker 2: and how to set up the structure because I want
24:17
Speaker 2: the community to have shares in it. This is the
24:20
Speaker 2: temporary need that we have that will help us bridge.
24:25
Speaker 1: And yeah, well thank you for coming on, just having
24:32
Speaker 1: really appreciate your story. And I'm going to encourage everybody
24:36
Speaker 1: to to try to give what they can because it's important.
24:39
Speaker 1: You know, we got we can do it. Trying to
24:42
Speaker 1: save a black business a vital part of our community.
24:47
Speaker 1: We understand that entrepreneurship is a real gateway and you
24:51
Speaker 1: talk about businesses, you know, it employs people, it gives
24:55
Speaker 1: level of inspiration, hope, and is the whole economic system
24:59
Speaker 1: that done. And when you think of Harlem, you think
25:02
Speaker 1: of the mecca of black culture, going back from you know,
25:06
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties Hallam Renaissance and sugar Hill and all of that.
25:09
Speaker 1: So you know, it's the it's this season of giving.
25:14
Speaker 1: Some people say Christmas is the season of given, but
25:16
Speaker 1: it's Black history months. So I feel like February is
25:18
Speaker 1: the season of given and we wanted to highlight you
25:21
Speaker 1: just to you know, for educational purposes, but also you know,
25:24
Speaker 1: we have a platform, so we try to try to
25:28
Speaker 1: do good with our platform when we can, as far
25:30
Speaker 1: as to help people that are haveing some level of need,
25:34
Speaker 1: because we're all going to need help at some point
25:35
Speaker 1: in time. And it's a good story as far as
25:40
Speaker 1: what you've been able to accomplish and would love to see,
25:44
Speaker 1: you know, the trajectory, you know, change on the situation.
25:49
Speaker 1: So yes, go to Halem Chocolate Factory dot com if
25:54
Speaker 1: you're interested, and we will definitely stay in contact with
25:59
Speaker 1: you all best and thank you for coming and telling
26:02
Speaker 1: your story. Greatly appreciate it.
26:03
Speaker 3: Appreciate you so much.
26:06
Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing.
26:07
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you guys,