Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Business Grants for 40+ Entrepreneurs with Trae Bodge

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Business Grants for 40+ Entrepreneurs with Trae Bodge · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  Three, two, one, zero.
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  Ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with the number one small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small biz chat podcast?
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  Well, it's time.
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  Every Wednesday, we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start and grow a successful
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  small business.
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  In just twenty minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel
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  your business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the Small Bitch Chat podcast today.
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  Hi, everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Small Biz Chat podcast.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, small biz lady, your host, America's number one small business expert, and
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  our mission is simple, to end small business failure with real talk and real strategies from
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  business leaders who have done the work.
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  If you enjoy the Small Biz Chat podcast and value our show, please share it with another
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  entrepreneur and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your
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  favorite podcast.
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  Now listen, if you don't like my show, do not leave me hate mail online.
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  But if you do, we would really appreciate a glowing review.
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  So to help more small business owners find the show.
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  My guest is a wonderful woman by the name of Trey Bodge, and she is gonna be talking to us.
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  She is the co founder of the Thread A Needle Alley Foundation, and she's an acclaimed
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  lifestyle writer and TV commentator on smart shopping, personal finance, and parenting.
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  As the CEO of Trey Barks Media LLC, she has appeared on more than 1,000 media appearances.
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  The Today Show, Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, and she's written for Women's Day
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  and Newsweek.
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  And she is a frequent panelist and podcast guest talking about all things money and how to
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  be a great entrepreneur.
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  Trae, welcome to the Small Bitch Tech Podcast.
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  I'm so glad to join you today.
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  Thank you.
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  Thank you so much for being here.
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  I'm so excited to talk to you because you're a money lady and I love money honeys.
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  All right, so let's talk about, tell us about you.
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  Like how did you become smart shopping experts over the years?
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  It was a bit of a circuitous route, but I am a serial entrepreneur.
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  I have owned many businesses throughout the years, one of which was a business I owned in
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  the nineties, so I'm dating myself.
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  But it was a cosmetic brand and we specialized in the reproduction of discontinued colors.
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  We used to make bespoke colors for professional makeup artists, for runway and Broadway.
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  And then I kind of hit a wall professionally.
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  I felt like we were staying small.
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  There was a lot more I wanted to do.
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  And so I flailed around for a couple of years interviewing at different beauty companies like
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  Estee Lauder, L'Oreal, and the brands that they own thinking that I was going to be an
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  executive at one of these companies.
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  And people were kind enough to see me, but they didn't see me fitting into that box of like VP
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  of marketing or what have you.
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  And it was very frustrating for me at the time, but they saw something I didn't see, which was
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  that I am an entrepreneur at heart and I need to kind of drive my own bus.
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  And so then I started kind of randomly writing budget friendly budget living content for a
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  couple of websites through friends and colleagues.
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  And then I started writing a lot for RetailMeNot, which was a it's a coupon site
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  that was just starting out at the time in 2012, I believe.
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  And then I became their spokesperson.
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  And so it was such an interesting job and there were so many aspects of it that I loved.
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  And when they had a layoff a few years later, I just thought, I think I can do this myself.
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  And so I just kind of, after I was laid off, I just started writing content for my own website
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  at truetray.com.
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  And then I just started partnering with brands in different ways to bring their money saving
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  messaging to the world and doing TV segments and radio interviews and podcast interviews.
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  So that's kind of how I got here.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  Alright.
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  So prices are crazy right now in America, right?
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  Whether you go into the grocery store, Walmart, Dollar Store, wherever, like, things have
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  become a lot more expensive.
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  So what are your top three strategies that families can use today to stretch their
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  dollars?
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  Yeah.
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  So, I mean, you are so right.
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  Prices are on the rise.
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  And I just read a very interesting study by Goldman Sachs that found that Americans are
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  only paying about 22 percent of the tariff related price hikes that we're seeing, and that
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  that number is going to increase to 67% by October, which means that we're encountering
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  high prices now, but that prices on imported items are continue to rise and at a very fast
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  clip in the next couple of months.
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  So there are a couple things that I've been talking about for over a decade that are more
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  important than ever right now is first of all, just always make sure that you're comparing
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  prices.
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  Just because you find something at a retailer and even if it's on sale doesn't mean that you
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  found the lowest price.
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  So you always want to look around first.
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  You always want to time your purchases strategically.
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  So if there's a three day weekend coming, maybe that's a good time to wait to save some money
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  or Black Friday, Cyber Monday, end of season sales, things like that that can save you a lot
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  of money.
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  And then the third or to use shopping tools to save even more like, deal sites, coupon sites,
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  cashback sites, what offers or do your credit card, companies offering you, maybe they have
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  an exclusive discount at a retailer that you plan to shop at.
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  If you use those three tactics regularly, you can save a lot and hopefully offset some of
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  these price hikes that we're gonna be encountering in the next few months.
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  Now you mentioned your shopping tech tools.
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  I need to know what is your shopping tech stack that you think we all should be using?
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  Yeah, so first of all, comparing prices, like I mentioned, you wanna use a tool like Google
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  Shopping or Yahoo Shopping.
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  That's a really good way to say look up a name of an item and get a sense of where it's sold
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  and for how much.
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  There's also coupons on there.
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  You can get price alerts.
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  So those tools are really helpful and that's kind of your base camp for shopping.
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  And then also, you want to make sure that whatever retailers that you're shopping with
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  regularly, make sure to join their their free loyalty program because loyalty is more
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  important to a retailer than almost anything else.
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  They want you to come back again and again, and they're going to make that worth your while by
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  offering you the ability to earn points towards free stuff, exclusive discounts, things like
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  that.
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  So you want to make sure to do that.
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  And then sort of along those lines, you always want to look at the store brands.
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  Store brands have come a long way.
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  You know, when I was a kid, it was kind of like these black and white products next to the name
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  brand on the supermarket shelves.
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  And that was kind of embarrassing to buy that.
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  It meant that you didn't have money.
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  And that stigma is over, in my opinion.
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  You know, store brands are, they look just as nice as the name brand.
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  You do want to make sure with food that you want to compare ingredient by ingredient, make
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  sure you're getting that high quality product.
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  And then lastly, you know, use a coupon site or a cashback app at all times, especially when
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  you're shopping online.
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  It's very easy to do.
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  Most of them have a browser plug in that once it's installed in your computer, it'll
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  automatically alert you to available savings.
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  One that I've just started using that's brand new in The US comes from Singapore.
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  It's called ShopBack.
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  And so this might be one that you've never heard of before.
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  They have very high cash back offers.
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  And so I've been racking up a lot of cash back in the last couple months since I've been
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  testing this tool, but there are so many others.
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  There's retail who I used to work with, Coupon Cabin, Slick Deals, Rakuten.
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  So there are lots of good ones out there, but ShopBack happens to be my new favorite because
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  I've been working with it exclusively the last couple months.
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  All right.
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  So let's talk about these limited time offers and bundled deals that people are all in the
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  rowing out there.
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  How can you decode which one of these are really something you should go to and not
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  really overspending?
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  Yeah, so this is really about being honest about what you need, you know, keeping a list
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  of the things that you need that your family uses regularly.
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  And then if you see, for example, a buy one or buy three, get one free, something like that,
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  is this something that you're going to use before it goes bad?
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  If the answer is yes, then that's a good deal.
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  But sometimes people buy three and get one free and then two end up sitting around, you know,
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  gathering dust and then wasting money.
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  So you want to be really careful about those offers because if you're, for example, if you
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  save 50% on something, you're still spending 50% And are you spending 50% on something
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  that's useful to you?
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  So just be really careful about, you know, those quick BOGO, save 50%, things like that
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  can create a sense of urgency and make you feel that you need to buy it right now.
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  You need to step back, take a breath and think about, is this a logical purchase for me and my
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  family?
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  And that's the way I like to look at that.
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  And I often see this on sometimes on Amazon like I just need one thing of pink Himalayan
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  salt but they don't sell it like that they sell it three to a pack you know it's like I don't
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  need that I need one thing.
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  You know?
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  So I struggle with this because Amazon is a go to for a lot of things, but it's like, can I
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  just get one thing of deodorant?
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  Why do I have to buy five?
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  Yeah.
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  And with let's say, you know, you bring up two good examples, actually.
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  Pink Himalayan salt, from what I understand, has an endless shelf life.
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  Right?
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  And so if this is something that you cook with regularly, you know, it might make sense to buy
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  the three pack, but yogurt, are you going to go through three of those yogurts before you hit
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  that expiration date?
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  Or is one of them going to go bad and then you've wasted money?
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  So I think that's a, those are two really good examples and how shoppers can look at these
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  things and make the right decision.
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  All right, so let's talk about shrinkflation and dynamic pricing because I have been
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  astounded by, you know, how much shrinkflation has become a thing in America now.
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  Mean, and it's like from the pancake mix to the box of granola bars to the whatever.
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  I mean, it is just unbelievable.
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  Can you talk about, you know, how we should check like unit prices, you know, sizes, timing
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  before we buy?
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  Yeah.
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  And, you know, it's a tricky time when it comes to shrinkflation because we're already in it
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  now.
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  So there was a time when, you know, you get your, you look at the old box of Oreos next to
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  the new box of Oreos and you're like, wait, why are there so fewer Oreos in the new one?
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  We're not seeing the difference anymore because we're already in it.
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  So that's really important to note.
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  So when you're looking at Oreos, for example, maybe look at Oreos versus the store brand of
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  Oreos and compare the ingredients, and then maybe try that store brand to see if it's as
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  good as the original, because it's going to be hard to tell if something's sort of gone
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  through a shrinkflation event.
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  Right.
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  But you mentioned unit pricing, that's really important.
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  Unit pricing is something that it's really important to take to take a look at every time
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  you're shopping, especially for food items and look at that unit price.
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  And you'll see quite often that the store brand, the unit price is significantly lower.
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  So store brands all day long for me and look at those unit prices and make your choices
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  accordingly.
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  You know, ultimately, if you buy a larger quantity of something, it's typically has a
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  lower unit price.
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  And so there is that value there.
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  But are you gonna go through all that yogurt before it goes bad is the sort of secondary
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  question.
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  Yeah.
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  I'm tired of throwing spinach down the garbage disposal for sure.
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  All right.
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  So talk to me about this wonderful new organization that you and your family started
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  to help business owners.
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  Yeah, so it's called Threadneedle Alley Foundation and it's called Threadneedle Alley
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  because that was the name of the alley where my mom's retail store was for over twenty years.
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  She's kind of the OG entrepreneur.
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  She was such an inspiration to me.
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  I grew up as a young girl working in her store.
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  I watched how she kind of cobbled together her budgets every month, and I did, I helped her
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  with her buying.
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  It was a store that sold beautiful hand lotions and soaps and And things like so it was, just
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  in heaven as a kid.
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  And so that's where I learned about entrepreneurship and sort of paving your own
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  way.
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  And when she passed away a couple of years ago, you know, my husband brought up a great point,
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  like you should do something good sort of in memory of your mom and how much she taught you.
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  And then I started thinking about my family, and we have this legacy of entrepreneurship in
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  my family.
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  And I have two founders, they're both members of my family.
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  They both knew my mom really well and knew her in her store on Threadneedle Alley.
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  So there's such a great tie in there.
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  This is something we're so passionate about.
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  And so what we wanted to do is commit sort of put our own money, you know, where our mouths
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  are, right?
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  We want to give three $5,000 grants plus a year of mentorship to entrepreneurs in midlife.
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  So we're looking for people who are age 40 and up.
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  And we love this cohort because this is kind of someone who either they've been working many
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  jobs over the years and they have a lot of experience, they want to try something new and
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  start their own business, or perhaps they've been a stay at home parent and taking care of
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  their kids.
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  And now their kids are heading off into the world and they have time now to start this
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  business.
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  And so we were focusing on that cohort right now.
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  And so we're opening up our applications at the November, and you can go to
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  threadneedleally.org, which is where you can find more information about our organization.
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  And then those, that grant application will be open November 1.
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  We'll keep those applications open until the 2025.
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  And then we'll be announcing our three winners in 02/15/2026, which would have been my mom's
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  birthday.
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  And so we are so excited to support entrepreneurs in this age bracket, not only
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  with a monetary grant, but also with mentorship.
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  So we'll be checking in with our winners every month.
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  They will have a chief mentor, and then they'll have access to over 25 mentors who are all
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  entrepreneurs and all 40 years and older, who will help them with any variety of questions
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  that they have, challenges.
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  We have certified financial planners, we have graphic designers, we have content creators, we
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  have a whole host of amazing people who will be able to help.
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  Because I do think that the challenge that many entrepreneurs face is not only financial, but
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  it's also knowledge and how to answer those questions that you have when you've hit this
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  wall to have someone to answer that question for you, think will be really valuable.
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  I love it, I love it.
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  So how can people support you?
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  You told us how to enter.
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  So tell me, I know you guys are accepting donations, right?
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  And maybe even sponsors too, like how can people involved in support you guys?
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  Yeah, so we are a five zero one(three).
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  We, all donations are tax deductible.
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  We are actively fundraising.
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  So the founders and I, and sort of my mom as the fourth partner, we're all giving money
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  every year to cover these three grants and some operating budget every year.
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  However, we want to give more grants.
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  We want to venture beyond entrepreneurs 40 and up at some point.
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  We'd love to help young people too.
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  We'd love to have a podcast where we're sharing actionable advice for entrepreneurs.
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  So there's a lot that we want to do that we need dollars for.
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  So we are accepting tax deductible donations.
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  We're also looking for volunteers if someone is retired, for example, and it is amazing, an
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  amazing admin or someone who loves to research grants or a grant writer.
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  Those are just a few of the people that I need because I'm the most active partner of the
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  three partners and I need help because I'm also running my other money saving business,
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  obviously, and working with brands.
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  And so there are lots of different ways that you can support, but those monetary donations
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  are really crucial.
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  And then also if you're a business and you're looking to maybe have a grant in your own name,
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  and you'd like to partner with us or support us, we are very open to growing beyond what
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  we're first offering those $35,000 grants.
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  So our website is, I think pretty comprehensive and it'll tell you about our story and who our
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  mentors are and our founders and how you can donate.
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  And then of course, how you can apply for grants as well.
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  But if you have an idea for me, I am very open to hearing
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  those thoughts.
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  All right, give us that website one more time, Trey.
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  Sure, it's threadneedleally.org.
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  And then you can also go to threadneedleally.org on Instagram and we're on
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  LinkedIn as well and Facebook.
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  Perfect.
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  Perfect.
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  All right.
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  Last question.
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  What is the best business advice anyone has ever given you?
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  You know, I think it really came from my mom, you know, and it wasn't necessarily something
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  that she said, but something that she did.
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  You know, she paved her own way.
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  She created her own business.
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  And I was so inspired by that.
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  I grew up just thinking that that's what you did.
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  And so it's so ingrained in me that it's absolutely possible to pave your own way to
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  create your own path.
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  And then along those lines, you know, just really digging in and being consistent, you
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  know, and when you hit a wall, asking for help.
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  And that's kind of why at Threadneedle Alley, we're offering mentorship as well, because I
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  just think a lot of times there are so many things you don't know as an entrepreneur and
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  who do you ask, right?
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  So that's why that mentorship piece is really But my mom was the person who, she inspired me
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  so much to create these different businesses for myself.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  Well, thank you so much for being here and for sharing your wonderful mother's story.
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  And we want to make sure that we send people over to you.
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  So we're going to put it out on the blog.
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  We're going to put it in the show notes.
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  They're going to know about your wonderful organization.
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  Thanks for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for
• 20:09
  more fantastic information and interviews.
• 20:12
  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
• 20:16
  website, succeedasyourownboss.com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.