Speaker 1: Ruby.
Speaker 2: Some of the best business ideas come from an unserved need.
Speaker 2: You have a problem and you come up with a solution.
Speaker 2: For Tia Johnson, that problem was dirty trash cans in
Speaker 2: her house and her struggle to get her teenagers to
Speaker 2: clean them. She realized that if she had that problem,
Speaker 2: everyone else did too.
Speaker 3: And I get outside and the trash can is discussing
Speaker 3: it as all of the flies, the maggots, and the odors.
Speaker 2: She knew she could fix the problem, so she contacted
Speaker 2: her local representative and pitched a pilot program. The city
Speaker 2: liked the idea and offered her a contract to begin
Speaker 2: cleaning trash cans and dumpsters all over the city in
Speaker 2: the spring.
Speaker 3: I would honestly say, after getting that contract, I absolutely
Speaker 3: thought the company would be successful. How can you lose?
Speaker 2: So winter ended, the weather was warming up, and Tia
Speaker 2: was waiting for a from the city and she got it.
Speaker 2: But when it came, it wasn't the update she expected.
Speaker 3: So we eventually schedule a zoom call and that's when
Speaker 3: I received the devastating news. Just thinking about it makes
Speaker 3: me relive that moment, and all I could think about
Speaker 3: is I can't let them see me cry. And I
Speaker 3: said okay, and I got off the zoom and I
Speaker 3: boughted my eyes out because I had no idea where
Speaker 3: our next dollar would come from. It was the only
Speaker 3: contract that I had at that time, and it was
Speaker 3: just taken away.
Speaker 2: Welcome to The Unshakables from Chase for Business and Ruby
Speaker 2: Studio from iHeart Media. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of Chase
Speaker 2: for Business. On the Unshakeables, we're sharing the daring moments
Speaker 2: of small business owners facing their crisis points and telling
Speaker 2: the stories of how they got through it. This week,
Speaker 2: we're in Ohio with two incredible folks. Tia Johnson, founder
Speaker 2: and CEO of Fresh bloom Bins, is joining us today.
Speaker 2: We'll also hear from Desmond Bryant. Des is the vice
Speaker 2: president of government Relations at the Columbus Chamber of Commerce.
Speaker 1: Dez Hi, Ben, how you doing.
Speaker 2: Thank you for being on the show, and thanks for
Speaker 2: having this conversation with us today. He's helping small businesses
Speaker 2: every day, supporting them as they navigate opportunities within the community,
Speaker 2: and advocating for policy changes that will support them as
Speaker 2: they grow. On today's episode, Fresh bloom Bins from Columbus, Ohio,
Speaker 2: I just got to say I have a soft spot
Speaker 2: for Ohio. Much of my family is from there, and
Speaker 2: we have one of the largest chase offices in the
Speaker 2: country in Ohio because we know how great it is
Speaker 2: to do business there. Great people, affordable amenities, and a
Speaker 2: pro business government. So I was thrilled to be speaking
Speaker 2: with a Columbus based business owner, Tia. It's awesome to
Speaker 2: have you. Thank you for being on the show.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. It's awesome to be here.
Speaker 2: The name of Tia's company is Fresh bloom Bins, and
Speaker 2: I'm not ashamed to say I did practice saying it
Speaker 2: before we spoke. I'm gonna just see if I can
Speaker 2: say it three times fast, Fresh Bloom Bins, Fresh bloom Bins,
Speaker 2: Fresh bloom Bins. All Right, it's a little bit of
Speaker 2: a tongue twister. The core of Tia's business is cleaning
Speaker 2: dumpsters and trash cans, and we dove into the conversation
Speaker 2: how she first got into sanitation, what excites her, But
Speaker 2: it was the numbers that caught my attention.
Speaker 3: It's the unsexy part about business, right Like it's when
Speaker 3: you know all the cans are cleaned and you're going
Speaker 3: through the numbers.
Speaker 2: I love this. I mean, this is what's beautiful about
Speaker 2: this podcast. One of our clients just said to a banker,
Speaker 2: the un sexy part of business of the business, all
Speaker 2: the numbers, The sexy part is cleaning the trash cans.
Speaker 2: Now no one's ever said that before. So that's great.
Speaker 3: That is the fun and sexy part.
Speaker 2: It's not every day someone thinks clean trash cans is sexy,
Speaker 2: but Tia does. It's also not every day that inspiration
Speaker 2: for a business like this just pops into someone's head.
Speaker 2: But that's what happened to Tia in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3: It's all started on a hot summer day. I went
Speaker 3: to go take the trash out and it was filled
Speaker 3: with flies, maggots and odors.
Speaker 2: M yum.
Speaker 3: So I know, right. I told my teenage son that
Speaker 3: he had to clean the trash can when he came
Speaker 3: home from school, and of course he gave me all
Speaker 3: of the teenage attitudes. Don't nobody want to clean no
Speaker 3: trash can as he stumped down the hallway.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's kind of right. I mean, I know,
Speaker 2: I'm like, I don't want to clean a trash can.
Speaker 3: Nobody does, but it has to get done every now
Speaker 3: and then, and I'm like, shrug shoulders, my mom card
Speaker 3: has been pulled, and you're cleaning this right. Like I
Speaker 3: was sitting on the couch and I'm like, nobody wants
Speaker 3: to clean the trash can, but it's one of those
Speaker 3: things that just have to be done. And I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna I solved this problem. So I stay up
Speaker 3: all night researching on the internet how to build a
Speaker 3: trash cleaning machine and trash can cleaning.
Speaker 2: Not that many people actually clean trash cans, and at
Speaker 2: the same time, neither did Tia. Her career up to
Speaker 2: that point had nothing to do with sanitation at all.
Speaker 2: She'd worked it for Riizon Wireless for ten years, then
Speaker 2: taught personal finance to girls and young women in schools.
Speaker 2: It was around that time that she had the initial
Speaker 2: spark of inspiration for Fresh bloom Bins. She kept exploring
Speaker 2: the concept in her downtime.
Speaker 3: As I was talking to more people, I was like, oh, wait,
Speaker 3: this is bigger than what I thought. It was like,
Speaker 3: this is a real business and I could do this.
Speaker 2: So she started to tell people she knew about the idea.
Speaker 3: And it was going into that like telling people about
Speaker 3: it right like, Hey, I think I want to do
Speaker 3: this trash bin cleaning thing, and they're like, what, You're crazy?
Speaker 3: Who cleans trash?
Speaker 2: But Tia had a woman she called her entrepreneur mom,
Speaker 2: who she knew would support her no matter what. And
Speaker 2: Tia was right. Her entrepreneur mom loved the idea.
Speaker 3: She calls me and she's like, I want to invest
Speaker 3: in this. Let's sit down and talk about it, and
Speaker 3: like tears just start blowing from my eyes because I'm like,
Speaker 3: I can't believe she believes in me, like this we
Speaker 3: go over, we have this meeting, or like, you know
Speaker 3: what I want to do with my plans. She's like, okay,
Speaker 3: I want to think about it, and I'm going to
Speaker 3: get back to you, and I'm like okay. She gets
Speaker 3: back to me and she says I love the concept,
Speaker 3: but she don't know enough about trash. So I'm out,
Speaker 3: Oh I died, I die in so many different ways?
Speaker 2: So does I want to bring you in here? What
Speaker 2: a pivotal moment in TIA's journey, you know, one that
Speaker 2: lots of entrepreneur's face. She believes in an idea, but
Speaker 2: others around her don't talk to me a little bit
Speaker 2: about ment I mean you work for the Chamber of Commerce.
Speaker 2: Is that somewhere small business owners can go for support
Speaker 2: and where else can they go?
Speaker 4: So when a small business owner has this seed of
Speaker 4: an idea, it's important they seek out as much advice
Speaker 4: and mentorship as they can. But it has to be
Speaker 4: the right advice and the right mentor. You want to
Speaker 4: find your yes people who are going to be realistic
Speaker 4: but supportive of your idea. It's unfortunate Tia's Mentor didn't
Speaker 4: see the opportunity in her idea, But maybe it comes
Speaker 4: down to timing and in a twist, maybe Tia's time
Speaker 4: wasn't then, it's now. I've been with the Chamber for
Speaker 4: almost four years now, and I will tell you what
Speaker 4: was embedded in my head when I came here was
Speaker 4: what we categorized as the three c's Connecting, communicating, and convening,
Speaker 4: where we connect folks to networking opportunities, opportunities with respect
Speaker 4: to job growth, mentorship opportunities. When it comes to convening,
Speaker 4: we have about I think this year's sixty seven plus
Speaker 4: events where we bring folks together through panel discussions, maybe
Speaker 4: on one discussions. We established places for folks to convene
Speaker 4: meet network, so on and so forth. Now, when it
Speaker 4: comes to communication, we push out and disseminate all types
Speaker 4: of information, whether it's about something that will impact your
Speaker 4: business directly or indirectly. And so when it comes to
Speaker 4: being a resource for the business community, there's a slew
Speaker 4: of things that the Chamber does.
Speaker 2: Okay, So back to Tia's story. With her trash dreams dashed,
Speaker 2: she went back to her day job working in schools
Speaker 2: and that was that until something unexpected happened and her
Speaker 2: business took a.
Speaker 3: Hit twenty twenty hits right, school shut down and I
Speaker 3: lose sixty percent of my revenue because it was all
Speaker 3: in person.
Speaker 2: Now, with nothing left to lose, she jumped headfirst back
Speaker 2: into that brilliant idea.
Speaker 3: And I said, everybody's talking about cleaning and sanitation right now.
Speaker 3: I will never let anyone kill my dreams again.
Speaker 2: From that point on, in TIA's own words, it was
Speaker 2: pedal to the metal. She dredged up all that research
Speaker 2: from her all nighter, and in order to literally put
Speaker 2: the pedal to the metal, she needed to get her
Speaker 2: hands on a truck.
Speaker 3: I was talking to the builders on timelines getting the truck,
Speaker 3: and of course there was a lot of unknowns at
Speaker 3: that time, and they were like, oh, we can probably
Speaker 3: get your truck in like six to eight weeks. And
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, I'm going to start selling for the
Speaker 3: next six to eight weeks. And I had really thought
Speaker 3: about doing single family homes, so going to individual homeowners
Speaker 3: with like a door to door sales model.
Speaker 2: But again, this was during the big COVID lockdowns.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, I don't think that that's the best
Speaker 3: market for me right now. So I quickly switched to government.
Speaker 3: I said, wait, I'm going to go after corporate and
Speaker 3: government clients. Like they are getting fun. They're looking for
Speaker 3: ways to clean stuff. Trash cans are nasty, everybody's throwing
Speaker 3: away all this ppe gear. So I started to pitch
Speaker 3: to some of the city council members. I eventually get
Speaker 3: in front of the director of trash and he's like,
Speaker 3: I have a problem. We have these trash cans that
Speaker 3: have been out fifteen years, twenty years, No almost ever
Speaker 3: cleaned them. They're discussed, they're nasty. People complain about them
Speaker 3: all the time. Can you fix this problem? Yes, I'm
Speaker 3: going to fix it right, I'll figure it out later.
Speaker 3: We give them a timeline on, like when we can
Speaker 3: start and you know it's all laid out. I get
Speaker 3: the po I get the contract.
Speaker 2: First of all, just for everybody's benefit. You don't have
Speaker 2: a truck, you've never done this before, and you go
Speaker 2: out and you get a not so small US municipal
Speaker 2: organization to give you a contract.
Speaker 3: How I always tell everyone now that I can look
Speaker 3: back on it, the trash Gods was in my favor.
Speaker 3: One of the skills that I really tried to lean on,
Speaker 3: to lean into as a small business owner was sales.
Speaker 3: And part of that was the relationships. So I had
Speaker 3: a lot of healthy relationships in the community that supported me,
Speaker 3: put me in the right direction, was able to get
Speaker 3: me in front of the right people or give me
Speaker 3: feedback so that I could really make this thing come
Speaker 3: to life. Outside of that, it was really the trash Gods.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, you take help from anywhere. So you
Speaker 2: land this contract, you place an order for this truck.
Speaker 2: Where's the truck in Arizona, which is, as I'm sure
Speaker 2: you've realized by now, not Ohio. And now I'd like
Speaker 2: to share a short story with you. It's called How
Speaker 2: I Got the Truck by Tia Johnson, how I.
Speaker 3: Got the truck. I'm telling you, my belief system has
Speaker 3: been a whole different place. So I had never been
Speaker 3: in trucking before. Right, each truck is about one hundred
Speaker 3: and twenty thousand dollars. They deny me financing for this
Speaker 3: truck and said, based on your background, I don't think.
Speaker 1: This is a good bet.
Speaker 3: So I get connected to an investor and I tell
Speaker 3: him I have the contract, the truck is being built.
Speaker 3: I just need to be able to get the trucks
Speaker 3: and he said, well, that's easy. He's been in the
Speaker 3: box trucking industry for ten plus years. So he actually
Speaker 3: gets my truck finance. I go to Arizona, catch a flight.
Speaker 3: I have a CDL driver come out here with me.
Speaker 3: But yes, we drive this truck from Phoenix, Arizona to
Speaker 3: Ohio in like November.
Speaker 2: Now that the truck was back in Ohio, Tian now
Speaker 2: had to use the truck to make her deadline before
Speaker 2: her contract was up.
Speaker 3: So we were expecting to start around like August or September,
Speaker 3: and that was cool. We started at the end of
Speaker 3: the year. So it's November, the temperatures are starting to drop.
Speaker 3: We had a three man crew. We have to buy
Speaker 3: all the gear for the staff. We were able to
Speaker 3: get the routes. We initially start by following the trash
Speaker 3: trucks after the trash is collected, and we just started
Speaker 3: rocking and rolling and we killed it like they loved it.
Speaker 3: Admins came out from the Department of Refuge seeing it,
Speaker 3: they were like blown away. We were able to get
Speaker 3: a second part of the contract completed indoors, and that
Speaker 3: was like the ultimate win. I would honestly say after
Speaker 3: getting that contract, I absolutely thought the company would be successful,
Speaker 3: Like just based on my experience in working with like
Speaker 3: government contracts, they normally don't have like a swift turnover,
Speaker 3: right like you're normally in there for a while. And
Speaker 3: based on that, I felt comfortable of going out and
Speaker 3: continuing to build.
Speaker 2: In case you didn't know, you can't powerwash when the
Speaker 2: temperature is below freezing. So this was November of twenty
Speaker 2: twenty and the clock was ticking. Tia ended her first
Speaker 2: year with a huge win, and based on the pilot
Speaker 2: program's success, she also had a new contract in hand
Speaker 2: that would resume work with the City of Columbus in
Speaker 2: the spring when it was warmer.
Speaker 3: Well, the weather starts to break, we're asking about, you know,
Speaker 3: like next steps, and oh, you know, we have a
Speaker 3: lot going on right now. Yes, we're still moving forward.
Speaker 3: We're just looking at how to move forward. So now
Speaker 3: we're right around like April May and haven't heard from
Speaker 3: AM in a while. And it's always been a good
Speaker 3: quality conversation, and now it's just starting to get very
Speaker 3: very weird. There's this conversation that is scheduled for a meeting,
Speaker 3: how like what next steps look like? So we're all
Speaker 3: on zoom and they say we decided due to funding,
Speaker 3: we're no longer moving forward with this project. The municipality
Speaker 3: actually decided that those containers that we were anticipating cleaning
Speaker 3: on a schedule basis, they were removing them from the
Speaker 3: entire city. So I had this truck that's designed to
Speaker 3: clean this container. I had no money coming in and
Speaker 3: I had money going out, and I was like, this
Speaker 3: is scary. How am I going to overcome this? I
Speaker 3: felt very very very very defeated in that moment, like
Speaker 3: a failure in one part of it, broken in another part,
Speaker 3: and angry and other areas. Very angry because this is
Speaker 3: the area of my life I can control right, Like
Speaker 3: in business, I win, I set a course, I set
Speaker 3: a destination. I know what direction this boat is rowing it.
Speaker 3: So I would say during that call, I was just
Speaker 3: so broken, and I could feel myself saying, I can't
Speaker 3: let them see me cry. There was this dryness in
Speaker 3: my throat that I let them speak, and I said okay,
Speaker 3: and I got off the zoom and I bought my
Speaker 3: eyes out because I had no idea where our next
Speaker 3: dollar would come from. It was the only contract that
Speaker 3: I had at that time. I had no idea how
Speaker 3: I was going to survive.
Speaker 2: And my guess is, in your head, you'd spent some
Speaker 2: of the money, right, like you were counting on that revenue.
Speaker 3: I was counting on that revenue. That was like the
Speaker 3: base I was naive to believe, like, oh, I got
Speaker 3: this government contract and we can scale from here.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: I really had thought. I thought it out, but it
Speaker 3: didn't work out like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then the rug got pulled out.
Speaker 3: Yes, the rug up pulled out.
Speaker 2: Does you heard TIA's story? She was participating in a
Speaker 2: pilot program and she counted on that revenue as the
Speaker 2: basis for her business, and then that pilot was canceled
Speaker 2: and that revenue evaporated. Is there a specific lesson in
Speaker 2: that or is that something people should always be aware of.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm glad that you asked me that.
Speaker 4: In TIA situation, I'm happy that she was able to
Speaker 4: acquire that contract. But I think the lesson that should
Speaker 4: be learned from her particular journey is when it comes
Speaker 4: to the government, their budgets fluctuate. Let's be honest, budgets
Speaker 4: from a governmental standpoint are going to be tightening. So
Speaker 4: when it comes to pilot projects, when it comes to spending,
Speaker 4: they start scaling those things back and they start reevaluating
Speaker 4: what can we use and what do we need not
Speaker 4: to use With respect to our teas service that she
Speaker 4: was providing. What if we just hired someone to do
Speaker 4: the work that she was providing to us, it might
Speaker 4: be cheaper, it might not be, but we're going to
Speaker 4: evaluate that. But in TSCSE, it would have been my
Speaker 4: hope to ensure that she leveraged that contract for lack
Speaker 4: of better term, as an endorsement of her product and
Speaker 4: or service, and she can go into different rooms and say,
Speaker 4: the city believed in me.
Speaker 1: They believe and they're utilizing my service.
Speaker 4: You should too, and a lot of folks will say, well, heck, yeah,
Speaker 4: the city said you're good, then yeah, let's talk business.
Speaker 4: Because you never know with the government's going to happen
Speaker 4: with their budgets or their spending, or their desire to
Speaker 4: continue to do business with you. Or you might have
Speaker 4: someone competing with you and they might outbid you.
Speaker 1: Yep. So those are all types of things that can happen.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of our listeners either do business
Speaker 2: with governments or would like to. How should small businesses
Speaker 2: think about working with particularly state and local governments. The
Speaker 2: federal government's a whole different animal, but state and local governments,
Speaker 2: where do you even start.
Speaker 4: Most of your larger municipalities and even smaller have a
Speaker 4: procurement office that handle the purchasing of various products, supplies,
Speaker 4: whatever it may be, and even services. So when you're
Speaker 4: thinking about cleaning services, when you're thinking about supplies like
Speaker 4: office supplies, things as simple as that, there is someone
Speaker 4: within those agencies that are purchasing things from companies like TIS.
Speaker 4: That's where you want to start now, prior to engaging
Speaker 4: the government. You want to ensure you that you have
Speaker 4: your in house things together as well. And what I
Speaker 4: mean by that is that you want to ensure that
Speaker 4: you have what they call a capability statement. It's very simple,
Speaker 4: what is your business, how long has it been founded?
Speaker 4: Are there other clients or other customers that you have,
Speaker 4: who are they, how long have you had them? What
Speaker 4: products and or services have you provided to them? What
Speaker 4: kind of products do you have? What kind of services
Speaker 4: do you offer? I highly encourage it be one page.
Speaker 4: And so when you're getting started again capability statement, business
Speaker 4: plan and relationship building with categorize them as targeted staff
Speaker 4: those procurement officers. Now it doesn't hurt to have or
Speaker 4: engage elected officials as well, So when you're talking about
Speaker 4: the mayor's office, when you're talking about maybe the small
Speaker 4: business chair of city council, just letting them know they're
Speaker 4: not going to guarantee you a contract or anything of
Speaker 4: that nature, but at least again relationship building. That's what
Speaker 4: a lot of these contracts are garnered off of is
Speaker 4: do I know this person?
Speaker 1: Can I trust them?
Speaker 4: And if I can trust them, I can more likely
Speaker 4: trust the product or services that they're providing.
Speaker 2: So Tea's story in that way was unusual, right because
Speaker 2: her first contract was with the government that is not
Speaker 2: what most people should expect.
Speaker 4: And that's why it was a pilot program, right, because
Speaker 4: they wanted to ensure what she was offering was quality. Right,
Speaker 4: And so I look at that pilot program that they
Speaker 4: offered her as just a test. Hey, let's see if
Speaker 4: what service you're providing is applicable, is it successful?
Speaker 1: Can it work? And I trust you, I trust your business, and.
Speaker 4: So we're going to give you a temporary placement to
Speaker 4: do some business and we're going to see how well
Speaker 4: you do.
Speaker 1: And in her case, she did well.
Speaker 2: But a pilot is far from a guarantee, is what
Speaker 2: you're saying?
Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely absolutely got it.
Speaker 2: So does how should people think about the actual process?
Speaker 2: Sometimes there's RFPs, sometimes there's open calls for vendors. I'm
Speaker 2: guessing that it can be a bit paperwork heavy, a
Speaker 2: bit process heavy, but maybe I'm wrong, or does it depend?
Speaker 4: It depends, However, it can be a bit of a
Speaker 4: lengthy process. It's accountability more unlikely, this government agency is
Speaker 4: going to purchase your products and or services with tax dollars,
Speaker 4: so they have to ensure that what you say you
Speaker 4: are and who you say you are, and the product
Speaker 4: and or service that you're providing is what it is.
Speaker 4: And so when it comes to landing a contract with
Speaker 4: the government, yeah, they're going to ask you from various questions.
Speaker 4: They're going to wonder if you might already own a company,
Speaker 4: or a veteran owned company, or a woman owned company.
Speaker 4: They're going to ask you questions to verify that status.
Speaker 4: What I tell folks that are going through that process
Speaker 4: is just to be resilient, get it in. There are
Speaker 4: resources out there that can help you navigate the complexities
Speaker 4: of those documentations you have. Here in Columbus they have
Speaker 4: the m Back Office, the Minority Business Assistant Center that
Speaker 4: they will help you with those different types of certifications.
Speaker 4: So don't think that you're doing this alone. I hope
Speaker 4: that if you do get through that process that it
Speaker 4: will be well worth it for you at your particular enterprise.
Speaker 2: So it's interesting you mentioned programs that lots of governments
Speaker 2: have for minority entrepreneurs or women owned businesses. One of
Speaker 2: the things I've heard from clients over time is you
Speaker 2: still got to put your best foot forward and you
Speaker 2: still have to deliver a compelling value proposition for the government.
Speaker 2: They're not going to hire you just because you're a
Speaker 2: minority or women own. You got to be good at
Speaker 2: what you do.
Speaker 4: That is absolutely right. And at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: you have to deliver your products on time. You have
Speaker 4: to do good work, and you have to be patient
Speaker 4: as well. And so I'm encouraging folks large and small,
Speaker 4: mid sized businesses that are out there. If this is
Speaker 4: your first contract with the government, whether it's a small contract,
Speaker 4: a subcontract, the opportunity take it. And I'm telling you,
Speaker 4: if they enjoy or they like the product that you're providing,
Speaker 4: you will see more. You will see more opportunities.
Speaker 2: It was now April of twenty twenty one, and Tia
Speaker 2: is pretty leveraged at this point. She was losing money
Speaker 2: and she'd put everything she had into this company. She
Speaker 2: didn't have a backup plan. She had to find something,
Speaker 2: anything to keep moving.
Speaker 3: At the time, there was a wastehauler that was here
Speaker 3: that was getting some really bad press. So I had
Speaker 3: reached out to their marketing department. I sent them an
Speaker 3: email and I was like, hey, we need a feel
Speaker 3: good story. You know, like you guys are getting some
Speaker 3: terrible reviews. Can we work together in some capacity? Maybe
Speaker 3: you offer a free cleaning service and they said no,
Speaker 3: but they were interested enough that they invited one of
Speaker 3: the executives from another city to come here to Columbus
Speaker 3: and see a demonstration. So we scheduled the demo. I
Speaker 3: think I give us like a week. Maybe. I'm like,
Speaker 3: we gotta be out here practicing like we did it
Speaker 3: a million times. They're cleaning the same trash cans over.
Speaker 2: If that seems like overkill. Remember, Tia hasn't had income
Speaker 2: for almost six months at this point, she's supporting her
Speaker 2: staff living off the little bit of money she made
Speaker 2: on the first pilot program contract. There was no way
Speaker 2: she was going to mess up this demo.
Speaker 3: So we go out, we do the demonstration. We even
Speaker 3: have a hiccup at the demonstration and it's like, oh,
Speaker 3: I seen enough. So he says, will you guys travel?
Speaker 3: And I'm like, yeah, we travel. He says, I have
Speaker 3: about three thousand trash cans two hours from here. It
Speaker 3: need to be clean. I said, heck yes, like today,
Speaker 3: and we cleaned over three thousand containers that year with
Speaker 3: that particular wastehauler. We were able then to renegotiate our
Speaker 3: service agreement with the local municipality as well. That allowed
Speaker 3: me to turn around and increase our revenue by three
Speaker 3: hundred percent.
Speaker 2: Wow. So you you basically like, just when you thought,
Speaker 2: how am I going to do this, a whole bunch
Speaker 2: of stuff starts to come through.
Speaker 3: Just when I thought I was going to die and
Speaker 3: the guy was going to have to like just take
Speaker 3: me away.
Speaker 2: And so do you still work with that trash? Holler?
Speaker 1: I do. So.
Speaker 2: Now the business starts to really scale right now that
Speaker 2: you've gotten over that hump and you start have to
Speaker 2: really hire people and build it out right.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, Yes, the business started to scale. We
Speaker 3: had our project going with cleaning trash cans. By twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two, we got into delivering trash cans and then
Speaker 3: still had to run my operations here in Columbus with
Speaker 3: the band cleaning and the trash can removal services.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: So I was stretched. I've learned so much about myself
Speaker 3: during that time. I got to know me personally.
Speaker 2: And what did you learn about yourself? What did you discover?
Speaker 3: I jumped into an industry slightly blind, slightly what's the
Speaker 3: best word I can use?
Speaker 2: Naive?
Speaker 3: Maybe naive, very very naive, thinking I could do this,
Speaker 3: but there was a lot more to the industry that
Speaker 3: I needed to learn. There was a lot more skill
Speaker 3: sets as a leader.
Speaker 2: One of the things you said is that you were
Speaker 2: a little naive when you got into this industry. I mean,
Speaker 2: you're out there trying to sell. You're honest about that,
Speaker 2: but you know nobody's going to buy from someone who says, well,
Speaker 2: I don't know what I'm doing, so tell me more
Speaker 2: about that.
Speaker 3: Some of it's borrow confidence. I borrow confidence all the time.
Speaker 3: Other people are already doing it. What are you so
Speaker 3: afraid of? I'm very comfortable with sales and asking my
Speaker 3: customers what is it that they want for me. They
Speaker 3: weren't looking for experts, they were just looking for people
Speaker 3: who could show up. Also partnering with other people that
Speaker 3: are really good at what I'm not good at. I
Speaker 3: don't need to know everything. I need to know enough
Speaker 3: that I can get the job done and then just
Speaker 3: ask a lot of questions. I stay very curious and
Speaker 3: learning and continue to grow.
Speaker 2: Beyond trash. Tia is now involved in composting. She acquired
Speaker 2: a composting company.
Speaker 3: We work with London Correctional here where the inmates actually
Speaker 3: take the material that we bring to them and turn
Speaker 3: it into composts, and then we take that material and
Speaker 3: we actually sell it to the community for community gardens
Speaker 3: and things like that.
Speaker 2: Tia mentioned London Career Actional specifically here, but she often
Speaker 2: works with folks who were formerly incarcerated from all over
Speaker 2: the city.
Speaker 3: I decided, I want to make this bigger than trash
Speaker 3: can cleaning. I had to sell the bigger picture. So
Speaker 3: I was really selling this idea of supporting a female
Speaker 3: business owner and how they can help grow and be
Speaker 3: part of something. I want to ask how we can
Speaker 3: show up for our community. So when we started cleaning
Speaker 3: trash cans, we actually started cleaning in some of the
Speaker 3: most vulnerable neighborhoods. So we were retaining talent from the
Speaker 3: neighborhood saying hey, we're going to be out here, We're
Speaker 3: going to be helping your community clean. We were able
Speaker 3: to offer them employment without necessary looking at any of
Speaker 3: the blemishes on their record that would be a positive
Speaker 3: impact on the community.
Speaker 2: Q from our last episode also makes it a point
Speaker 2: to hire formerly incarcerated individuals, So I wanted to ask
Speaker 2: Tia a little bit more about that. What makes it
Speaker 2: challenging at times but also makes it rewarding.
Speaker 3: So there's a level of compassion that just in me
Speaker 3: and wanted to be able to become an employer that
Speaker 3: recognized that at some point in our life, we all
Speaker 3: can have made a bad decision and that decision for
Speaker 3: others looks different. And how can we offer an employment
Speaker 3: where we didn't have that stereotype or stigma of this
Speaker 3: is who you are simply because this is what you've done.
Speaker 3: Is there an opportunity to show that I can do
Speaker 3: something different and I can do something better and I
Speaker 3: can be part of something.
Speaker 2: It would be helpful, does if you could talk to
Speaker 2: us a little bit about Ohio itself. I mean, are
Speaker 2: you a native?
Speaker 4: I am a native Akron Ohio. I want to raise
Speaker 4: an Akron Ohio home of Lebron James. You got to
Speaker 4: say that it's like a laws.
Speaker 2: On way right now. It is a lot, but that's okay.
Speaker 2: Someday he'll come home again for the third time. So
Speaker 2: can you talk a little bit about why Ohio is
Speaker 2: a great place to do business, what you love about
Speaker 2: doing business there, and why small business owners should consider Ohio.
Speaker 4: I would say Ohio is a continuously growing state. We
Speaker 4: have companies like Intel Amjin, we have you know, Aws, Amazon, Meta.
Speaker 4: We have all of these folks that are coming to
Speaker 4: this state, so that is additional jobs.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: We have some of the best institutions, universities here, some
Speaker 4: of the best primary secondary school districts in this state.
Speaker 4: And so when you're talking about the new workforce folks
Speaker 4: that are graduating from these wonderful universities, they need a
Speaker 4: place to work. And so if you're a business owner,
Speaker 4: you got some talent coming out of these amazing, you know,
Speaker 4: universities and colleges, So that should be.
Speaker 1: Appealing to you.
Speaker 4: When it comes to land use and the availability of land,
Speaker 4: the costs associated with that particular land.
Speaker 2: Resources, talent, land, Yeah, I mean, we have it all.
Speaker 2: I want to end with a question that I ask
Speaker 2: of all of our guests on this show, which is
Speaker 2: a lot of people who listen to the show are
Speaker 2: either small business owners or aspiring small business owners. What's
Speaker 2: one piece of advice you would give them?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, be a little naive, but not blind naive, right,
Speaker 3: maybe do you know a little bit more research. I
Speaker 3: think once you get excited about an idea, like you
Speaker 3: just want to take off with it, do a little homework,
Speaker 3: a little bit of that digging to you know, make
Speaker 3: sure that you can build something and that you can
Speaker 3: be proud of. I have like ten Like wait.
Speaker 2: I'll give you a bonus one. You can have one more.
Speaker 3: Okay, so a bonus one. Know your numbers. I don't
Speaker 3: care how passionate you are about the cookies, the cakes,
Speaker 3: the pies, the trash can cleaning. We all get into
Speaker 3: business for a reason, and that's to generate revenue. Get
Speaker 3: you a good CPA, a bookkeeper, and understand what questions
Speaker 3: to asks. I focus a lot on revenue, and that's
Speaker 3: why our business struggle with profits, because we weren't necessarily
Speaker 3: doing it the right way.
Speaker 2: Yeah. A mentor of mine once taught me that revenue
Speaker 2: is vanity, but profit is sanity. And yes, it doesn't
Speaker 2: matter how big the revenue number is. If it's not profitable,
Speaker 2: it's just not going to work. Tia, thank you very much.
Speaker 2: It was terrific to meet you.
Speaker 3: Yes, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Unshakables,
Speaker 2: and to Tia Johnson and Des Bryant for speaking with
Speaker 2: us today. If you liked this episode, please rate and
Speaker 2: review it. They'll help us find more listeners. This is
Speaker 2: usually where we mentioned what our next episode will be today,
Speaker 2: though I have an update. We'll be back in early
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five with season two of The Unshakables. We
Speaker 2: have so many more incredible small business stories from across
Speaker 2: America and I can't wait for you to hear them.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, if you know someone who may like
Speaker 2: the series, please tell them about it. I'm Ben Walter
Speaker 2: and this is The Unshakables from Chase for Business and
Speaker 2: Ruby Studio from iHeart Media. We'll see you back here soon.