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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Tim. We're on vacation this week, but

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Speaker 1: the Crash Course team wanted to reair an episode we

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Speaker 1: had fun making about a small business in my hometown.

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Speaker 1: We published this episode around the third anniversary of the

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Speaker 1: initial COVID nineteen lockdowns back in March, but the holiday

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Speaker 1: season is the most important time of year for small businesses,

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Speaker 1: so it feels fitting to share this episode again. Now,

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Speaker 1: thanks for listening, and happy holidays. We'll see you next year.

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Speaker 1: Now here's the show. If you're ever invited to visit

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Speaker 1: a bakery at four o'clock in the morning, I highly

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Speaker 1: recommend you do it, but here's a warning. You might

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Speaker 1: get put to work. I can handle those, okay, I

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Speaker 1: can handle those, all right.

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Speaker 2: And you just dip it in. You just don't want

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Speaker 2: it to get like too much of a globby math,

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Speaker 2: so you just sort of like there and.

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Speaker 1: One of these called strawberry sprinkle donuts.

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Speaker 2: Strawberry sprinkle donuts.

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Speaker 1: Amazing, Okay, I'm now I'm gonna dip a bunch of

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Speaker 1: donuts into strawberry glaze and then put sprinkles on.

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Speaker 3: Top of it.

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Speaker 1: That's my duty for today. However much I enjoyed my

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Speaker 1: brief internship as a baker with Amy. That wasn't the

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Speaker 1: main event for me. I was there to talk to

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Speaker 1: the bakery's owner, Rachel Wyman, and she came bearing treats.

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Speaker 2: You want to be ruined for the rest of your life?

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Speaker 1: Yeahs ruined me for the rest of my life. Oh gosh,

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Speaker 1: a hot blazed donut.

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Speaker 4: Wow.

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Speaker 1: I have literally a hot glazed donut that was just

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Speaker 1: put in my palm on a piece of wax paper

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Speaker 1: that looks like Nirvana. And I'm gonna go ruin myself

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Speaker 1: for a minute because Rachel invited me to do that,

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Speaker 1: and I'm gonna have this donnu. Welcome to Crash Course,

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Speaker 1: a podcast about business, political, and social disruption and what

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Speaker 1: we can learn from it. I'm Tim O'Brien. Today's Crash

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Speaker 1: Course small Businesses versus the Pandemic. Three years after the

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Speaker 1: COVID nineteen lockdowns, I invite you to think back to

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Speaker 1: those early days.

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Speaker 2: COVID nineteen can be characterized as a pandemic.

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Speaker 1: All but promises that the coronavirus will spread. Here today,

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Speaker 1: I am officially declaring a national emergency.

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Speaker 5: Only essential businesses will be functioning.

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Speaker 2: All businesses will need to shut down.

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Speaker 1: Remember when practically overnight it seemed that every shop closed

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Speaker 1: its doors. You remember how all of those small businesses

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Speaker 1: you might have taken for granted, the ones that gave

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Speaker 1: life and an identity to your community, suddenly felt essential

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Speaker 1: to you. I sure do. Montclair Bread Company was one

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Speaker 1: of those shops. For me. It's souredaugh bread was a

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Speaker 1: staple on my family's dinner table, and it's maple bacon

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Speaker 1: donuts are the best in the world. As I watched

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Speaker 1: lots of small businesses in my small town in New

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Speaker 1: Jersey struggle, I didn't want the bakery to disappear. I

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Speaker 1: didn't want any of those stores to close. So I

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Speaker 1: started writing about them in their fight, just a few

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Speaker 1: businesses among tens of millions across the country that faced

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Speaker 1: an existential crisis because of COVID nine nineteen and I

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Speaker 1: started with Rachel Wyman, the owner of Montclair Brett. I

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Speaker 1: learned that she'd overcome so much a bad marriage, a

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Speaker 1: terrible bike accident, and money problems. Yet she found the

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Speaker 1: strength to leave her husband and raise her three children

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Speaker 1: on her own. And even though she had very little

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Speaker 1: Rachel chose just about the riskiest career you could imagine

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Speaker 1: the small business owner she had Moxie. I kept in

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Speaker 1: touch with her and watched her take on the trials

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Speaker 1: and tribulations of the pandemic threw at her. What I

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Speaker 1: didn't understand when I first got to know her back

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty was that I would end up following

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Speaker 1: her journey for nearly three years through an unimaginable public

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Speaker 1: health and economic crisis. This is that story.

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Speaker 2: You know. I've been thinking about this so much recently

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Speaker 2: because you know, we're coming up on the anniversary of that,

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Speaker 2: and all these pictures are popping up from February twenty twenty,

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Speaker 2: like me and the kids, and it's like, God, we

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Speaker 2: had no idea, we had no clue what was going

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Speaker 2: to happen in just a couple weeks.

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Speaker 1: When you're looking at those pictures, are you looking at

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Speaker 1: like the faces of people on the deck of the Titanic?

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Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, exactly, I am. And I think, you know,

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Speaker 2: I still think that I suffer like PTSD from that

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Speaker 2: from twenty twenty, and I just can't let go of

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Speaker 2: a lot of things that happened during that year. As

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Speaker 2: you know, an essential service worker. It's been really hard

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Speaker 2: for me to go back to you know, status quo.

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Speaker 1: Before we hop back in time to the early days

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Speaker 1: of the pandemic, we should probably hop a little further

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Speaker 1: back in Rachel's story so you can understand how much

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Speaker 1: was on the line for her. She's earned everything she has.

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Speaker 1: Rachel grew up with little money in rural Maryland, worked

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Speaker 1: her way through school, and fell in love with bread

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Speaker 1: and pastries. After a state in France, she went to

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Speaker 1: the Culinary Institute of America, baked with some of the

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Speaker 1: biggest names in the bread business, and then decided to

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Speaker 1: go off on her own. She started by giving away

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Speaker 1: bread to moms in her yoga class, and then tried

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Speaker 1: breaking in through local farmers markets. Then one of those

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Speaker 1: moms told her about a local bakery for sale.

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Speaker 2: I pitched it to the moms who had been picking

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Speaker 2: up bread at my apartment, and they gave me the

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Speaker 2: money that I needed to get going.

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Speaker 1: So your seed capital were your moms, Yeah, yeah, moms

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Speaker 1: who were coming off for bread exactly?

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Speaker 6: And how much did you raise for me?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: I was gonna say, when we're talking about seed capital,

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Speaker 2: forty thousand dollars total is what.

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Speaker 6: I had on day one.

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Speaker 1: This was back in twenty twelve, she juggled launching her

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Speaker 1: own shop while still working for another bread company full time.

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Speaker 2: So the only day of the week that I had

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Speaker 2: to focus on my bakery was Sunday, and that's when

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Speaker 2: I would like test recipes and try out new things

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Speaker 2: and make food for the staff.

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Speaker 6: And we made donuts one day.

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Speaker 2: And they were gone in a second, and we did

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Speaker 2: a light bulb go off. Well yeah kind of, I'm like, wow,

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Speaker 2: that's great, Let's do it again next week. And so

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Speaker 2: every Sunday we made donuts and the lines got longer

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Speaker 2: and longer and longer.

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Speaker 6: And then it became a thing. Then it was a thing. Yeah,

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Speaker 6: I mean the donuts saved the business.

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Speaker 1: Rachel was on the map. It was time to cut

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Speaker 1: the parachute strings. After two years, she quit her other

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Speaker 1: job and went all in at Montclair Bread Company. She

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Speaker 1: had found her place in the world doing what she loved,

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Speaker 1: and she was good at it, like really good. And

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Speaker 1: others began paying attention.

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Speaker 2: The town starts noticing, the press starts noticing, I'm getting

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Speaker 2: all of these accolades, get to go on a food

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Speaker 2: network and in the New York Times, And the better

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Speaker 2: it gets.

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Speaker 6: On the outside the harder it gets.

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Speaker 1: At home, she was consumed with self doubt.

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Speaker 2: So even though everyone else thinks that I'm this like

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Speaker 2: rock star, I think I'm like the worst mother in

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Speaker 2: the world.

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Speaker 6: And you know that I can't run this business, and

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Speaker 6: that I've you know.

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Speaker 2: Ruined our family life and had all of these things,

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Speaker 2: and it was awful.

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Speaker 6: It was awful.

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Speaker 1: Rachel decided she wanted a divorce, but had a hard

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Speaker 1: time actually leaving her husband. Her landlord also kicked her

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Speaker 1: out of her bakery, and then she got into a

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Speaker 1: bike accident while training for an iron Man triathlon, shattering

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Speaker 1: her pelvis.

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Speaker 2: It was always something like that, anytime we got a

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Speaker 2: little bit ahead, there'd be.

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Speaker 6: Something like that that would pop up.

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Speaker 2: That would you know, And yet you overcame all those yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: Rachel found a new home and finally left her husband.

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Speaker 1: She was a single mother working crazy hours, but Montclair

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Speaker 1: Bread was able to move to a bigger, nicer building

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Speaker 1: around the corner, a renovated industrial space full of big

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Speaker 1: windows and spectacular brickwork, and of course, there was a

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Speaker 1: smell of baking bread. In addition to finding a new

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Speaker 1: home for her business, Rachel's body healed, though doctors told

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Speaker 1: her she would never be able to run again. She

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Speaker 1: clocked her best marathon time ever in the fall of

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Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, just a year after her accident. I was

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Speaker 1: on top of the world when COVID hit, and hit

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Speaker 1: it did.

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Speaker 2: At the beginning, I believed it was only going to

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Speaker 2: be two weeks.

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Speaker 1: Think all of us did, remember fifteen days to slow

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Speaker 1: the spread. Now I think, how were we so naive?

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Speaker 1: While other businesses were closing shop, Rachel was determined to

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Speaker 1: stay open, even if she was the only one there.

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Speaker 1: She'd been forced to lay off twenty of her employees,

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Speaker 1: and without that extra help, she had to work around

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Speaker 1: the clock.

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Speaker 2: I worked eighteen hours. I went home, I slept in

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Speaker 2: the clothes that I worked in. I got up and

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Speaker 2: I did it again. And it's the same time that

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Speaker 2: people are on social media talking about how they make

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Speaker 2: their partner who works at a hospital, you know, leave

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Speaker 2: their clothes in the garage and come it. And I'm like,

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Speaker 2: I haven't changed my clothes and days.

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Speaker 1: Rachel lost big orders and had to cut lucrative items

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Speaker 1: from her menu, but she was also scrappy and got creative.

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Speaker 1: She sold groceries and meal kits and diy baking packages

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Speaker 1: out of the store, and the community rallied around her.

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Speaker 2: I baked and sold more bread than I've ever baked

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Speaker 2: and sold in my career because people couldn't get it

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Speaker 2: at the grocery stores, so they actually bought bread from me.

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Speaker 1: So you sort of had a little boomlet early on. Definitely,

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Speaker 1: Definitely she kept going, but it was a lot.

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Speaker 2: I really didn't think that I could sustain it.

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Speaker 1: Did you think it was going to kill you? Did

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Speaker 1: you think the pandemic was going to kill you?

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Speaker 5: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: I did. I just reached my breaking point so many times,

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Speaker 2: and I just would sit there and not know how

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Speaker 2: to do it again tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: She wound up doing what more than five million other

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Speaker 1: small businesses did. She looked to the federal government for help.

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Speaker 1: You know, everybody winds about government spending until they need

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Speaker 1: help when there's a hurricane or of flood. Who you

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Speaker 1: going to call when there's a massive economic contraction like

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Speaker 1: there was in two thousand and eight. Who you going

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Speaker 1: to call when there's an unprecedented economic meltdown combined with

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Speaker 1: the historic public health crisis? Who you going to call? Yeah? Washington.

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Speaker 7: So what did the federal government do? The federal government

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Speaker 7: acted quickly, and it made a program which put cash

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Speaker 7: into the hands of small business owners.

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Speaker 1: That's Karen Mills, President Obama's first leader of the Small

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Speaker 1: Business Administration. She's describing how the Trump and Biden Whitehouses

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Speaker 1: ultimately channeled nearly one trillion dollars to small businesses. The

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Speaker 1: main program was an essential, well intentioned, yet chaotic scramble

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Speaker 1: known as the Paycheck Protection Program.

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Speaker 7: I never thought i'd see the day where three hundred

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Speaker 7: and fifty million dollars was in the same paragraph as

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Speaker 7: the word SBA. But that's how much money was in

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Speaker 7: the first trash of PPP that lasted about two and

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Speaker 7: a half weeks.

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Speaker 1: That time, and funding went by in a flash, especially

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Speaker 1: for people like Rachel.

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Speaker 2: Of course, at the time, we didn't know there was

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Speaker 2: going to be a second round of funding, so the

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Speaker 2: funding was gone, and how did that feel?

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Speaker 1: Defeating oversight and management of the PPP effort was slipshot.

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Speaker 1: Treasury Secretary Steve Manuchin, who engineered the effort, was reluctant

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Speaker 1: to be transparent about the process, even when he was

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Speaker 1: specifically asked about it during a Senate hearing in May

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Speaker 1: of twenty twenty nearly two months after the legislation providing

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Speaker 1: for PPP was passed. Here's Senator John Tester of Montana.

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Speaker 8: When can we see full information about who's getting the dollars?

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Speaker 3: Well, let me just comment. When we negotiated this bipartisan deal,

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Speaker 3: we agreed to unprecedented transparency, So we agree to release

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Speaker 3: things that are not required by thirteen to three. So

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Speaker 3: I don't know why you haven't seen that. We've everything's

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Speaker 3: posted on our website or the Fed's website.

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Speaker 1: They went back and forth a few times. Are you

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Speaker 1: sure the information is there? Yep? It's there. Are you

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Speaker 1: sure yep? The Tester wasn't buying it.

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Speaker 8: I look forward to seeing that list, by the way,

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Speaker 8: Secretary Mansion, and I'm going to go online and I'm

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Speaker 8: going to search it because I'm going to tell you

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Speaker 8: that as much transparency as you said, are with this program,

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Speaker 8: as a center from Montana, as a member of the

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Speaker 8: Banking Committee, I'm not seeing any of it.

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Speaker 1: Quite frankly, it wasn't clear exactly who was getting the

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Speaker 1: funding or how it was being used. Rachel couldn't get

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Speaker 1: PPP money the time it was offered, and she watched

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Speaker 1: her application stall online. She ended up applying for a

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Speaker 1: loan four times before she finally got some money one

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Speaker 1: hundred and five thousand dollars. It saved her business and

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Speaker 1: then some.

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Speaker 6: For the first time in history.

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Speaker 2: January twenty twenty one, we officially were one hundred percent

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Speaker 2: debt free Love Her Bread Company. We paid off all

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Speaker 2: of our investors, We paid off any debts that we had.

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Speaker 2: You know, we got a good staff and everything. It

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Speaker 2: was just like, all right, We're never going back there.

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Speaker 2: We will never be back in this place again where

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Speaker 2: we have so much debt on the business. Like it

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Speaker 2: feels too good to get ahead. What do we have

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Speaker 2: to do to stay here?

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Speaker 1: She started off January twenty twenty one on a new foot,

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Speaker 1: and there were reasons to think the end of the

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Speaker 1: pandemic was in sight.

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Speaker 2: I got my vaccination on January sixth, twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 2: I was one of the first because at the time

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Speaker 2: there was a windowwhere anyone who was working in the

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Speaker 2: service industry in front of people could get in.

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Speaker 1: Did the vaccines feel like sort of a God send

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Speaker 1: to you when they came along.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it definitely just felt like relief because there were

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Speaker 2: just so many unknowns. No one knew when it would end,

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Speaker 2: how it would end. I don't think it has ended,

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Speaker 2: but it just felt like there was progress.

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Speaker 1: And the vaccines gave you a sense of control over things,

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Speaker 1: or more control.

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Speaker 2: Than you had I ever feel, yeah, or you know,

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Speaker 2: it's just like that peace of mind from having that

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Speaker 2: PPP loan, you know, sitting in our account as a buffer.

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Speaker 2: I think the vaccine was that same piece of mind,

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Speaker 2: like I guess some level of protection.

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Speaker 1: That peace of mind was nice while it lasted. When

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Speaker 1: we get back from the break, I'll take you through

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Speaker 1: year two of Rachel's experience during the pandemic twenty twenty one,

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Speaker 1: and the big idea is she had to grow her business.

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Speaker 1: That's next. The story of Rachel's twenty twenty one might

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Speaker 1: actually start back in twenty twenty, when Rachel was so

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Speaker 1: burnt out that she decided to close Montclair Bread for

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Speaker 1: two days and rent an airbnb in New Pulse, New York.

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Speaker 1: She knew the area well from when she went to

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Speaker 1: the Culinary Institute of America nearby, and I.

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Speaker 2: Went up there and I got to run on the

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Speaker 2: trails and have a quiet space. At the time, I

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Speaker 2: couldn't run something that I used to keep my sanity running.

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Speaker 2: Although it's therapeutic, it's not therapy, That's what I've been told.

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Speaker 1: She rented that airbnb once a month for six months.

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Speaker 1: She went for runs, rested, recharged, and she ended up

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Speaker 1: writing a book in that Airbnb, We'll Run for Donuts,

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Speaker 1: The Montclair Bread Company Cookbook. Rachel eventually decided to rent

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Speaker 1: a cheap studio apartment in New Paults while also keeping

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Speaker 1: her families rental in Montclair. Although she originally sought an

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Speaker 1: escape in New Pults, she eventually found inspiration too, in

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Speaker 1: the form of a new business opportunity. It all started

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Speaker 1: after she took up rock climbing. Climbing helped her clear

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Speaker 1: her head and make new friends. So after Montclair Bread

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Speaker 1: closed on Sunday, she'd head up to New Pults.

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Speaker 2: And if there were donuts left over, I'd pack them

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Speaker 2: up and take them to my climbing friends. So then

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Speaker 2: they started asking for them, then they started ordering them,

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Speaker 2: and then I was in a parking lot and a

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Speaker 2: trailhead with donuts in my trunk, like you know, on

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Speaker 2: Sunday afternoon, handing them out to these climbing friends and

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Speaker 2: friends and friends. And I thought, there's got to be

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Speaker 2: a more reasonable way to do this.

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Speaker 1: She followed a familiar path. First she gave the donuts away,

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Speaker 1: Then she found a farmer's market.

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Speaker 2: We set up at the farmer's market. In the first week,

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Speaker 2: there's like couple people in line three. There's a line

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Speaker 2: all the way across the parking lot and down the

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Speaker 2: block waiting for the donuts.

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Speaker 1: Then she opened a new shop in New Pults in

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Speaker 1: the fall of twenty twenty one, and she felt really

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Speaker 1: embraced by the community there.

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Speaker 2: The first weekend I was open. It was a soft opening.

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Speaker 2: I never publicized it, and I had every member of

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Speaker 2: the town council come and introduce themselves and give me

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Speaker 2: their phone numbers in case I needed anything.

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Speaker 1: This was all going on around the time a new

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Speaker 1: COVID nineteen variant Delta was making its rounds. Even though

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Speaker 1: infection surged, Rachel was feeling good about the state of

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Speaker 1: her business until the holiday season came around and pushed

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Speaker 1: Rachel to her brink because the embrace she felt from

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Speaker 1: the New Paltz community was sometimes hard to find in Montclair,

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Speaker 1: and an even more infectious COVID variant Omicron was waiting

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Speaker 1: in the wings. All of this made the holidays more stressful.

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Speaker 1: First Thanksgiving holiday dedicated to gratitude.

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Speaker 2: You know, we were really short staff on Thanksgiving Day,

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Speaker 2: but we opened to give out orders and for retail,

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Speaker 2: and of course we start selling out because it's Thanksgiving

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Speaker 2: Day and people were just screaming at my staff. Somebody

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Speaker 2: screamed at one of the retail employees because it took

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Speaker 2: three minutes to wait for her coffee.

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Speaker 1: Second Christmas, a holiday dedicated to salvation.

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Speaker 2: Christmas Eve was when we got the first call out.

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Speaker 2: We got everything like shuffled around. A couple hours later,

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Speaker 2: somebody else called out, and then I feel like, well

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Speaker 2: do we close for the week.

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Speaker 6: We can't afford to.

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Speaker 2: We have to be open at least three days this

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Speaker 2: week for the orders that we've already taken.

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Speaker 1: Third New Year's Eve, a holiday dedicated to renewal.

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Speaker 2: New Year's Eve, we get the first baker call out,

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Speaker 2: so we had six people out and two people pending tests,

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Speaker 2: and we decided to close on the first and second.

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Speaker 6: So for two weeks ends in a row, we were closed.

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Speaker 1: Montclair Bread needed twelve people to open its doors every

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Speaker 1: day any less, and they were facing major inefficiencies. Orders

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Speaker 1: wouldn't come out on time. With twenty people on staff

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Speaker 1: and only twelve who were full time employees, that left

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Speaker 1: little wiggle room for Omicron infections, so they decided to

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Speaker 1: close shop for a whole week. Rachel committed to paying

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Speaker 1: anyone on her staff who was scheduled to work, but

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Speaker 1: no new money was coming in.

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Speaker 2: The two weeks that we had to close days the

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Speaker 2: weekends would have been our busiest weeks of the year,

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Speaker 2: and they were the worst that.

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Speaker 6: We've had on record for December.

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Speaker 2: So normally that would give us a buffer to get

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Speaker 2: through January and February where sales are always low.

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Speaker 6: We always cut hours.

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Speaker 2: And January and February, but there's no buffer, like there's nothing.

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Speaker 6: To get us through.

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Speaker 1: Suddenly, Rachel was at the end of her rope because

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Speaker 1: Omicron had spent weeks stating her bakery's business. The peace

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Speaker 1: of mind and protection she felt like she had at

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Speaker 1: the beginning of twenty twenty one was gone.

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Speaker 2: There was definitely a time in my life where I

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Speaker 2: would have opened at any cost, even if it was

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Speaker 2: just me. But by December twenty twenty one, I'm like

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Speaker 2: closed the door, Just lock the door.

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Speaker 1: Rachel sent an email to Montclair Bread's customers right after

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Speaker 1: the new year, with the subject line SOOS, she wrote

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Speaker 1: that she was waving her white flag. When my wife

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Speaker 1: received that email, I worried a closed sign might appear

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Speaker 1: in Rachel's window soon, so I dropped by to check

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Speaker 1: in on her. The pandemic was starting to take its

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Speaker 1: toll on Rachel, on her staff, her customers, everyone.

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Speaker 2: Two years ago, at the beginning of this, you had

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Speaker 2: this incredible community support because we were open when no

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Speaker 2: one else was.

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Speaker 6: But now.

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Speaker 2: There's just, you know, overall, a lack of empathy for

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Speaker 2: what small businesses were going through and enduring. The big

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Speaker 2: thing that they don't appreciate is that we're not making

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Speaker 2: up the rules. There's no playbook for us, and there's

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Speaker 2: no centralized agency either local, state.

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Speaker 6: Federal, that's giving us any source of information about how

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Speaker 6: we're supposed to handle it. Like we're deciding the fate

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Speaker 6: of everything.

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Speaker 2: Just like three of us who don't have medical backgrounds,

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Speaker 2: don't have science backgrounds. We just bake Brett and we're

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Speaker 2: like trying to make all of these decisions.

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Speaker 1: In her SOS email, Rachel asked her customers to contact

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Speaker 1: their local elected leaders. Montclair's mayor and town councilors, New

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Speaker 1: Jersey's governor. She didn't feel like local officials were providing

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Speaker 1: her with clarity or guidance about steps she needed to

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Speaker 1: take to respond to the crisis, and when she tried

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Speaker 1: reaching out to them for help, she didn't have much luck.

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Speaker 1: I tried to interview Montclair's mayor and the town's top

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Speaker 1: administrative official about their responses to COVID, but they wouldn't

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Speaker 1: take my call. Finally, a member of Montclair's town council

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Speaker 1: did return my mind call, Peter Yacobellis. He's the kind

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Speaker 1: of guy you want in local government, dedicated, friendly, energetic,

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Speaker 1: and smart. And it turns out he actually spoke to

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Speaker 1: Rachel about the concerns she raised in her SOS email,

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Speaker 1: and he told me he brought one of her ideas

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Speaker 1: to state and local officials, putting together a one pager

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Speaker 1: with advice for small businesses on how to handle employee

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Speaker 1: questions about quarantines and vaccinations, basic stuff.

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Speaker 4: Rachel was the one who set the light bulb off

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Speaker 4: for me.

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Speaker 1: Now, why didn't that happen earlier? Why didn't that happen

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Speaker 1: in mid twenty twenty? Just too many balls in the air,

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Speaker 1: or just a general lack of clarity.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I think a little bit of who's going to

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Speaker 4: do it too, writ whose responsibility as the CDC, the

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Speaker 4: federal government stake.

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Speaker 5: There to make that call, to make that call.

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Speaker 4: Right in government, we have a tendency to start with

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Speaker 4: experts and start with people at the top and let

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Speaker 4: a cascade and filter through. We should start with the

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Speaker 4: small business owner. We should start with the homeowner, asking

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Speaker 4: them what's going to be easier for you, what's going

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Speaker 4: to show up better for you?

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Speaker 1: And I had heard other things from other entrepren that

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Speaker 1: there were just these little tweaks the township could have

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Speaker 1: done that would have made their lives easier as business people.

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Speaker 1: Is that a legit criticism and has that been addressed?

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Speaker 4: If it is, it's a completely legitimate criticism, I personally

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Speaker 4: am trying to address it. I do feel like David

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Speaker 4: and Goliath when it comes to some of this stuff.

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Speaker 4: I think we've got really entrenched ways of doing things

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Speaker 4: and not a lot of open mindedness and willingness to

442
00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:32,480
Speaker 4: be dynamic and to try new things and to be innovative.

443
00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:37,160
Speaker 1: Entrepreneurs are forced to be dynamic and innovative in order

444
00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:41,159
Speaker 1: to survive, but they also need help, because tending to

445
00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:45,119
Speaker 1: the needs of small business isn't an abstraction. At the

446
00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:47,960
Speaker 1: end of twenty twenty one beginning of twenty twenty two,

447
00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:50,879
Speaker 1: Rachel wasn't sure what she was going to do next

448
00:23:51,119 --> 00:23:54,280
Speaker 1: in any part of her life. Her children were struggling

449
00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:57,480
Speaker 1: in school, and she felt local educators were letting her down.

450
00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:00,280
Speaker 1: She felt the town it turned its back on her,

451
00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:03,120
Speaker 1: and she wasn't sure if Montclair Bread Company was going

452
00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:06,240
Speaker 1: to make it. I wasn't sure either. I had a

453
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:09,360
Speaker 1: feeling of the pandemic and the tough economy, we're going

454
00:24:09,359 --> 00:24:12,199
Speaker 1: to force Rachel to make some big changes. And I

455
00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:16,480
Speaker 1: was right, but not in the way I expected. I'll

456
00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:18,479
Speaker 1: tell you how Rachel made it through the third year

457
00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:21,400
Speaker 1: of the pandemic and about the fate of Montclair Bread

458
00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:30,159
Speaker 1: Company after the break. In a town like Montclair with

459
00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:34,040
Speaker 1: forty thousand people and six shopping districts, every one of

460
00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:38,639
Speaker 1: its storefronts matters. Yeah, there's a Lulu Lemon and an

461
00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:42,280
Speaker 1: Urban Outfitters and a Whole Foods, But there's also a

462
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:45,639
Speaker 1: Watch hung booksellers, and an Egan and Son's restaurant and

463
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:49,000
Speaker 1: a Montclair Bread A town with just a Target and

464
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:54,680
Speaker 1: a Walmart and deliveries from Amazon loses something. It loses identity.

465
00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:57,720
Speaker 5: Yeah, arts, culture, identity.

466
00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:01,040
Speaker 9: I mean, well the place becomes a diamond does you

467
00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:02,560
Speaker 9: could be anywhere USA.

468
00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:06,280
Speaker 1: This is Jason Gleeson, head of the Montclair Center Business

469
00:25:06,359 --> 00:25:10,199
Speaker 1: Improvement District. The BID is a nonprofit that manages one

470
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:13,520
Speaker 1: of the shopping districts in town. It helps new businesses

471
00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:16,399
Speaker 1: get settled in and older ones up their marketing games

472
00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:19,400
Speaker 1: while trying to make it easier for both to flourish,

473
00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:23,440
Speaker 1: and it plants flowers. Basically, the BID.

474
00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:27,160
Speaker 5: Is there to make sure that downtown Montclair is awesome.

475
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:31,600
Speaker 1: So Jason is helping the little shop around the corner survive. Why.

476
00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:34,720
Speaker 9: I mean, they're the life's blood, right, I mean, it's

477
00:25:34,760 --> 00:25:36,280
Speaker 9: the heartbeat of the town.

478
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:39,240
Speaker 1: What do they bring to the community that's unique from

479
00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:41,960
Speaker 1: your perspective, that would be lost if they weren't there.

480
00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:46,000
Speaker 9: I mean, honestly, it's such a simple answer, and it

481
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:47,800
Speaker 9: probably is going to sound like such a cop out,

482
00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:50,320
Speaker 9: But like themselves.

483
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:55,080
Speaker 1: It's about individuality and how that distinguishes small businesses from

484
00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:56,680
Speaker 1: the giants of corporate America.

485
00:25:57,280 --> 00:26:00,480
Speaker 9: You know what Apple is, right, it has a shape

486
00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:02,040
Speaker 9: and a color and a feeling.

487
00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:05,600
Speaker 5: There's the product, right, you know, it's Apple.

488
00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:09,439
Speaker 9: You could probably be blindfolded and someone could hand you

489
00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:11,480
Speaker 9: a laptop and you could feel it for a second,

490
00:26:11,560 --> 00:26:13,280
Speaker 9: be like, that's probably an Apple laptop.

491
00:26:13,359 --> 00:26:15,040
Speaker 5: Right through all their branding and.

492
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:17,040
Speaker 9: Their marketing exercises and all that, and they spent a

493
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:18,360
Speaker 9: great deal of money doing that.

494
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:21,080
Speaker 5: But it's not a person. It's not a hug and

495
00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:22,640
Speaker 5: a handshake. And I woke up.

496
00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:25,560
Speaker 9: At four o'clock in the morning to bake this for you, or,

497
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:28,359
Speaker 9: in the case of some of our retailers, like I

498
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:33,160
Speaker 9: spent the last three months visiting artisans upstate to curate

499
00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:36,400
Speaker 9: these products for your home, because I understand you as

500
00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:37,199
Speaker 9: my consumer.

501
00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:40,400
Speaker 1: That's why so much was at stake for small businesses

502
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:41,480
Speaker 1: when the pandemic hit.

503
00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:45,040
Speaker 9: Their hopes, their dreams, their families, their college tuitions they're

504
00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:45,520
Speaker 9: saving for.

505
00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:48,320
Speaker 1: All of that was on the line when they were

506
00:26:48,359 --> 00:26:51,840
Speaker 1: told to shut down for COVID. Now, as I've told

507
00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:55,639
Speaker 1: you all along, and as her journey proves, Rachel Wyman

508
00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:58,720
Speaker 1: is a survivor. But even she has had to weigh

509
00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:03,080
Speaker 1: whether it's worth fighting. We're throwing in the towel because

510
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:05,880
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen has been an unrelenting opponent.

511
00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:10,960
Speaker 2: I can't keep fighting by myself anymore. I just I

512
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:13,199
Speaker 2: don't know if it's worth it anymore. I mean, like

513
00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:15,520
Speaker 2: last week I updated my resume. Do you know how

514
00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:18,840
Speaker 2: long it's been since I updated my resume? Like that's

515
00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:20,560
Speaker 2: that's the kind of place I'm in.

516
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:24,240
Speaker 1: That was Rachel at the beginning of twenty twenty two,

517
00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:27,480
Speaker 1: and then she just decided to start over.

518
00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:31,040
Speaker 2: I've said it so many times, I think everybody here

519
00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:32,800
Speaker 2: has heard me say it at least once. If I

520
00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:35,000
Speaker 2: had it to do all over again, I would just

521
00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:35,640
Speaker 2: do donuts.

522
00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:38,040
Speaker 1: Donuts made sense to Rachel, and.

523
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:41,440
Speaker 2: Then I'm realizing, Wow, the ingredients take up so much

524
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:45,199
Speaker 2: less space, and I can get up at five in

525
00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:50,320
Speaker 2: the morning and still have donuts at eight in the

526
00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:53,719
Speaker 2: morning because it takes that much less time to do

527
00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:57,199
Speaker 2: the donut work, and I can do it with like

528
00:27:57,680 --> 00:27:59,440
Speaker 2: me and one other person.

529
00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:03,240
Speaker 1: In donuts cost less to make them bread, So even

530
00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:06,199
Speaker 1: though they sold for less, they were more profitable, and

531
00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:08,359
Speaker 1: the woman whose identity was wrapped up in bread and

532
00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:14,080
Speaker 1: baking shifted gears. Montclair Bread Company was no more. Rachel

533
00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:16,920
Speaker 1: became the owner of two storefronts with a new name,

534
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:21,480
Speaker 1: Rabble Rise Donuts. Are you surprised that the bread woman

535
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:22,800
Speaker 1: has become the donut woman?

536
00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:26,600
Speaker 2: No, I think this transition to Rabble Rized donuts really,

537
00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:28,919
Speaker 2: Like for a while, I fought it and I was

538
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,440
Speaker 2: kind of mad at it, you know that, like I'm

539
00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:37,400
Speaker 2: this great bread baker, and you know, people only want

540
00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:40,760
Speaker 2: the donuts. But then I decided to embrace it because,

541
00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:42,880
Speaker 2: like I said, what do I do better than anyone else?

542
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:45,600
Speaker 2: I make donuts better than anyone else, And I just

543
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:49,200
Speaker 2: really wanted to embrace that. So now we're a donut shop.

544
00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:53,600
Speaker 1: Rachel had barely made the transition into donut maestro before

545
00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:57,880
Speaker 1: a whole new series of challenges emerged. Supply chain disruptions

546
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:01,760
Speaker 1: and soaring inflation made her so to run a simple

547
00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:06,680
Speaker 1: donut shop suddenly complex. The hardships of twenty twenty two

548
00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:10,120
Speaker 1: spilled over into the beginning of twenty twenty three. When

549
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:11,960
Speaker 1: I sat down with her again to talk.

550
00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:15,160
Speaker 2: I can't even get eggs, like I'm buying them at

551
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:18,520
Speaker 2: the grocery store right now because I can't get eggs

552
00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:22,280
Speaker 2: from my vendors. Why is that because they're out They're

553
00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:25,400
Speaker 2: out of stock and eggs go in donuts.

554
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:29,520
Speaker 1: The prices of eggs, flour, and sugar have all soared,

555
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:33,400
Speaker 1: and obviously that's going to have an effect on her

556
00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:34,200
Speaker 1: bottom line.

557
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:36,880
Speaker 2: I mean, at the end of the year, I would

558
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:40,120
Speaker 2: be lucky to have like three percent, you know margin,

559
00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:43,200
Speaker 2: like the great thing used to be. You know, you

560
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:45,880
Speaker 2: can make a donut for fourteenth cents and then it's

561
00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:48,360
Speaker 2: all the stuff that goes on top that costs the money.

562
00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:51,440
Speaker 2: And that's why we charge what we charge now. It's

563
00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:55,600
Speaker 2: like it costs me a dollar donut before you put

564
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:56,520
Speaker 2: anything on it.

565
00:29:56,960 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 1: So she's had to raise the price of each donut

566
00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:02,920
Speaker 1: from around two between three point fifty to five dollars.

567
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:07,480
Speaker 1: But guess what, when your donuts are really good, people

568
00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:10,600
Speaker 1: will keep buying them. That's allowed Rachel to dig out

569
00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:14,360
Speaker 1: from some of her lingering financial problems. And by the way,

570
00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:17,360
Speaker 1: she hasn't totally gotten rid of some of the stuff

571
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 1: I love. When I told her how I missed her

572
00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:24,960
Speaker 1: sourdough bread, she let me in on a secret. If

573
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:27,040
Speaker 1: you ask, they'll bake bread to order.

574
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:30,400
Speaker 2: It's kind of like a teenager that gets grounded, where

575
00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:33,080
Speaker 2: you take away all of their things and then slowly

576
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:35,600
Speaker 2: you can start giving them back as they like earn

577
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:39,320
Speaker 2: your respect and trust. So that's what happened. We took

578
00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:44,160
Speaker 2: it all away, and then as our staff and systems

579
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:47,000
Speaker 2: became more and more efficient, we've been able to add

580
00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:48,440
Speaker 2: some of the parts back.

581
00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:51,600
Speaker 1: So are you telling me actually that those sourdough lows

582
00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:52,560
Speaker 1: are still gettible?

583
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:55,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're still gettable. In fact, there might be one

584
00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:56,360
Speaker 2: out there right now.

585
00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:58,720
Speaker 1: Now that I'm going to try to lay claim to

586
00:30:58,720 --> 00:30:59,160
Speaker 1: that bread.

587
00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:02,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And you know, I think having a

588
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:06,320
Speaker 2: whole bread program is, you know, costly if you're not

589
00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:09,280
Speaker 2: a wholesale business, if you're not doing volume and bread,

590
00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:12,840
Speaker 2: it's costly. But doing what we do, it's nice because

591
00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:17,280
Speaker 2: all of the bakers on my team enjoy baking bread,

592
00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:19,479
Speaker 2: and so it's kind of fun for us to do

593
00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:20,240
Speaker 2: it once a week.

594
00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:23,520
Speaker 1: And I would imagine it's this sort of spiritual and

595
00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 1: creative connection for you to the roots of why you

596
00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:28,200
Speaker 1: started things here.

597
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:30,400
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, yeah, absolutely.

598
00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:35,800
Speaker 1: Even so, Rachel the survivor and Rachel the marathon runner,

599
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:40,480
Speaker 1: Rachel the mom, and Rachel the small business owner isn't

600
00:31:40,480 --> 00:31:42,880
Speaker 1: the same person she was when I first met her

601
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:48,200
Speaker 1: three years ago. COVID rocked her world, It rocked everyone's world.

602
00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:50,920
Speaker 1: But the Rachel who got to this side of COVID

603
00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:53,120
Speaker 1: isn't sure she'd do it all over again.

604
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:58,520
Speaker 2: I would never tell a friend to go into this business.

605
00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:01,000
Speaker 1: And if you had to walk away from it, how would.

606
00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:04,040
Speaker 2: That feel like a huge weight was lifted off of

607
00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:04,760
Speaker 2: my shoulders?

608
00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:07,400
Speaker 1: So it would no longer feel like a sense of loss?

609
00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:09,320
Speaker 2: No, no, it wouldn't.

610
00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:11,480
Speaker 1: So you're staying in it now out of a sense

611
00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:15,120
Speaker 1: of duty and obligation rather than joy and fulfillment.

612
00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:18,160
Speaker 2: Correct, yes, that is one hundred percent accurate.

613
00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:20,520
Speaker 1: Does it surprise you that that's where you are with

614
00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:20,920
Speaker 1: it now?

615
00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:26,000
Speaker 2: I thought that the rebranding would rejuvenate it enough to

616
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:30,280
Speaker 2: keep my heart and soul fulfilled, but it didn't really work.

617
00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:35,760
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how deflating that feels. Rachel was

618
00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:38,680
Speaker 1: sort of a COVID north star for me. The business

619
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:42,240
Speaker 1: woman I thought of is unbeatable. While she's not down,

620
00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:45,560
Speaker 1: COVID took a lot away from her that she knows

621
00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:49,040
Speaker 1: she's not getting back to be sure. She has a

622
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 1: lot of joy in her personal life, her kids, a

623
00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:55,240
Speaker 1: happier life in New Pauls and a new marriage, But

624
00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:58,640
Speaker 1: on the business side of the ledger, she's also considering

625
00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:01,640
Speaker 1: a career change, one that will leave her lesson involved

626
00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:05,960
Speaker 1: with her little bakery in Montclair. This is a familiar

627
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:09,400
Speaker 1: story for a lot of other small businesses. So many

628
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:12,719
Speaker 1: of them close their doors in a typical year, and

629
00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:16,880
Speaker 1: COVID visited a raft of atypical problems upon all of them.

630
00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:23,280
Speaker 1: One of the foundational ideas of capitalism is creative destruction,

631
00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 1: the notion that businesses are born and fail all the

632
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:31,000
Speaker 1: time and survival of the fittest is an efficient process.

633
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:36,920
Speaker 1: But that also discounts another truth that great ideas, services

634
00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:41,520
Speaker 1: and products aren't always easily replaced, and some magic can

635
00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:44,600
Speaker 1: get lost along the way, like a really good loaf

636
00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:51,800
Speaker 1: of bread. Here at Crash Course, we believe the collisions

637
00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:58,160
Speaker 1: can be messy, impressive, challenging, surprising, and always instructive. In

638
00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:01,840
Speaker 1: today's Crash Course, I learned and sometimes you can't fix

639
00:34:01,920 --> 00:34:06,520
Speaker 1: big problems facing small businesses by simply throwing money at them.

640
00:34:06,960 --> 00:34:11,440
Speaker 1: PPP was an epic spending plan, but ultimately it wasn't

641
00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:14,239
Speaker 1: enough and it was never going to work if that

642
00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:18,120
Speaker 1: money wasn't paired with good global public health policies. In

643
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:21,359
Speaker 1: many cases, COVID turned out to be more powerful than

644
00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:25,839
Speaker 1: money and entrepreneurial grit, even when an entrepreneur was as

645
00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 1: gritty as Rachel. What did you learn? We'd love to

646
00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:32,760
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can tweet at the Bloomberg Opinion,

647
00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:37,200
Speaker 1: handle at Opinion or me at Tim O'Brien using the

648
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:41,279
Speaker 1: hashtag Bloomberg Crash Course. You can also subscribe to our

649
00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:43,799
Speaker 1: show wherever you're listening right now and leave us a

650
00:34:43,800 --> 00:34:48,160
Speaker 1: review that helps more people find the show. This episode

651
00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:53,120
Speaker 1: was produced by the indispensable Animasarakas and Me. Our supervising

652
00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:56,319
Speaker 1: producer is Magnus Hendrickson, and we had editing help from

653
00:34:56,400 --> 00:35:00,720
Speaker 1: Katie Boyce, Jeff Grocott, Mike Nizza, Ta of al brun

654
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:05,160
Speaker 1: and Christine Vanden Bilart. Blake Maples does our sound engineering,

655
00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:08,440
Speaker 1: and our original theme song was composed by Luis Garra.

656
00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:12,920
Speaker 1: I'm Tim O'Brien. We'll be back next week with another

657
00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:13,560
Speaker 1: Crash Course.