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Kristen O'Hara

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20
first
2015-08-26
most recent
2015-08-26
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1
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podcast

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  1. “Well, this Friday marks an important milestone for 10,000 small businesses. We actually will reach the 5,000th business owner in the program. This initiative is modeled after our global program, 10,000 women, which we started in 2008. And in that initiative, once we started nearing reaching the 10,000th woman, and we had obviously seen the results of the program and transparently reported on those results, we were delighted when we had a chance to scale it with co-investment opportunities. I think we're hoping to see how we can scale this program to way beyond 10,000 with partners who want to co-invest with us around the country. The numbers are one thing, but the stories of entrepreneurs like Kristen and Barrett are really what keep us motivated. I mean, 5,000 stories like theirs, which really makes you feel good about the American dream.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  2. “Next for my business is to branch out into water restoration remediation services because again in New Orleans we have natural disasters, you know, a lot of rain and just the moist climate so that can definitely help us get people back in their homes as fast as possible in businesses as well. And we're looking at branching out into other markets like in southeast Louisiana open up other locations of Clean Concierge.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  3. “Well, we are. I mean, I can say that we've already successfully started to distribute it internationally. And predominantly our distribution, I mean, I'm only 16 months out of the program. We're still predominantly across the Gulf Coast area, but we've launched now on Amazon Prime, and we're growing with our current customers, product line extension. We've got my daddy Shambalaya, gonna have my mama's gumbo soon. And then, of course, even adapt to some of the fresh food options. My mission now too is to bring in some healthier alternatives to traditional New Orleans food. So have some product development. And I realized that I can only go so far and go in front of so many stores with my cast iron pot to promote our culture and our cuisine. But now I have teams of people that I believe in that can reiterate what we represent. So that's going to be a big part of it. So hopefully I'll be up here again next year with some distribution, some grocery stores that we can go meet up.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  4. “I'll reiterate that as well because Baron and I both grew up in New Orleans. We both went to high school in New Orleans and we see the change now. But the other thing I can speak to is just the buzz and everyone just craving that piece of New Orleans, everyone craving that flavor of New Orleans across the world. And many of that is thanks to the efforts of the small businesses in the city, the government, Mitchell Andrew actually, that's a part of his platform too, is just promoting the culture of our city. And I'm just fortunate that I naturally found that connection and there's just so many more channels now right place, right time, that I'm ready to help New Orleans export that culture. And we have people from Australia that are our customers that are talking to us now that they know and want, oh, this is a family recipe from New Orleans. We want a piece of that. I want to help to deepen that connection with our city and with our culture.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  5. “Me, it feels different because there's an influx of new ideas, like the culture and the soul of New Orleans is still there because the native people are still there. But now when you have other people coming in with fresh ideas and new ways of doing things, and now it's opportunity if your eyes are open, if you're open to change.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  6. “I knew that I could keep going, but I just didn't know what that next step was. There were so many ways I could have gone, so I was thankful to be able to apply for that program to help me answer those challenges on how to grow it. I didn't know what I had. I had a diamond and a rough and didn't even realize it.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  7. “Not only just starting the business, I really did take advantage of a lot of the resources locally. I mean, I started my business with assistants from the small business development center. And then I went on to working with Axion Now Lyft Fun and reached out to the Southern U.S. Trade Association, Good Work Network. That's what I'm talking about, this red carpet. There are just so many partners in the city that come together. And my business consultant, Diane Sclafani, she also comes from the food industry in New Orleans. Her family instituted a school of cooking for New Orleans. She has been pushing me all the way, and I finally just hit a point. It was my fourth year in business when I applied to the Goldman Sachs program that I had to hit a wall. I had survived all my passion and my drive and as much experience as I had in retail and food distribution and just got myself to that point. But Diane encouraged me to apply for it because I didn't know where to go next.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  8. “I moved to schools, it was other institutions by focusing on commercial cleaning. And then doing commercial cleaning, I was looking for ways to increase our profits, increase demand, and try to get away from the basic janitorial services. And I want to do something that was a little bit more impactful. So then we saw post-construction cleaning as a growth opportunity going through the program. I was able to gain my disadvantaged business certification, which allowed me to be eligible to bid on government contracts in some high private contracts that have city funding and initiatives behind it. And then once that happened, I got my DB certification through the state and through the federal through the New Orleans airport, went to construction sites, knocked on doors, and was able to land two contracts cleaning two schools. And I have crews clean those schools at the moment.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  9. “Craving that New Orleans flavor, and I knew something was there. Took me a while to get it all together, but this is where I want to be as an ambassador for our city, our culture, and now I have my own product and business to grow and bring that impact back to the city.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  10. “My business is my passion, it's my history, it's kind of a culmination of a lot of experience in my life. I never considered myself to come in here and be a food manufacturer, but I grew up in the food business. My initial product is a jambalaya rice mix that we package in New Orleans working with chef Paul Prudome. So I grew up around this environment. The business idea came to me during Hurricane Katrina. I was evacuated and wanted to do something to help. had the cooking equipment with me and I do what we always do best when we need to help out. I've started cooking Jamaliah and we ended up traveling the country. I put together a tailgating fundraiser. I'm fresh out of college not knowing what my future holds and went to college universities and cooked my dad's recipe and ended up raising $100,000 for the recovery effort in New Orleans. And in that moment it's when I saw the connection, how much people were really craving.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  11. “Started the business because I wanted to employ myself and I didn't want anyone to control my destiny anymore. It was going to be on my hands. If I sink or swim, it's my fault, my reward. If I swunk, I had to get a job. But then I started my business. The idea for my business came after I cleaned the house for my wife for our anniversary. And I used traditional cleaning products and I couldn't take it. I cleaned a room with traditional cleaner and had to go outside and take a breath. Then I started researching green cleaning and came back a week later to clean the house. I was like, oh, it's working. It's an option. And then it just snowballed from there.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  12. “The environment for small businesses is now one that is about inclusion and no idea is off the wall. If you have an idea, explore it. It may not be an opportunity for you, may not be a business, but you have some resources to throw it on the wall, see if it sticks. Because before your parents or in that generation, they went to work and you might have had your own business, but it was always doing things the exact same way. There was no challenging of am I doing it the right way? Can I do it better? How can I do it different? No one was asking questions. It was pretty much Groundhog Day just day in, day out. I'm going to do the same thing. My kid's going to take over. He's going to do it the exact same way I do it. But now it's, I think I can do it better. It's trying to innovate even in something as small as changing the method, but it can transform your business and transform your thinking about your business and about things in general.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  13. “Tell you, in New Orleans today, is so much different not only from pre-Katrina, but from New Orleans 30 years ago. I grew up in a family business. My dad's an entrepreneur, and he tells me every day, Kristen, if I had the resources like you have today to build a business in New Orleans, we would be in a different place today. So that sticks with me.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  14. “Well, New Orleans is an American city that so many people care deeply about, and certainly our own people at Goldman Sachs, after Katrina, were eager to go and volunteer and help after the tragedy. But over the years, we've actually invested more than $200 million in investing in community revitalization in New Orleans. So we've had a long history and a long love of the city of New Orleans. The other main reason is that this program operates most effectively when you have strong local leadership. The leadership of Mayor Mitch Landrew, Delgado Community College, Bill Bynum, who runs Hope Enterprise, and we believe is one of the best CDFIs in the country. We really felt that there was a strong ecosystem that we could really invest in to deliver this program and to make sure that it was very effective.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  15. “Have day jobs, they don't have enough people to do the jobs they already have. They have to take four to six months of every other Saturday doing these modules plus clinics, plus write that growth business plan that they have to have to graduate. I think what it tells us is that there's real value in the program.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  16. “First of all, this is really particularly interesting data because this data is 18 months after the businesses have graduated. So we track the business owners from baseline when they get into the program at six months and then at 18 months. Obviously we were very pleased to see that the growth continued with these business owners. 67% of the participants reported increasing their revenues just six months after graduating. And then 46% reported creating net new jobs. And we were able to actually validate this data. I would say the numbers that continue to inspire us are the graduation rates and the marketplace creation. So 99% of 10,000 small business program participants nationwide complete the program. Which is pretty compelling because these are very busy people.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  17. “When we think about economic growth in our country, small businesses are central to the agenda, but they do face a lot of challenges. The first is they tend to be siloed. You know, it's a lonely thing being a small business owner. You're trying to meet payroll. You're managing your staff. You're looking for growth opportunities. So I think one of the things that this program addresses is building a network of small business owners. We were so proud to see that the cohorts that come together actually end up doing business with each other. So 75% of the graduates of 10,000 small businesses actually do business together and have created a marketplace. Access to capital remains a challenge. So that was one challenge we really sought to address. And when you graduate from 10,000 small businesses, you actually hold in your hand the most important thing that you can have when you're applying for a loan, which is a growth business plan that's been reviewed by a Goldman Sachs business advisor.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  18. “That are looking to scale up. That's right. So there are businesses that have been operating for at least two years, have at least four employees, have really already proven the business model. And now in many cases they've hit a plateau, some of them, by the way, are family businesses passed down through generations. And if you really provide them with pragmatic business education, access to capital and technical assistance through advising from Goldman Sachs professionals and local business advisors, that is really what propels them to reach their potential.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  19. “This is really a growth business program, and by that I mean we are focused on existing businesses who believe that with the right support, they can scale both in terms of their workforce, their revenue growth, and their impact in community. So through Delgado Community College in New Orleans, we've been able to implement a very pragmatic growth business curriculum. Elements of it include negotiations, access to capital, leadership, financial planning. And what we have found is that this Babson created curriculum, which is the number one entrepreneurial college now around the world, is really helping business owners ask the question, where do I want to be in five years? And that's sort of the central question that you hear from our business owners, particularly in New Orleans where there was great challenge, but now there's enormous opportunity. There's a robust small business community, and we think that the educational piece delivered by community colleges in our country.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  20. “Sure. Well, over the last several years, we have really believed that the best investment Goldman Sachs can make through our foundation is empowering entrepreneurs to reach their potential. When they do, they are the best drivers of economic growth and job creation. 10,000 small businesses is a program co-chaired by our CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, Warren Buffett, Michael Porter of Harvard Business School, and Michael Bloomberg. And they have really pushed us to think about what it is that grows small businesses. We believe that the secret sauce is bringing together business education, access to capital and technical assistance. Nowhere has this been exemplified more than in New Orleans, a city that obviously suffered great devastation and is now one of the best labs of entrepreneurship in the country. We've worked with over 300 business owners, some of them family, businesses, some of them new businesses. These were business owners who had the passion.”

    2015-08-26 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Small Business in the Big Easy: Powering an Economic Revival · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT