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Success stories

Christine George Design, Napa

BACKGROUND
Christine George is a professional Napa Valley artist who actually makes a very good living with her art - a worthy accomplishment in today’s world. She does this by combining a myriad of skills and talents, and has established a freelance art business that includes fine art, photography, graphic design, and teaching at art institutions.

Based on a lifelong love of horses, she has successfully crafted a niche in equine art, photography and graphic design. During her career, she worked at Landor Associates Design firm in San Francisco, and later started her own design business while teaching as assistant Department Chair for San Francisco Academy of Art University for ten years, and chairing the Corcoran College of Art and Design Department in Washington DC for 2.5 years. She currently teaches packaging design and is the Freshman Faculty Mentor at the Academy of Art University in SF.

David's Shoe Repair, Santa Rosa

BACKGROUND
David’s Shoe Repair is a retail western apparel and shoe repair company located in the Roseland Community of Santa Rosa. Roseland is one of the County of Sonoma’s Redevelopment Areas, populated primarily by predominately Spanish speaking businesses.

Knights Contractors, Windsor

BACKGROUND
Knights Contractors; an electrical contractor business to the commercial and institutional building construction industry. They cover the greater North Bay with services for over 30 years. They currently employ 30 full time individuals in four departments.

Bottle Cap Food & Drink, San Francisco

BACKGROUND
Bottle Cap celebrated its Grand Opening on July 12th at 1707 Powell Street in the San Francisco North Beach area. The former site of the Washington Square Bar and Grill has become the latest project of Chef Dane Boryta and his wife Elizabeth Ferro.

Bottle Cap is a casual bistro featuring “New American” cuisine with a market-driven menu that will promote customer choice using fresh, organic, seasonal and locally grown and harvested produce, poultry, meats and seafood - offering the best quality product at a reasonable price.  Chef Dane and Liz Ferro have redesigned the interior of the iconic Washington Square eatery to highlight sunny views of the parks although the warm walnut bar remains as an anchor to its history. The concept behind Bottle Cap is to create a lively, memorable restaurant experience that, while sophisticated, is still approachable enough for a weekly visit.

Chepo's Tamales, Elmira

BACKGROUND
Chepo’s Tamales and Groceries is located in Elmira, CA. The business conducts both retail sales at its market in Elmira, CA and wholesale sales of tamales to vendors in Solano and Yolo counties. Chepo’s Tamales produces and sells authentic Mexican Style homemade Tamales. The recipe for the tamales is based on those from the Northern Mexico territory which puts a lot of emphasis on the corn and the grind into corn meal. Each tamale is tied with a corn husk at each end rather than just folding it over.

Eco-Delight Coffee, Suisun City

BACKGROUND
Bendig-Moran Roasting, LLC d.b.a. Eco-Delight Coffee is located in Suisun City, California. The company imports coffee beans from Central American coffee farms and roasts the coffee beans in accordance to the unique characteristics of each of these coffees; Guatemala Huehuetenango, El Salvador Apaneca, Costa Rica Tarrazu and Poas Slopes and Dominican Republic, Jarabacoa. Mr. Moran’s family has been growing coffee in coffee plantations in the Western part of El Salvador for 5 generations. His partner’s grandfather founded the Bendig-Maquinaria S.A. company in 1954 which manufactures machines and equipment for coffee wet/dry milling, roasting and grinding.

Petits Confettis, A French Immersion Pre-School, Mountain View

BACKGROUND
Helene Gsell, owner of Petits Confettis (which means “Small Confettis” because children are like little confettis in a carnival that represent life being spread everywhere with a lot of fun! ), a new French immersion pre-school based in Mountain View, has a dream of opening an early child development center with the hope of exposing children to the French language and its rich culture. Based on her own experience as a mom with 2 young children, she understands the importance of providing quality French education through a kid-friendly, play-based program model, where children learn best through creativity and curiosity, while building confidence in embracing a new language in a bilingual/multi-lingual environment.

Cake Plate, Napa

BACKGROUND
Cake Plate started in 2007 by Lindsay Kroll selling designer clothes for women and is operated as a sole proprietorship. The name of the business comes from Lindsay's fondness for old cake plates. Lindsay grew up in Napa and worked in the area prior to opening this store. Her great number of relatives, friends and acquaintances has been very instrumental in the growth of the business. In addition Lindsay has a good eye for design, decorating and creating unique displays. Business is generated not only at the store but with periodic "Trunk" shows in store and in private homes, including San Francisco. Recently, Cake Plate has expanded it’s client base.

Backroom Wines, Napa

BACKGROUND
Initially, Dan first sought advice from the SBDC in 2001, on opening a business, how to write a business plan and financial assistance. Backroom Wines was opened 10 years ago by Dan Dawson and is operated as a sole proprietorship. Business growth dictated expanding and it is now in its second location. Dan operates the business with one employee. Prior to opening his own business, Dan opened several similar operations including developing wine clubs. With his experience and client base, Dan was able to grow sales and become profitable from the start. His initial concept was to be in a back industrial area, hence the business name. However, an opportunity for a location in downtown Napa became available and Dan decided some foot traffic was desirable to add to his existing base and be plus for business. It made sense as at the time downtown Napa had little foot traffic and would not interfere with the more profitable part of the operation. 

Happy Woman Jewelry, Redwood Valley

BACKGROUND
Laura Buckner first became a West Company client in 2002, and she returned in 2010.  She is an artist who designs and makes beautiful one-of-a-kind gemstone jewelry.  Over the years she has built up a loyal customer base of approximately forty retail stores in Mendocino county and surrounding areas.

To sell her jewelry, Laura has traveled to visit her customers personally at their retail stores; she has also participated in several local gift shows and community events throughout the year. Her personal touch and word-of-mouth marketing has served well to gradually grow her business and has provided a consistent, modest annual income through small orders.