Thanks to the SBDC, this entrepreneur is already creating jobs for residents of her community.
After six years as manager of Silverlake Cheese Shop, Leah Park Fierro knew she wanted to start her own business that would express her passion for educating the community on the fine tastes of artisan cheese. Her startup, MilkfarmLA, is a neighborhood cheese shop that sells hundreds of international cheeses along with artisanal wine, beer and charcuterie from small, independent local producers.
Challenges
By September 2013, Fierro had written a business plan and found a location in the Eagle Rock area of Los Angeles. Knowing she needed help designing a business website, she attended a Pasadena City College small business event, where she learned about the newly opened Small Business Development Center hosted by PCC.
Best Advice
SBDC Directors Salvatrice Cummo and Mike Daniel as well as advisors Laura Lara and Se Reed helped Fierro develop an integrated marketing strategy, create a business website, and use QuickBooks for her bookkeeping. The SBDC team also introduced her to a key partner, the Foothill Workforce Investment Board (FWIB), which assisted Fierro through a partial subsidy for her employee salaries.
“I had worked in management and run a cheese store, but never actually had to do bookkeeping. To go from selling cheese to having to do accounting has been a massive learning curve, but the SBDC has been tremendously helpful — I don’t know what I would have done without them.
Leah Park Fierro, Owner, MilkfarmLA
From Zero to Sixty
Fierro understood the importance of proper accounting systems, and knew she needed help in this area. “I had zero experience with QuickBooks,” she explains. “I had worked in management and run a cheese store, but never actually had to do bookkeeping. To go from selling cheese to having to do accounting has been a massive learning curve, but [SBDC Business Advisor] Laura Lara has been tremendously helpful—I don’t know what I would have done without her.” Thanks to Lara’s training, Fierro was up and running with QuickBooks from day one.
Hiring Help
Creating new jobs for local residents is important to Fierro, so when Cummo connected her with the Foothill Workforce Investment Board (FWIB), a program that matches employers with employees who are seeking to learn new job skills and overcome disadvantages, she was thrilled. The fact that FWIB pays a portion of a new hire’s wages during their initial four months was a bonus. “That has been a tremendous help,” says Fierro, “because when [a new employee has] to learn 300 cheeses and the meats and wines that pair with them, a lot of labor is lost to training.” Cummo has hired two full-time employees so far, one through FWIB, and plans to go back to the organization again when it’s time to expand.
Mastering the Web
Social media marketing came easily to Fierro. “I was already savvy, so that was easy to set up and execute.” However, building a website and integrating it with her social mediapresence was more of a challenge. Initially, she thought the SBDC would match her with someone who would do the job for her, but Reed showed her how important it was to learn website development basics herself.
“I’m using WordPress, which is totally user-friendly,” Fierro says. “Now in the future, I can make changes myself and not have to rely on an expensive Web developer.” Reed also showed Fierro what elements her website needed to improve its SEO and how to use email marketing program MailChimp to develop an email marketing newsletter.
Client Impact
MilkfarmLA opened in April 2014 with two full-time employees. Already the store has exceeded Fierro’s expectations. “It’s above and beyond,” she says delightedly. “The reaction from the community has been very positive—people come in and say ‘I’ve been waiting seven months for you to open!”
Fierro is preparing to launch her website and working to get her alcoholic beverage license. “I already know that once we get our beer and wine license I’ll have to hire another employee and get another POS [station],” she says. During Small Business Week 2014, she received the Outstanding Small Business Award from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. “I want the business to continue to grow financially, create more jobs for people in the neighborhood, and educate the community about good food and fresh products” she says.
