Welcome to the Business of Business - Two Daughters & Their Dad Podcast!
So you have your why - now what? Do I find money & a location first, buy product or write my business plan?
Jennifer shares how she developed a business plan and sought out a business partner - in this case her dad Jack.
Listen as the Dempsey's talk about the team that helped write the business plan, explain when healthy tension is good, discuss why living lean is vital and lastly why you should read about and understand the Sigmoid Curve - https://uplandsoftware.com/cimpl/resources/blog/the-sigmoid-curve-a-model-for-constant-business-growth-and-innovation/
But who are the Dempseys?
Jennifer Faith Dempsey has been in the beauty industry for over 10 years. The last 3 1/2 years she has owned J.Faith Hair Studio. She brings her experience on how she balances entrepreneurship and motherhood.
Staci Joy Dempsey is an insurance agent, a mom and a busy non profit volunteer. She truly understands what it means to be an entrepreneur. Staci serves as the podcast's host.
Jack Dempsey is the dad who heads up this busy family. He is a founding partner in Dempsey, Weiss & Associates, an Elmer, NJ based insurance and investment firm begun more than 30 years ago.
The Business of Business podcast is sponsored by:
Dempsey, Weiss & Associates, Elmer, NJ, 856-358-3900
J. Faith Hair Studio, Logan Township, NJ 856-975-5965
Email us at: TwoDaughtersAndTheirDad@gmail.com
Please download our Best of Nuggets eBook here.
Like and follow us on Facebook
Jennifer Faith Dempsey has been in the beauty industry for over 10 years. For the last 5m years, she has owned J. Faith Hair Studio. She brings her experience on how she balances entrepreneurship and motherhood. Check out Jen’s blog.
Staci Joy Dempsey is an insurance agent, a mom, and a busy non-profit volunteer. She truly understands what it means to be an entrepreneur. Staci serves as the podcast's host.
Jack Dempsey is the dad who heads up this busy family. He is a founding partner in Dempsey, Weiss & Associates, an Elmer, NJ-based insurance and investment firm that began more than 30 years ago.
Welcome to the Business of Business - Two Daughters & Their Dad Podcast!
So you have your why - now what? Do I find money & a location first, buy product or write my business plan?
Jennifer shares how she developed a business plan and sought out a business partner - in this case her dad Jack.
Listen as the Dempsey's talk about the team that helped write the business plan, explain when healthy tension is good, discuss why living lean is vital and lastly why you should read about and understand the Sigmoid Curve - https://uplandsoftware.com/cimpl/resources/blog/the-sigmoid-curve-a-model-for-constant-business-growth-and-innovation/
But who are the Dempseys?
Jennifer Faith Dempsey has been in the beauty industry for over 10 years. The last 3 1/2 years she has owned J.Faith Hair Studio. She brings her experience on how she balances entrepreneurship and motherhood.
Staci Joy Dempsey is an insurance agent, a mom and a busy non profit volunteer. She truly understands what it means to be an entrepreneur. Staci serves as the podcast's host.
Jack Dempsey is the dad who heads up this busy family. He is a founding partner in Dempsey, Weiss & Associates, an Elmer, NJ based insurance and investment firm begun more than 30 years ago.
The Business of Business podcast is sponsored by:
Dempsey, Weiss & Associates, Elmer, NJ, 856-358-3900
J. Faith Hair Studio, Logan Township, NJ 856-975-5965
Email us at: TwoDaughtersAndTheirDad@gmail.com
Please download our Best of Nuggets eBook here.
Like and follow us on Facebook
Jennifer Faith Dempsey has been in the beauty industry for over 10 years. For the last 5m years, she has owned J. Faith Hair Studio. She brings her experience on how she balances entrepreneurship and motherhood. Check out Jen’s blog.
Staci Joy Dempsey is an insurance agent, a mom, and a busy non-profit volunteer. She truly understands what it means to be an entrepreneur. Staci serves as the podcast's host.
Jack Dempsey is the dad who heads up this busy family. He is a founding partner in Dempsey, Weiss & Associates, an Elmer, NJ-based insurance and investment firm that began more than 30 years ago.
Staci Dempsey: 0:00
Hey there and welcome to the business of business podcast. Here were two daughters and their dad seeking to inspire and educate you to follow your dreams of being in business by teaching you the business of being in business. The good, the bad, the humor are all parts of our unique perspective as an entrepreneurial family. Thanks for joining us. So grab a coffee. Turn up the volume. Here we go.
Staci Dempsey: 0:26
Hi, everybody. This is your host Staci J. Dempsey. The J is very important - it brings the joy! And I am here with my dad, Jack Dempsey and my sister, Jennifer Dempsey. The three of us make up the two daughters and the dad.
Staci Dempsey: 0:39
So we'd like to go back to our next episode. In our last episode, we talked about the why of starting a business. So now that we know our why, let's talk about what the next step is. Where where do we actually start? Where do we actually start in? And that could be do we start with a business plan? Where do we start in terms of money. What do we do next? Jack and Jennifer?
Jennifer Dempsey: 1:09
Well, I guess I'll talk about my experience and where I started. I knew that I was ready to start a business with or without help. So I had no idea where to start other than a business plan. And at the time the apartment I lived, I had no computer, no printer. I spent every day at the library looking things up. How do you write a business plan? I just kind of started filling in the blanks of what made sense to me. I found someone that kind of helped put you in the right direction of trying to find any loans to help start abusiness. He gave me this great big packet of paper that made absolutely no sense to me. And that's when I felt defeated for the first time in trying to open a business. So I focused on the business plan. I think I went to each one of my siblings and had them read it, correct it and definitely spell check it. Remember, I'm a hair stylist! Then I finally went to my dad and begged him to read it. Once I felt like it was perfect and mine. And my question to him was Now what do I do? Do you remember?
Jack Dempsey: 2:36
I do. I don't remember that you had to beg me to read it.
Jennifer Dempsey: 2:40
You're a very busy man; I had to beg.
Jack Dempsey: 2:42
Yeah, I think I was pretty eager. I remember reading it and just being very impressed with the amount of time that you put into it, the thought that you put into putting it together. And then I think that's really what convinced me that you were serious about being in the business of doing hair. So that's when I think our conversations really started to have an uptick of seriousness to them because of really what you did in that business plan. So it was very impressive.
Jennifer Dempsey: 3:24
So I decided to quit my 7-8 year salon job as a manager and I decided to focus fully on starting my own business. And I recruited my clients. I was old school doing people's hair in my apartment, just trying to bring any amount of income in to keep me afloat. I dedicated my time to finding a place finding the right location, where I could actually put a salon and that was even a challenge. I think what's important about this story is I never expected for you to say yes to go into business with me. I was fully prepared to take out any amount of money to start a business or the business that I wanted. That's how dedicated I was. I didn't care about what amount of debt it was gonna take to make it happen. So when you offered for us to go into business together, obviously that was a dream come true because I always looked at my dad, obviously as my dad, but a mentor as well. I think when you said we could go into business together and obviously gave me a long list of rules, that's when the pressure started. So the doors didn't even open yet and the pressure was on, and it consumed my life to get this business up and running.
Jack Dempsey: 5:10
It was good pressure, right? It was a healthy pressure.
Jennifer Dempsey: 5:14
It was healthy pressure. Of course
Jack Dempsey: 5:16
We call it healthy tension. there's always good to have tension. That's how we grow. So we'll call it healthy tension how that?
Jennifer Dempsey: 5:26
healthy, healthy tension.
Jack Dempsey: 5:28
Well, I want to go back to something you said, because I think it's very important. Once you decided that you I wanted to be in the business of hair and the first thing you had to do was quit the salon that you were working in, and were doing very well at because if I recall, I think you had a six month non compete that you had to wait out
Jennifer Dempsey: 5:58
right
Jack Dempsey: 5:58
before you could even do business. So again, big step, that was a step outside your comfort zone. So that again caught my attention that if you're willing to step away from something that clearly you were enjoying and being very successful at, that opened my eyes to the seriousness of your pursuit of being an entrepreneur. And then, as I said when I read your business plan and how you spent the time - you gave a lot of thought you really put together an effective plan - I got thinking to myself, you know where's Jennifer gonna go to get money? Where is she going to get the money to start this business> Because clearly you didn't have enough money in your savings account to do. We're going to have to go get money somewhere.
Jack Dempsey: 6:56
So when I started thinking about banks and other places I knew probably no matter what, I was going to have to put my name on to something for you to get the money, which I was prepared to do. Then my business senses kicked in. So if I'm going to put my name to something, I might as well put my name to the business itself and not on a guarantee of guarantee or on a loan. So I think then that's when I went to you and I said, Jen, you've got two options. I could be in on investor or I can be a partner. A nd I explained to you that being an investor was probably long term better for you because you could pay me back. And a partnership was gonna be better for me long term. But I was going to give you the choice and you chose
Jennifer Dempsey: 7:52
to be a partner. And I chose that because we've had this love of business together. And I think, you know, my dad has been a mentor through my whole career, from the beginning. I remember us driving to cosmetology schools to check them out. You remember that? So I feel like you have always been involved in in my career and I think one thing that's super important is the day I quit the salon and I told my whole family that I was going to open a business it was a positive reaction. Not one person in my family said anything negative. Everyone was so excited and ready to be a part of the journey to help in any way that they can. And believe me, they did help a lot and still so. I think that's important when you're starting a business. I think that the people that are closest to you, if they all have a negative reaction to what you're trying to do, then that's going to affect you. So making sure that the people that are closest to you are are on the same team is crucial.
Jack Dempsey: 9:10
Well, there's no doubt. So I think one of the things, Staci, that this story should teach those out there who are looking to become entrepreneurs and looking to raise some funds to get their business off the ground is if you are planning to go to family members or friends to invest, go with a plan. Don't go just relying on the friendship or relying on the bloodline of a family to make them start that writing checks to put in your business. Treat it like a transaction. Treat it like a business transaction. Put the plan together, give them some projections on the business. And, I think if you do that, you're going to stand certainly a much better opportunity of having people invest in your business. But also it's just going to position you to probably pay those investors back a lot sooner than maybe what everybody anticipated. Go with a plan. And that would definitely increase your odds of raising the necessary funding for your business through that avenue.
Staci Dempsey: 10:38
So Jennifer, just so everyone's clear, how long did it take you to complete your business plan? I mean, was it like, a three day, let me go to the library, find a template and cut and paste? What did you kind of really learn through that experience? And how long did it take you to put that the actual plan together to the point that when you gave it when you gave it to Dad, like not that not what we edited, not what we as siblings looked at but how long did it take from when you started to when you gave it to Dad.
Jennifer Dempsey: 11:09
You know it's been a while now, so I can't remember exactly. But I started the business plan while I was still was working. I knew the time was coming and I felt like it was coming. This is chapter is coming to a close, and I'm ready to start the next chapter. So I want to say three months of starting the business plan, meeting with different people. Then that day that I decided I wasn't coming back to the salon any longer that was when the business plan got delivered. Like, OK this is serious. Now, this is This is what we're gonna focus on.
Staci Dempsey: 11:56
So you know what the business plan, obviously Jack talked about it and potentially doing transactions with family members or friends and things like that. There's all of obviously other avenues if people don't have that ability to go to a family member. So what would you say as far as what are other avenues that people need, can go to to get some money, get some capital to start their start their businesses and keeping in mind that some businesses take more capital than others? I think hair salons are potentially up there with the some of the most demanding upfront costs. If I remember your research for when we started going down this road, it was getting space, getting the product in there, getting like everything you have to kind of purchase upfront before you can actually cut, color, shampoo and blow dry someone's hair, right?
Jennifer Dempsey: 12:52
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. We definitely needed some money to make it presentable. And I think I had to talk to you Dad and tell you like I want this to look a certain way and it has to be this expensive chandelier and then we realized really quickly that yes, we need it to be nice and beautiful and comfortable, but we also can't spend $100,000 on a salon. There was definitely a happy medium. So how do you think we could have one about it in a different way if you didn't want to go into business with me, Dad?
Jack Dempsey: 13:42
Well, to begin depends on the type of business. Certainly in your case, Jennifer would have been probably building a business plan, putting in some type of projections and showing your track record because you're probably going to have to go either through some type of small business loan or bank loan in order to get the upfront costs that you need to do the build out of the space and to buy the the chairs, the mirrors, all the fixtures. I think you would have had to really show kind of what kind of revenue you generated yourself up to that point.
Jack Dempsey: 14:29
So as much as much as you can show the people who are looking to give you the financing that you are solid and know what you're doing the more likely you were to get some money, but it would have been tough. It would have been tough to get it, get all that you really needed. So now other types of businesses, sometimes you can you can start small. You could start smaller where the upfront costs aren't that onerous, you might even be able to do some business is on the side while you're still keeping your day job so that you can experiment or test the waters to see if it's a legitimate way to build a business, have a business and grow a business.
Jack Dempsey: 15:24
But at the end of the day, you going to have to have financials if you're going to raise money to fund a business. S like I said it could be family members. It can be a bank. It can be a small business administration. It could be specialty money that's out there grants. I'm not that familiar with them all but certainly women in business there seems to be some grant money or was for, women starting businesses. Probably not a particularly easy process to go through would be my guess. But there's those kind of things. It would you would depend a lot on your perseverance or determination, the quality of your business plan, how things were thought out -- all that would be the most important aspect of of trying to raise money. Now there's other things out there, too. I mean you might even be able to do go fund me - there might be a way to raise some money that way to get your business funding, $5 at a time from people Get creative, I guess, is my point. There's a lot of room for creativity when you're starting up the business. So don't be afraid to be creative in trying to raise the necessary funding to get your business started.
Staci Dempsey: 16:56
And you mentioned, Jack, some people are still working their 9 to 5 and doing their passion on the side. They can kind of put a pinky toe in at a time and start small. And I know I have a handful of clients that they just simply saved. They saved their money. They had their business plan, to really kind of start their business full force five years from now and in that to the business plan was receiving our money. We're going to live lean as you mentioned in our last episode, and that's going to be the avenue that we that we go down. But, that wasn't after a lot of research of can I go get a loan? And what does that look like? And how soon do I pay it back. You just kind of work through all those different avenues. Any links that we have of resources for our listeners about where to find capital and websites we will certainly linked them below our podcast.
Jack Dempsey: 17:58
I think another thing to real quick, and Jennifer mentioned it earlier, just some of sacrifices that she made -getting rid of an apartment and really reducing her personal expenses down. You know especially if you're going out there looking for funding from some of the traditional sources, like bank, anything that you can show like that where you have really reduced down your personal expenses to the bare bones goes a long way to give them confidence again that you're serious about building a business and having a successful business.
Staci Dempsey: 18:39
Yes Jen, theres some rough years there, you have to move back in with Mom. But what people don't realize is that you had lived on your own for five or six years at that point. You had your own place, own car, your whole own life going on, right? And then to really humble yourself to say All right. Hey, Mom, can I come back and live with you, after really just being out there in the world and doing your own thing for so long. That was rough. Because I remember I was there helping you move back in.
Jennifer Dempsey: 19:14
Oh, yeah. It was definitely rough. And but I think it goes back to what we talked about before, if you're why is strong enough those sacrifices don't seem like sacrifices. Because it was all for the greater good. It was all for the greater purpose I knew. Not everybody has the opportunity to move back home. So I took those sacrifices as really blessings that again, my family supported me in the decisions that I was making. To be able to go back home was my mom's way of supporting me to say you can come live here until you get back on your feet.
Staci Dempsey: 19:55
right, right. Good stuff. And ANY final thoughts before we wrap this episode up on Where do I start? I guess the where do I starts is I start with a business plan. Go through that process thoroughly. Give it to people that have an invested interest in that plan. Being successful and then go down the avenues of researching what kind of capital you need and what are those areas that you can go get that. Get that money to start your business if I'm remembering this all correctly, right,
Jack Dempsey: 20:30
Well, you are. I think what's important as time goes on, and as we talked, as you said in our last episode about a Why - if you want and start thinking about your business in terms of scale and how large you want your business to get and how you want to grow your business, this continues to be talking about how to finance it. That never really goes away because you determine how am I going to get the necessary funding to get my business started, then you have a level of growth in your business, and then it becomes about now where do I get the funding to grow and to continue to grow because you will plateau. If you're not careful, there's a mathematical equation out there called the Sigmoid Curve, and that basically says that when you when you start something like a new business, you're going to have a starting point then you're gonna immediately have a dip. In growth, in your personal and business things, we're going to go down a little bit because the business is just getting off the ground. Then, as the business starts to go up and grow its at what point in that growth. Now do I reinvest and start the sigmoid curve over again, because if you don't make that investment during your growth stage than your business will plateau. It'll turn on itself to where you can no longer grow because you didn't make the necessary investment during the growth stage.
Jack Dempsey: 22:24
So that's what Jennifer and I were talking about now is as she's growing at what point do we make a reinvestment cause the scary part of that is just starting the curve over again. You know you're starting that where you're going maybe have to go backwards a little bit to go up again. So funding and finding money to continue growth is always going to be there. But now, in Jennifer's case, she's got three years of business under a belt, and she's got her financials that any banks go can look at now. And she's not going to have any trouble at all being able to get additional funding to invest in growth because she's committed to staying lean and allowing the money that the business is generating to go back into the business for growth. This builds financials, which builds a story which will then actually have banks and other financing options really lining up to do business with you, rather than you trying to figure out someone to do business with you. Big difference.
Jennifer Dempsey: 23:48
I know. Isn't that crazy how it works? In the beginning there's so much fear and so much pressure, especially around financials. Then you get to a place that you're comfortable, like we have some cash flow happening and I'm taking a little bit of money. I'm back to buy in a new purse every once in a while, right? And then and then we get to that place again and we stop and say now it's time to invest again. But then you're like no, no, no. I want to hold on to my money. I just got comfortable. So for sure being an entrepreneur just goes back to always being able to be pushed out of your comfort zone. We see this cycle happening so you master that and you're well, you're good to go. But we're still gonna be scared sometimes. Right?
Jack Dempsey: 24:36
New purse. Wait a minute,
Staci Dempsey: 24:39
Jennifer, you know, you're supposed to fly under the radar with these things.
Jennifer Dempsey: 24:43
I have to give my ladies some some hope. We went from Michael Coors to Target back to Michael Cores. I mean, there's hope out here, right?
Jack Dempsey: 24:54
Well, no, no, it could have went from Target to Marshals or something like that, with a step, we could have stepped it back up.
Jack Dempsey: 25:04
I think that comfortable is a very important word because that really is something that, as entrepreneurs you have to be very careful with is because you start your business, you have that dip. You've worked hard. It's been grueling. It's been hard. You're starting to feel growth. You're starting to see some cash flow. You know, you're looking at the car. You're looking at these things that you've been nursing along for a while, thinking, boy, now is the time to, you know, get that new car or make this purchase.
Jack Dempsey: 25:40
It's at that point you've got to step back, reexamine your why and say, OK, am I at scale? Is this where I want to be - be with my business? Was this the size of business that I envisioned when I started? Because if it's not, then put air in the tires, get the oil changed and give it a good wash job. But, keep the car and invest back in your business. Because again, if you're going to build something that's meaningful, you have to invest in that growth stage. You cannot allow lifestyle to start pulling money from your business because again, you'll never get there when you're investing in lifestyle
Staci Dempsey: 26:27
Good stuff! Well, I want to thank you both for taking the time out to do our podcast. Thanks everybody for listening, and we will talk to you all soon. Thanks. We want to thank you for listening today. Please subscribe and never miss an episode. Leave us a positive review and we want to say thank you to our sponsors Dempsey, Weiss & Associates and J. Faith Hair Studio