By Holden Wilen  – Reporter, Baltimore Business Journal

Running a business is never easy. Doing so during a global pandemic and surviving is even harder.

Five small business owners shared their stories of triumph during a virtual coffee networking event Wednesday morning hosted by Baltimore Business Lending, a nonprofit lender that helps small businesses get access to capital.

Covid-19 presented an unprecedented challenge to business owners when Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan issued a stay-at-home order and forced non-essential businesses to close. Even though the state has mostly reopened, the U.S. economy is now in a recession and businesses have to adapt to operating with social distancing measures.

Sid Sharma, co-founder of kombucha maker Mobtown Fermentation, said the company had to lay off nine employees, or half of its workforce. Kevin Antoine of KWJW Distributors had to adjust to an environment of lower trucking rates. Brittany Wight and her brother had been preparing to open a stall for their tea company at the Whitehall Market in Hampden when the pandemic hit.

Each business owner faced their own challenges, but each has found a way to adapt to survive. Here are their stories.

Keller Professional Services

Debra Keller-Green has been running her management consulting firm for more than 10 years. She has depended on her experience to lead Keller Professional Services through the pandemic.

Keller Professional Services provides consulting for human resources, workforce development training and staffing. Keller-Green said her strategy was to analyze her own business to focus on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

As a result of the pandemic, Keller-Green said she has developed a niche in providing human resources consulting to small businesses. She has also shifted from focusing on advising clients about employment investment to surviving Covid-19.

The biggest challenge has been cash flow, but Keller-Green said her business has been able to retain clients and has cash. She is currently focused on debt management and wants to create more partnerships with other businesses.

Benson Watch Co.

Marcel Benson was worried that his watch company might not make it out of the pandemic.

Benson had been working in consulting and financial management when he decided to change careers and start his own company about five years ago. With the help of Baltimore Business Lending, he built a company that BlackEnterprise reported is approaching $1 million in sales.

After Covid-19 hit, many businesses slashed their marketing budgets to save money. Benson decided to do the opposite. The result: Benson has seen his monthly sales quadruple. He said he recently sold out of his inventory that was supposed to last through the first quarter of next year.

“Things have been extremely, extremely, extremely great during this time,” he said. “It sounds funny to say that but it’s been a really good time for Benson.”

Investing in ads on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram gave Benson’s company more visibility as other companies stopped advertising.

“We leaned in and we put a little more into our budget and it turned out that it paid a lot more than it would have prior,” Benson said. “It’s been a really good time, things have really opened up. I’m just excited to see what’s next.”

Wight Tea Co.

Wight Tea Co. has operated mostly as a wholesale tea seller since sister-brother duo Brittany and Joey Wight started their business in 2016.

This year, they planned to open a stall at the newly renovated Whitehall Market. But right as they were getting ready to open, the pandemic forced businesses to close or operate on a delivery or carryout-only basis. Wight Tea offers loose-leaf teas and small-batch tea blends as well as brewed teas to go.

Brittany also said the company lost all of its wholesale orders.

“We were panicking, but similar to the watch company, we leaned into our digital marketing,” Brittany said.

Wight Tea saw an increase in its direct-to-consumer sales from its website because of the move. Simultaneously, Brittany said she and her brother moved forward with getting their new shop ready. They also regained some wholesale business by working with a concierge service in D.C. that was delivering office workers care packages.

“It was like 200 tins per month during the major part of the shutdown which was very helpful to us because we didn’t have any other wholesales,” Brittany said.

Whitehall Market, located inside a converted historic mill on Clipper Mill Road, opened earlier this month. Though the opening was delayed, Brittany said it provided a benefit because Wight Tea had more time to prepare for running a physical store.

KWJW Distributors

Kevin Antoine founded his company in 2018, the day after he graduated from college.

Antoine, 26, used his graduation money to pay for the business registration and spent the refund check from his master’s program to start the trucking and supply chain logistics company.

Four months into business, Antoine said he was renting trucks, but stopped using them because he found it was not cost-efficient. He ended up developing a freight brokerage division and finally bought his first truck in November. He bought a second truck in January.

When the pandemic struck, Antoine said rates across the industry dropped. He focused on paying his employees instead of himself, and described the past few months as “sacrificing and sacrificing.”

“I had to be the one to not get paid and make sure everyone was good,” Antoine said. “Through that experience I just learned how important it was to sacrifice for people to keep your business going. It wasn’t just about yourself and being financially set.”

Rates have started going back up and business is good, Antoine said. Despite the challenges Covid-19 presented, he said he enjoys working every day.

“Grit, that’s what it’s all about,” Antoine said. “You’re going to go through problems and it’s a blessing to go through problems because that’s how you become great.”

Mobtown Fermenation

Since being founded out of a juice shop in Hampden in 2015, kombucha maker Mobtown Fermentation has been one of Baltimore’s most successful small businesses.

Co-founder Sid Sharma said the company’s Wild Kombucha can be found in more than 1,000 stores in nine states, including grocers like Whole Foods, Harris Teeter and Giant. Mobtown opened a 13,000-square-foot brewery and taproom in Northwest Baltimore last year to handle its surging growth.

Covid-19 forced the company to adapt dramatically. Mobtown had a $1 million deal to go into all WeWorks offices from D.C. to Boston when the novel coronavirus spread across the U.S.

“We had been financially planning for that,” Sharma said.

Mobtown had to let nine employees go despite getting a Paycheck Protection Program loan, a state grant and an advance from the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.

With all of its cafe and restaurant partners closed, Mobtown “leaned in” on its grocery customers for cash flow and revenue, Sharma said. The company is also doing more home deliveries.

“Coming back on the other side, there is a lot of excitement,” Sharma said. “We have a lot of exciting contracts in the works and we’re hopeful we can just continue to build the way we were.”

Original article located at https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2020/06/25/how-five-small-businesses-have-survived-covid-19.html