Beacon Journal
Akron Beacon Journal
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) In this snippet from the “Now You Know Akron” podcast we’re introduced to small business owner Savannah Griggs who shares her experiences trying to secure her first brick and mortar location.
Akron
In this special edition of the Now You Know Akron podcast, we catch up with Savannah Griggs, owner of Sweet and Savvy, a home-based baking business that specializes in custom cakes, cupcakes and chocolate-dipped items. The business also has a new storefront on the way in downtown Akron with plans to open in the summer of next year.
Sweet and Savvy was featured earlier this year as part of the Beacon Journal’s ongoing “Focus on Black-owned businesses” series. The Now You Know Akron podcast will also begin to highlight entrepreneurs from this series on a regular basis, discussing the challenges for young, minority business owners as well as the variety of goods and services they offer to the community.
Griggs talked about discovering an unexpected passion with baking and also some of the trials and tribulations of getting her small business up and running.
“It definitely was hard,” she said of securing her first brick and mortar location in Barberton. “I would have my dad and different guy friends of mine call for different buildings. I would call and they would get prices completely different that I would — (the prices I got were) way out of my price range.”
Griggs chalked the experience up to “stepping stones you have to step over and get through” to get a business going.
“It’s definitely one of those things that in the moment, it’s like, ‘This is annoying. What’s the difference if a women is running a business verses if a man is running the businesses?’ If you have the capabilities of running the business and making the money, then it shouldn’t matter what the lease rate is. I should be able to get the same lease that you give anybody else despite the fact of me being a minority, me being young or a woman or anything like that. That doesn’t disqualify me for the abilities I have to make a business work.”
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