Being the only hotel around, it’s often booked.

Entrepreneur Glenna Combs, of Manchester, didn’t give this point much thought when she built a guest house on her property two years ago. A “hobbyist” hat maker who hosts millinery and other art related workshops at her home, Glenna built the guesthouse to accommodate her workshop attendees, who were coming from as far as Michigan for her classes.

At the same time, Stay in Clay, a community group whose focus is to strengthen the local economy was preparing to host MACED’s How to Airbnb training. The group recognized the need for lodging options that extended beyond the town’s singular hotel so that the community could accommodate guests for the many festivals and outdoor recreation opportunities happening around them.

Vanda Rice, head of Stay in Clay, urged Glenna to attend the workshop. At first, Glenna had no interest in listing her home, thinking “it was probably a waste of time,” but she attended the workshop anyway and, a few months after the training, Glenna listed her newly built Sycamore Hollow Guest House on the site.

Soon after opening her Airbnb, Glenna recognized the demand for lodging in the area was greater than her guest house could handle and decided to convert the upstairs of her home into another private Airbnb listing. In August 2019, Glenna also added her own living quarters as a third listing. She says she’ll go stay with her son if all three listings are booked. Glenna reports laundry is her biggest problem— “I forever have sheets and towels in the washer,” and she’s hired a neighbor to help clean the properties.

Glenna’s income from the listings are a testament to both the need of short-term lodging options in the area and Glenna’s skill at attracting visitors. Last year, she averaged $565 a month in earnings; so far this year she’s averaging $1,000 a month. “I know because I just did my accounting,” Glenna said.

Accounting and taxes are important points covered in MACED’s How to Airbnb training, which encourages hosts to take a proactive role in knowing their finances and paying applicable tax dollars. Glenna tells other people interested in hosting Airbnb listings that it is a “no-brainer,” and she has even worked to help another local couple start their own listing. “Everyone is staying full,” she says.  “If I’ve learned anything since the training, it’s that it’s a lot more successful than I thought it would be.”

For more information on how you can set up a listing on Airbnb, please review this handout. If you are interested in hosting a How to Airbnb training in your community, please contact us at info@mtassociation.org.

MACED is proud to have provided support for the Sycamore Hollow website.

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Located in the basement of a house in Whitesburg, Kentucky, Fat Baby Studios was started by Letcher County native, Kenny Miles, after he moved back to Kentucky following a brief stint in Nashville.

“First someone has to die to make some space there,” Miles said of Nashville. “Kentucky music is simply better. The community is more supportive, and everyone is more focused on quality rather than on climbing a ladder.”

Miles’s practiced ear and experience as a sound engineer has the studio producing albums for rising artists like Senora May (Estill County), Sean Whiting (Pike County), and Josh Nolan (Powell County). Other Kentucky music favorites like Laid Back Country Picker (Lawrence County), Luna and the Mountain Jets (Lawrence County), Slut Pill (Letcher County), and Brett Ratliff (Johnson County) are also in the studio’s portfolio.

An artist himself, Miles and his brother, Hayden, started the band Wayne Graham in 2010. They’re currently on tour in Europe.

Signed by two German labels (K&F Records and Hometown Caravan) and one Denmark label (Celebration Records), Rolling Stone Germany wrote a feature article, “This Season’s Beards,” about the band in October 2018. The article came after the band made huge waves in Germany. Their album was chosen as one of the Top 20 albums of 2018, their song was chosen as a top song of 2018, and the album was featured as the Top Critic’s Pick in Rolling Stone Germany for three months in a row.

Though the name for Fat Baby Studios came about a bit randomly, the name for the band has significant family meaning. It comes from the first names of the brothers’ paternal and maternal grandfathers, Wayne Miles and Graham Kincer.

Kenny and Hayden say: “Our music is about family. When you take a listen, you become part of the story because we sing about the joys and trials that every family faces.” A four-piece band, Kenny is on vocals and guitar, Hayden on drums, and fellow Kentuckians, Lee Owen and Chris Justice are on lead guitar and bass.

While playing music is an age-old eastern Kentucky tradition, many times this music has been taken out of state for final production in studios in Nashville and elsewhere. Wayne Graham and Fat Baby Studios are making and producing music in the Kentucky hills – the very hills that inspired the music.

Though the Miles brothers are taking their music worldwide, they are keeping money local and building up the music industry in eastern Kentucky through their studio – a perfect example of Appalachia’s New Day.

About: Appalachia’s New Day is a new storytelling effort offered by MACED to eastern Kentucky communities. We can work with you to help identify, shape and amplify stories about businesses, programs and initiatives in your community that are helping build a new economy in eastern Kentucky. Read more stories here. Contact us or sign up here if you would like more details.

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This year, we are proud that Regina Becknell of our Paintsville office was awarded the 2019 Small Business Administration Microlender Financial Services Advocate of the Year!

This summer will mark 15 years since Regina joined MACED’s staff. She is a project specialist who works with local entrepreneurs to discuss their business ideas and see them through the lending process if it is right for them. Starting a business can be intimidating, and Regina finds ways to make it more approachable. Many clients who work with Regina appreciate her one-on-one attention and have found her tips instrumental to their success!

American Metal Works, one of MACED’s clients who works with Regina, was also recognized as a 2019 Pacesetter.

Founded in September 2016 by James Glass and Denny Rohrer, they manufacturer aerospace, automotive, biomedical, defense and other manufacturing materials. Located in Paintsville on the Mayo campus of Big Sandy Community and Technical College, together, their staff has more than 75 years’ experience in the oil, natural gas, and mining industries. James and Denny started the business to help transition those displaced from the coal and natural gas industries into advanced manufacturing employment opportunities. Check out this shiny new video on their business!

Regina started at MACED in July 2004. A graduate of Berea College, she recently served as the president of the Floyd County Chamber of Commerce in Prestonsburg, and worked part-time for the Morehead State University Small Business Development Center. She has years of experience in fundraising, marketing, finance, design, leadership initiatives, economic development and technical assistance to businesses. Regina has also served as board member for the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Executives, and has been a member of the Kentucky Industrial Development Council and Prestonsburg Rotarian. Contact Regina at rbecknell@mtassociation.org or 606-264-5910.

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More than 26,000 Kentucky businesses, employing more than 300,000 people, are owned by baby boomers. Many have not identified the next generation of ownership and could be at risk of closing their businesses when they retire. One way to keep these businesses thriving and locally-owned is transitioning to a worker-owned cooperative or other form of employee ownership.

MACED and Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (KCARD) partnered to offer free training about this critical challenge and business model that is relatively rare in Kentucky.
The first was held in Hazard on March 27, and the next will be in Morehead on April 30 (register here).

Presented by Project Equity, the workshops explore worker-owned cooperatives and other employee-owned models, as well as best practices in helping businesses transition to employee ownership. We learned some interesting statistics about the urgency of succession planning in Kentucky and across the country:

10,000 baby boomers retire per day in the US!
Only 15% of family-owned businesses pass onto the next generation (and dropping)
1/3 of business owners over the age of 50 years report having a hard time finding a buyer for their business
Only 20% of business listed for sale end up selling

The 28 attendees at the Hazard training included business owners interested in developing succession plans for their businesses, as well as economic development and community organizations. Wayne Hunt of H&R Agri-Power in Western Kentucky, and Molly Hemstreet of Opportunity Threads in rural North Carolina, whose businesses are employee-owned presented at the training.

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? Doug Adkins at Cane Creek Calls in Letcher County has been building game calls for over 27 years. All calls are built in house, where they hand stretch mouth calls and build all wood pots, strikers and box calls in their woodworking shop. Our technical assistance program helped them fund a new, refreshed website! Doug is pleased that it allows him to save time working on the computer and more time on building calls. Check it out: www.canecreekcalls.com

 ? Clay County entrepreneur Glenna Combs has become famous for making Kentucky Derby hats. Our program helped her build a new website for her hat-making business, Sycamore Hollow Hats. She is now able to offer hat-making classes through her new website. Combs also completed MACED’s Airbnb training, which helped her place her own Clay County property on the service. Check it out: www.sycamorehollowhats.com

? H.O.M.E.S. Inc is an affordable housing non-profit organization located in Whitesburg, Kentucky, dedicated to providing safe, affordable and decent housing for low and very low income households in Letcher County and their surrounding service area. They needed a new website to better tell their story.

Within four days of having the refreshed website, HOMES received two significant donations – one for $1000 and one for $500 collected through the website. HOMES receives many generous donations outside of its website, but had experienced most online donations to be around $50 or less. Enhancing the way HOMES’ story is told and the way online donations are collected may be a major reason why HOMES is receiving more significant online contributions.

They also sent staff through a training on how to take better pictures to tell the HOMES story on social media and other outlets. Visit: www.homesincorporated.org

Website development credits go to MACED consultant Malcolm J. Wilson, who also took many of the photos on the sites.

Malcolm Wilson is one of Eastern Kentucky’s amazing photographers and individuals, and is the founder of the Humans of Central Appalachia project. Originally from Cumberland, Kentucky in Harlan County, Malcolm is a photographer, writer, journalist, documentarian, graphic designer, painter, artist and jack-of-other-trades, living in the mountains of Blackey, Kentucky. Malcolm left the mountains in the early 1980s to attend Northern Kentucky University majoring in Fine Arts (Photography) and minoring in journalism. He worked for several years as a photojournalist for the Cincinnati/Kentucky Post. Now he continues his career as an advertising/marketing consultant, graphic designer and photographer in Blackey, KY. Malcolm teachs photography classes and holds digital photography workshops throughout the Appalachian southeast. Note: The Appalachian Archives at Southeast Community and Technical College houses nearly a quarter of a million of his negatives from nearly forty years of documenting Appalachian stories!

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Here is a quick guide to help you use the materials:
• Want to learn more about what an entrepreneurial ecosystem is, or why it matters? Read Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Appalachia—Literature Review. This report will fill you in on how entrepreneurial ecosystems emerged as a popular framework within the realm of economic development, and how the framework interact with theories that have guided economic development practitioners over time. You’ll learn about the seven essential building blocks of a community’s entrepreneurial ecosystem—talent, market access, community culture, regulatory and government support, business assistance, capital and specialized infrastructure—and how those building blocks look in today’s Appalachia.

• Want to see what a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem looks like in Appalachia? Read Ecosystem Development Case Studies. You’ll get a deep delve into eight communities across Appalachia, each case study exploring the history of entrepreneurship in that place and the unique way that the seven building blocks of each ecosystem have come together to create a vibrant entrepreneurial community.

• Want to learn how the ARC, state and local partners can continue to support entrepreneurship in Appalachia? Read Building an Entrepreneurial Future: Ideas for Appalachia’s Ecosystem Builders and Champions. You’ll also get an overview of entrepreneurial dynamism (a set of metrics averaged to determine the strength of a community’s business base) in Appalachia and that dynamism compared to the nation as a whole.

Overall, the research points to the fact that there are both opportunities and challenges to creating healthy entrepreneurial ecosystems in Appalachia, particularly in Eastern Kentucky. As it has been for the past 42 years, MACED remains a committed partner in working towards brighter future for the region by both supporting entrepreneurial ecosystems and advocating for an economy that is more just, resilient and equitable.

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Sky Marietta from CEDIK served as the master of ceremonies. She explained that the organizing committee wanted to take the opportunity to highlight woman-owned businesses from the region by featuring coffee from The Ugly Mug Coffee Shop in Barbourville, amazing donuts from Hole and Corner from Berea, and a delicious lunch from Taco Holler in Harlan.

After the sessions finished, we headed to the Harlan Yoga studio for a reception (beautifully catered by Linda Hensley) and awards ceremony. Award recipients included Sandi Curd (Kentucky Promise Zones), Kristin Smith (Wrigley Tap Room), and artist Lacy Hale, for their leadership and roles in revitalizing their communities. Mary Ann Mullins from New Beginnings Child Care and Preschool Center was awarded $1000 (provided by Appalachian Impact Fund) for her tireless work in providing high quality child care and preschool for the City of Hazard and Perry County.

This was a special opportunity to hear from women entrepreneurs. The high turnout showed that it was needed, and CEDIK plans to host some follow-up events as well as another conference in a year.

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What do you call a business that uses its products or services to do good?

At MACED, we call them social enterprises. A social enterprise is a for profit or nonprofit that uses business disciplines and the power of market demand to create positive economic, environmental and/or community impact. In other words:

• A for profit business that has a mission to make a difference in their community. Examples include a manufacturing business that trains and hires veterans, or a retail store that donates a portion of its profit to a nonprofit.
• A nonprofit organization that generates some earned income, such as a food pantry that also operates a coffee shop, or an arts organization that rents studio space to local artists.

What social enterprises are in eastern Kentucky? Here are a few examples:

Addiction Recovery Care, LLC (centers in Lawrence, Johnson, Montgomery, Fleming, Jackson, Pulaski, Harlan, Boyd counties, as well as Fayette and Kenton Counties) operates seven residential and four outpatient Drug & Alcohol Abuse Treatment Centers in eastern Kentucky. Their programs are state-licensed and accept Medicaid to help make their services accessible to all Kentucky residents, but the programs also provide the business with sufficient revenue to keep their doors open.

Appalachian Artisan Center (Knott County) is a nonprofit based in Hindman, KY, that seeks to develop the economy of eastern Kentucky through arts, culture, and heritage by helping artists create and grow successful businesses. They work with artists in a variety of ways, from help developing a business plan to providing studio space and an outlet to sell. They have an Incubator Studio program that provides state-of-the-art studios. Programs include the Appalachian School of Luthiery, the Bolen Blacksmith Studio, and the Open Clay Studio. In addition, they recently launched a new Culture of Recovery program to support people in the community who are recovering from addiction. They earn revenue by renting studio space, selling art (including quilts, baskets, paintings, pottery, jewelry and musical instruments) at the Center and through their online store, and through workshop registration fees.

Noodle Nirvana (Madison County) – a restaurant in Berea, KY, selects a different local nonprofit organization every year and supports them by providing:

• • A year-round, professional in-store information display highlighting the nonprofit’s mission and current needs
  • Monthly meeting space for the organization
  • Hosting and sponsorship of one special fundraiser
  • A percentage of proceeds from one day each month for a 12-month period

In their first year, they raised over $30,000 for the New Opportunity School for Women and more than $44,000 in their second year for God’s Outreach Madison County Food Bank.  Noodle Nirvana has also committed to paying their staff a “living wage.” The business is thriving (a challenge particularly for new restaurants) and they’ve expanded to create Hole and Corner donut shop, using the restaurant space in the mornings when they’re not making noodle bowls.

Interact with our map for more examples:

Where do I start?

If you want to use your business for good, don’t worry if you can’t do it all at once. The goal is to become a more resilient and self-sustaining enterprise (i.e. earn revenue) and to explore ways to have more community impact.

At MACED, we offer business support to for-profit and nonprofit social enterprises, including connecting social entrepreneurs with consultants from various fields (such as marketing experts), financing for business-related expenses, and energy audits to lower expenses. For more information, please contact Ketaki at ketaki@mtassociation.org.

More resources:

1. Social Enterprise Alliance – a national organization with lots of resources on their website including stories of social enterprises around the country.
2. Social Enterprise Alliance – Kentucky chapter – discussions and activities related to social enterprise in Kentucky and tours/visits to area social enterprises.
3. +ACUMEN – courses (mostly free!) on topics such as Social Entrepreneurship 101, Business Models for Social Impact, and using innovative methods from Silicon Valley to address social issues in a course called Lean Startup Principles for the Social Sector
4. Accelerating Appalachia – a “nature-based” business accelerator.

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• Think about the options for getting capital to start your business. Crowdfunding, angel investors, and lenders are some of the most common. Venturize is a non-profit that has information to help compare borrowing options.
• Before you approach a lender, keep in mind the lender will want to see how you will be able to repay the loan. Keep the lender informed if your plans change through the process, for instance if you get some unexpected money that reduces the loan amount, or if the ownership of the business changes.

If you are thinking of having an accountant keep the financial records for your business, it is still important that you understand them. Have these in mind as you meet with your accountant or bookkeeper:

• Keep business and personal money separate. This helps you track the status of each and makes filing taxes much easier.
• Make a balance sheet for your business at least annually. A balance sheet shows what your assets are, what your liabilities are and how much the owner(s) investment in the business is.
• Make an income statement monthly (also called a profit and loss statement). An income statement shows what your total revenue is, what each of your costs are, and how much net profit you have. 
• Lastly, know your break-even point. A break-even point is the dollar amount that you must receive in order to break even. Any additional revenue is profit. This equation assumes that all items you sell have the same price and variable cost. Most businesses would have to calculate for multiple types of items.

It may not be the most fun you’ve ever had, but you will be glad you spent the time to think through these basics as you move forward with your business idea!

Amy Williams is a Project Specialist with MACED. MACED has a Project Specialist in each of our Berea, Hazard and Paintsville offices to work with entrepreneurs through their challenges and connect them to resources. To learn more, please visit here.

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Troy Price, co-host of The Berea Podcast, recently completed the MACED-facilitated Kauffman FastTrac course to help launch his podcasting hobby into a full-fledged business, Front Porch Studios.

After working to create his own podcast, Price now wants to help others to do the same. As I worked to set up my recording technology for this interview, Price offered suggestions to help make my audio results as clear as possible. He even suggested that our conversation would make a good podcast.

Price expressed that after years of podcasting as a hobby, he was encouraged by friends and family to pursue it as a business. “Eventually, you just learn so much about a topic and you feel so comfortable in it that somebody says ‘you should make money from this’,” said Price.

Price’s business was unique to his FastTrac cohort, a feature he appreciated: “I learned a lot from those who were doing other things. No one in there was talking about podcasting or the internet […] If it had been one-on-one, I would have learned the book stuff, the lesson, but I wouldn’t have gained the interpersonal confidence.”

Price and his wife, Della Justice, first moved to Berea almost two years ago, and use the Berea Podcast as a way to better acquaint themselves with their new hometown. With the launch of Front Porch Studios, Price will be helping Berea’s people to tell their own stories.

“You do the talking, we do the rest,” Front Porch’s website explains. It is clear that Price is ready to spread his passion for podcasting and make it more accessible to others.

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