Baltimore Small (2024)

01/11/2022

Kimberly Proctor, Co-owner, Bmore Licks - BMORE LICKS

*Story made in partnership with Federal Hill Main Street & South Baltimore Gateway Partnership

“My wife Barbara has always wanted to own a business. She's one of six kids and when she was pretty young, her dad was laid off. I think that created this passion for developing something that was her own.

She’s always wanted to have her own business so I decided to bribe her into continuing to date me by telling her I’d help her start a business if she stayed in Baltimore. It was our trade-off. Like, if you stay here and, you know, we get married, I promise I will help you no matter what happens.

She agreed and said, ‘I’m going to hold you to that promise.’

We were thinking about what was the right fit for us? Her parents own an ice cream shop in Massachusetts. It was their family business. Our idea was to keep the family business alive.

The love of ice cream, the location and...."***

***Finish reading Kimberly's full story via the link below;
https://www.baltimoresmall.com/stories/bmore-licks

25/10/2022

Bryan Burkert, Owner, The Sound Garden - The Sound Garden

“I grew up in Buffalo listening to movie soundtracks and as I entered my teens I got into different genres that I still dig to this day. I remember riding my bike to the record store and buying vinyls and 12 inches all the time.

In my early twenties, music was a big part of my life. My friends and I were music lovers and concertgoers. I happened to be in Europe in 1989 during the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peace rallies in Prague. I was flat broke and had to move back home with my parents who were here in Baltimore. After several years, I realized there wasn’t a record store in town that I liked so I opened one. I wanted a complete store that sold all genres of music where customers could hang out and browse for hours if they wanted. A nice atmosphere with lots of great records was my goal.

Of course the rise of digital and streaming artists is almost like a constant fight for a record store owner. It’s been a tough industry due to all the changes, but I know how to get great inventory. I keep my edge by constantly staying on top of things culturally. An example is the pandemic. We have lots of new customers who are listening to more music because they’re home. Record players are selling out, not at the rate of bicycles, but at a much faster rate than before. I pay attention to my customers and buy what I believe they’ll enjoy and purchase. After all these years, I’ve come to learn my strengths and weaknesses. I’ve always trusted my instincts when it comes to business. I strive for excellence and I never cut corners.

There’s a lot of freedom in having my own business. I get to express myself artistically and creatively just by purchasing the inventory and designing the space. I love seeing a ton of people who enjoy music and really have a passion for it come in and shop. Our customers are diverse. We have 75 year-old jazz guys here every day. Then we have people like my 22 year-old daughter’s age who are discovering new music."***

***Finish reading Byran's full photo story via the link below;
https://www.baltimoresmall.com/stories/the-sound-garden

18/10/2022

Eric Stanley, Owner, Perfect Images Barber Shop

“Getting my haircut was always an outing I did with my dad. I liked going to the barbershop because it seemed like a place where all of the men got together and shot the breeze.

When I was a kid, I thought that everyone in the barbershop knew one another because of the camaraderie, but sometimes the conversations would get hostile. It sounded like they were arguing. I’d get a little nervous and look over at my dad. He would say, ‘Everything's fine. It’s just barbershop talk.’ I’ve since learned that most of the time the men were disagreeing about sports or something harmless.

Almost any topic was fair game within those walls, but typically they spoke of things they didn't want the women to know. Whenever a woman entered, it kinda changed the atmosphere. There were no more bad words and nothing rude was spoken. They didn’t want to sound ignorant. You know what I mean? We do the same thing here.

We refer to barbershops as The Black Man's Country Club.

It’s the place you come to get the latest scoop or great information that has to do with just about anything in life. I can tell you where to get tires, who’s the best mechanic, where to shop, the best magician for parties, whatever. I’ve got all the hookups.

My ear is always to the street. I know a lot of people from all walks of life. I’m a living info-matrix. Think about it, if I cut 10 people's hair a day, five days a week. That’s 50 different people I’ve spoken with and most of them are from the surrounding communities. That’s a lot of conversations, a lot of information.

Barbers can have a big impact on society. In many ways we’re role models for our community. Parents bring their kids here and expect us to treat them with respect. A lot of children look up to us. It’s a place where they can come in comfort and be heard. That’s important.”**

**Checkout Eric's full photo story via the link below;
https://www.baltimoresmall.com/stories/perfect-images-barber-shop

14/10/2022

Ernst Valery, Founder & Co-Managing Member, SAA | EVI - www.saaevi.com

Story made in partnership with Baltimore Together for The City of Baltimore Development Corporation - BDC

“I lived in Haiti as a kid. I never had my own room because my entire home was open to the community. My upbringing consisted of my mom being a mother to everyone. She was the person people depended on.

There were always a bunch of people in our house. I wondered why we couldn’t be like other families with just our single-family eating dinner together. Mom took people in for the weekend, the week, or months at a time because they’d fallen on hard times. My brothers and I got used to it as it became apparent that she wasn’t going to stop.

At first, the people who stayed with us were random people, but over time, I got to know them because they hung around for support. Mom got very involved in their lives and eventually taught them how to build wealth for themselves. She’s the one who taught me that handouts aren’t what people need. They had to be invested in so they can create full lives for themselves and their families.

As I grew older, I started to see the value of community and of looking out for each other. I began realizing that people looked out for my family due to the love and support my mom showed them. Not once did she expect anything from anyone. She taught me how to love by literally building an entire community around us.

Nurture has a lot to do with the person you become. Because my mom was like this, I developed a way of helping others often. Even when I was in university, I would always share my notes. I went to Cornell where you don’t share your notes, you watch the other person fail. I saw it as a community of people graduating, so I wanted to bring everyone else along...**

**Finish reading Ernst's full story via the link below;
https://www.baltimoresmall.com/stories/saa-evi

04/10/2022

Carla Bravo Wing, Owner, Phina's Fine Linens - Phina's Fine Linens

“Textiles have always been a passion of mine. My dad worked in the New York garment industry so I learned a lot from him. He would take me clothes shopping as a kid and he always turned the clothes inside out to inspect the quality. That was so embarrassing to me, but he would often find less expensive, quality clothing that was better made than most of the awfully expensive labels.

My mother Josephina, who was an octogenarian, discovered that good linens were hard to find in Baltimore. She’s the one who recommended opening a linen shop.

Prior to opening a fine linen boutique, I worked in radio and television. It was there that I learned how to ask the right questions to better understand someone’s story and their shopping needs.

I ask my clients, ‘How do you live in your bed?’ It’s an important question because everyone lives in their bed differently. They spend a good portion of their lives relaxing, resting, and sleeping in this one special place. A bedroom is no longer a place to just sleep.

Most people don’t want to talk about their private lives, especially about their bedrooms. To lighten the mood I ask fun questions like:

Do you have dogs and kids popping up on the bed?
Do you watch sports, eat in bed, or do you just relax and read at night?

Connecting with people is such an important part of what I do. It allows me to better understand what products are a good match for their lifestyle. It also creates a stress free atmosphere for shopping.***

***Finish reading Carla's full photo story via the link below;
https://www.baltimoresmall.com/stories/phinas-fine-linens

27/09/2022

Pavlina Ilieva and Kuo Pao Lian, Owners, PI.KL Studio: PI.KL Studio

Story made in partnership with Baltimore Together for The City of Baltimore Development Corporation - BDC

“Pavlina: “At this time last year, everything was unknown. The building, design and construction industry experienced a major shakeup when the housing market burst in 2009. It took half the industry out, and so everyone was bracing, thinking, is this going to be another recession and what are we going to do?

What was incredible is the fact that our industry remained fairly stable through the pandemic. I think part of it is because the industry has learned to be resilient because it's often so vulnerable.

For us, since we’re a relatively small company, it allows us to be nimble. So, we were prepared to do whatever it took to ride the storm out. It was exciting to see how everyone pitched in and fought for us to make it through the pandemic. Our team made the necessary sacrifices to help keep everyone healthy so we could continue to do good work.

I'm just so proud of Baltimore City, who just really coalesced around each other and followed the rules. I think it's contributed to everyone being able to come out of this, because it could have been much worse had we not stuck together.

Baltimore is very special to us. We started our professional careers here and then moved to the West Coast to pursue opportunities we felt would make us better designers and ultimately, good business owners.

We went there to train with the idea that we would have our own practice, and we would learn how to do it well. We had the opportunity to go somewhere else after that, and we chose to come back to Baltimore.

Many people asked why, but there has always been something incredibly enticing about Baltimore to us. It was the fact that we felt, and we still do, that Baltimore needs good design. It needs people that are committed to its long term continuous improvement, and we felt that our biggest contribution as professionals could possibly be in that capacity."**

**Finish reading Pavlina and Kuo Pao's full story on our website via the link below;
https://www.baltimoresmall.com/stories/pi-kl-studio

Story curated by:
Photography by:

20/09/2022

Breonna Massey, Owner, Slay Naturals: Slay Naturals

“I was supposed to be studying for the LSAT. Instead, I was in my dorm room with a few friends, where we saw an ad on TV for a skincare line featuring mainly white women, even though the product is used predominantly by black women.

I felt very disheartened by the marketing practices of that company, and it really showed me that they weren't in touch with their core customers. I decided that I wanted to create a cosmetic line that focused on what inclusiveness and diversity within the cosmetic and beauty industries actually looks like.

When I enrolled in college, I was dead set on going to law school. So when I first told my parents that I had started a skincare business, they were definitely a little concerned.

I think their biggest fear when I was first starting out was that I would get crushed and hurt by the fact that business can be such an up and down thing. I was so young and I was studying government politics—I had no business background.

Starting out, I would sell my products at Patapsco Flea Market. Visually seeing all of my customers made such a difference because I could perceive different parts of their identities that I couldn’t access if all of the sales were done online. The flea market also allowed me to get real feedback in real time.

Right now, because of Coronavirus, the bulk of my sales are online, so something I’ve been doing recently is writing notes to my customers. It’s easy to get so consumed in e-commerce that we forget that there is a person buying from another person. I want to grow a company that truly cares for the person who is purchasing.

The goal right now is to move my operation out of my parents house. That would be a symbol of true growth to me.”**

**Check out Breonna's full photo-story on our website via the link below;
https://www.baltimoresmall.com/stories/slay-naturals

06/09/2022

Delali Dzirasa, Owner, Fearless: Fearless

Story made in partnership with Baltimore Together for The City of Baltimore Development Corporation - BDC

“My parents split up when I was about four or five years old. I’m the youngest of three boys and we all lived with my mom. When we wanted the popular new shoes, she was big on encouraging us to work to earn our own money for them.

My mother instilled an enthusiastic work ethic in us. We did everything to earn money: we walked dogs, cut grass, washed cars, raked leaves, and shoveled snow. We always had money if we wanted to buy something. It was exciting to know that if you wanted something you could go out and work to earn money for it.

That's where the entrepreneurial bug came from. At that stage, it was just a hustle.

Fast forward, I went to undergrad at UMBC and studied computer engineering. I knew three things early on: I wanted to do something that involved business, technology, and people. I didn’t have a business background, but during that time, UMBC started an entrepreneurship program. It was non-accredited, but the courses were free and on your own time, so I participated in it.

I tried a bunch of things out in undergrad. I had a lot of startups, some with partners and some without. I spent time building software and tech for nonprofits and churches and built a business supporting mission-based entities for a while.

I think there are two moments in which I knew that Fearless was a thing. My mother raised me in the church, and I was volunteering there helping the young adult ministry to get off the ground, and it grew to hundreds of people. I was working nights and weekends, and it became a lot, so I ended up stepping down, but then the youth ministry fell apart."***

***Finish reading Delali's full story via the link below;
https://www.baltimoresmall.com/stories/fearless

Story curated by: Dareise Jones
Photography by: Jon Bregel

30/08/2022

Alex Crespo, Owner, Bee HOSS - Bee HOSS

“My wife’s first answer to my idea to start a hot sauce company was “No.”

So I’m like, “Okay, let me explain.”

I walked her through why and how I thought this business was going to work and that took some time because I had no experience operating a business.

I can have a tendency, I think, to jump into something and figure it out as I go along. Even so, I had a real desire to do this.

It was a very calculated risk but Courtney could feel that I was really into the idea. I wanted to show her that it wasn’t as big of a risk as she may have initially perceived.

Lack of time was her initial hesitancy. I have work five days a week, and then school, plus schoolwork, and I need to make sure that I am finding time to keep the marriage a priority as well.

My goal starting out was to sell 100 bottles, so I told Courtney that once we hit 100 bottles, we're done. Clearly I didn’t stay true to my promise, but she’s still here — keeping me in balance every step of the way.

She’s been a guide for reining me in when I might be putting too much on my own plate. It's been awesome. Although, I think I'd be lying if I said I’ve never slipped.

We started Bee Hoss with $1000 and so far we haven’t had to put any more of our own money into the business account. So we've been able to see it growing, not by any extravagant measures… but to me it's a complete win."**

**Read Alex's full story via the link below;
https://www.baltimoresmall.com/stories/bee-hoss

23/08/2022

Jacob Hsu, CEO, Catalyte: Catalyte

Story made in partnership with Baltimore Together for Baltimore Development Corporation

“My dad, who is an engineer, came here as an immigrant from Taiwan in 1973. He went to college to earn his master's degree in economics and was trying to be an economist when he graduated from his program in 1974, but he couldn't get a job.

He had a family here, my mom and I, so he needed a job. At the time, the country wasn't hiring economists with funny accents from overseas.

He was looking everywhere for a job and ended up landing his first job at Ford Motor Company in Detroit. The funny story is they didn't hire him into any business field, they hired him into IT as a system operator.

He was hired to feed punch cards on the machine and learn how to program. The amazing thing is Ford ended up training him to become an engineer.

He then moved on to become a project manager in Ford’s satellite division, which brought our family to Silicon Valley.

My dad left after thirteen years and went to IBM. He became a VP and worked his way up to be an executive. The reason I bring up my dad’s story is that if you look at my dad's background, there's nothing about where he grew up, where he went to school, where he worked before, none of those things would have predicted that he could be an engineer.

The biggest thing that changed his life was Ford giving him that first shot and hiring him for a job he was not qualified to do yet. They were able to take somebody who was an immigrant and turn him into an American success story.

Now, think about the second order effects of that. I grew up in Silicon Valley, the son of an engineer and today his son is a tech executive who is hiring and creating more engineers.

If you think about just the generational effects of that one opportunity and what that can do, and just how much economic potential that provides for the country, it’s powerful.

What spoke to me about Catalyte, when I came here, is every person I met who was coming through the program reminded me of my dad."***

***Finish reading Jacob's full story via the link below:
https://www.baltimoresmall.com/stories/catalyte

16/08/2022

Trevor Pryce, Owner, The Outlook Company.

Story made in partnership with Baltimore Together for The City of Baltimore Development Corporation - BDC

“When I was a kid I could draw. I was a great artist, but when I hit puberty I lost the ability to draw. To this day, I don’t understand what happened. It’s unexplainable. My next creative outlet became music. I always wanted to score a film. While I was still playing in the NFL, I wrote a film script mainly because I wanted to score it, but the problem became apparent that I didn’t know how to write sheet music for other musicians to play. That was a bit of a ‘Debbie Downer.’

Fortunately, I had the opportunity to be on a film set in Hollywood and I was blown away. From that moment I switched my focus towards writing books, movies and shows.

My kids control the TV in our house. Young people see, hear, and watch so much content. They are inundated with it all the time. A 12-year-old can tell you what's going to happen before it even occurs. They’re great at predicting storylines. I realized early on that if I wanted to create content for youth, I had to be smarter than a seventh-grader. It’s something I’m constantly fighting. I enjoy the challenge of breaking their hearts and then mending them back together through storytelling.

One year after I retired from the NFL, my first “Kulipari” book was released. Eventually, the book series got picked up by Netflix. My plan was to move to Hollywood since I was already a produced-creator. There were a lot of possibilities and connections to be made out west. My son had already been accepted to a school in Studio City and our Baltimore house had already sold.”

Shortly before my family made the move, I had the opportunity to meet with some investors in Baltimore about starting an animation studio here. I figured if I couldn’t raise the money for the studio, no big deal, because I already had a plan in place out west. It turns out that the investors said ‘yes’ so I decided to stay in Baltimore and build The Outlook Company, my animation studio here.”***

***Finish reading Trevor’s full story via the link below;
https://www.baltimoresmall.com/stories/the-outlook-company

09/08/2022

Mike Pararas, Owners, Words with Boards: Words with Boards

Mike: "So many people think that awards and accolades make you — and it does help a lot for sure — but people have very short memories. That’s something we as business owners have to remember."

Kim: "We started Words with Boards in 2013, and at the end of 2013 we were a finalist in Martha Stewart’s American Made. That was great for credibility early-on, though it didn't really translate to sales.

In the spring of 2015, I did a pitch night in New York City and Oprah’s creative director, Adam Glassman, was a judge. We knew that he was going to be a judge going into the event so we brought him a personalized board. Adam flipped over it. He absolutely loved it.

In October, we heard our boards were selected for Oprah’s Holiday Favorite Things List, which is the best list to be featured in. But, the holidays were just weeks away, and there was still so much to do.

We had just moved into our new workspace the previous month and were in the process of building out the studio and woodshop in addition to hiring and training. We were also in the process of rebranding and redesigning our website. We were working 24-7. It was crazy."

Nevertheless, on Nov. 2, 2015, the magazine came out — and our website went crazy. Suddenly we were doing local press on all of the TV shows and magazines. That whole experience really catapulted us."

Mike: "From the outside, some people might think we have it totally made, but I don’t think there is a true understanding of how much work goes into running this business. Last year we took two weeks off and that’s the first time in 20 years we've taken that much time off.

There are just so many products out there nowadays, so we are constantly having to stay creative and innovate in order to keep the business alive. In many ways, it’s the creativity and constant innovation that keeps us engaged in the business — it’s what we live for, both in life and work.”**

**Finish reading Kim & Mike's full photo-story via the link below;
https://www.baltimoresmall.com/stories/words-with-boards

02/08/2022

Crystal Moll, Owner, Crystal Moll Gallery: Crystal Moll Gallery

“When I first found a space for my gallery over 10 years ago, I offered to pay the landlord a percentage of sales instead of paying rent. That’s how I got into the gallery business.

I started this gallery without a plan. No plan, just a lot of ideas — and I wanted to see them all through. A couple of years ago, I started feeling like I was working way too hard. I was painting less and less. I felt like a little hamster on a wheel, and it just kept going and going.

It was just too much work. So, we decided to slow down the amount of shows that we were doing, so we’re not killing ourselves anymore or feeling like we’re behind the eight ball, and the resentment that comes with that.

It's one thing to think about writing, painting, or acting, but it's another to actually then dedicate all your time to it, especially when starting from nothing. We still work too hard for the financial gain that we get, but it’s more controlled now.

My husband and I have been sailors forever, but since I opened the gallery we hadn’t used the boat much. Now, in the last year and a half, we have been finding time to play.

I’m really glad to be back on the water, and I’m glad that we are starting to figure out how to have more of our individual lives. That’s been a great lesson."**

**Check out Crystal’s full photo-story via the link below;
https://www.baltimoresmall.com/stories/crystal-moll-gallery

26/07/2022

Kevin Scott, Owner, Benedetto Haberdashery;

“I owned a deli with my mom, but by 2001 I had started to grow a little tired of the work.

Around that time, I was getting really into fashion with a few friends of mine. We used to drive down to Virginia to buy custom shirts from a fashion dealer we knew. I remember telling myself, when I was looking at the dealer, that I could do this type of work one day.

I drove back to the dealer the next week and asked him if I could buy some swatches from him and if he could teach me how to measure.

That’s how I got started in this business. Initially, I bought the more affordable suits from him and sold them myself.

In 2002, I had a 97’ Chevy S10 pickup truck that I’d do grocery pickups with for my deli. I started putting the suits and clothes I was selling on the passenger seat — they were like my armrest. I’d drive around to different doctors' and lawyers' offices in Baltimore, selling men’s clothing from my truck. Some of my clients would come to the deli and I’d step outside to get them fitted right at the truck. I must have worked out of that Chevy for about a year.

From there, I started going to men's fashion shows. One thing led to another, and that turned into what we are doing today. It just clicked. I never looked back.”**

**Read Kevin's full photo-story via the link below;
https://www.baltimoresmall.com/stories/benedetto-haberdashery

19/07/2022

Evonne & Erika Opoku, Owners, AFROTHREADS®: AFROTHREADS

Evonne: “We grew up around African textiles so they bring forth a lot of emotion. Our mother’s side of the family is from the Fante tribe, based in Cape Coast, Ghana, and our father is from the Ashanti tribe which is located in Central Ghana.

These textiles make us feel proud, it’s great to have access to tangible artifacts growing up in the diaspora. But at the same time, exploitation is on our minds because our fabrics have become a hot commodity. You often see companies copying traditional African fabric designs and mass-producing them outside of Africa.

And so, while I am happy and proud when I see people representing and wearing African fabrics, I also wonder how we can better protect our intellectual property and make sure that Africans benefit from their art and culture."

Erika: “‘Conscious consumption’ means knowing the origin of the African fabric that we buy — not only where they are made, but also who designed them.

Who's profiting from this purchase? Who is building generational wealth from this purchase?

Being conscious when you're a consumer means asking those questions. It means purposefully seeking out and buying art that is going to benefit the community.”**

Check out AFROTHREADS® full photo-story at the link in our bio.

Baltimore Small