Each week we highlight different businesses in Houston & surrounding areas. Stay updated every week and see what businesses were posted in our 12,000 plus database. Also, check the special offers from each of these businesses in the end. If you would like your business posted and shared with our database and guarantee new leads for your business, sign up with the link below.
Here’s a collection of short interviews from local business owners with amazing insights into today’s challenges. This week’s edition of “Business Owners Speak Out” explores a variety of industries and what they are up to.
ActionCOACH Doug Winnie (DW), Cathy Reinhold (CR), and Lydia Navo(LN) virtually sit down with business owners to learn how they are working through COVID-19. Check out their inspiring stories for tips on how to cope with and successfully recover from this pandemic, and learn how to avoid making common mistakes. Be sure to check out special offers from these businesses. We can all use a little extra help right now!
Most importantly, visit the company websites. Reach out to those who offer services you can use. Let’s support each other and get through this together!
November 13th, 2020 |
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– CYCLEBAR OF HOUSTON HEIGHTS – |
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KM: Who is your target customer? GH: Our target customers are women in their twenties. KM: What has been the greatest impact of COVID-19 on your business? GH: We had to shut our doors at the beginning of COVID, not long after we opened in December of last year. KM: What are one or two actions you’ve taken to make a difference? GH: Cleaning the bikes has gotten more extensive. And we actually fill the rooms with sanitizing mist to fully disinfect. KM: It’s been said that smart people learn from their mistakes, and wise people learn from the mistakes of others. What is a mistake you’ve made along the way that other people can learn from? GH: Make sure you have current employment before you apply for a small business loan. KM: What is most inspiring to you today? GH: The members that keep coming back. Contact: (713) 993-6138 |
– SIAM THERAPEUTICS – |
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Contact: (832) 804-9484 |
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– NAN & CO PROPERTIES – |
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CR: Who is your target customer? SB: We generally assist families and first-time homebuyers, and we usually meet new clients through repeat business and referrals. CR: What has been the greatest impact of COVID-19 on your business? SB: People have wanted to wait to execute their real estate transactions because of the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and the marketplace. Nobody knows what will happen, and it is hard to predict anything. This aspect of COVID-19 definitely took a toll on our business, and all I can do about it is to tell people what I see and hear in the industry. CR: What are one or two actions you’ve taken to make a difference? SB: We have worked to keep customers aware of what’s going on in the market. We have stayed in communication with customers who may, for example, face unemployment at some point. We help them work through their decisions when things like that happen. I have even had people who have let me know just before they were about to close on a property that they found out they would no longer have a job in three months. I ask them, “What do you think will happen? Do you think you’ll be able to find a job right away? If you don’t buy this house, where does that leave you?” We work through all of the scenarios together because I need to know the impact this situation will have on my client. CR: It’s been said that smart people learn from their mistakes, and wise people learn from the mistakes of others. What is a mistake you’ve made along the way that other people can learn from? SB: My advice is to listen. Listening to other people and not to yourself can be a wise thing to do at times. CR: What is inspiring to you today? SB: Hearing the stories of the people I help buy or sell a home inspires me every day. Everyone has a unique story to tell. Contact: (713) 401-3175 sara@sarablackteam.com |
– CABI – |
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CR: Who is your target customer? RM: Our target customers are women who don’t want to go to a mall to do their shopping. CR: What has been the greatest impact of COVID-19 on your business? RM: We ordinarily let our shoppers shop by themselves or with a group of friends in their home. Now, however, we are not conducting in-person shopping experiences. I also use social media a lot more now to do business. This year, I will not meet all of my business goals, but my goals have also changed along the way. One thing to remember is that people may be at home on their computers more than ever, but they are most likely working and not shopping. I try to keep that in mind. CR: What are one or two actions you’ve taken to make a difference? RM: We have gone to an online shopping experience. As a company, we had thankfully prepared to do that before the lockdowns began. Also, I have a private Facebook page and an Instagram account, and I use them to build my community. Plus, cabi has provided support and guidance on how to pivot. CR: It’s been said that smart people learn from their mistakes, and wise people learn from the mistakes of others. What is a mistake you’ve made along the way that other people can learn from? RM: Never assume that women can’t afford your product or service. You have to ask them questions and learn about them to understand who they are. CR: What is inspiring to you today? RM: It inspires me that cabi goes into communities that have been devastated, and then it supplies new clothing for the homeless and the women’s shelters. Contact: (832) 444-7842 |
– urban CHEF – |
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CR: Who is your target customer? CG: Traditionally, we support corporate team building during the week and have private parties for adults, who come to us for dates and classes on weekends. In the summer, we mostly serve as a camp for kids. CR: What has been the greatest impact of COVID-19 on your business? CG: We ordinarily serve groups of maybe 50 people. However, if everyone must stay six feet apart from everyone else, our kitchens can only hold a handful of people. We want to follow all the rules and keep everyone safe, so it is difficult to have large parties with people who have not been in quarantine with one another. CR: What are one or two actions you’ve taken to make a difference? CG: We rearranged how we provide the experience to customers. Instead of working on the same dish with someone, you can work in one place away from other people. It means that we are in compliance with COVID-19 guidelines, but they do not have to feel personally invasive for our customers. Each individual still gets the personal experience, and they can take off their masks at certain points to have a taste or sip some wine. We have had to adjust our goals. Right now, we do not see ourselves hitting the goals we had at the beginning of 2020, and our goal is now survival. We will see what happens next. CR: It’s been said that smart people learn from their mistakes, and wise people learn from the mistakes of others. What is a mistake you’ve made along the way that other people can learn from? CG: Pivoting quickly is key. If you pivot too slowly, the public may also pivot and make your changes worthless. That’s especially important in the current environment. Also, there are times when planning ahead is not possible, and you have to be comfortable playing catch-up for a time. You have to stay flexible. CR: What is inspiring to you today? CG: The creativity of chefs around the industry inspires me, and here at urbanCHEF specifically, it’s exciting to see people rediscover their love of cooking. Contact: (713) 504-1700 |
– COPY DOCTOR – |
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 Pioneer Chiropractic knows every person is unique and each consultation and treatment caters to the specific needs of its customers. They perform a comprehensive exam to find the source of pain, then provide the knowledge and tools needed to improve customers’ health. They stay at the forefront of conservative care that has been proven to work across multiple health care fields and they continue to learn and educate themselves and the community. They enjoy educating patients and the community about the benefits of alternative health care through chiropractic, acupuncture, massage therapy, rehabilitation, etc.CR: Who is your target customer? LR: Business professionals who don’t want to worry that their prints will look right are our target customers. CR: What has been the greatest impact of COVID-19 on your business? LR: We have seen a decline in sales because of the pandemic. We traditionally work a lot in the education space and for medical training events within local medical centers. Those training events have taken a back seat because people just are not getting together for training due to everything that has happened. CR: What are one or two actions you’ve taken to make a difference? LR: We expanded our curbside and delivery services because we want to make our customers feel safe. We also worked to stay in contact with our long-term customers. But we have always excelled at handling complex, detailed jobs with various stock materials, bleeds, and technical specifications. People can email us what they want, and we’ll print it the right way. CR: It’s been said that smart people learn from their mistakes, and wise people learn from the mistakes of others. What is a mistake you’ve made along the way that other people can learn from? LR: Emphasize the structure of the company early on. Some customers get used to talking with a particular employee, but what if they can’t reach that employee on a given day? You need a system in place to manage that situation. CR: What is inspiring to you today? LR: It inspires me when people realize what it’s going to take to move on in terms of the pandemic. We have to be safe, and we have to live in a community. Contact: (832) 662-7000 sugarland@copydr.com |
– FASHION TIME MACHINE – |
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 The Fashion Time Machine offers vintage clothing from the last 100 years. Mary Keene started the business online and later rented space at Retropolis in the Heights. She then opened a standalone shop in the Montrose area. Her store offers hand-picked classic clothing from the 20s through the 90s.LN: Who is your target customer? MK: People of all different ages love vintage, but we get many customers in their teens or 20s and people who want to be unique or have a costume party to attend. LN: What has been the greatest impact of COVID-19 on your business? MK: We had to close our physical store for six months. We did recently reopen, but being closed for that amount of time had a significant impact on us. Actually, it forced me to focus on my inventory, and now I have a wonderful inventory system. LN: What are one or two actions you’ve taken to make a difference? MK: We took the business entirely online for a time, and fortunately, our online sales balanced out decreased foot traffic. We also now use UV lights to clean clothing, along with our many other clothes-cleaning methods. LN: It’s been said that smart people learn from their mistakes, and wise people learn from the mistakes of others. What is a mistake you’ve made along the way that other people can learn from? MK: The sizes of retro clothing can be different from modern clothing. Customers are sometimes confused by that in the beginning, when they first start to shop with us. Eventually, I measured all of the clothing and put the modern-size equivalents on the tags, which made a big difference. LN: What is inspiring to you today? MK: Seeing teenagers wear the fashions that I wore when I was a teenager is what inspires and motivates me! Contact: |
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