(upbeat music) - [Announcer] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] "It's Your Business with Michael Aikens" is brought to you by WCTE PBS and the Tennessee Tech Center for Rural Innovation, with funding provided by the Rural Reimagined Grand Challenge.

(upbeat music) - Sometimes when starting a business, an entrepreneur knows exactly what they want right from the beginning.

However, other times life drops that opportunity in your lap and you just have to go for it.

In this episode, we meet two entrepreneurs who fall into the latter category and found themselves with an opportunity of a lifetime that they just couldn't pass up.

(upbeat music) Homero Gonzalez was an electrical engineering student looking for a way to make a little more money.

So, he decided to use the skills and passion for food passed down from his grandmother to make hot sauces for friends and family.

When the rave reviews started pouring in, he saw the opportunity to turn his talents into a business.

(upbeat music) We're here in Cookeville, Tennessee with Homero Gonzalez, owner of Harmacy Hot Sauce Company.

Homero, welcome to the show.

- Thanks for having me, Michael.

- So you own and operate a hot sauce company.

Tell me how did you get the idea?

How did you get started and how long have you been doing it?

- The foundation of this came from cooking for 15 years.

It's just been a hobby ever since my grandmother, you know, would feed me as a little Cuban kid.

I always ate well and I learned the love language that is sharing food with others and that was always something that's been very important to me.

So, fast forward to 2018, having a wing night with friends.

We have a whole hot sauce collection there and I tried one that was the most delicious sauce I had ever tried to date at that point.

And I wanted to have some for the house.

So, I went to go buy some and it was $12 for a little five ounce bottle.

And I thought, no, I've got, I can do this.

I've got the skill to do this.

And took inspiration from that and started kind of creating my own concoctions.

It was really just a hobby thing.

Not really meant to become a business, but after sharing it with others and seeing their reactions, they kept pushing me, my friends kept pushing.

He was like, "No, you gotta take this commercial, you gotta do something with this."

- How do you make that bridge from in the kitchen to actually out there selling your hot sauces and running a business?

- I gotta say it's a tough transition, 'cause you can make sauce by feel, and for years that's exactly how I did.

You know, 30 or 40 of these pepper, some of this, some of that.

I know what the texture should look like.

I know what it should taste like more or less, whatever.

But there would be subtle variations between batches.

When it comes time to become a commercial enterprise, you need to be able to replicate the sauce exactly every single time.

And that's a challenge.

There are differences in the peppers themselves and your produce.

You have to write down the ingredients to the gram to make sure that I can create the exact same sauce every time.

- So, you know, a lot of people will typically want to go to a more urban market, where there's more people, where they can potentially have more customers.

But you've stayed in this rural area, why is that?

- Well, 'cause it's a little cheaper to start and I was able to work with another brewery, Jig Head Brewing, and they had a shops and hops market last year and it was inexpensive to set up at, and I was able to kind of get my feet wet in terms of the vendor environment.

So, learning how to talk to people as they walked around, how to grab attention and share my product, and describe it in an environment that wasn't quite so fast paced.

- Some people may have noticed, we're here at Hix Farm, this is where your operations are located.

Is that correct?

- Yes, opening up here at Hix Farm has allowed me to create much larger batches and create more sauce more effectively.

So, with less effort, I get more product.

- Well, how did this partnership come about?

- Getting started at Hix Farm involved help from the mother of my brother's children.

She is a bartender here and has been for a long time.

And the Hix community, both the customers and the employees, are very tight-knit.

They all look out for each other and they're great folks.

So, noticing that there was an opportunity here, an opening for a small business to use some kitchen space, she connected us and it's been awesome ever since.

- So what advice would you recommend to other small business owners?

You know, I think a lot of times us as entrepreneurs, we want to do everything by ourselves, but partnerships are so incredibly important.

What would you say to that?

- It is a difficult thing to let go and trust others with helping further your business.

But you've gotta do it.

You can only do so much.

You're only one person.

And I am guilty of wanting to have a hand in every single thing that I do, but entrusting others to help is the way forward.

- What would you say the most important thing that you've learned along this journey has been?

- That the biggest obstacle can honestly be whether or not you believe you can do it.

That was the very first step into making this a reality, was getting myself out of the way, and just, it sounds cheesy, but believe that you can do it.

You can really do much more than you think you can if you set your mind to it.

- What do you think the future holds for Harmacy Hot Sauce Company?

- I would love to turn this into a national brand.

I think that this has the capacity to be enjoyed by people from coast to coast.

And I'm gonna do the legwork to try and make that happen.

- Well, I have no doubt that you'll be able to do it.

And speaking of enjoying, could we try some of your hot sauces?

- I would love nothing more.

(upbeat music) These are all like daily eating level of hot.

So they've got a really, really great flavor and a reasonable present amount of heat without being overwhelming.

This is called Totec's Tears.

That is an Aztec-inspired sauce that has a jalapeno base with lots of dried chilies like guajillo, ancho and pasilla, and some grilled plums to give it a nice complex sweetness.

It's about a two and a half outta 10 in terms of heat.

So very approachable, nice entry level sauce.

- All right.

- Deep, rich, fruity flavor.

(chip crunches) - That is really good.

You've knocked it outta the park on the fruity flavor.

- Thank you, thank you.

- That is wonderful.

So, next up we have the Cinco.

I think I'm most excited about this one.

I love tomatillos.

- That is a Latin-inspired sauce.

Has roasted onions and tomatillos, clementines, and cilantro.

So it's bright, fresh, and juicy.

That one sits at about a five to a five and a half outta 10.

Cinco is actually the very first hot sauce I made.

It's just meant to be something bright, fresh, and juicy, inspired by a salsa verde with a little bit extra, you know, a little more.

- Yeah.

You know, honestly I was a little scared.

(both laughing) I'm not a hot, I'm not a hot sauce person.

I don't enjoy spicy foods, but this is without a doubt, this is flavor.

I mean, the heat is there.

- Mm hmm.

- But it's not overpowering like a lot of the other hot sauces that I've tried before and ultimately have been turned off to.

We've tried anywhere from four to what, six out of 10?

I'm sure you've got a 10 out of 10.

What's that all about?

- So, the hottest pepper in these three is gonna be a habanero.

So, like I said, formulated for daily eating.

The super hot versions incorporate a mixture of ghost peppers, Trinidad Scorpion, and Carolina Reaper.

So we're gonna start off with the super hot Brimstone, and on a scale of one to 10, this is probably about a 13.

- (laughing) Gosh.

The things I do for TV.

- So I'll just get you a little blob right there.

- All right, here we go.

- [Homero] I'll join, I'll join you, don't worry.

- Okay.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

(Homero laughing) - Great flavor.

- Mm hmm.

- Hasn't really hit me yet.

I'm guessing that's probably.

- Remember that creeping heat.

- That's coming, yeah, creeping heat, a little bit.

I mean honestly, this is wonderful flavor.

There is definitely heat to it, but this is nothing like what I thought we were gonna experience today at all.

- Absolutely.

- [Homero] Now we're gonna try a Pata Del Diablo.

- [Michael] Okay.

- I save this one for last, because Brimstone has tahini in it, which has a lot of fat, and that helps bind to the capsaicin, which delivers that heat over a longer period of time.

Pata Del Diablo does not have any such cushion.

- [Michael] Okay.

- So we're gonna feel all of the heat, all at once, but it's gonna be de juicy and delicious.

- [Michael] It's got some great color to it.

- I really love the look of these sauces.

- Okay, cheers again.

- Cheers.

- All right, here we go.

- Same flavor profile.

- Hmm.

- Kicking up the heats quite somewhat, but nothing unmanageable.

So, I think, you know anybody out there that really likes hot stuff, you come correct on the heat, you've actually got it there, but you've got the flavor.

This is wonderful.

- Thank you very much, I appreciate you saying so.

- Well Homero, I really appreciate you coming on the show.

Thank you so much for letting us sample and thanks for telling us about your journey.

- It's been my absolute pleasure to share.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - For years, Ben Brady worked in a corporate setting until health concerns caused him to seek a new path.

He then began to work with a friend in the information and technology world, until a few years down this new path, the opportunity to buy the business arose.

Ben jumped at this incredible chance to become a business owner and has never looked back.

(upbeat music) We're here in Cookeville, Tennessee with Ben Brady, owner of CipherTek Systems.

Ben, welcome to the show.

- Thank you, Michael.

It's good to be here.

- So, let's get started by telling us what is CipherTek?

What do you all do?

- CipherTek is an IT company.

Lately, we've been referred to as an MSP or a managed service provider.

So, most of our clients are are smaller businesses that don't have IT people on staff.

So, we take care of the IT for them.

- Now, how did you get the idea to start this business?

- Well, honestly it wasn't my idea.

A good friend of mine started the company in 1993.

I bought in in 2007, and then bought him out in 2013.

And since then it's just exploded and here we are.

- So why did you go the business owner route instead of the traditional nine to five?

- I came from corporate in Nashville.

I was living in Baxter the entire time.

My wife and I live out in Baxter.

Had to have back surgery in 2007.

They told me to stop driving so much.

So, I quit corporate in Nashville, started working with my friend, Jason, in Livingston, Tennessee.

And then the rest is history.

- So what does it feel like to own your own business?

You know, you're not nine to five, but you can be your own boss and make your own rules.

But I'm willing to bet that there's a lot more to it than that.

- It's a lot like the weather here in Tennessee.

Some days it's the best job ever.

Some days you don't get any sleep.

There are a lot of nights where you lay in bed and think about everything that's going on.

You worry about things, you have employees, you have customers, you have friends.

But it's probably the best thing I ever did.

I really like it.

Corporate was kind of a drag and being an entrepreneur, especially in the Upper Cumberland, there's no no better place to live than the Upper Cumberland.

- So, what do you think some of the benefits of doing this here in the Upper Cumberland?

A rural area, versus you could go anywhere and do this, Nashville, other urban markets?

Why here?

- I really feel like the people here in the upper Cumberland are genuine.

There's not as much competition and there's a tremendous support structure here.

Everything from local government organizations, civic organizations, churches, friends, family.

So, there's just a lot of support here, and like I said, I've lived all over the Eastern United States, anyway, and I can't think of anywhere other than Cookeville and the Upper Cumberland that I would like to live.

- What are some of the resources you've taken advantage of?

- Well you have the local government which is accessible here, which when I was in Atlanta, when I was in Nashville, that's not really the case.

You have the local organizations like UCHRA, the UCDD.

All of these folks are within a phone call.

It's really nice to be able to go to other small business owners and say, "Hey, I'm going through this."

I know from all the conversations I've had in the last two years, everybody's having labor issues and it's just good to be able to go to some of these groups and some of these support people and say, "Hey, here's what's happening with us."

And they say, "Yeah, that's happening with us too."

- You know, talking about support, we've also had the Small Business Development Center here on the show many times.

Have you ever interacted with them before?

- Oh yeah, the Small Business Development Center over there and Tennessee Tech as a whole.

You know, one of my degrees was from Tennessee Tech in 1998.

So Tech is like family, and everybody that I've ever met over at Tennessee Tech has went way out of their way to help me when I needed it.

Of course, they occasionally call and say, "Hey, can you donate to this?"

And absolutely, it's a two way street there.

And Tech is such an integrated part of this community.

They bring a lot of benefit to the community and it allows our small town to actually feel like it's bigger than it is.

- What are some examples of cyber security risks?

- October is Cyber Security Awareness Month, every October.

And it doesn't matter if you're a Fortune 500 company or if you sell lemonade and you make $500 a month.

If you're plugged in, if you're on the internet, cybersecurity is an issue.

And what we try to do in October, and not we, as CipherTek, but us, as a whole in the IT industry, is try to raise awareness to cyber security.

The biggest risk is being connected.

We truly have moved into a data world.

It's all about the data.

Some businesses, for example, financial and healthcare, I would argue that their data is more valuable than their money.

On the black market a medical record goes for about $65.

So, that's a big deal.

And of course government regulations in healthcare and financial.

So, they have standards and compliance that they have to follow.

But the average small business, the only compliance typically they would fall under is PCI or payment cards.

So, if they're accepting credit cards, they also fall under compliance.

And the wording in legislation recently has been left open.

And talking to the state and people like Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions, they're leaving it open to financial-related businesses.

So, I expect before long that accountants, insurance companies, all this are gonna fall under some type of compliance regulation as well.

- 'Cause it's not just October, it's, this is year round.

This is so important for businesses.

- 24-7, 365, if you're plugged in, if you're on the internet, if you've got the iPhone in your pocket, cyber security should be an issue.

- What are some of the things that I really should be concerned about?

But more importantly, what can I do right now to protect myself?

- The real easy thing is to do updates.

Whether you're a Windows user, whether you're an Apple user, whether you're Google, do your updates.

The reason those guys publish these updates continually is because there are so many security flaws.

So, that's the very basic, and the number one thing, back up your data.

And your data may be medical records, it may be financial, it may be your kids' pictures.

You know, if I was to lose the last 31 years of my kids' pictures, I'd be a wreck.

So, back up your data.

And no matter what happens to you, if you've got a good backup somewhere, you're gonna survive.

- You know, we spend a lot of time on the internet these days.

Back when I was a kid it was always too much TV.

Is there too much internet?

- Oh absolutely.

You know, we have four kids.

We limit the amount of time they can spend on their phones and tablets and things like that.

And where it really comes into play is a lot of businesses don't realize how reliant they are on the internet.

And we've had a few things happen in the Upper Cumberland, the tornadoes for example, that swept through here.

One of our major providers had an outage a couple of weeks ago.

And businesses don't realize just how crippled they are without that internet access.

- What are some tips that we can reduce our internet usage?

- I tell my kids all the time, they hate this.

Go outside.

Lay your devices down, go outside, see the world.

But the small businesses especially, you need redundancy.

If you can't process transactions, if your employees can't work.

We had a company in Cookeville that had to send home about 70 employees because they didn't have internet access.

And you just don't realize how dependent you are until you take it away.

And after the tornadoes, Michael, I've recommended that everybody, every small business run through a small disaster test, and just find out what it would be like if they didn't have internet for a while.

- Thinking about when you bought in back in 2007, what do you know now that you wish you knew then?

- There's a direct relationship between success and how much you're willing to work.

And when I left corporate, it was not uncommon for me to work 50, 60 hours a week in corporate.

It's not uncommon to work 70 or 80 as an entrepreneur.

And that's not always.

Obviously working for yourself, if you need to take a week off, you can take a week off and you really don't have to ask permission.

But the Upper Cumberland's been growing.

We've been growing.

It's been amazing.

- So, there's a lot of small business owners that have just started out that watch the show , or maybe even more people that are thinking about starting a business, but they just haven't crossed that fence yet.

What advice would you give to them?

- I would say go for it.

Reach out to all the resources available.

Don't be afraid to ask.

And one of the things in our part of the country that you will find amazing is if you ask, people are willing to help.

There are a lot of tremendous resources, there are a lot of retirees in our area that have been through this before.

Ask them.

UCHRA, UCDD, the Small Business Development Center, go to these people and ask them.

It can be the most rewarding thing that you've ever done.

And there's so much opportunity right now.

- Well Ben, (upbeat music) this has been a great conversation.

I want to thank you so much for being on the show today.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) - My name's Eric Brown.

I'm the assistant director for the Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach Center at Tennessee Tech University.

Our center was formed back in 2016.

We are an NSA-designated Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education.

With such a long name, we refer to the center as CEROC, 'cause no self-respecting computer scientist is gonna use that many syllables.

At CEROC, all of our activities are organized around our three goals, education, research, and outreach.

Our education goals obviously support classroom activities, extracurricular activities, including cyber competitions and student organizations.

Our research efforts range from vehicular network studies to malware analysis to business risk assessments and other activities related to overall cybersecurity studies.

And finally, on outreach, we work with anybody that will listen to us.

That may be a K-12 classroom, that may be a senior citizen center, and that may be a community forum, simply wanting to know more about cybersecurity or a particular topic in the area.

This work also includes significant work with small businesses, which is an interesting topic for this area because we still have businesses in the Upper Cumberland that believe our geography protects us from cybersecurity attacks.

And we constantly find ourselves explaining to small businesses, your geography no longer protects you.

Once you plug into the internet, you are part of the greater world and will always be part of the greater world.

Part of our work in the small business sector focuses directly on the common sense things that businesses can do to better position themselves for cyber safety.

It's not amazingly technical things, it's common sense.

Unfortunately, many businesses see cyber as something overly complicated or something that can only happen in a big city or another country.

Cyber attacks can happen anywhere.

They can happen in your home, they can happen in your small business, they can happen in your church, they can happen in your nonprofit organization.

And the amazing part about it, a little bit of common sense can address a great deal of risk.

Some of the things that we look at at the center, helping small businesses assess where their cyber positioning is, involves looking at things simple as, do you have a backup plan?

Do you know where your data's at?

If you had an issue, could you restore that data in a timely manner?

Do you have resources to assist you in the case of an event?

In many cases, we have to inform small businesses that it's not a matter of what do I do to prevent from being attacked?

How do I prepare myself for when I am attacked?

And that's the reality of our day.

So, simple business continuity efforts can help a lot.

Again, I've mentioned backups, patching the systems in my network to make sure that they are truly up to date.

That old machine that's set in the corner for 20 years because it didn't need to be fixed probably is now a cyber liability in your organization.

How are you handling all the mobile devices that are in your building now?

The smart phones, the laptops, the tablets, the watches that people have strapped on their arms.

You have a multitude of mobile devices floating in and out of your network.

How are you dealing with those things?

And then the greatest challenge that we've had in recent years with COVID, your office just left your office and went home to a network that you know nothing about and you can do nothing to protect directly.

How do I deal with a mobile workforce that may never return to the office?

All these are challenges that we look at and the simple things that can be done.

Consider the things that you can do in your home and your office.

They can make your cyber life easier and hopefully safer.

Things to consider at both places.

Multifactor authentication, that sounds like a really big word, but it simply is have something besides your password protecting your information.

Everybody carries a cell phone of some sort now, whether it's a smartphone or a flip phone, and they can receive text messages.

For all your social media, the places that you store your data.

Turn on multifactor authentication.

One of the main topics for small business right now is ransomware.

You need a business continuity plan.

Have a plan to continue working until you can recover.

Make sure that you immediately contact law enforcement and get them involved as early as possible.

Have standing agreements with a local IT company or have an IT professional on staff that can assist in executing that plan in making sure recovery is quick as possible.

Cybersecurity is a concern for everyone, and education is the key and the first step to a successful outcome.

Check out our website for more information of ways that you can provide a safer home, a safer business, and a safer community.

(upbeat music) - For more information on today's topics, please visit the WCTE website.

To learn more about the free small business resources and expert assistance, visit the Business Resource Collective website.

Until next time, I'm Michael Aikens.

(upbeat music) Well, Homero, I really appreciate you coming.

(laughing) It's hot.

Oh man.

Just end like that.

Just this is Michael Aikens signing off.

It is hot.

(Homero laughing) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] "It's Your Business with Michael Aikens" is brought to you by WCTE PBS, and the Tennessee Tech Center for Rural Innovation, with funding provided by the Rural Reimagined Grand Challenge.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.