(upbeat music) - [Speaker 1] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) - [Speaker 2] It's Your Business with Michael Aikens, is brought to you by WCTE, PBS and the Center for Rural Innovation with funding provided by a grant from USDA Rural Development.

This series was produced under an agreement with Tennessee Tech University Center for Rural Innovation.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to It's Your Business.

I'm your host, Michael Aikens.

For many of you watching, your dream may be to own your own business or be your own boss, but you also may feel unable or unsure of how to make that dream come true.

Well, you've come to the right place because that's what this series is all about.

We work to bring you advice and resources from skilled professionals, as well as everyday people who have made their dream of owning a business come to life.

Join me, as we meet two successful business owners, hear their stories and learn from their successes and shortcomings in starting their businesses.

(upbeat music) When Barjes Alotaibi came back to Tennessee to enjoy a retirement, he never imagined he would soon be starting a new business, but when opportunities arose to use his skills and knowledge to offer e-learning for pilots, he took a chance and started a business, Arcs Aviation, that would soon present him with yet another opportunity to get involved with the United States Department of Defense.

(orchestral music playing) I'm here at Arcs Aviation in Cookeville, Tennessee with owner and founder, Barjes Alotaibi.

Barjes, welcome to the show.

- Thank you very much.

- First things first, what is Arcs Aviation and what do you all do here?

- Arcs Aviation, founded in 2012 and we started for a commercial client and we develop e-learning for pilots.

After we finished the civilian project for pilots, we started getting into the government, the DOD, because they are interested in new technology.

In any contract the first time, we sent two proposal to the Navy and two proposal to the Air Force.

The navy, we get rejected.

we are too new to the government.

There is no past experience and so on and so forth.

The Air Force, one of them also get rejected.

And also rejection is not bad.

If you get rejected then say, oh, I give up.

I'm getting rejected, that's not good.

Rejected really is training.

Use it as training and do better just like if you were a constructor you are not good in this one, then next time you're gonna be good in that subject.

So, we always request the briefing why?

And then we just do better.

The second time with Air Force they are happy.

The government say out of 2,500 proposal, which was 32 companies.

So we really impressed.

We really happy.

I don't know what is that percentage, but that's pretty good percentage.

- So how did you start the business?

What gave you that idea and what led you in life to where you're at right now?

- Why I started the business, by accident.

I just retired from Aramco as pilot, and check airman, and chief pilot.

And I said that's it, I'm going back to Tennessee and retired.

That's where my wife from.

And that's where I graduated from Tennessee Tech, long time ago in the '80s.

And said we are going back to Tennessee and retired.

And I really thought that's it, I'm retired.

That time I was 51.

I said, I'm just gonna retire.

Few years later, one of my colleague, he is also pilot, approached me and he was doing project overseas and he needs e-learning for commercial airline.

He said, I'm on contract and I need your expertise and find me subject matter expert to do e-learning for pilots, maintenance, flight attendants and dispatchers.

It was a huge project, 10,000, I think between pilots and flight attendants and maintenance it's about 10,000.

We have to create LMS.

It's all on LMS.

We didn't buy it because it's customized.

What he really wanted is the subject matter experts.

He said, I need the Dreamliner, 787 from Boeing, there is no subject matter expert at that time, because it's a new airplane.

And from there we found the right people to do the 787.

We also did many aircraft, but the challenge was 787, because it's a new airplane.

And then we created the whole curriculum to just make the training easier for pilots at that time, probably because you see pilots now, carrying many bags, they have manuals and they have FAA manuals and checklists.

So our philosophy is just to make it easier, brought an iPad and get rid of the books.

Paperless, we call it paperless cockpit, including the checklist.

Actually my son now he's doing iPad because the new generation they're comfortable with it.

And we did it and we give to the airline, they are happy with it.

It was successful.

And then there is hesitance with the old guard because they want the papers.

They wanna see it when they land.

And they wanna see everything going on.

I didn't trust this phone.

There is backup.

Just the same thing, airplane.

If the engine, what are you gonna do?

Quit?

You have to trust your instrument.

They call it an airplane.

Also trust your technology if it's programmed right.

So, that's how I started.

We started for the commercial and then from there upgraded to the innovation, the AR/VR.

- So tell us a little bit more about AR/VR.

What do those acronyms mean?

- AR is Augmented Reality.

It's also called Mixed Reality.

And VR, Virtual Reality.

Virtual reality.

VR is good for training mainly because really you could play with it the way you want.

You can put the headset and just be in different world.

So, it's also a safety issue because you think you are somewhere else.

You could be in high building and that's the VR.

And I think tech doing some VR, I think a long time ago.

AR is more for operations.

And that's really what some of the customer wants because AR could save money, save people, save time and so on and so forth.

And AR, as you said, it's real world plus the virtual world.

It's superimposed.

So, you see it's safety it's not hazard as the VR.

You could walk in the hangars, you see something nobody else see but you also you see where you're going.

So that's the AR.

And it's evolving.

Every year there is a new technology and we have to keep up with the technology.

- Just to make sure I understand and our viewers, you're putting on a headset and you're going into an Air Force hanger, and you're utilizing your training and the product that you all make is physically in the headset and you can actually see in a holographic standpoint what's going on and that's what you all do here.

- That's correct.

- Can you tell us a little bit more about what it looks like to get an SBR and actually work with the department of defense, like the Air Force?

- The Air Force, I think evolving and they have a new generation now, because SBR used to be the traditional one you have to write like 50 pages and it last for two years, three years, and then the new generation in the Air Force now really making it easier.

You just need maybe 15 slides and then you need five maximum pages.

They make it easier.

And I think the new generation is open to the technology and they even know how to use it even if they haven't seen it because they are used to Xbox and all this stuff and it's easy for them.

When you come to my generation it's pretty hard.

It takes us a long time to get used to the switches and stuff, AR/VR, but for the new generation, it's not really a big deal.

And it's the way to go not only for the Air Force, for DOD and also for the civilian as well, university as well, and a technical school and a manufacturer as well.

- So, what I'm hearing is really what your business creates, allows newer generations of people to come in and work with the Air Force.

And that allows them to really be able to not only innovate, but also attract that next generation of workforce?

- Exactly.

Exactly.

- So, in speaking of the workforce, and I understand you look at your website and it says, subject matter experts are our greatest assets.

Who are these subject matter experts and what do they do for your business?

- Subject matter experts are those who really understand the technology.

And the subject matter experts doesn't have to programmers or AR/VR experts.

Could be good maintenance guys who've been doing maintenance for 20 years, for example.

He knows the airplane back and forth, because if I'm doing something for maintenance and I didn't have subject matter experts, I could do something that it will show you, yeah, it's cool, but it's not accurate cause I don't know, I have to get the subject matter expert to know this doesn't supposed to go this way, it's supposed to go the other way or vice versa.

So that's the subject matter experts.

And we got them both for pilots, for maintenance, even if we have something for manufacture we'll find somebody expert for manufacturing, for example.

They do what we call the storyboarding.

They say this happen if you do this and that will not happen if you don't do this and so on and so forth.

And then we see in the storyboarding, then we give the programmer because the programmers is good programmers, but they don't know how the system works for the airplane, for example, or for anything if it's not their expertise.

- So you could do this business anywhere in the nation or really even in the world, but you chose the Upper Cumberland, why?

- That's correct.

I could do it from anywhere.

I choose Cumberland because it is really business friendly.

It's nice weather.

It was in USA Today or some other magazine long time ago.

It's the best place to live and it get everything we need.

Cookeville, for example, it's not a huge city.

It's not small city.

It's just the right city.

I'm used to it.

And I like the area here it's really business friendly.

And that's why we came to Cumberland region.

- What advice would you give to our entrepreneurs in our region about being able to balance the daily work with the need for innovation?

- Well, have a good plan and have life balance as well.

And then find the right people.

Also trust people as well because you don't wanna do it all yourself.

If you do it yourself, you'll be burned out and you're probably gonna quit, but just trust the people and find the right people, and treat them right.

- Barjes, It's been a pleasure speaking with you today.

Thank you so much for coming on the show.

- I'm glad you guys came over and hopefully we'll be in touch in the future.

Thank you very much.

(soft music playing) - Some say that in owning your own business, when you do what you love, it's not really work, but when you're trying to get that new business off the ground it can be a lot of work.

However, as Kim Johnson shows us, if you can persevere your new business can truly become something you love and much less like work.

Kim loves how her business, The Painted House, reflects her own style and enthusiasm for design, as she provides her customers with items that can brighten up their homes, their lifestyles, or just bring a smile to their face (soft music playing) I'm here in Cookeville, Tennessee at The Painted House with owner, Kim Johnson.

Kim, welcome to the show.

- Thank you.

- Kim, let's get started by telling us all about what is The Painted House?

- We are a home and gift store located on South Low, and we offer anywhere from home decor to baby, to bedding, rugs, anything you would want for your home.

- So this is not your only business though, is it?

- No, actually I have a clothing store next store, which is just right next door to us.

And we opened it about three years ago.

- So as an entrepreneur, what inspired you to start a small business?

- Funny, I lost my job during the recession in 2008, they let my whole division go.

And when I used to travel with them, I would always stop at the local stores and antique stores.

And that kinda got me started, so had about a year to decide what I wanted to do and just kinda fell into it.

- So what are some of the most important experiences that you've had so far owning a business versus working a traditional job?

- You work a lot harder.

I did work a lot before with my travel and things that I used to do for that company.

But with this one, I feel like I work all the time, but I love it.

So it's a little different.

If you love what you do, then I think you're more satisfied with what you do for a living.

- [Michael] What are some of the things that you love about owning your business?

- Being able to help people make their home something that they wanna enjoy when they get off work and just being a part of the community, I guess.

- In entrepreneurship owning a small business, there's going to be inherent challenges.

What are some of the challenges that you faced and how did you overcome those?

- If you wanna do everyday challenges now is supply chain, especially with this time that we're in.

Getting all of your product in.

So you have to really plan your year and what you're doing and try to overcome it.

- We talk about resilience, overcoming these challenges.

How did the pandemic with COVID?

How did that affect your business and how did you get through it?

- What we did during the pandemic, is we offered curbside pickup, my question to myself was like, how am I gonna get my product out to the people?

So we used a lot of social media, took a lot of pictures and I started in one room taking pictures of everything we had and posting.

You could buy online and come by the front porch and pick it up and then you're done.

So that was good because people still celebrated their birthdays, still celebrated things, maybe not at a great level.

They were at home all the time so they were seeing everything that they wanted to do to their home.

And we had it there for them to pick up.

- As we're hopefully slowly coming out of the pandemic, what do you think the outlook for small businesses like yourself is gonna be moving forward?

- I guess, just to be more resilient and be on guard, kind of assess what you have and try to work with what you have too, because you don't have to outsource everything.

You've got a lot of local community support that can help you.

That's probably in the future.

And I think everybody is changing in that way.

- Thinking in terms of resiliency, think back to when you started this business, what do you know now that you wish you knew then?

- I tell you to be a part of every process of your business, not just start full on buying everything you can to support the community, you really need to start small.

And now that's what I would recommend for everybody starting in a small business is start small, build your business, save your money.

If you can work your business by yourself for a little while until you can afford to hire somebody.

I'll tell you I didn't pay myself for a couple of years because I did have family support, but I put it all back into the store.

So if you can do that, I would tell that to anyone who actually is starting a business - How do you deal with stress?

How do you deal with the long hours?

What does that work-life balance look like for you?

- Well, I'm always on the go.

You can ask any of the girls here.

You have to fit it in when you can.

And on a personal note exercise is like my stress reliever, but you have to be able to balance your work life with your store life, or what you do at home.

So I may not be here in the middle of the day, but I'll be working at night.

So you've got to just balance everyday.

- And I guess you'd probably say too, you've got to love what you do too.

- You do.

I think if you love what you do you work harder.

You're successful at it.

And I encourage that for anybody.

If you have a passion for something you don't have to go full on, you can just start small with it like I did, and then just build it.

And if you love it you'll be successful at it.

- [Michael] We're here in Cookeville, Tennessee, it's very rural region.

You could have probably started this business really anywhere.

Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga.

Why did you wanna stay here in Cookeville?

- We have family here.

We were in Franklin for about 10 years before this and we moved back.

There's just not a lot of small businesses here.

And I believe if you have a lot of small businesses, you'll have a lot of people come into town to shop and to eat.

And so the more people that are here, the more home stores that are here, the more clothing stores that are here, it's gonna draw people to wanna be here.

I call this the big little city.

So you can find just about anything here now.

- We live in a very rural region here in the upper Cumberland.

You spoke to the importance of having small businesses here.

What do you think really is the major impact that small businesses have on our rural area versus going somewhere else?

- We know we are hands on here.

That's the difference here, is you can touch it, you can feel it.

We offer a lot of custom things for people.

We actually do home decor services also.

And then when you support your community, you bring jobs to the community.

And I think that's just is what is needed here?

- What do you think the economic outlook for the upper Cumberland, Cookeville and rural areas across America?

What does that look like right now?

- I think if you have support from your local people, your community it will start to build.

A lot of people now because of the pandemic, I think have resorted to going local.

Wanting those people here because if you don't have stores here, people will move out.

People will go other places, if you don't have that community involvement here, then I think it's not a big win for the city.

- So what does small businesses and entrepreneurs like yourself, what do you all need from the community?

From our leaders to survive?

- Support, just local support.

Get the word out there, shop local.

I know that a lot of people like to go out outside the city, but like I said, if you can support local community, then it's gonna build more people.

People will wanna come here and live and thrive.

And I think that'll feed the community.

- In my work in economic development, one thing that I'm seeing a lot of in regions across the nation is workforce.

It's hard to get people to work.

And I know that there's a lot of consternation out there surrounding that issue.

How are you dealing with that?

- I have a really good support staff.

we are a great knit set of employees and very thankful I don't have a lot of turnover, which is great.

And I didn't have any issues during COVID, but that is a big issue, especially in this time.

And I hope that people are actually supportive in the businesses that are having problems getting people to work for them, but I've actually had a really good luck and have a great staff.

- What's your secret to low turnover?

- Well, I'm pretty flexible.

I try to be flexible with my staff.

If they have something that's going on or they're sick, I'm actually the filler in, but we have a fun staff and we have a good time, and I think that's important.

- How do you deal with it when you realize there's a situation that it's a little bit beyond your control as a business owner, how do you deal with that?

- You have to be on your feet and you have to analyze the situation and then just own it.

If it's something you can't handle and are not able to handle it yourself physically, then you just have to roll with it and just kind of adapt.

And that's what we've always done.

- As a sole proprietor.

I'm sure that you're not doing all this alone.

Do you have a support network that you work with?

- Sure, you know, local businesses, we have a lot of local businesses in town, so we actually help each other.

We share each other's events on social media.

If we have questions or need help, we always call each other to see what's going on.

And I think that is probably my biggest support aside from my husband, of course, but I think that's probably our big community support for each other.

- Well, final question for you.

What does the future look like for The Painted House?

- I hope to be here longer, maybe another 10 years.

This is our ten-year anniversary.

So we're really excited.

Not a lot of businesses survive as long.

So we're very thankful, especially for giving us such support.

So that's probably my greatest.

I'm getting emotional.

So that's my biggest, I guess, just being thankful.

- Kim, it clearly means a lot to you to be a business owner here in the upper Cumberland.

We thank you for what you do and thank you for being on the show.

- Thanks for having me.

(soft music playing) (upbeat music playing) - Hi, I'm Andrea Kruszka, the Rural Outreach Coordinator for the Center for Rural Innovation at Tennessee Tech University.

We work with main street businesses in the upper Cumberland to help provide small business resources to help your business thrive.

One of the main things we do is provide student interns in all kinds of areas.

We work in a lot of creative type things like graphic design, photography, content creation, and just about anything else you can imagine.

We also partner with the small business development center and their intern programs through the Tennessee Tech College of Business.

So we can also assist with things like marketing, financials and business plans.

You can see some of the work we've done all over the Upper Cumberland.

If you've ever been to Sparta and Happy Trails Brewing Company or the Coffee Collective, there's murals on the walls painted by one of our art students.

And if you've been to the Yarn Patch's website from Crossville or City Girl Soaps from Cookeville, you can see some of the photography we've done.

It's not just small businesses we work with though.

We also work with chambers of commerce and other community organizations to help develop tourism brands.

For example you can check out Jackson County and the town of Monterey websites.

Even if you don't consider yourself an entrepreneur, maybe you're a musician, an artist, a maker.

We still have resources that can help you.

And as an artist myself, I know it can be really difficult doing some of those more businessy things.

If you think your small business or organization could benefit from the resources we offer, check out BRCollective.org and get connected with all the different things we can offer through either the Center for Rural Innovation or our partners at the Biz Foundry, Small Business Development Center and WCTE.

We can help with so much so make sure you take advantage.

(upbeat music playing) - Thanks for tuning in to It's Your Business.

For more information on today's topics and extended interviews, please visit the WCTE website.

Learn more about free small business resources and expert assistance.

Visit the Business Resource Collective website.

Until next time, I'm Michael Aikens.

(upbeat music playing) (orchestral music playing) - [Speaker 2] It's Your Business with Michael Aikens, is brought to you by WCTE, PBS and the Center for Rural Innovation with funding provided by a grant from USDA Rural Development.

This series was produced under an agreement with Tennessee Tech University Center for Rural Innovation.

- [Speaker 1] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music)