(upbeat music) - [Advertiser] GO Topeka's Entrepreneurial and Minority Business Development is proud to support Working Capital.

We share the vision to assist local entrepreneurs with growing their business.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Additional funding is provided by the Friends of KTWU.

- On today's Working Capital, the focus turns to clothing and the kitchen.

Whether you're in need of custom apparel and gifts, or just looking to fill your appetite with a little soul in your stomach, we've got you covered.

Stay with us, as we learn a little about pride and passion in business.

It's all about business on Working Capital.

(upbeat music) Hello, and welcome to Working Capital.

With over 20 years combined experience in the industry, Reliant Apparel prides themselves on providing a fulfilling customer experience.

They can design and print custom garments and gifts, whether you need just one or are placing an order for a thousand, Reliant Apparel has got you covered.

Clint and Alan, welcome to Working Capital.

- Hey, thanks for having us.

- Hey, thank you.

- So, this is one of those business that I hear about and time over time.

You guys do great work for a lot of local businesses.

Where did you get the idea for this?

What got you started in... - Honestly, I never meant for this to turn into a business.

I started out just getting some screen printing equipment because I wanted to print t-shirts for our touring band, so we could save a little of money and then make more money on tours with our merchandise.

So that's... - So, from that you did good work.

Did you start having friends asking?

I mean, how did this kind of scale up?

What really got the push past just doing your band merch?

- Well, at the time I was working bartending jobs.

That's how I could go on tour and have still have work.

And so, I started getting orders for the local bars, and getting their t-shirts made.

And then it started the momentum from that.

It spilled over into some other small businesses and other bands, then it just kind of snowballed into, you know.

- So then starting with, as you're starting with your band and moving up, are you printing in your garage?

Where was your first business start up?

- It was in the basement in my rental home.

- Wow.

(Clint chuckling) So kind of like a lot of the other successful businesses.

- Yeah.

- You started I mean, small, and you scale when you need to.

- Yes, yes.

- And just recently, I know you have actually moved to a new place.

- Yes.

- So why don't tell me a little bit about where you guys moved to.

- We moved to the Townsite Towers over on sixth in Kansas.

We're at 534 South Kansas, suite 110 now.

Our old building sold.

And it was the right moment for us to get out, and we landed a great deal with the Townsite building.

They're still doing a great job of renovating that building.

They've really brought back from the dead.

So, it's a pretty neat place.

It's got its own kind of, it's got its own kind of energy.

So all the businesses in there.

It's almost like an enclosed thing with... - And pretty new.

I mean, new owners or new people involved there that are revamping that whole place from the whole Townsite Plaza.

- Yes.

- The whole thing.

- Just not the tower.

- Yeah.

- So, kind of a cool place to be involved with the business at the moment.

- Yes it is.

They really want us there, and we wanna be there.

So far so good it's been going great.

- When you moved from the other storefront on Kansas Avenue, did you increase space in this new place, I mean?

- Yeah, we increased our production area, you know, twice as much.

So we have plenty of room for production, everything we do, we do in-house.

- Wow, so, a lot of equipment there, room for more equipment, new equipment coming in.

Is there anything on the horizon?

- Yes, we have actually expanded.

We've got some new state of the art automated equipment to help us processing with our screen printing production.

It would give us better higher end detail than what we already have.

New stuff to keep, you know, will lessen our chemical footprint, with cleaning, cleaning supplies, and stuff like that.

So yeah, we have some exciting new technology and that is kinda hard to explain.

But, yes and then we have room for growth.

There's more of space available to us to take over when we're ready for more presses and whatnot.

So, it's a really unique setup we got, so.

- So plenty of room for the presses.

So people can call in and get, I mean if they want one thing made, you guys can cover that.

If you need thousands made for your company, you guys can cover that also.

It's kind of nice.

- Yes.

- Absolutely.

- Now, besides producing there, you can walk in and actually buy gifts and apparel there, right?

You do have a storefront that you can visit?

- Yes, it's quite a bit smaller than the last place, but retail was never really our big thing anyway.

It was just something, so it's not just a t-shirt shop with printed t-shirts laying around.

It was something to give it more of a aesthetic quality when perspective clients came in to talk about getting orders for their company or whatnot.

- I would guess with this kind of business, a lot of your inventory, a lot of your stuff is gonna be dealt with online.

I mean, that's where your storefront really is apparent is being able to access electronically.

So that's kinda cool.

- Yes.

- Being a musician, you're kind of already an artist.

So, tell me about your staff, Alan or Clint I mean, it sounds like you guys have kind of a mix of people working for you that kind of (indistinct).

- You could definitely say that.

We have bartenders from Lawrence.

We have musicians both in heavy metal, death metal, hard rock.

And we have musicians that are a little bit more laid back.

We've got artists who not only produce their art for us but they go to Comic-Con and sell their art to other people.

So, these people, the people that we have working with us, you know, that's their passion.

- Wow, so, with this kind of passion, I mean, you know there are other things they do kinda take part of their life also, are you guys pretty flexible with your employees?

I mean, how do you get, how do you get such good employees to stay there when they wanna be on the road, also playing music or making art?

I mean, you guys seem like a great place to be.

- Well, people go on tour, and this guy goes on tour.

And so, we all pitch in and pick up the slack when that happens.

And the flexibility, you know, we have to have it because, the day of COVID, we have to be flexible with our people to keep 'em happy.

- Sounds like you're one big family down there.

- We try to be.

- Yeah.

- To me that's a great way to be for your employees.

So, I congratulate you guys on that.

It's time for another short break, stick around.

You're watching, Working Capital.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back to the show.

We're here talking with Clint and Alan from Reliant Apparel.

So, you guys are really connected in the community.

Tell me about some of your partnerships, some of your outreach right now.

Where can we see your guys' work at?

- Well, we work with the greater Topeka partnership and GO Topeka.

We're very involved with local schools.

We do Topeka High, Shawnee Heights.

We do Seaman.

We do a lot of the high schools here in town.

We also are working with Mater Dei and downtown for the Irish Fest coming up for St. Patrick's Day.

So we are very involved in the Topeka.

- Yes, and especially the downtown with the new plaza.

- Just the whole revitalization.

- Yeah, the whole, yeah - It really has been growing and it's nice seeing local companies really cementing themselves downtown.

I mean, even with you finding a new storefront, you made sure you stayed downtown.

- Yeah.

- And to me that's, that really helps.

'Cause I mean, we aren't that old, but I know we all remember still shopping downtown and that kind of feel when you're in your community and being able to walk in and out of everyone's local shop, so.

- Absolutely.

- Now, I know not everything's always rosy in these businesses.

What's one bad thing that may have happened, or, you know, COVID or something else where you guys really had to pivot, and you made something out of a rotten apple?

- Well, you just said it, COVID.

When COVID hit we shut down, but we were instated as an essential business by the state of Kansas, and we started pivoting.

We were already into digital services.

But then digital services really started becoming more of emphasis and then a PPE.

And we were able to produce a lot of that for various businesses.

Ended up getting in the end getting us some really nice accounts.

So, we took a situation where we were shut down and things weren't looking good, into turning it.

It change the kind of, with our format of our business and who our clientele that we reach out to is now.

- You saw some growth potential there.

- Yes.

- That's fantastic.

- I would say we probably didn't see it right off the bat, but then we realized it once people started coming to us especially for, printed masks and stuff like that.

- So, looking towards the future, I mean, where do you see yourself?

You've been around for 11 years now?

- Yes.

- Where do you see yourself in another decade?

- Well, the goal for the company is in the short term.

Obviously, we're always working on profitability and those sort of things.

But we would like in the future, a dream for this business would be to, come up with a franchisable way to maybe simplify our services, but put 'em in more in like a, build like a franchise out of it.

- More communities can experience that.

- Yeah, so they can take a slice of our technology that we've used to print shirts, and they could have it up in a brick and mortar store in a different town, or maybe another one here.

So, yeah, so we wanna replicate our business into other places.

- Sounds good.

Of course, I can come in with a piece of artwork.

You get me my shirt.

As I think you said in your website, I can have my shirt to go out on the weekend.

But if I was a big business coming in, what kind of services do you offer?

I mean, do you do any logo work?

Do we have to come with the art, or can you guys design stuff from scratch?

- We do some design work.

Of course, we have artists and there's fees for that.

But yes, we do some design work.

Mainly people bring in ideas and thoughts that they want to see it go.

And then, we send 'em previews, and they like, 'em, they don't like 'em.

They tell us what they'd prefer and we make those changes for them.

- Well, I'm gonna put you both on the spot here a little bit 'cause I know you both have known each other since seventh grade.

Now, Alan, what makes him such a great entrepreneur?

What have you seen in him in this business that made you wanna come on board?

I mean, a lot of people don't work with their friends.

- Right, right.

Clint, he's always working, okay?

That's the one thing about Clint, is he's always got something going on.

If he's not on tour, then he's always working.

He's always thinking of something new that's gonna help us be more innovative.

This weekend he's sending us videos of different kinds of automation that we're looking at.

He knows how to grind stone but always laid back.

- He sounds like a good boss.

Sounds like, you know, well... - To the eyes with others, yeah.

(Clint chuckles) - Well, the way you keep other artists on staff.

- Yeah.

- And being able to let them kind of still perform their art but still work with you.

I mean, that's a great place.

- Yeah.

- How is your employee retention there?

I mean, is it hard to get a job there because no one wants to leave?

- Pretty much.

- Well, we're always looking for qualified people.

- Yeah, yeah.

- But right now we're not.

We don't have any openings because we have, we're full of qualified people.

- Yeah a lot of our employees have been there a long time.

In fact, almost all of them.

- What advice would you have for someone else starting out, with any sort of business?

What was the one thing that you could say that would help them?

- Think of it as probably like, for instance here at Washburn, like going to college.

Be sure that you wanna do it because you're gonna owe it if you don't follow through.

(Clint chuckling) - That is very good advice.

Gotta add some passion for it.

- Yeah, yeah.

It's nothing short term.

Be sure that your feelings for what you're doing is not fleeting and it sticks with you 'cause it's a long journey and you have to be a...

The reward is the independence, but on the opposite end of that, it's the constant attention you have to pay to what you're doing to make it work.

- Great, that's great advice.

So, thank you Clint, thank you Alan, for joining us today on Working Capital.

It's time for another short break.

When we return, we'll learn about soul food in the capital city with Nanny's SoulFood.

Stick around, you're watching, Working Capital.

(upbeat music) Welcome back.

Nanny's SoulFood first opened its doors in 2018, bringing Topeka a new taste to try.

Known for serving homemade comfort food that's full of flavor, the unique seasonings will stick to your soul.

Shavonn Smith overcame adversity to keep her dream alive.

Shavonn, welcome to Working Capital.

- Thank you.

- So, Nanny's SoulFood now in NOTO, but where did your passion for this style of cooking come from?

I mean, you're from Topeka originally.

So, how did this get past you?

Who did you learn it from?

- My dad.

(Shavonn chuckles) My dad was the cook of the house, and he taught me a lot of things I know.

So I kinda twisted a few things.

And my grandmother, rest in peace, she's gone now.

She had a barbecue shop back in the seventies.

So, I was in there with her a little bit.

So, this is my dream.

This is my dream.

- So, a lot of good memories cooking in the kitchen with family.

- Oh yeah, my dad and my stepmom, yes.

- Holidays, weekends, I mean that's... - My family is huge.

So, Thanksgiving would be at my grandmother's which we couldn't fit.

But yeah, it was a lot.

A lot going on there.

(Shavonn chuckling) - Tell me what finally was the push to open up this restaurant?

What took you over the top?

- I was helping do fundraiser for some family members.

My auntie was actually sick and my grandmother was also sick.

And at that point in time we didn't know it, but we needed to pull together.

So, I did a fundraiser and it kinda took off from there.

And also Curtis Pitts, he was part of that.

He let me do a few stand ups for him, and we booked it.

I've done a couple of concerts here and yeah, so, it kind of just grew from me helping people raise money.

- The flavors, I mean soul food.

It can be kind of, it's Southern food, but it's a different.

It's kind of an art form in and of itself from the African-American culture.

And tell me a little bit how that differs and the spices you use and the kinda love behind it.

- You have to love what you do.

I'm a taste person.

So, I find myself just trying to taste everything that I do.

So the spices is my dad thing.

It's never enough for him but, you know.

(Shavonn chuckling) So, yeah.

So, the spices, it's a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and I'm real bad with measuring.

So people are not good with learning with me 'cause I'm like this and I'm like that.

And you know and they're like, you gonna put it on paper?

But you know, it's all here, so.

- It's the love of it.

I mean you have a passion for this cooking.

- I do.

- People love it.

Now in NOTO this is your third, the third stop.

- Yes - So I'm hoping your clientele hasn't mind it and moved.

'Cause I know that place is gonna get you new business.

I think they open in September there.

- Yes, yes.

- But tell me a little bit about that kind of struggle to find this place and how the community kinda came together with you.

- I was at a point to where I was ready to give up.

Like you said, my third location.

And Jenny came along, and people had been recommending me to go see her.

The first day I met this lady she was so amazing.

I mean, she didn't hold no punches.

She didn't cut no corners.

She didn't give me no story.

She was straightforward, and she's been like that with me since.

She's amazing, and it's been good down there for me.

- And that's Jenny Torrence.

- Yes Jenny Torrence.

- She does a lot there in NOTO.

- That woman is amazing.

(Shavonn chuckling) See, she's a good woman.

She's a good woman, she definitely is.

- Okay so, moving in there, what's it been like?

What's the new space like?

How's the reception?

- It's nice and it's good.

It's been good for us.

Just the whole NOTO area is different.

A lot of my customers didn't know about NOTO.

So, that was a good part of it, to bring new customers to the NOTO area.

So, it's been alive down there.

It's been real good.

- So, inside this, I mean, it's your baby.

Who's helping you?

What's your staff like?

I mean, what's the team here?

- My team is my kids.

I have six kids and everybody get in where they fit in.

So, it's been crazy.

And like, I know I'm not the only one struggling with staff, but my kids keep me alive, they do.

I love my kids.

They keep me alive.

- And they're working hard but is there any of them that you see the passion in?

Is there any of them that's gonna keep the cooking going?

- That's still kinda hard to say.

I have a couple that says they want to carry it on.

I don't hold them to it.

I want them to have their own dream and live their own thing.

But any and everything I do with this business is about my kids.

The growth, the food, any and everything that comes with that business, it revolves around my babies.

I want them to be able to say they have something of their own.

And never have to worry about being fired.

(Shavonn chuckles) Is my ultimate goal for them is to own this business.

- And really you're building it out of your heritage, really.

- Yeah, yeah.

- I mean, it's not, you didn't go to school to learn this culinary style.

- No.

(Shavonn chuckles) - This is bread and butter home cooked.

- Absolutely.

- What's your favorite dish that you make?

- My favorite dish probably would be, banana pudding, catfish, spaghetti, and greens.

So, yeah.

- You had me at banana pudding just because I'm dessert first.

(Shavonn chuckling) Well, when we get back, we're gonna talk a little bit more about, your menus, kind of what you cook, some of your specials, and really, how you kinda make that run.

'Cause, I'm sure you're having a fun time sourcing food and everything else like all the restaurants.

It's not just staffing these days.

- Oh no, the supplies is crazy right now, you know, you have to.

If you love what you do, you'll make it happen.

And there's tricks to the trade and you just have to know.

And I know, so, you know, I'm still standing through this pandemic.

It's been crazy, but I'm thankful.

(upbeat music) - That's good, okay.

It's time for another short break, stick around and see what's cooking next for Nanny's SoulFood.

We'll be right back.

(upbeat music) So what's next on the burner for Nanny's SoulFood?

It's not just the staffing these days that's problem, and luckily you have a great family behind you.

I mean, how's the day to day work in someplace where it's you and your kids really running this restaurant?

- It can be crazy.

It can be a mad house but we stick together and we pull it off.

Supplies is iffy.

And if you don't have a passion for it, you're not gonna make it.

I didn't expect to be standing this long through the pandemic.

I really didn't.

From the staff to the supplies it's been real bad but I know what I'm doing.

And this is what I love to do.

So, I cut corners and I make it happen and I still push out good flavor, so.

- And really, for Topeka there's not, I mean, you can go to some chains that have some seafood, but you're going and finding this.

I mean, you're having to source your own stuff, going outta town but I mean, you are the place to go get fresh cooked seafood here in Topeka.

- Yes, so I try and bring things that Topeka don't have or haven't had, you know, my étouffée, my gumbo.

I just try and bring things that, you really can't find around here or people have never tried.

It's hard putting things on a map when people are accustomed to what they're accustomed to but once you try it you'll be back.

If you're in heaven, the étouffée, the gumbo, the seafood boils, it's amazing.

- And really for some people out there, I mean, they hear soul food, but then they still may be a little scared.

I mean, he's talked to about the seasonings.

He's talked about the trinity of greens.

I mean, use of corn meal.

I mean, it's stuff they're used to.

- Yeah.

- It's just spiced in a certain way and it's just... - Yeah.

- Tell me a little bit about that.

- Yeah I mean, everybody has their own taste and I like to spunk things up.

And I like to do my own thing.

So, me putting in these different flavors, I enjoy doing it.

I go to different places every now and then to try I food and I have to taste it and I'm bad with it.

I'm real bad with it to where I don't go out as much because I'm a cook.

(Shavonn chuckling) I'm never satisfied.

- But you got good food at home.

- I do, I do.

And I'm just so accustomed to cooking.

I cook all the time.

When I leave the restaurant, I still go home and make dinner.

So, you know... - It's your peaceful place.

- It is.

- Even amongst all the chaos, you can find that peaceful.

- That is my stress reliever, it is.

It's bad, it's bad.

(Shavonn chuckling) - So, what's in your future here?

What do you see in the coming months as it gets warmer and hopefully more people get out?

- NOTO is good for us.

I know NOTO is good for us.

The weather is changing so people, a lot of things I had on my menu, I brought it down.

I'm bringing it back up.

The fried candy bars, the fried Oreos, the fried Snickers, you name it.

I'm bringing it back.

And a lot of things I do is my own butter and stuff.

- Have you been open in NOTO yet for one of the street festivals that have there?

Have you seen that traffic yet?

- Oh yeah, oh yeah.

- Do you make it through the whole day or is it like if you get there.

- Oh no.

- You better get there early?

- Well, our very first Friday was a mad house.

We ran out of food.

(Jay chuckles) And the line was still coming and I didn't know how to stop it.

I was so overwhelmed and the kids were overwhelmed, and line was still coming.

So we're still pushing orders.

And people they didn't care I didn't have fish left, they wanted the sides.

Whatever you had, give it to me.

It was amazing though.

It was good.

- So, what's been the favorite dish so far?

What are the staples that you have most of the time?

- So the catfish, the greens, the gumbo, and the étouffée and most definitely the macaroni is what, is our top sellers.

- And you do rotate in some pretty good specials.

I mean, tell us what on occasion.

- So gumbo and étouffée was a special, it was a once a week special.

Going into NOTO, they have made it a everyday thing.

So, now I found myself trying to find a special.

I don't do barbecue but lately my kids are venturing out.

So I do see a future for my kids.

They've been barbecuing.

So, they've been smoking meat and they've done really well.

- So, you may see your menu expanding a little bit just from your kids' passion getting involved here.

- So everybody is kinda jumping in on their own bus.

The boys and my husband has been messing around with the smoker.

We've done smoked ribs.

We've done fried ribs.

The boys and my husband shocked me.

(Shavonn chuckles) The ribs were amazing.

So, we're trying to bring it back.

- And I saw something on the menu.

And then I saw, I was doing a little research and I saw some people comment on this and I didn't know about this but pizza puffs.

Someone was freaking out over pizza puffs.

Tell me about these.

- It's a city thing.

Like again, like I said, Topeka is behind on everything.

We're the last to get the new stuff.

So, I grew up between here in Chicago and pizza puffs was one of the things that we ate in Chicago.

So, it's a little different than regular pizza puffs, pizza rolls, but it's amazing.

It's a big old pizza puff.

(Shavonn chuckles) - When you walk in your restaurant, I mean, all the smells.

If you weren't hungry, you will be hungry three feet in the door.

- Absolutely.

- I mean, it's amazing.

Do you know roughly how many meal, like in a busy day, do you know how many meals you're pushing out?

- I don't.

It's crazy 'cause I am my own cook.

I go catch my own supplies.

I pretty much do 90% of everything on my own.

So, by the midday my head is running in circles.

But we do really good down there and trying when we have leftovers, it's a lot of homeless people down there so we feed them too.

- That's fantastic.

- So nothing goes the waste.

Nothing goes to waste.

- That's fantastic.

A lot of restaurants before, you know, they damaged the food before it goes out.

- No.

- No, so I mean, it's great when you hear of local restaurants giving back.

- Yeah, growing up you didn't waste food.

I don't care what it was.

If you didn't like it, you didn't waste it.

And we don't waste food.

- That's fantastic.

You have a great soul for this.

So I hope everyone goes down and tries Nanny's SoulFood.

- Thank you.

- It's fantastic, you won't be disappointed.

- You won't be disappointed.

I promise you you'll come back.

- Thanks Shavonn.

- Thank you.

- That's all for tonight's show.

I'd like to thank Clint Appelhanz and Alan Smith from Reliant Apparel, along with Shavonn Smith from Nanny's SoulFood, for being with us on Working Capital and sharing their entrepreneurial journeys.

As always, if you know of interesting businesses or management techniques, we wanna hear from you.

So give us a call, drop us an email, or send us a letter.

We look forward to hearing from you.

See you next time and thanks for watching.

It's all about business, and you've been watching, Working Capital.

(upbeat music) - [Advertiser] GO Topeka's Entrepreneurial and Minority Business Development is proud to support Working Capital.

We share the vision to assist local entrepreneurs with growing their business.

- [Announcer] Additional funding is provided by the Friends of KTWU.

(upbeat music)