07/16/2021
“I can’t come up with the words — but without the SBDC, I simply would not be. They’ve taught me and encouraged me and guided me to everything that has made me be.” -Brenda Davis, Owner of Clip-N-Dales pet grooming business
Davis a Springs native from the Southeast side, who attended Harrison High School and parks her mobile trailer at the Mission Trace Shopping Center, is no stranger to adversity. She overcame addiction and the setback of years of incarceration to emerge and build her business quite literally with her own two hands. She learned about the Pikes Peak Small Business Development Center from her parole officer, after another venture she’d attempted to launch with her sister didn’t work out. “She said: ‘Go take this business class,’ and that’s the biggest gift she could have given me.”
Davis’ instructor for the class was SBDC Senior Business Consultant Cory Ostos Arcarese, also the Southern Colorado Lending Officer for Colorado Enterprise Fund. Davis says Arcarese “really took me under her wing, and explained to me what I should be doing, almost daily.”
She said she experienced a more difficult learning curve because of how much technology had advanced while she was in prison, so things like a free website provided by an SBDC program were crucial to her.
“I learned how to do business plan, make a weekly budget, create a program to manage my money — I even met my bookkeeper through Cory — and do advertising and set aside savings for emergencies.”
Read more of Brenda's story at https://pikespeaksbdc.org/not-just-a-pet-project/
