Never Forgotten Bakery

Never Forgotten Bakery

by | Oct 13, 2023 | Farmington, LBN Food, Troy

Local Business News caught up with Never Forgotten Bakery, which is carrying on the legacy of the longtime Sunflour Bakhaus in downtown Farmington. Located just a couple miles from the former Sunflour Bakhaus, Never Forgotten carries old world bread and German soft pretzels, based on Sunflour’s recipes, as well as cakes, cookies, cupcakes and more. Owner Michelle Neal made the leap to bakery ownership from the healthcare industry, opening Never Forgotten in January 2023. She hopes you’ll stop by soon, or look for her on Saturdays at the Farmington Farmers Market at the Dolcetto table.

Busch’s Fresh Food Markets

Busch’s Fresh Food Markets

by | Sep 14, 2023 | Farmington, LBN Food, Rochester

Local Business News talked with Doug Busch, owner and community development director for this family business, which goes back to 1975. With 16 locations, including one in Rochester and other metro Detroit and Ann Arbor area stores, Busch’s prides itself on supporting local farmers and food manufacturers. A central kitchen in Clinton ensures consistency in Busch’s baked goods and other fresh foods. The company also supports local charities through food and milk drives, and stays involved in community charities like Forgotten Harvest.

Ground Control Coffee Roasters

Ground Control Coffee Roasters

by | Aug 31, 2023 | Farmington, LBN Food

Local Business News talked with Trent Chapman, co-owner of Ground Control Coffee Roasters in downtown Farmington. The coffee shop, which also sells its coffee online, will celebrate its one-year anniversary in September. Stop by Ground Control for coffee, espresso, latte, tea, sandwiches, store-made muffins and more. They’re open as late as 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.  

Dolcetto Cheese

Dolcetto Cheese

by | Aug 9, 2023 | Farmington, LBN Food

Local Business News caught up with Lindsay Kennedy, owner of Dolcetto Cheese & Specialty Goods in downtown Farmington (formerly, The Cheese Lady) since September 2022. Kennedy spoke about her “food is life” philosophy, her new artists’ lines and wines, wine and cheese tastings, and why you can now purchase alligator tail at Dolcetto. 

Seeing 2020: Business Cheerleader’s Advice For Success in New Year

Seeing 2020: Business Cheerleader’s Advice For Success in New Year

by | Jan 15, 2020 | Farmington, From Launch To Ascent, LBN Community Series, Small Business

Seeing 2020: Business Cheerleader’s Advice for Success in New Year

15
JANUARY 2020

BY PAMELA A. ZINKOSKY

LBN Community Series

Farmington

Every business needs a cheerleader, and Tisha Hammond has been one for small businesses for the last five years. Her Farmington Hills-based Ascent Small Business Promotion LLC, popularly known as From Launch to Ascent, offers consulting services, online training, inspirational talks, business retreats and more.

While Hammond calls her blog Pep Talk, she’s by no means just a pompom-brandishing cheerleader. She was a badge-and-gun-carrying police officer for 10 years. She spent 21 years working for the government, the last part of that service conducting equal employment opportunity investigations.

TISHA HAMMOND

TISHA HAMMOND

FOUNDER, FROM LAUNCH TO ASCENT

There’s something both tough and soft about her, though, most likely because of the road that led to where she is today.

In 2014, both her brother and sister, neither of them yet 40, died. In addition, she and her husband mourned the passing that year of 24 other people they knew. It was a tragic year that ended with a “moment of clarity,” she said.

On Nov. 29, 2014 — yes, she recalls the exact date — she had a dream that featured the Ascent logo in its blue and gold colors and the “Small Business Cheerleader” tagline. “It was one of those dreams I didn’t forget,” she said.

Not much later, she took a test at work to find her “dream job,” which came up as either in public affairs — her husband’s field — or as a small-business promoter. “I said, ‘What’s a small business promoter?’ ” she said with a laugh.

Once she learned, she realized that, through all her employee interviews over the years, she encountered so many people who would rather be doing something else for a living. They weren’t living their passions. Ascent Small Business Promotion was born as a home-based business devoted to helping people make money doing what they love.
A place of her own

Hammond ran Ascent out of her home from January 2015 through March 2017 while still working for the government. In 2018, she retired, going full-time with Ascent in March of that year. That’s when she opened her office, an appointment-only consulting space that includes a meeting room for clients and an area for in-person training sessions.

Positive sayings adorn the walls of her office, which features a flat-screen television, plus a small treadmill and a stair-stepper, so she can get in some exercise while conducting calls or catching the news.

Adjacent to her office sits her husband’s photography and videography company. Hammond sometimes borrows his equipment to record videos or snap photos for her business’ social media pages. Before her interview with Local Business News, she posted a video saying she was praying for clarity in conveying her message — an idea that’s relevant for all business owners.

Hammond, who’s a small-business owner herself and an expert in equal opportunity and human resources issues, counsels and trains clients around the world. “My clients are health-care providers, ‘solopreneurs,’ nonprofits, corporations, agencies, small boutiques,” she said. They run the gamut of industries, but all of them can benefit from a few pieces of advice, she said.

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To start 2020, Hammond offered 10 pointers for small businesses:

 

  1. Build community. “Envelope yourself in a community — a team of people who will fuel you, share resources, help you change course when necessary, introduce clients,” said Hammond, who has done this throughout her career. She keeps a networking table with business cards from her clients and associates, and she never discounts the value of belonging to an organization of like-minded people. A fellow member of the Greater Farmington Area Chamber of Commerce, for example, helped connect her to a women’s organization in Bosnia. She formed a partnership with that organization to teach classes for her online training academy.
  2. Know your financials. “The IRS will consider your business a hobby if you’re not profitable,” Hammond said. It’s important to work toward making a profit and know what it takes to get there.
  3. Get a mentor. If a natural mentor hasn’t emerged for you, or if you’re shy about asking someone, check out www.score.org, Hammond suggests.
  4. Build capacity, and prepare for scaling. Hammond tells stories about people who had a product, did a media interview and then received more orders than they could fill. It’s a good problem to have, but it can be avoided, she said. Think in terms of scalability. Devise ways to contract for extra help as needed, or build an inventory you can draw upon.
  5. Invest your own money. “You have to put some skin in the game,” said Hammond, noting that five years ago she would have advised clients not to use their own money for startup costs. With experience, she’s learned that if you have invested dollars, you’re going to work that much harder on your business.
  6. Do your legwork. “I have to find people where they are,” Hammond says. That means email, Facebook, Instagram and even Pinterest. For her part, Hammond is calling people from whom she’s collected business cards and asking for their email addresses so she can send them the weekly newsletter, Inspiration for Your Inbox, she plans to start. That’s something she wouldn’t have done five years ago, but recognizes the need for today.
  1. Use your time wisely. Five years ago, Hammond said, she would have told business owners to go to every networking event they could find. Now, she says, business owners need to be selective and go to those that make sense. She advises putting the phone away, too; mindless Facebook and LinkedIn scrolling wastes time you could be spending on other things.
  2. Understand the importance of self-care. “Self-care is crucial and no less important for entrepreneurs,” Hammond says. She suggests regular exercise — remember, she has exercise equipment right in her office — as well as limiting late-night work and finding inspiration wherever possible. When you need a boost, seek out an inspiring story, call a friend or talk to your mentor, she suggests.
9, Find the right price point, and pay attention to expenses. This goes along with finances, but Hammond advises knowing what you’re worth and being prepared for expenses like office supplies, rent and utilities if you’re in a physical office. Also, be prepared for people to offer you a lower price point, and have a strategy to either say no or find a path to getting the amount you want.

  1. ” ‘No’ is a complete sentence, and there’s always a path to yes,” says Hammond. Hammond advises a succinct “no” when something doesn’t feel right or goes against your values. She also tells people that there’s always a path to getting what you want. If the answer to whether someone will do business with you is no for now, you can find a way to get to yes if you’re creative and smart. If someone won’t pay what you’re worth now, work toward showing your value and finding a path to that amount.

In other words, don’t give up.  

Ascent Small Business Promotion LLC is available by appointment only.

Ascent Small Business Promotion LLC
37460 Hills Tech Drive
Farmington Hills, MI 48331
248.987.2865

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Farmington Flower Shop Has 19th-Century Roots

Farmington Flower Shop Has 19th-Century Roots

by | Dec 6, 2019 | Farmington, LBN Community Series, Springbrook

Farmington Flower Shop Has 19th-Century Roots

06
DECEMBER 2019
BY PAMELA A. ZINKOSKY
LBN Community Series

Farmington

In 1932, Imogene Ely Bicking was still living on her family’s 1800s farm at Power and Shiawassee roads in Farmington. At 40-something, she started making pottery and selling it at local markets, but she found it easier to sell with flowers in it. This was the birth of Springbrook Gardens Florist, located in an old barn that was once part of the Ely dairy farm.

Step inside the more than 150-year-old structure, whose rooms sit underneath Power Road, as owner Rick Hatfield points out, and it feels like not much has changed. Fieldstone walls hearken back to what Hatfield said is a circa 1832 foundation, with century-old greenhouses around back.

RICH HATFIELD

OWNER, SPRINGBROOK GARDENS
Indeed, Springbrook is as traditional as flower shops come these days, but that doesn’t mean the business hasn’t changed, said Hatfield, whose brother’s wife was a descendant of the shop’s founder, a woman he simply calls Mrs. Bicking.

“She was born and raised on this property,” Hatfield. “This is the last parcel of the original land.”

Hatfield is the youngest of three brothers whose family has owned the business since 1959. One brother retired, the other is semi-retired, and he’s in charge now.

Back in the day

Hatfield was an adolescent when his family purchased the shop, but he remembers when Farmington was more rural than suburban and when the Ely farm, once bounded by Shiawassee and 10 Mile roads, and east-west by Farmington and Orchard Lake roads,  was divided and sold to the Catholic church across the street and to Bellaire Subdivision’s builders.

“I could tell you so many stories,” Hatfield said. “People say we should write a book.”

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Many of Hatfield’s stories begin with “back in the day.” For example, said Hatfield, the Elys grew potatoes on their farm during the Depression and sold them to customers desperate for filling, inexpensive food. It was one of the ways they were able to keep the farm “back in the day,” he said.

He also tells of Mrs. Bicking, who provided food for the American Indians living in what is today known as Orchard Lake Village. She had moved into the small house just south of the shop, which is still there today, and would put food in a basket outside, knowing they were too proud to beg but nevertheless hungry.

These stories have been passed on through the generations, but Hatfield has also seen many changes firsthand. For example, he’s seen one change in the florist industry that he’s happy with.

“People used to think of flowers only for the dead,” he said. Nowadays, people buy them as gifts and for home decorating.

However, big-box stores have also gotten into the flower business, leaving small flower shops struggling, he said. In the early 1990s, Springbrook was one of the top 20 florists in the country. Now, Kroger is the top flower seller, he said.

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“People buy a lot of stuff online,” which cuts into traditional flower shops’ profits, Hatfield said.  “The average florist shop is a novelty.”

Diversification and quality

Springbrook, named for Springbrook Place, which is what the land became known as after it was the Ely farm, does its share of cash-and-carry arrangements, wire-service sales, seasonal home decorating, and funeral and wedding floral services, said Hatfield. “We’re an old-time shop that does everything.”

But traditional floral services aren’t enough anymore. Most florist shops, even many local ones owned by people who worked for Springbrook “back in the day,” have diversified heavily into the giftware business, but not Springbrook, Hatfield said.

“Our specialty is cut flowers and plants,” he said. “We do it, and we do it right.”

Faced with the need to supplement flower sales, Springbrook diversified into growing plants and selling at markets, he said. The shop uses the greenhouses to “grow on,” or finish growing plants started elsewhere, and to house an array of perennials and cut flowers sold both in the store and at five different warm-weather markets.

Springbrook is also part of a co-op with other growers and florists that enables the members to trade and obtain a wide variety of plants and flowers.

The shop has a reputation for high-quality plants and flowers and for horticultural knowledge, Hatfield said. Customers ask questions about plants all the time because they know Springbrook’s expertise, he said.

What’s more, said Hatfield, “People know our quality.” Products that aren’t up to Hatfield’s standards simply aren’t sold, he said. “If I don’t want it, you aren’t gonna get it,” unless you take it for free, he added.

All in the family

Back in the 1970s, the Hatfields made some changes to the barn that houses their business. They moved the entrance to the north end of the shop, so that customers would enter above ground and step down into the main showroom. It used to sit on the south end, closest to Shiawassee Street, and customers would enter into what is now the consultation area.

The Hatfields also raised the ceiling of what is now the main showroom and work area, as it used to sit low, like what you might see in a Michigan basement. They kept the shop’s basic footprint and look, hiring an old-time mason to restore one of the stone walls, which was deteriorating. They brought the building up to code without modernizing it, and, Hatfield added, without adding any heat, as the underground shop stays fairly warm without it.

Stepping into the shop does feel a bit like stepping back in time, not only because of the way it looks, but because of its old-fashioned values.

“We’ve made a lot of friends over the years,” said Hatfield. “People have gotten to know us as ‘the brothers’ or ‘the flower guys.’ ”

Customers trust Springbrook to supply arrangements for many important life events ­ — the death of a loved one, a wedding, an illness, perhaps even a first date — and Hatfield and his six employees appreciate that, he said. “They’re not just customers. You build a relationship with people. We treat them like family.”

At 73, Hatfield still works in the shop daily and in the seasonal markets, and he’ll continue as long as he’s able, he said. Best of all, though, “This place will probably be standing long after you and I are gone,” he said.

Springbrook Gardens Florist is a monument to a time when farms dotted the landscape, but it’s also evidence that old-fashioned family businesses can survive in modern times.

Springbrook Gardens is open 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

23614 Power Road
Farmington, MI 48336
248.474.0858

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