Good morning everyone. Good morning. We'll call to order the February 27th, 2025 meeting of the City Council Economic and Workforce Development Committee. Can we start with a roll call please? Driscoll here. McSanders here. Floyd here. Givens here. Thank you. Committee members we have an agenda before us for today's meeting. I'll entertain emotion for approval salute, thank you. All right, all in favor. All right mission carries And next we have the approval of our meeting minutes from January 16th 2025 All in favor. Hi mission carries. Thank you Now we'll go on to our new business. We have one item for today. And that is an update from our greenhouse team. And presenting today for that, we have Brian and Tracy. So good morning. Good morning. Good morning, Madam Chair. Thank you so much. And thank you for the opportunity to present to you today on the greenhouse. We are joined by members of our greenhouse team led by our manager, Ms. Tracey Smith. Also in the audience, we've got Brittany Cagle, one of our fabulous greenhouse team members and also want to just acknowledge our other team members that weren't able to join today from the greenhouse, Andrea McDonald, Chris Griffin, and Deja Green-Larkin. So appreciate all of the work that they've done to make today's presentation possible. We're also joined by four businesses that will speak on their, some of their struggles, how they've interacted with the greenhouse and success stories that they've had as a result of their interactions with the city. Unfortunately, one of our speakers was not able to join us today. He has fallen ill, but he did send over some comments that he would like us to share with the committee. So I'm going to do that, and then I will turn it over to Tracy to walk you through some greenhouse updates, statistics, and new initiatives that we plan for 2025. So first, good morning everyone. My name is Joe Maisonette, and I am the owner and operator of I Metaccell Repair. We are the first fully mobile electronic repair shop in Tampa Bay. We service everything from phones and tablets to laptops and game councils. All repairs are done in our shop on wheels, and most screens take less than 15 minutes to replace. I wanted to join you today to speak to the impact the greenhouse has had on my business and our community as a whole. I'll start with some background about myself. I'm 27, boy wouldn't that be nice. I started my company back in 2020. Before becoming an entrepreneur, I worked in sales for five years. After learning to repair devices and seeing the potential of working for myself, I quit my job at the end of 2021 and I have been operating my business full-time ever since. Participating in the Greenhouse's Microfund program has affected my business in a couple of ways. The uptick and volume we saw from our Q4 2023 advertisement campaign catapulted us to our first year reaching six figures in revenue. The curriculum we were given to access providers provided us with useful tools to help fuel growth. One workshop highlighted networking misconceptions, like handing out your card to every person at event is actually ineffective. Another webinar outlined to the Power of AI and how to leverage it beyond service level tasks, which has helped us streamline processes like finding new editing software options separated by popularity, capability, and cost. Or using it to brainstorm ideas for social media content. I've spoken to fellow entrepreneurs that have said their doors would have closed without the resources the greenhouse has made available. Their presence is invaluable and I am grateful we have a space at our disposal to help us thrive and continue bringing more jobs to our city. So we thank Joe for sending that over and certainly we hope that he feels better soon. And with that I will turn it over to our greenhouse manager, Ms. Tracey Smith, to walk you through the presentation. Thank you, Brian. And good morning, Chair Driscoll and committee members. Thank you so much for having us here today. I looked at the calendar and I realized it's been over a year, like a year and a half almost since our last update. So certainly happy to return today to share the good news of what we've been up to at the greenhouse. And I see that we have some new members to the committee, so happy to just provide a bit of an overview also of who we are and what we do at the greenhouse. Again, my name is Tracy Smith. I am the manager at the greenhouse and my other title is Small Business Liaison as well. And so who we are and what we do at the greenhouse are Saint Pete's home to empowering small businesses, encouraging that entrepreneurial mindset and creating an opportunity for all. That's very important to us, that inclusion. We are the place where businesses can start to grow and thrive, making connections for businesses. It's important for us to serve all and create that impact. The greenhouse is the collaboration between the City of St. Pete and the St. Petersburg area chamber of commerce and that's been very helpful to us as well and providing opportunity in both of those spaces. I want to also for our newest members just share that not only do we serve businesses in the city of St. Pete, but we also serve businesses, excuse me. All businesses outside of the city as well. I call us the sister department to the Office of Supplier Diversity. And so since the Office of Supplier Diversity serves the five county region, we do that as well, providing capacity building services for those businesses. In addition, one of our partners in service is score, which is a national organization. And because many of our services are offered virtually, we also engage with entrepreneurs all over the country for those who access our workshops through SCORE. Additionally, we have a robust on-demand library and those virtual training opportunities do allow us, again, to connect with businesses all over the country. Who we help? Businesses at every stage of business development, So that first stage of someone saying, I think I want to start a business, but I don't know where to go. We call that the ideation stage. Businesses who are in that starting range of one to three years. To existing businesses who are looking for ways to grow and expand, we have services there to support them. And we do that through business workshops, through mentoring, through cohort programs, through networking opportunities, just all a complete array of services. What you see at the bottom are our five tenants of service. That first one is navigation. That is our core service there. That is where business is, how we connect with businesses through navigation. It's kind of two ways that we do that. That intake navigation. When businesses first reach out to us, they are connected with a staff member at the greenhouse and that person is called a navigator. Actually everybody at the greenhouse is a and navigator. From the time that someone engages with someone at the greenhouse and that person is called a navigator. Actually, everybody at the greenhouse is a navigator. From the time someone engages with someone at the greenhouse, they are assigned to a staff person as their navigator and that becomes their go-to person. Whether they decide, hmm, maybe entrepreneurship is not for me, maybe I'll come back and engage later on, that person who they first made that connection with, is that navigator that they will follow up with later on? Or if they continue to engage with us for future opportunities, that is still their person. That navigator also is the person who helps them get connected with their mentor, helps them get connected with other resources as well. We also have outward looking navigation through our new program that we're continuing to build out, and that's our business district navigation. I'm going to talk to you about that a little bit later. But that is really one of the bread and butter resources at the greenhouse. Also connection. It's very important for us to be able to connect entrepreneurs to resources. Brian mentioned our team members. It's not a long list. So we like to say that we are lean and mean in our operation. But collaboration is key to how we operate at the greenhouse. We have many different partners. So even though we are the home to small business empowerment, that one stop shop where business owners can come to the greenhouse and we can connect them to services. If there is not a partner at the greenhouse that can deliver a service, we can connect entrepreneurs to other organizations in the entrepreneurial ecosystem to find that particular service that they need. Third is awareness. We love to spread good news of successes that our businesses are experiencing. So we love to share business spotlights, to feature our businesses in the newsletter, to get the word out. Also, that awareness of important information that businesses need to know. For instance, when we were experiencing the back-to-back hurricanes, we were keeping our disaster awareness, disaster preparedness, disaster recovery page very much up to date. And Brittany, who was here in the room, was doing a phenomenal job in keeping that page up to date so that our entrepreneurs could have up to minute information also using our social media to do that as well. Capacity building is very important as well. We take pride in our ability to connect business owners with mentoring services at no cost. And I'll tell you, last year we put out an RFQ. So for other partners to kind of expand our reach for others who want to have the opportunity to engage with the greenhouse. And when I saw some of those quotes come in for what organizations are charging for mentoring services, and I can see what those rates are, and to see that we have organizations that are offering that at the greenhouse on the daily basis at no cost for business owners. It is quite the value that we're able to offer these mentoring services, high quality, mentoring services at no cost or partners with SCORE and the small business development center. So mentoring, business workshops, networking, anything that we can do to build capacity with business owners, we take pride in that. And finally, the coordination of services, coordination of business incentives. So we work with our other city departments to be able to put together a variety of types of business incentives, such as the one that we're operating right now on microphone program. This page shows where we are right now, how we wrapped up 2024 with our demographics and with our engagement. We're very happy to see that we did increase our engagement with those who we served across the board. Also, happy to see generally across the board our increased engagement in a variety of areas of demographics. You'll also see that we have added some areas that we are tracking as recommended through this committee with our LGBTQ plus area. We have added that as an area that we are tracking as recommended through this committee with our LGBTQ plus area and veterans we have added that as an area that we are tracking. I was surprised to see our engagement took a slide with our black clients and but I also noticed too that the no race response has increased so I want to dig a little bit deeper into that number. We took some additional outreach efforts in 2024, especially during Black Business Month with our open house inviting Black businesses in to participate with that and also our Black Business Walk and really did some additional efforts. So I'm interested to see where that slide went. I suspect I have some ideas of what's happening there but I want to kind of look into that data a little bit more. We are with our addition of our Office of Supplier Diversity and the work that they're doing there. I suspect that there's more opportunity for us to work on ensuring that clients who are engaging with Office of Supplier Diversity are aware of the capacity building and networking opportunities at the greenhouse as well. So there is work to do there. I wanted to share this slide because it's very interesting. For those of you who were aware when we first launched the Microfund program, there were some concerns about who would be able to access the program. Formerly, there were some concerns about programs in the South St. Pete's CRA and accessibility and who was accessing those programs. If you look at this data for mentoring and navigation and participation in the South St. Pete's CRA, it's interesting to see that the majority of the participants were women. So we found that to be very interesting there. So I wanted to share that data. This is our resource page that we built out during, right around the time of our last update. And I wanted to share this so that we can kind of look at it slide by slide and the upcoming slides. I was just sharing with Ryan right before the presentation that I, when I checked on these links, I was a little dismayed to see that for some of these areas on our website, the minority and and Women Own Business, the LGBTQ Own Business, and those two areas, there are two links that we have there that are linked to our score partner, and score is the technical assistance arm of the SBA. Those two areas have been white, have been washed. So we will need to do, this is one of the challenges that we're seeing. And so we will need to do work here in, you know, into rebuilding these sites with other alternative resources for these groups. The Veteranome Business is still fully functional. And so these next upcoming slides just, I just wanted to spotlight some of the work that we've been doing in these areas with business spotlights. We have our business navigator, Jose Sid, who is fluid in Spanish, and is able to engage with our Hispanic business owners who need that accessibility. We also haven't been able to increase our referrals to Prospera, that's another partner, as I mentioned before, if we don't have it at the greenhouse, we are happy to refer to other partners. And Prospera is one of our entrepreneurial partners in our ecosystem, who similarly to the greenhouse, offers business mentoring, workshops, and they are also a funder as. Our St. Pete Chamber partner continues to liaise with our Hispanic Chamber and my colleague Andrea had a recent participation in Latin American Trade Reception for delegates from Mexico. And then what we're seeing, just not only with our Hispanic business owners, but it's just across the board, increased engagement across all of our programming. So this is something that we're very proud of. Oftentimes, what we had seen in the past is a client may come in and engage, come to a workshop or come to mentoring. But what we're seeing more frequently is clients participating in multiple programming opportunities. So this is something that we're excited about and proud of that. And I really attribute that to the work of the navigators and really explaining the benefits of participating across all programming. This slide accentuates the work that we're doing with our black businesses. I mentioned the open house, the walk, the BIPOC Business Quarterly Connection. This is at one of our chamber deliverables. There are a couple of two sessions held in 2024. I know that our chamber partner is working on a revamp of this programming, and so they will be providing a different version of this for 2025, and increased black business engagement across programming, We're seeing this as well. Our LGBTQ plus business support update. We did have the panel last year and that went very well. We were excited about that and we're going to continue that this year but expand it. So I have had a meeting with our LGBTQ city liaison, Eric Vaughn and and we will be having a panel series for 2025, and these are the topics for that series. So certainly looking forward to that. We also today have planned with the LGBTQ plus chamber with Renee Cantu, a series as well. So there's a workshop actually planned this mid-day today at the greenhouse. So this is exciting because we have actually started a use agreement with the Tampa Bay LGBTQ Chamber. So this is exciting because this is the second use agreement in expanding access to the greenhouse that we have in play. With our Veteran business owners, the chamber is continuing their entrepreneurial academy with the Veterans Grant. So there's another academy starting next month in March and this one will be a Veterans Grant opportunity as well. One of our speakers, two of our speakers today, participated in that academy, so they can tell you a little bit more about that. We did have our Veterans Business Service Workshop offered a couple of times last year, and we did have that, I did reach out to the hub as I promised last year, did not get much traction with that but I do plan to give it another try this year. The idea of having those mentoring opportunities at the innovation district so I'm going to give that another try and again increased engagement across all areas. This is our update that you've heard mayors speak on this a couple of times with where we are with the microphone program. We have had 196 businesses that will have been served. And you can see the stats there. We are having a celebration on April 8th. All are invited for that. It's going to be at the Coliseum. And we're very excited about that. We still, the official close program deliverables was last week on the 19th but we want businesses to complete this program. So when we completed our pilot program, we had completion rate in the mid-90s and I certainly wanted to maintain that stat. So we want businesses to complete. So even though deliverables were due last week, we're still going to continue to work with businesses who want to complete to help them get across the finish line. And so I mentioned earlier our business navigation program and this is what is this, what is a navigation? It's just a better way to support business owners with solutions. And a navigator is that business liaison the connects entrepreneurs to the services to help them start grow and thrive. Specifically, this business district navigator program is up and running. We were testing it out, you know, under fire, so to speak, with the hurricanes. When the hurricanes came through, the navigators were out in full force, visiting businesses, checking on them, seeing how they were doing, making sure they were aware of Florida's bridge loan, Florida's bridge loan program, SBA, Economic Injury Programs, and any support that they need it. Most recently we've been letting them know about the We Are St. Pete grant that is coming about. So that was getting our feet wet. Now it is on now since January. We have the business navigators out in all of the eight districts so that they can make sure that business owners are aware of the greenhouse as a resource. We want to soon make sure that the navigators are attending business association meetings and events and making sure that the owners are aware of the greenhouse as a resource. These are the assignments. We do have a couple of vacancies right now at the greenhouse. He's an EWD Tony Chan. He's our floater and he is making sure that the other districts that do not currently have a navigator are Are being covered We are also open to an any opportunity for navigators to meet with their Council Member from that district so please let us know if you have interest in that and And I noticed I have an incorrect date on our launch is to be January 2025 on this, but this kind of lets you know what our soft launch looks like. And again, that we are completely operational now, making visits every week with goals, weekly goals, of what initial visits should look like, and what what follow up visits should look like as well. The idea is that we want the navigator to be that representative from the city. So in addition to sharing information about business support and business resources, if you have an issue with, for instance, let's say a crosswalk recently went up. And the sign for the crosswalk is blocking your business sign. Let us know. And we will reach out to transportation about that. I'm just saying. Or if there's your parking lot, there's a lot of traffic around your parking lot. And cars are having difficulty getting in and out. And maybe there's too many accidents around there. We can reach out to the community policing officer in that area and help with that. Or if you are a business that was just about to launch, or excuse me your business was about to expand and you were going through the permitting process and then hurricanes came and now your permitting process is extended and extended, reach out to us and we can work with permitting to see how we can help move things along as best that we can. So we are even though my title is Small Business Liaison, all of the district navigators actually liaison as well. And then this slide just talks about some of the new programs in development. our creative capital for entrepreneurs. This is a working title. It could change, but we kind of like it for now. This resulted as, this came about as a result to presentation that I gave to the Arts Advisory Committee and they were asking how can the greenhouse support our grants program because we want to provide, we want to require capacity building around that program. And so this is something that's very much in early development, but we're making pretty good progress with this because we have a foundation of the microphone program. So we want to use that same idea of having a navigator and a mentor to support the efforts of those who are receiving the grants from the arts program. The tech founders, this is a deliverable coming from our chamber partner. This is something that will be added in the spring of 2025, as you can see here. This is a meetup with the tech founder and so we're very excited to get this off the ground as well. Our technical assistance program, this will be in collaboration with Office of Supplier Diversity. We're excited about this program as well, looking to, for this to launch in the fall, around October,, and this is to help businesses who have on paper eligibility to be certified with the city, but they're stuck somewhere in the process. So, as OSD looks at those applications that are coming through, then on paper people, their applicants look like they're ready, but why are they not completing the process? So, by time they complete the technical assistance program with the greenhouse, in which two weeks of that nine weeks are actually working with OSD team members to go through that paperwork, by the time they finish the program they will be certified. So that is the goal of the program to help that pipeline. And then also another chamber deliverable is working with Saturday shops on the press that they had for an e-commerce academy. Additionally, it's not up here, but we will be working with our CRA division of our EWD department for two additional programs. Obviously, microfund is this aspect of it is closing, but that's the what's next of it. So what we're looking at is what can we do next for those businesses who've gone to the program. What I'd like to see us work on is a program where we can next dig into the financials of support for businesses who've gone through the program. So that is still an area that we want to continue to build capacity for for those businesses. So that would be a deeper dive that we have in mind for a microphone 2.0, so to speak. And then the other, I know that George would very much like to see a, he's working on a facade program, commercial facade program, and he'd like to see capacity building around that program as well. So that's an area that we plan to support. Coming up, a small business week in May, and so we have a full slate of activity planned for that. And so more to come on then, I just thought I'd sneak that in there. So looking forward to the small business week coming up. And the next is if you have this, you know, in your packets, it's just, I just wanted to share just some of the outreach. Outreach is very important to me. So if there's a time to get out there, I'm going to be out there. So, and this is something that I've been sharing with the team is being involved in the community, getting the word out on the greenhouse. It may or may not be specifically a business event, but it's an opportunity to be out in the community and make sure people are aware of who we are and what we're doing at the greenhouse. So the next couple slides just share those opportunities for us to get the word out. Before we get to the business owner updates, are there any questions or questions from committee members against member Floyd? Yes, thank you. Thank you for the presentation. I just have a couple of things. The first one is back on the slides with the demographic information. I just, it's got the percentages. I just wasn't sure like what the percentages meant. Like what is 63% women, it wasn't jumping out of me. So out of our participation, I'm sorry. So out of 100% participation in our microfund program, 63% of our participants for women in the program. Okay, okay, okay. So I see it now, yes. I was just struggling to add up the numbers. And just someone may have checked more than one. Yeah, I realize that. I realize that. And with the race, with race people do. And just to clarify, this is of all clients served at the greenhouse. So the next slide is specific to the micro fund program. But this is a, everyone that has come in to a workshop or meet with a mentor. Okay. Sort of that overall demographic breakdown. Okay. Now that I look at it, I see, I understand. Yeah, I realized that I was just missing something, so I figured I'd go back and ask. That was good. Yeah, okay. And then the only other thing I have right now, well here, I'll make a comment. It's disturbing that the federal government got rid of the minority and women owned business resources. It's like they don't want minorities in women-owned businesses. That's what it reads as to me. So I just wanted to put that out there publicly. And then the last thing is the new programs in development, Creative Capital for Entrepreneurs. That's super cool. I love that idea. The name, though, did throw me off because, like, when I saw Creative Capital for Entrepreneurs, I thought it was going to be like creating fun raising methods or something like ways to get capital yeah so I just wanted to give you that bit of feedback that's immediately where my mind went which that would be cool too but like anyway I just wanted to give you that feedback but that's all I have so thank you very much thank you councilmember fig sand Sanders thank you thank you thank you well first of all thank you Tracy for the presentation and I will truly truly truly confirm that you have been everywhere you go you see Tracy she is there which I am so glad to brag that she is my navigator because she had me out door to door with her so she's doing a fantastic. I just have a few questions. Do you have a recent survey of the business owners that used to grow in house? When is the last time you've done a survey? It's time for us to do a survey. OK. Thank you. Because I'm always interested in, we love to tell the good stories. But I want to have conversations with those that feel those though they didn't get the searches that they need not that they're is necessarily a bad thing but also a wrong for improvement on that. Thank you for that. We are surveying in the microphone program but we need to survey overall because that's what's important is that overall fees. The list of businesses that you work with I saw a huge huge number of businesses, is that are they all in the procurement database as well, or just businesses that came in for navigation or mentoring? Those are businesses that have access to greenhouse services. Okay. Looking at those slides, that number where says total engagement. Yes. Those only ones that came in the door are you also counting the numbers of people you may add outreach events? Yes. I'll reach and in the doors. Okay. Do you have a number? Can you split those up? Okay. I can do that. Because I would love to see who actually, I actually, numbers that I should walk in the door. And then my last one is for the CRA Microfund. I know that we have a lot of small businesses when I was on the CAC home businesses really weren't recipients of those dollars and I'm glad to see that they do have some type of resource. What them receiving microfund dollars preclude them, this is probably Brian, from getting additional funding from the South St. PCRA. No, okay not. Okay, okay. Those are my questions, thank you. Thank you, Council Chair Curtis. Thank you, Chair. Thank you for the presentation. I'll kind of piggyback quickly off a couple of things that my colleagues said. I agree with Council Member Floyd, the creative capital threw me off to immediately capital, I thought money. Quick thought, maybe creative collaboration for entrepreneurs. I don't know, but I would agree. Council member Fig Sanders talked about being out and shadowing for those contacts out in the district. I'd certainly welcome that opportunity. I know I have a one-on-one or actually a two-on-one with Candace Ann Jose next week so I'll bring that up to them but I just I think any opportunity to be out with the greenhouse in our districts is a good one and I bet everybody would echo that sentiment. One other thing Council member Fick Sanders and I just wanted to I want to take it one step further. Thank you for asking about procurement database compared to contacts. It would be really important to me to understand of those people that are walking in the door. Are we converting them into the procurement database? That's supremely important to me. I think that we're getting an update on SBE, maybe today. I get mixed up with all the ones we see on a day like today. But I think that this is the stepping stone to that. Okay. And so understanding how many people're coming in contact with in comparison to conversion rate that raises that database which we know is so important It is I think a data point. We definitely want to be following piggybacking on that The only concern I saw is it seems like nine weeks to become SBE or WMBE certified seems like a long time to me. We are also providing capacity building around that. So there's information on, you know, introduction to bonding. It's how to create your capability state bed. So there's capacity built within that. All right. I guess if I'll dig into that with Jose on next week, that's helpful, I appreciate that. And then are we tracking, so Jose goes out into District 1. Are we tracking on a weekly basis how many businesses he comes in contact with, who they are, what they do, who they're owned by? Are we tracking that weekly? Are we doing it monthly? That's weekly data. So when the navigator visits, so we have our weekly goals, the navigator enters that information into our CRM. So that information is tracked weekly. So at any time, a navigator, I, anyone can pull that report on these are the businesses that were visited during particular week, months, who they are, and et cetera. I don't know that it needs to be done weekly, but I'd love that update. I think to know like I could follow up during the next month and go and introduce myself or maybe I saw Jose was in a business the week before I could go in and just say, hey, you know, and just kind of do a quick follow-up. I think that would be super helpful. But otherwise, thank you so much. And I'm looking forward to spending time with Candace and Hosea. What we'd like to eventually get to is mapping that information to. Even better. Thank you very much, Chair. All right. Council Member Givens. Thank you so much, Chair. I appreciate it. And thank you so much, Ms. Smith, for the presentation. And thank you to the great work that the Green House is doing as a new council member. This is very helpful and informative for me, so I appreciate it. As you know, we've talked about this before, Ms. Mooth. I'm constantly in the community referring people over to the greenhouse who need services, and I know you deliver on it because they speak your praises, so thank you so much for that. I did have a question regarding three specific demographics. Our high school and middle schoolers, our small day care providers, and then our nonprofits. What services are we providing, or have we provided for them? So we do not have a youth program at this time, so we do not have a youth program. And the second was daycare providers? Yes, ma'am. Home daycare providers. So home daycare providers are heavily supported through our, in our, right now in our South St. Petersburg Sierra Microphone Program. In fact, they are at that top tier of funding. So we recognize the need there. And then your last one. It was nonprofits. Nonprofits as well. So nonprofits, a couple of non-profit experts through our mentoring and we have non-profit, and put up there, Non-profit Connect is one of our cohort programs. And so that is an area that's highly supported at the Greenhouse as well. And thank you for that. And the latter two non-profits and also home daycare providers. I know personally organizations and people individually who you have helped. And I wanted you to go on record to mention that because it wasn't brought up, and I just want to thank you for that because they have grown tremendously when it comes to development. And we all know how important those cognitive years are for our youth. So having home daycare providers with the proper training that they need to provide those services is important. So thank you for that. Going back to what you mentioned earlier with the hug, I'm glad you mentioned that because that's important to be in my district. We have so many minority owned businesses, but I don't feel like they get the support that they need because for some of them, you know, just the barrier between where they're located and downtown, you know, it's an issue when you have business hours that are, you know, parallel to yours, that's tough to be able to get down here. So what is the vision or the goal for connecting with the hub or other organizations be it in South St. Pete or West St. Pete for those businesses who are further out? Is there a plan? So yes, right now we do, through the South St. Petersburg C.O.A., we offer office hours and we are looking to expand that so right now That is operated out of Enoch Davis We are expanding that to the greenhouse services as well to make sure that we are getting out to where those businesses are We also see the business navigation district program being one of the solutions to that so understanding Councilmember, thank you for that exactly right. Their office hours are our office hours. And so it is very challenging for someone to get downtown and into a tender workshop. We want to make sure that we are getting to where those businesses are. And one of the things that we have been working on for the last, really since COVID, and Entracy has done a phenomenal job of this is making sure that our catalog is all online. So we understand not everyone has the ability to make it downtown, not everybody wants to make it downtown to attend a workshop, whether that's during the day or at night, but we are in the process of converting everything to being hybrid. So if you're not able to make it into the greenhouse or into Enag Davis, that's all right, you still can participate in workshops either through a hybrid event like live event or going back and watching into the greenhouse or into Inag Davis. That's all right. You still can participate in our workshops, either through a hybrid event, like live event, or going back and watching one of those workshops that has taken place in the last month or two. That is great news, and I hope in our outreach, we're communicating that to people, hey, you don't have to come down here. These services are online. They can come to you. And then also the arts program that you mentioned earlier, it was capacity building for arts. Do you see us providing those same services for organization, arts organizations? Have we done that? We are in the past. So there is a program through our local arts organization that has that program. So we at the Greenhouse, we don't't want to be duplicative and so we're trying to fill a gap right now like for Our city arts program where they where the need is so there is an existing program for that And so we're being responsive to the request of our arts or our city arts program. What, and this is reminding me of when I gave the presentation to our city arts organization, what we're trying to share is the business aspect of it is very much, it's the same. It really is the same. And that's the message that we wanted to get across the artist. Now, nonprofit, there are obviously there are some differences there. But for the different areas, the different affinity areas, that business aspect is the same. And the approach is very much the same. And so we're happy to take that model and use that model we learned a lot, or learning a lot through the microphone program. And we see replicating that model when we receive that ask in different areas. It's good to hear. My last question, Chair. Have we had any collaboration with the Tampa Bay Black Business Investment Corporation? Yes. Thank you for raising your stuff. Why did I use it? No worries. Why did I mention that? And do we foresee a use agreement with them? Yes, so TBBIC is one of our partners, and they present workshops with us at least once a month. And we are actually including them in our small business week celebration as well with Brent and with Albert regularly. So any type of special events, any type of resources, they're always included. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Council Member, if I may, just to follow up on two points because I think they're really excellent, we do a lot of engagement across different city departments. So your question regarding youth in high school, we work very closely with Dr. Brown. As she goes out into the community and understands the needs from you, she brings that back to us and that's how we sort of devise our programming and our needs. Very similarly, we work very closely with Celestevis. Part of, you know, we're all part of CDA there. So we regularly have meetings and that's really where this to be renamed, creative capital for entrepreneurs has stand from. Hearing from her, the needs that she is seeing through those arts organizations. So although this program doesn't necessarily target the organizations in general, we're getting that constant feedback. And so she really serves as almost liaisons to us as we build out these programs and understand the needs that are coming from those organizations to make sure that we're tailoring it to what those organizations are asking for. Well I'm so happy that you're hearing that. I've had the opportunity to visit two high schools in one middle school in the past couple of weeks and they each have entrepreneurship academies within the schools and I'm like have you ever heard of this place called the Greenhouse? Shout in your praises again. And they're like, no, we have them. We'd love to take a filter over there and invite them over here so that we can learn more information because these kids, they have the vision, they have the model, they just need the execution. And they're like, no, we have them. We'd love to take a filter over there and invite them over here so that we can learn more information because these kids, they have the vision, they have the model, they just need the execution, you know? And I think if we could support them in that endeavor, you never know, we might have some Fortune 500 companies up and coming in St.P. So thank you. Thank you. All right, council member Fick Sanders. Thank you, Chair. I have another quick question. Since we were talking OSD and procurement. I know OS you, Chair. I have another quick question. Since we were talking OSD and procurement. PICUREM, I know OSD, there is a minimum annual revenue requirement, right? Is it still $100,000 a year? I'm not sure, but we would get that information. OK, because I know we're getting an OSD update today as well but I do know going into it as business has to have a certain revenue to get those services which brings me back to Council chair's question in regards to procurement. Now the procurement doesn't have that same annual revenue requirement, does it Because I'm trying to put the two together. How is them working with the greenhouse, going to relate to them moving to the next endgame of being a registered vendor with the city, and then getting no services from OSD when OSD has a revenue requirement, amenable. So each talking about in our tap the tap program or just whichever whatever So whichever right so our tap program those will be those participants will come recommended to us from OSD so these are people who have met those requirements and are just not making it through their process. Okay, so you just answered my question and I have to make a certain revenue in order to be a part of that and that's it. And I would love to know how that would MP on them becoming eligible to be in our procurement database. OK, so that's a question that I need answer. Whenever we can have that Thank you to you. Okay. Thank you. Great questions from everyone. I know just going back to the youth opportunities portion. The city does have programming outside of the greenhouse that supports that. So we've got and I think that comes out of the mayor's office directly, right? But I'm sure that there's a connection with the greenhouse on that. Yes, thank you for that. I can't make any of the programs that Dr. Brown executes on as well as our department. So our partnership with Bully for the after-school program and the summer internship program is operated out of economic and workforce development. So there are a lot of services that are offered. They're just not offered directly through the greenhouse. There's a partnership that we would be more than happy to grow and expand upon and get out to the schools that are having entrepreneurship programs to bring them to the greenhouse, have them meet with mentors and navigators to just explore this is kind of what the life of an entrepreneur is to enhance what they are learning through those programs. The Maritime and Defense Technology have host school groups on a pretty regular basis. And so I'm wondering if as you have conversations with Dallas and I wonder if if a field trip could include the greenhouse in the hub. So it's, you know, here's where the support happens. And then the hub is the real world application. So there could be, and they're not far apart. So it could be, there could be an opportunity there to combine the two for a really great field trip experience. The creative capital for entrepreneurs, the arts program that's in development. Of course I'm excited about that and And Brian, we had a short conversation about it. I'm looking forward to having more discussions to see how that can dovetail with my proposal to create the Art of Sustainability Fund. I see some real opportunities there too add my idea to what you're already working on. And I'm hoping that we have something together where the April meeting of this committee, which is our next scheduled one. We don't have one in March, but I may be putting that on the agenda just to have the initial discussion. It's also budget time, so I want to make sure we're going to fund this. We've got the we've got the ask in. So thank you for all that you've done on this so far. And it is encouraging to have this along with the resources that are offered by the St. Pete Arts Alliance because they, you know, for many years they have been offering programs to help artists who, so artists can often, they are great at what they create, but they don't necessarily have that business side up to speed. And so the arts alliance really helps our artists and makers to be be able to develop a good business plan, run their finances, and be successful as a business. Which is one of the things that makes St. Petersburg so unique and so great is that our artists here actually do it for a living and not just as a hobby. So anything that we can do to help grow that part of our economy is fantastic. On the list of the outreach that's been done and you list the business and neighborhood association meetings, I think with that one that's just an sampling but not an inclusive list. This is not exhausted. Right. As you plan attendance at future meetings and as you plan the district walks, things like that, you know, the Edge Business District, the Dantam Business Association, the Innovation District, not only has meetings for the whole district, but they have, well, you know, Brian, they have committees or they have additional meetings just based on the category of business so there's a an ocean team, there's medical, you know, all of that. So there could be some opportunities there. And then I want us to not forget the Saturday morning market, which although not everyone at the market is local, is a state-ownedat-based business there from the region. And for many of them, the Saturday morning market is their pop-up space on a regular basis for a good part of the year. So that's, I think that's a great place to find new people to connect with who aren't at the brick and mortar stage and maybe they don't want to be. But there are ways that we can help them out. So don't forget about the market and that does go through the end of May. So that could be something that's highlighted as part of Small Business Week, which is May 4th through the 10th. Some good events listed here that you're participating in or hosting. I was wondering beyond this, what kind of marketing will be done? Because I know in the past, our marketing team has done a wonderful job of highlighting specific businesses from all around our city and really putting a spotlight on those entrepreneurs. So is there like our robust marketing plan for this? We are working, yes. We have regular meetings with marketing. We'll be assisting us with marketing, yes. Kurt. Good. The greenhouse has its own newsletter as well. And in the greenhouse newsletter, there is always a featured business or two. And that's, again, Brittany and her phenomenal work going out interviewing and doing questions with those business owners to really not only showcase the business itself to the community, but showcase what makes that business unique and what makes that business owner tick, if you will. So we continue to expand upon that. And then the other thing, Chair, that I will just sort of preview with our May EWD Committee meeting, which thank you for bringing this to our attention. It was after we put these slides together, but we've got a upcoming conversation on a legacy business program. And this is something that Chair Driscoll reached out to me to want to discuss that there are several cities that are doing this right now. Most recently Atlanta is looking into it. And Councilmember Driscoll, Chair Driscoll wanted to make sure that we are on that list as well. So Brian is doing some research on that from her side. Brittany is doing research on that from our side. And we intend in May to come to you with a proposed plan for our legacy businesses, whether that is someone that's been in operation for 15 years, 30 years, to make sure that we're really showcasing what makes St. Petersburg unique. And those businesses that have been able to survive a very changing environment over the last 30 plus years in St. Petersburg have the tools, skills, and resources necessary to make sure they're able to survive and thrive over the next 30 years as well. Thank you for that. I'm looking forward to it and I'll just as a preview I'll let you know that What we're finding is that this is a program that is not going to cost a ton of money in order to achieve that and really take our longstanding local businesses and provide the additional resources and support that they need to continue thriving especially right now we, seems like we have outside businesses coming in every single day. We wanna make sure that our longstanding businesses don't get lost in the shuffle. So, looking forward to that and thank you for the work that you've already done on that with us. Okay, any other questions? All right, good. Well, thank you so much and thanks to the entire team for all that you do to support our local businesses. It means a lot. Thank you. Do we have so our as I mentioned earlier we do not have a meeting coming up in March. The next meeting. I'm sorry.'t know it maybe but our businesses have to share a few words they're here. Oh yes I'm sorry I was at the end of the PowerPoint I'm like okay I'm so sorry okay I'd like to start with Miss Jennifer Schultz from the Marcia for the air. Yes thank you, come on. I'm sorry, from where I couldn't hear. From the merchant. Yeah, go ahead and have a seat. I'm a seat. Thanks for joining us today. You're welcome. You're welcome. Good morning. My name is Jennifer Schultz. I'm the owner of the merchant purveyor of local goods and the chryslip cafe we were located on the 600 block of central. We're veteran and artist-owned. I'm a veteran. My husband has been an artist since we were kids. And so we've been in business about eight years. Our business, again, supports creatives. Maybe just move the adjective capital for creative entrepreneurs, a capital for creatives. Just move the adjective. Sorry, I was a teacher too. But we support over 100 local artists, makers makers and crafts people that we meet at local art fairs and try to provide them a space 363 days a year because we're only closed two days a year for them to sell their wares. We're also craft coffee house and we launched the first Tuscan wine window. We were very fortunate to have the greenhouse staff come out actually in December and do a little bit of a video and an interview for us and promote us right before the holidays. So we appreciate that. I'm an entrepreneur educator as well. I've been doing it for 10 years on the director of the Tampa Bay Women's Business Center. We're very similar to score a little bit worried we might get cut by doge because we're funded by the SBA. We've been putting in a lot of paperwork recently to justify that being a woman is actually not a DEI initiative. It's biological. So that's kind of what we've been dealing with. The greenhouse has really been integral. I opened the business eight years ago. I was taking as many classes as I could, because even as an educator of it myself, there's always new stuff to learn. And the programming they put together is really well done. I recently, this past year, attended the GAT program. I've also attended the JMI Small Business Executive Program that was hosted at the Greenhouse. I found them to really, you know, just be super, super helpful for our business. One of the things, as a brick and mortar, business owner and St. Pete, the biggest challenge, as we all know, is just rising cost, inflation, higher labor costs. So it's really been challenging. The one initiative I missed, I love the storefront court or conservation program that took place several years ago, because obviously if you're on beach, having you were central avenue, you're paying that primo rent that you might not be paying everywhere else. And so I'd love to see something like that again. I like hearing a little bit about the business district navigators. And the one thing I think is challenging though is when you're coming to the business and either I might not always be there, or you might just be staffed there. So how would communication best happen? Or it's in the middle of our work day, and we're dealing with customers, and it's kind of hard to have that conversation. So I would like to love to see there being some kind of meetings put together where we can come different people from the districts and actually talk about some obstacles to our success. And maybe ways we can see that St. Pete could maybe help that. Or, you know, I just something like that. So, but I think just wanted to come and take my time to let you guys know what a good job the greenhouse is doing. We recommend everybody to them as well. So. Thank you so much. And thanks for that feedback too on the ways that they can be more helpful. Yeah, yeah, fantastic. Thank you. The next we'll have Miss Merrill. Can I stand up? Sure, I'll get to sit down. Have a seat. Good morning, everyone. My name is Maria Alghialager and I'm the owner of MG Graphics. So it's an absolute honor to be here today. I want to share my journey as a woman-owned, Hispanic-owned business. and how the greenhouse has transformed not only my business but also my life. In 2018 I launched AMG graphics as a freelance graphic designer with a simple vision to help small businesses, small business owners, look their best whether through a professional looking logo and engaging website or a standout social media presence. But as many of you know, passion alone does and build a business. I quickly realized that running a company meant tackling challenges that went far beyond just making pretty things. As a mother, daughter and entrepreneur, I faced moments of doubt and uncertainty. Times when I questioned if I was truly on the right path. Then everything changed when I discovered the greenhouse. One of the first events I attended was one million cups where I met fellow entrepreneurs and heard their stories. For the first time I realized I wasn't alone on this journey. I was only, I also uncover a wealth of resources through the greenhouse, the SBDC and SCORE that provided the guidance I desperately needed. After exploring these resources, I reached out through the greenhouse about their mentorship program, and that's when I had the incredible opportunity to work with my mentor, Sean and Jill. Her mentorship, they didn't just refine my business strategy, but empower me to believe in myself even when things felt very uncertain. One program that I truly stood out for me was the goal achievement program led by the incredible Sheila Niceler and Amanda Meyer. I feel they were gonna be here. Their guidance helped me stay committed, adapt to challenges, and chart a clear path toward both personal and professional growth. So I'm happy to say today that and geographic is a thriving business. Not only my business is feeling my passion but also allows me to help other entrepreneurs shine, supporting small businesses by building strong professional brands in a competitive market. So I am deeply grateful to A Greenhouse and everyone who makes these opportunities possible. Thank you for being part of this amazing community and thank you for all of your time today. And let's continue to inspire, support, and power each other on this journey to success. Oh, thank you. Thank you. It was wonderful. You know what? It would be awesome. Thanks. Mr. Tony, what happened to that? Oh, me. Yes, lost. Thank you. Mr. Johnny, what happened to that? Oh, me. Yes, you. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Chair and Committee for inviting me here. My name is Johnny Chapman. I am an Army veteran served in Kuwait, and a little bit in Iraq, back in 2000. I am now the owner and creator of Now Hour Inc. It's a nonprofit organization, and our organization is mentoring, but not just only mentoring. So I'll start off with this. I spoke with a young man, when a young man that I'm mentoring a while ago, he asked me, why do people tell me that I'm going to go far? I like, what do you mean? He said, there's a guy told me, I'm going to go far in life. I said, what did you do? He said, I wrote a paper. I said, oh, you must have met his expectations or exceeded it. And then I jokingly said, what do you want a disingenuous appreciation? Or something like that? He said, yeah, that's what I'm used to. So, and I asked them, what does your mentee say? Because he's also a mentoring in a high school student. He said he feels the same way. So we all sat down, we had a conversation, and we went over and did deep into things such as value, appreciation, and gratitude. So, my organization is about involving credible, credible messengers, but we're going to start with events. Those are our credible messengers. And what we're going to do is we're going to mentor college students. I have five mentors now, we're mentoring college students. And then we're going to take those college students, and then they are going to start mentoring high school students. Now, what that is doing is create intergenerational dialogue and relationship building. And what we're doing is bridging the gap between the veteran and bridging the gap between the high school students. And the reason why we're doing it that way is because it's easy for a high school student to reach a goal of graduation in a goal of retirement. So, and they look more, they look favorable towards those who are only a few years older than those who are decades older, which I have found to be true. Now, I do wanna say that I have participated in the Greenhouse and I have received a grant. Thank you Tracy. As a veteran for the Entrepreneur Academy and I've learned a lot. I learned a lot. They taught me how to, they mentored me, they supported me, they gave me the resources that I need to survive, and that has become the foundation of my pillar for my organization. We're going to mentor college students, we're going to support them, we're going to get them the resources, and we're going to give them the opportunity to not only survive but build a community and create a chain reaction that will continue to go throughout these generations. And I wouldn't have learned that if it wasn't for me going to the greenhouse, the gap program, as well as the entrepreneurial academy. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Ms. Jenny. Thank you. Thank you. And finally, last but certainly not least, was Desiree Robinson. Hello everybody. morning. And Tracey and everyone for having me here. I'm Desiree Robertson. I am the owner and founder of a company called Soul to Route Wellness. And it's a locally business in South St. Pete. It's a home based business. And so I was one of the last cohort members to receive the MicroFund CRA grant and it's actually my first grant. I'm not a native to St. Pete, I'm from Memphis, Tennessee. So I've been here almost six years and just happy to be able to plant my feet and be able to do the work here. One of the things I wanted to highlight is the mentorship program. I had an amazing mentor, Deborah S. with the SBDC with my microphone grant. We identified that it would be real important for me to have mobile technology in order to go out and do the training. So we focused as so to root on intentional travel. So I believe that all of our young people, I'm in the youth mentoring field. I've been a mentoring professional and in a nonprofit space almost 25 plus years. And being able to go into communities that might not have the technology needed in order to deliver high quality training to their mentors and to their young people and their programs, that was one aspect of the micro fund grant for me. The other was the ability to actually receive national certifications. So I just completed one of them in Articulate 360 so that I could be able to actually build out online programming to actually increase the access for those who are not able to actually afford in-person trainings. I will receive my second certification in November. Also is around the same line in story lines, so being able to make it interactive and funerally so people actually want to take the trainings and learn from them. So, you know, it's just been a very amazing journey for me. I was an employee for 25 years and I like Joe I think that was his name who read who I'm sending his I made the leap last summer with the help of my husband Johnny is my husband and so that's how I got to the greenhouse because he was in the entrepreneurial academy last spring. I decided to do the entrepreneurial academy in the fall and also apply for the microphone grant. So I'm just excited about the opportunities that I have to make this all just flourish. And with the help of the greenhouse and this I have made my first real connection with the academy prep And so I've trained some of their mentors and also working to help them to enhance their actual mental and program. So they can expand even out into Tampa Bay. So thank you so much for the opportunity. And thank you to Tracy and the team and our navigators and our mentors. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, hearing from the people who have had such a positive impact from the work that you and the team has done, it's just so inspiring. So thank you. And I hope that you see this as a reflection of your commitment and all that you guys put into this. I've got tears in my eyes. I'm just so, this is really special. Thank you. Thanks for all that you're doing. And I can't wait to hear what's next. All right. Thank you. Does anyone have any final questions? Or OK, great. So our next meeting for the Economic and Workforce Development Committee will be on April 24th, 2025. And with that, we are adjourned. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Chair. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. you music Yeah I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm gonna go back to the room. . and and I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. Thanks.