Back of the Napkin Explores the Big Journeys of Small Business Owners
28 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 16 ratingsBack of the Napkin unfolds the ideas and innovations that help small business owners drive customer loyalty, develop, and retain employees and grow revenue—as told by the people who risked it all to chase their dream. Hosts Karen Stoychoff from SurePayroll and entrepreneur Dusty Weis talk with small business owners from across the country about their inspiration, success, hard knocks, lessons learned and relentless entrepreneurial spirit.
The insights shared by the small business owners featured on Back of the Napkin are especially important as the number of new business start-ups are increasing dramatically across the U.S. According to a recent report from the National Bureau of Economic Research, new business applications from the second half of 2020 through May 2021 mark the greatest on record since 2004.
At SurePayroll, we empower the dreams of small business. From online payroll, health insurance, 401(k), workers’ comp, pre-employment screening, and more, SurePayroll makes it easier for small business owners to focus less on payroll and taxes and spend more time doing what they love and do best.
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Episodes
26. tinyB Chocolate Friday Fail: Tempering the Impact of a Bad Personnel Decision
December 17, 2021 11:00 - 11 minutesRenata and Andrei Stoica from tinyB Chocolate in San Francisco, started a business based on the brigadeiro, a Brazilian confection. A brigadeiro is similar to – yet distinctly different from – fudge, ganache, truffles, or bonbons. The sweet, creamy, intensely flavored bite is perfect to scoop from a jar (spoons optional), gently shape into a ball, and roll in a variety of sweet or savory toppings. The Stoica’s leveraged their passion for the brigadeiro into a virtual team-building experience...
25. tinyB Chocolate Rolls Brigadeiros Virtual Team Building Experience to a Sweet Spot in the Boutique Chocolate Marketplace
December 01, 2021 18:30 - 35 minutesCities across the globe delight with tasty treats unique to their culture and geography. Wisconsin churns cheese. Illinois delivers Chicago deep-dish pizza. Michigan plates up the Detroit Coney. Brazil, the largest country in South America, rolls with the brigadeiro. A brigadeiro is similar to – yet distinctly different from – fudge, ganache, a truffle, or a bonbon. The sweet, creamy, intensely flavored bite is perfect to scoop from a jar (spoons optional), gently shape into a ball, and roll ...
24. Friday Fail: Paulo Hutson Solórzano on Navigating Expertise and Failing Up
November 19, 2021 11:00 - 11 minutesWhen Paulo Hutson Solórzano from A Medida Communications in Chattanooga, TN, started his business, he decided “more is good,” and embraced any project that came his way. His mentor advised a different approach. While he toiled away building small websites and picking up random projects, she recommended Solórzano instead focus on his core skills. She encouraged him to gradually build a portfolio that differentiated him in the marketplace. Solórzano’s mentor proved to be correct. “Her helping m...
23. The Power of Cross-Cultural Inclusion with Paulo Hutson Solórzano
November 03, 2021 10:10 - 29 minutesIn this season 3 episode of Back of the Napkin, Paulo Hutson Solórzano, owner of A Medida Communications in Chattanooga, TN, talks the importance of cross-cultural inclusion, overcoming self-imposed barriers to networking, and the power of tooting your own horn. From superheroes to how couples fell in love to the inspiration behind a small business, many people find origin stories fascinating. For Paulo Hutson Solórzano, owner of A Medida Communications in Chattanooga, TN, his story begins a...
22: Friday Fail with Café L’Appetito: The Value of Knowing Your Business DNA
October 22, 2021 10:00 - 10 minutesIt seems like everything is on the fast track for Licia Accardo and Tony Spatara, owners of Cafe L'Appetito in Chicago. The siblings assumed ownership of the family restaurant in 2010 after their dad, Anthony Spatara, passed away. The restaurant turns 40 this year, a feat very few small business owners achieve, let alone those run by the second generation. In addition to the Gold Coast and West Loop locations, Accardo and Spatara have expanded Café L'Appetito to multiple satellite locations, ...
21. Café L’Appetito Second Generation Owners Stir the Pot to Keep Things Fresh
October 06, 2021 10:00 - 31 minutesAmazon, Netflix, Twitter, Apple, Google, Facebook, Uber, and Microsoft. Companies that started as small businesses and changed the landscape in their respective industries. Yet only Apple and Microsoft predate the restaurant started by Anthony Spatara in a small grocery store in 1981 in Chicago's vibrant Italian enclave on the city's Northwest Side. Now owned and operated by siblings Licia Accardo and Tony Spatara, Café L’Appetito celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, with the second gen...
20. Victor & Mika's Bakery Chew on the Savory Taste of Failure
September 24, 2021 05:00 - 9 minutesIn this season 3 episode of Back of the Napkin, Mika Altidor and Victor Munoz, owners of Victor & Mika’s Bakery, discuss owning and operating the first and only vegan establishment in Polk County, FL, and how sometimes finding the perfect recipe requires you to fail again and again. It took a pandemic, the resulting economic slowdown, and a new ally for Mika Altidor and Victor Munoz, owners of Victor & Mika’s Bakery, to acknowledge their heavy workload was quickly becoming a detriment to thei...
19. It Doesn’t Taste Vegan: The Meaty Success of Victor & Mika’s Bakery
September 09, 2021 10:00 - 34 minutesIt seems unfathomable to the meat and potato crowd that people enjoy a meal filled with only vegetables, grains, legumes, fruit, nuts and seeds. But for some, a whole-foods plant-based diet helps mitigate a variety of food allergies and health issues. For others it can simply express a taste preference, especially if they’re fans of Victor & Mika’s Bakery. Mika Altidor was an in-demand professional stylist and jewelry designer; Victor Munoz owned a popular produce market. Together, they now...
18. How “Safe Fail” Training Helped CFAH Owners Stay Strong During COVID-19 Closures
August 27, 2021 10:00 - 13 minutesIn this Back of the Napkin Friday Fail, Jeff Arce and Web Eby, owners of CrossFit Arlington Heights, compare a “safe fail” in strength training to the obstacles faced by small business owners. Plus, they describe how gym members rallied on behalf of the entire training community during the state-mandated COVID-19 closure that hit just a few months after they assumed ownership. Failure is sometimes due to your own actions—misplacing a wad of cash or forgetting to pay taxes. You look for a re...
17. CrossFit Arlington Heights: When Members Become Your Chief Marketing Officers
August 18, 2021 10:00 - 44 minutesIn this season 3 episode of Back of the Napkin, Jeff Arce and Web Eby, owners of CrossFit Arlington Heights (CFAH) in suburban Chicago, discuss how they came to own and expand an already successful small business, and how “community” provides the lift to everything they do. From the moment you walk into CrossFit Arlington Heights, you’re enveloped by what owners Jeff Arce and Web Eby painstakingly curate with every decision they make: Experience. Community. Results. Painted in bold letters on...
16. Back of the Napkin Friday Fails: Failure as an Idea Generator with Kelly O’Neill
August 06, 2021 10:00 - 14 minutesIn this Back of the Napkin Friday Fail, Kelly O’Neill, owner of Fusion of Iron and Earth, talks about intrinsic value, knowing your worth and tooting your horn. Plus, Kelly reveals her favorite Detroit Coney. It is hard to imagine Kelly O’Neill, owner of Fusion of Iron and Earth, ever failing. Especially given her in-depth knowledge of the Detroit Coney (think chili dog, but with a different kind of chili topping found only in Detroit). “American is my favorite,” said O’Neill. “I like mine w...
15. The Art of Business and the Business of Art with Kelly O'Neill
July 21, 2021 10:00 - 35 minutesIn this season 3 episode of Back of the Napkin, Kelly O'Neill, owner of Fusion of Iron and Earth, shares the inspiring story of her transition from the corporate world to starting a small business from little more than clay, scrap metal, sheer determination, and the passion to honor her father's legacy. Plus she talks about small business branding, Art on the Grand, Funky Ferndale Art Fair, ArtPrize and Mint Artist Guild. Read more on the podcast blog. She was raised in the 1970s, when a gene...
14. Friday Fails: Former Coca-Cola Executive on Messaging, Media and Discretion
July 09, 2021 10:00 - 14 minutesAs small business entrepreneurs, there's a lot we can learn from the world of big business. And so in this Friday Fail, we chat with Ben Deutsch, who worked as Vice President of Communication at Coca-Cola prior to his retirement. He candidly shares the stories of some mistakes he made early in his tenure at Coke, and parses some important lessons about the power of words, the importance of focusing on your core value proposition, and the attitude needed to deal with the high stakes world of b...
13. A Family Legacy in Ice Cream, with Jon Snyder from il laboratorio del gelato in New York
June 23, 2021 10:00 - 33 minutesJon Snyder got the inside scoop on running a small business from an early age; he got a taste for the entrepreneur's life working at his grandfather's Carvel ice cream stand, and he founded his first gelato business at the young age of 19. When he sold that first operation to finish school, he never imagined he would be back in the ice cream business ever again. As an unconventional student with real-world business experience, he quickly rose through the ranks and found success in the corpora...
12. Friday Fails: Tips to Avoid Common Small Business Payroll Mistakes with Cory Hershman
June 11, 2021 10:00 - 10 minutesRarely do you hear a small business owner describe their passion as “making sure I file my payroll and taxes without triggering a visit from the IRS.” Most small business owners learn the ins and outs of payroll and taxes by trial and error, a practice that can sometimes lead to costly mistakes. In this season 2 episode of Back of the Napkin | Friday Fails, Cory Hershman, Associate Product Manager, SurePayroll, details how to prevent common small business payroll mistakes.
11. Building a Habit of Mindfulness and Meditation with Aisha Chottani, Founder of Moment
May 26, 2021 10:00 - 29 minutesAisha Chottani has been meditating for years. Despite that, she was still finding herself lacking creativity and focus come afternoon time. Aisha revisited her roots, thinking about what has helped her build good habits and feel better, and came up with her idea for Moment, a beverage that would help you rebalance and de-stress. Moment incorporates adaptogens, ingredients that have been used for hundreds of thousands of years for their calming properties. In this episode Aisha explains how Mo...
10. Friday Fails: Hiran Patel Explores Failure in Business
May 14, 2021 10:00 - 12 minutesHiran Patel, the owner of the Indian restaurant Naansense, remembers a time early in his small business journey that he experienced a failure in business. Hiran's story is interesting because his fail is one that you might not think of when talking about business fails.
9. Turning a Passion for Cooking Indian Food into a Business with NaanSense Owner, Hiran Patel
April 28, 2021 10:00 - 28 minutesHiran Patel has always had a passion for cooking, and after a chat with his father where he was reminded how important it is to follow your dreams, he decided to pursue his fortune in the kitchen. Hiran got his start in the Chicago restaurant scene and after a few years decided it was time to open his own business. NaanSense is an Indian street food restaurant that serves up delicious Indian food to customers in Chicago. Since opening the first NaanSense location several years ago, Hiran has...
8. Friday Fails: Rachel Doyle Explores Failure in Business
April 16, 2021 10:00 - 13 minutesRachel Doyle, the founder and CEO of the nonprofit GlamourGals, shared a time early in her business when she failed. Nonprofits can have different requirements than for-profit businesses, especially when it comes to how donations are accepted and reported. Rachel's Friday Fail is very relatable for more than one reason.
7. How the Nonprofit GlamourGals Provides Companionship to Isolated Seniors, with Rachel Doyle
March 31, 2021 10:00 - 37 minutesRachel Doyle founded GlamourGals, a nonprofit in New York City, when she was just 17 years old. The mission of GlamourGals focuses on providing support to isolated seniors who live in nursing homes or assisted living facilities, and for 20 years, the nonprofit’s key volunteer activity has been providing makeovers to seniors. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 60% of seniors in these living situations were facing elder isolation, and since the pandemic, that number has grown to 100% due to the la...
Season 2 Launches on March 31!
March 24, 2021 10:00 - 2 minutesStart getting hyped! Season Two of Back of the Napkin arrives on March 31, with more tales from entrepreneurs across America whose creative ideas are changing the world. In each episode, Stephanie Davis and Dusty Weis learn why entrepreneurs got into business, how their ideas have developed, and what twists and turns they’ve faced along the way. You won’t believe some of the wild ideas that have taken root, and you’ll be able to learn valuable lessons from the mistakes that other entrepreneur...
6. Hiring Post-Prison People and Serving High-Quality Coffee with Pete Leonard
February 10, 2021 11:00 - 38 minutesPete Leonard is a serial entrepreneur whose latest business venture pairs high-quality coffee with a mission to hire post-prison people. I Have a Bean is a coffee roasting company in Wheaton, IL that roasts high-quality coffee beans. Inspired by a personal situation, Pete decided his employees were going to be post-prison people and has set them up for success. In our chat with Pete, he explained more about the inspiration behind I Have a Bean, the business planning that went into this, and h...
5. Friday Fails: Maria Erna Explores Failure in Business
February 05, 2021 11:00 - 13 minutesIn this Friday Fail, Maria Erna, owner of WaG Grooming Salon and Spa, shares a fail she had early in her career. When she was 18, Maria had an event planning business. Her fail was brutal, but she learned an important lesson in moving forward amidst failure in business and learned how important resilience is when running a small business.
4. How to Plan a Wedding in 5 Minutes with Manali Shah and Raj Kamaria
February 03, 2021 11:00 - 33 minutesInspired by their own struggles with wedding planning, Manali Shah and Raj Kamaria launched Pyaari Weddings in early 2020. Pyaari Weddings is a wedding planning website that helps users plan a wedding in five minutes. The couple quickly learned how time-consuming and complicated the wedding planning process can be and Pyaari Weddings makes it easy for couples to plan their whole wedding without needing to work with a wedding planner or spend hours contacting vendors. This is the first small b...
3. Friday Fails: Lee Kitchen Explores Failure in Business
January 29, 2021 11:00 - 10 minutesFailing in business is never fun, but those fails have the power to inspire big success. In this short episode of Back of the Napkin, we talked to Lee Kitchen, creative guru and inspiration consultant, in Orlando, FL about failure. Failure plays a big role in Lee's creative brainstorms, and he wants his participants to embrace failure and learn from those setbacks. In this episode, Lee shares a story about a time he had a major failure at work, what he learned from that experience, and what h...
2. Why Quality Service and Supporting Employees Matters in Small Business, with Maria Erna
January 27, 2021 11:05 - 39 minutesMaria Erna is the owner of WaG Grooming Salon and Spa in Salem, NH. Inspired by her own struggles to find quality dog grooming for her dogs, Maria opened WaG to provide a holistic, dog spa, salon experience to her furry clientele. Maria has worked in a variety of industries and is a marketing consultant for small business owners to help them succeed and reach their full business potential. In our time with Maria, we talked about why a holistic dog grooming experience is important, supporting ...
1. How to Inspire Creativity in Business with Lee Kitchen
January 27, 2021 11:00 - 37 minutesLee Kitchen is a brainstorming facilitator in the Orlando, Florida area who arms businesses across the country with tools to inspire creativity and launch new ideas. Following a more than 30-year career with The Walt Disney Company, Lee focused on his new small business and learned that many people struggle with creativity in business. He has several workshop styles with a variety of exercises that are designed to get people out of their comfort zones and embrace creativity. On this episode o...
Coming Jan. 27: SurePayroll's Back of the Napkin Podcast!
December 09, 2020 17:59 - 1 minuteEvery small business is powered by a bolt of inspiration and the dedicated people who bring it to life. And the Back of the Napkin podcast is where small business owners can tune in to explore the unique ideas that have launched successful enterprises, and meet entrepreneurs who aren’t afraid to think differently. In each episode, we’ll sit down with entrepreneurs from all kinds of different industries to learn why they got into business, how their ideas have developed, and what twists and tu...