July 2021

From the time that Dr. Alexia McClerkin broke her ankle in high school, she knew she wanted to become a doctor. Although Alexia didn’t end up pursuing a career as an orthopedic surgeon as she’d originally intended when she matriculated at Michigan State, she instead chose to study kinesiology so that she could work with athletes, allowing them to get better and to return to their sports. That passion led Alexia into chiropractic medicine and Houston, where she started her own private practice in June of 2016: just a couple of months before returning to school to become a registered nurse (RN). According to Alexia, she estimates that less than 1% of chiropractors are also RNs.

Dr. Alexia McClerkin

Alexia’s decision to study nursing was rooted in how she wanted to be able to work with her patients as a chiropractor. In chiropractic medicine, providers can’t do anything that penetrates the skin, such as administer Botox, while RNs can. Although Alexia was less than enthused at the thought of more schooling, she knew it was the right thing to do to expand the scope of her practice and be able to help the masses. “It was always on the back burner,” she said, “and I knew that I wanted to be able to provide these services. I just told myself to stop wasting my time and to just take the plunge and do it.”

As soon as Alexia graduated as an RN, she rebranded and expanded her private practice. That’s when she expanded her brand to include The Beauty and Wellness Doc, and in July 2020, she moved the wellness clinic from a 1,048 square foot space to a space with over 2,600 square feet, more than doubling the size of the operation. On the medical spa side of The Sports and Wellness Doc, Alexia and her team of two full-time employees (and one intern) offer Botox, dermal fillers, body contouring, medically assisted weight loss, laser hair removal, IV hydration, and vaginal and anal rejuvenation. On the chiropractic side of the business, Alexia offers a variety of traditional services, including adjustments, deep tissue massage, stretching, dry needling, athlete recovery, therapeutic laser, and cupping.

A community event for Alexia’s nonprofit 9 Months to 5K

When Alexia initially looked to furnish her new space with equipment and furniture, she met with a lender who told her that they would give her a loan that wouldn’t affect her credit. After reading the fine print, however, Alexia discovered that the interest rate was 65% and that she would have to pay an exorbitant loan origination fee. She dodged one predatory lender only to find herself facing another nefarious actor when the first PPP loans became available. The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic was particularly rough for business, as Alexia wasn’t getting patients but she was still paying her staff. She was contacted by a business that said that its staff attorney could help her navigate the PPP application’s legalese and help her get her paperwork in order — for $1,000. “It was so shady,” Alexia said. “I just told them that I’m going to try to figure it out on my own, but I feel like they were preying on the weak because some people are new to business and just don’t know.”

One True-To-Their-Word Lender, and One Motivated Mom

Fortunately, Alexia already had a long-standing relationship with TruFund, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that invests in small businesses in Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, and New York. CNote partners with CDFIs like TruFund in communities across the country, providing business coaching, funding loans, and empowering local entrepreneurs like Alexia. Since launching her own business, Alexia has attended eight different courses offered through TruFund, including classes on how to build your business, obtain funding, network, and grow your business as a woman entrepreneur. Not surprisingly, TruFund called Alexia to ask her if she was planning to apply for a PPP loan and if she needed help with the application. “I had absolutely no idea how to go at it,” she said. “But Jessica [Whittington] from TruFund walked me through the process. We went through my finances and made sure everything was in place so that I could get it. She was true to her word. It was so easy and seamless and within a few days, I looked in my bank account and the money was there.”

TruFund was also able to help Alexia to navigate the second round of PPP funding, and today, business at The Sports and Wellness Doc is booming. According to Alexia, the pandemic, in a way, has turned out to be good for her business, as the pivot to remote working has left a lot of people with low back, shoulder, and neck pain caused by poor ergonomics and bad workspaces at home. Amazingly, Alexia, who is also a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program, is seeing her best numbers yet, and her revenue has almost doubled, exceeding her goals. While she still feels like she wants to master the ins and outs of her current wellness clinic, its positive trajectory has her dreaming about one-day franchising and scaling her business concept across Texas.

When asked about her most challenging day as a business owner, Alexia notes that every day is a balancing act. In addition to running a business and being a full-time employer, Alexia is a full-time mom (she has a six-year-old and a two-year-old), a graduate student at the University of Texas at Arlington (studying to become a nurse practitioner), a certified prenatal yoga instructor, and the founder of a local nonprofit: 9 Months to 5K. Alexia started the nonprofit in 2018 while she was pregnant with her second son, and the organization educates low-income pregnant women on the importance of health, nutrition, and fitness with the goal of decreasing maternal mortality as well as the rates of preventable diseases and conditions, such as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. Alexia’s nonprofit hosts annual 5K runs and walks (the 2020 iteration was held virtually) and quarterly workshops with topics ranging from financial literacy to dental health. This past Mother’s Day, 9 Months to 5K held a community baby shower for members of the public in the parking lot of The Sports and Wellness Doc.

Despite everything that Alexia manages to juggle, she continues to be motivated by those around her, and she’s driven by the opportunity to help patients — including not just customers and community members, but also professional and Olympic athletes — to lead healthy pain-free lives. “It’s great when you love what you do,” Alexia said. “That’s what motivates me.”

Learn More

• The Beauty and Wellness Doc
• TruFund – is a 501 (c) 3 certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) headquartered in New York City with field offices in Alabama and Louisiana. TruFund tailors its financial and technical assistance to the unique needs of each site—from contractor mobilization lending in New York and Louisiana to rural Black Belt initiatives in Alabama.
• CNote – Interested in helping create another story like Michea’s? CNote makes it easy to invest in great CDFIs like TruFund, helping you earn more while having a positive impact on businesses and communities across America.

Tanesha Sims-Summers has been an entrepreneur since she was a little girl when she would weave her way through the gridlocked traffic waiting to get into Birmingham’s Legion Field for the Alabama-Auburn football games, selling homemade popsicles for 50 cents as she went from car to car. Tanesha went on to graduate high school, and she matriculated at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she studied marketing and Spanish. She recalls that when she graduated college, she didn’t feel the same pull to get a “real job” as her friends. “I remember that I didn’t want to work for anybody,” Tanesha said. “I just wanted to start a business then, but I never knew what that business was going to be.”

Tanesha Sims-Summers

Without a business plan in mind, Tanesha took a job in investment banking to provide stability for her first child. After seven years in that space, she felt burned out and decided to pivot to digital marketing, where she spent the next six years of her career helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses. In 2014, however, Tanesha was ready to start something for herself. That’s when her aunt, who lived in Virginia and helped to raise Tanesha alongside Tanesha’s grandparents, mentioned that people were going crazy over kettle corn. At the time, even though Tanesha was on maternity leave, she felt drawn to the idea. She did some research, looked at the numbers, and decided that this could be the business opportunity for which she’d been waiting.

Soon after, she founded Naughty But Nice Kettle Corn Co., a gourmet, hand-popped kettle corn company. Tanesha’s first event was the Annual Whistle Stop Festival in Irondale, Alabama, and she didn’t let a newborn baby hold her back from booking as many events as she could that first summer. Instead, her husband (and co-founder) stepped in to take care of the four kids while Tanesha got her feet underneath her as a business owner, racking up successful event after successful event. “We’ve invested time, sweat equity, education, and money in this company,” Tanesha said. “It’s paid for itself from the start, and we’ve seen a 20% or more increase in revenue year over year since we first launched.”

Learning Is Growing

While Tanesha credits Naughty But Nice Kettle Corn Co.’s success with having a quality (and addictive) product, she notes that utilizing community resources and seizing every opportunity to educate herself as an entrepreneur have equally fueled her company’s growth. That thirst for education is what led her to connect with TruFund, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that invests in small businesses in Alabama, Louisiana, New York, and Texas. CNote partners with CDFIs like TruFund in communities across the country, providing business coaching, funding loans, and empowering local entrepreneurs like Tanesha.

In 2019, TruFund provided Tanesha with a $50,000 loan to complete the build-out of Naughty But Nice Kettle Corn Co.’s food truck — Miss Poppy — and to provide some extra cushion for miscellaneous expenses. “We would not have been able to be up and running and popping around the city without that investment from TruFund,” Tanesha said. “But they didn’t just offer us lending, they offered us education. As entrepreneurs, sometimes we do need capital, but sometimes we need to learn how to be more efficient, how to streamline our processes, and how to allocate money effectively so that we can continue to grow.”

To date, Tanesha has taken advantage of a number of TruFund’s programmatic offerings, and through the CDFI, she’s connected with and learned from fellow entrepreneurs near and far from Birmingham. “It’s been invaluable being able to see other women in business who’re able to really share their skillset and to learn from one another,” Tanesha said. “As entrepreneurs, we have to be intentional about utilizing services and asking for help, and TruFund is here to help us make changes to our businesses that impact our bottom lines and that align with our community investment goals.”

Poppin’ Into The Future

Today, Tanesha has evolved her customer base to include corporations, hotels, universities, and wedding and event planners; however, it’s arguably Naughty But Nice Kettle Corn Co.’s commitment to its community that makes it one of Birmingham’s standout small businesses. Through its Poppin with a Purpose campaign, Naughty But Nice Kettle Corn Co. supports local organizations, nonprofits, and small businesses, whether through “PoPraising” (fundraising and donations), sponsorships, or volunteerism. Tanesha’s company also has an initiative called Make Your Local Pop, where Naughty But Nice Kettle Corn Co. partners with local businesses like Eugene’s Hot Chicken. “I really believe in the power of collaboration,” Tanesha said, “so we partnered with Eugene’s Hot Chicken and used his spice on our product to really show the versatility of kettle corn. We want to make the world a sweeter place to live, one kernel at a time, and we will continue to do that through these community campaigns.”

When Tanesha isn’t thinking about how to best serve her loyal following of “PoP heads,” she’s likely thinking about her goals and vision for the future. She’d love for Naughty But Nice to be a household name; however, she doesn’t want that recognition to come by way of big box stores and national grocery chains. Instead, Tanesha wants to do everything she can to preserve the experience surrounding getting her kettle corn into customers’ hands, perhaps by expanding her fleet of Miss Poppy trucks and meeting new customers where they are: at local breweries, farmers’ markets, and community celebrations.

On a personal note, Tanesha says that in the coming years, she’d also like to strike a better balance between work and home. That includes one day getting to a point where she doesn’t have to continually stay up until 3 a.m., which she currently does to both maximize time with her children and run her business. “I just always say, if you’re going to doubt anything, doubt your limits,” Tanesha said. “Do it scared, do it tired, and do it with purpose. And educate yourself. As an entrepreneur, that’s where you can stay sharp and make sure you’re making the right decisions for your business. That’s my mantra.”

Learn More

• Naughty But Nice Kettle Corn Co is a gourmet, hand-popped kettle corn company based out of Birmingham, Alabama
• TruFund – is a 501 (c) 3 certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) headquartered in New York City with field offices in Alabama and Louisiana. TruFund tailors its financial and technical assistance to the unique needs of each site—from contractor mobilization lending in New York and Louisiana to rural Black Belt initiatives in Alabama.
• CNote – Interested in helping create another story like Tanesha’s? CNote makes it easy to invest in great CDFIs like TruFund, helping you earn more while having a positive impact on businesses and communities across America.

When Aimee and Preston Osborne met and married in Fort Hood, Texas in 2001, their dream was to one day own a lake-side resort, an RV park, or something that would take them back to their rural roots. Aimee grew up in the Northwoods of Minnesota, Preston was born and raised in Ashe County, North Carolina, and both knew what it was like to live in a place where the natural beauty and remoteness drove the local tourism industry. For Preston, that was the Appalachian Trail, and for Aimee, that was Lakewood Lodge.

Aimee and Preston Osborne

The storied history of the 240-acre Lakewood Lodge goes back to 1906; however, Aimee’s grandparents didn’t come to own the “rundown old fishing camp,” as she called it, until the 1980s. According to Aimee, she lived with her parents and siblings in a double-wide tucked on the back 40 acres of the property, and everyone helped out with the resort. The lodge was 30 miles from the nearest town, which had a population of 900 people.

“When you grow up in a place like this, the idea that you can ever really come home and be super successful is slightly limited,” Aimee said. “It’s not to say you can’t do other things and be successful, but there’s no industry here beyond the resort industry, and the economy isn’t conducive to young people coming back here and working their way up the ranks.”

That mindset is partly what drove Aimee to enlist in the Army, where she met Preston. In a time before cell phones and the internet, the two would spend time in their one-bedroom apartment in Killeen, Texas flipping through copies of Log Home Living, dog-earing pages, and cutting out pictures that they both liked. “We always had that dream of where we wanted to end up,” Preston said.

Being in the military, however, meant that the Osbornes had a few more moves — and for Preston, five deployments — before they could bring their retirement dreams to fruition. The family was sent to bases in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Alaska before ending up in Colorado Springs. Over the next five years, Aimee left the military to become a massage therapist, and she took a job selling residential solar. She loved her job, but when the world lurched to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and her responsibilities transformed into telemarketing, she realized that if she had to be stuck at home on lockdown and working remotely, then she didn’t want to be in Colorado.

She did a Google search for Lakewood Lodge. Sure enough, it was for sale.

Making a Dream a Reality

Aimee called the listing agent, who in turn referred her to the bank that already financed the lodge. The bank said it was willing to loan Aimee money, but only for half of the amount she’d need to buy Lakewood. The Osbornes adjusted their dream and instead set their sights on smaller resorts in the area, which still cater to the region’s fishing, hiking, and weekend-getaway enthusiasts. Because Preston, a Sergeant First Class, couldn’t leave the military base because of COVID-19 restrictions, Aimee piled their children into the car and drove 16 hours from Colorado to Minnesota to begin looking at properties, none of which Aimee felt excited about.

Aimee’s return to the Northwoods, however, didn’t go unnoticed. The owners at Lakewood Lodge heard she was in the area and wanted to meet with her to see if there was anything they could do to help. Aimee felt hesitant. “I didn’t want to waste their time, and I didn’t want to waste our time on something that might not be possible,” she said. “But those other resorts were not going to work. That’s not where my heart was. My heart was here, at Lakewood.”

Aimee and Preston decided to do everything they could to raise the capital they needed to buy the resort. That’s how they got connected with Entrepreneur Fund, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that works with entrepreneurs across northeast Minnesota, central Minnesota, and northwest Wisconsin to provide flexible business loans, skills development, and networking opportunities. CNote partners with CDFIs like Entrepreneur Fund in communities across America, funding loans to small businesses and empowering local entrepreneurs like the Osbornes.

In total, Aimee and Preston took out seven loans to purchase Lakewood Lodge; however, according to Aimee, the ongoing education and support they received from Entrepreneur Fund were arguably more important to them than the capital. “We had the passion,” she said, “but not the full knowledge of how to approach a bank and how to really put the funding together in a way that made sense. That’s what we needed the most.” Entrepreneur Fund was also able to “widen the conversation” and introduce the Osbornes to important contacts who they “had no idea existed,” but who nonetheless proved to be worthwhile and helpful resources.

From start to finish, the purchase took roughly six months to go through: six months that Aimee describes as an emotional rollercoaster. However, given both the global pandemic and the nuances of lining up seven funding streams, the two feel blessed that they were able to make it to their closing on November 3, 2020, which was attended by Lakewood Lodge’s previous owners, the Osbornes, and Entrepreneur Fund staff members. According to the couple, there were a lot of tears, but they didn’t feel nervous about what was next: owning and operating a 14-cabin resort.

“We were just wanting to get started,” Preston said. Aimee added that the two felt confident because of all the support they received. “It didn’t feel risky because seven other people believed in our ability to do this, and they told us they wanted to invest in us because they believed that we could do this. For us, that took all the fear away.”

Welcome to Your Dream

Not surprisingly, the Osbornes have settled into life as Lakewood Lodge’s owners, and the couple — and business — are thriving. Although they didn’t have time to take a victory lap after completing the purchase, they’ve been plenty busy maintaining the property and welcoming guests. Because the Canadian border remains closed due to COVID-19 restrictions and because of people’s stay-at-home-induced stir-craziness, Lakewood Lodge has continued to see high numbers of guests. Some are even early-booking for this coming fall because of the ongoing uncertainty.

“COVID has definitely increased outdoor sports and lifestyle,” Aimee said, “and the closed border has been a boon for business. It’s been good to revive the resort industry up here a little bit, and it’s also renewed the resort spirit, which is good for us.”

The Osbornes are hard-pressed to name their favorite thing about owning Lakewood Lodge. Aimee loves to attend craft shows and to support local artists, and after more than 20 years of adhering to a strict military schedule, Preston enjoys setting his own schedule and being his own boss. The two, however, agree that the thing that brings them the most joy is showing guests to their cabins and witnessing their excitement firsthand. After all, they share in that excitement, because it’s their Log Home Living dream that came true.

“The spirit of Lakewood Lodge isn’t about the buildings,” Aimee said, of returning to where she grew up. “It’s really about this land and this area and the people that come up here and enjoy it. There’s more than fishing. There’s the northern lights and sitting by the bonfire and enjoying friends and family and the lake. It’s about the simpler things in life that we don’t take the time to stop and do often enough. It’s just what we wanted.”

Learn More

• Lakewood Lodge specializes in providing year-round fun-filled vacations and awesome fishing on a quiet bay of Sand Lake, part of the Bowstring Chain of Lakes.
• The Entrepreneur Fund – a CNote partner and certified CDFI, actively partners with small business owners in northeast Minnesota, central Minnesota, and northwest Wisconsin to support small business growth and local economic development. The Entrepreneur Fund provides flexible financing, along with small business coaching and strategic support to promote a culture of entrepreneurship throughout the region.
• CNote makes it easy to invest in great CDFIs like The Entrepreneur Fund, helping you earn more while having a positive impact on businesses and communities across America.