Entry 45202
Looking at the Whole Picture
A plan and a payoff
Creating a business from scratch requires a lot of research. Todd tested the viability of his idea not only with his former roommate, but also with SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) mentors, local food truck operators, Dover’s economic development pros, and business owners he knew.
Their feedback helped him build a business plan around a horse trailer he’d transform into a mobile coffee shop and haul with his pickup truck. The next step was seeking a business loan.
At a small business finance seminar he connected with a bunch of bank, regional, and municipal funders. Among them was a business lender from the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, who told him, “If traditional financing doesn't work out, give us a call.”
“So I kept the card, continued with the traditional financing and couldn't find anybody that wanted to support the idea,” Todd says.
Two factors worked against him. Todd had little savings to sink into the project, and a credit score dented by medical bills.
When he felt he had exhausted all other financing options, Todd called us. Steven Iannuzzi, our Business Resource Specialist and a former small-business owner, was enthusiastic about Todd’s plan and immediately supportive.
“His business plan was one of the best I’ve ever seen,” Steven says. “I was blown away by the amount of effort he put in.”
Within a few weeks we committed to a loan that helped Todd buy a trailer and some equipment to begin building his business.
“The Community Loan Fund was really different,” Todd says. “They looked at the whole picture. They looked at, ‘Okay, this guy's a vet, he’s asking for a reasonable amount, he's got a really good business plan, he's got numbers to back up his projections.’ They saw all those as positives."
Lessons Learned
Todd chronicled the progress of Blackcat Provisions, named after his cat, Buck, with regular Instagram posts (@blackcat_provisions) starting last fall. He shared engaging and welcoming videos showing the outfitting of the trailer and posts with his ideas for specialty coffees.
By mid-January he’d made it happen, serving coffee through the trailer window outside a construction site in Dover.
“The interest was there. I had a lot of people saying, ‘Oh my gosh, this is great!’ ” he says.
But that night January became, well, January. Despite Todd running a heater in the trailer all night, the deep freeze that characterizes the month in N.H. froze the pipes. A local business quickly offered space in a heated garage, and Todd decided a three-season coffee truck was a better option.
It’s all part of the learning experience, he says. Instead of making coffee every day, he made plans for where to travel once the warm weather arrives. And he continued to create distinctive recipes, like his signature Blackcat Strut, an iced summer drink featuring a shot of espresso floating on tonic water and topped by bitters, maple syrup or orange peel.
A committed conservationist, Todd is also determined to generate less than five gallons of landfill waste a day, recycling everything possible and turning coffee grounds into compost.
“Just trying to be a good steward,” he says.
He intends his stewardship to stretch to the entrepreneurs that follow him, by supporting the Community Loan Fund.
“It really meant a lot to me to have (the Community Loan Fund) have that much faith and believe in me that hard that I could be successful,” Todd says. “Hopefully I'm able to help people by donating back, paying that forward.”
“You helped, so I'm going to help in return.”
It’s all part of the learning experience, he says. Instead of making coffee every day, he made plans for where to travel once the warm weather arrives. And he continued to create distinctive recipes, like his signature Blackcat Strut, an iced summer drink featuring a shot of espresso floating on tonic water and topped by bitters, maple syrup or orange peel.
A committed conservationist, Todd is also determined to generate less than five gallons of landfill waste a day, recycling everything possible and turning coffee grounds into compost.
“Just trying to be a good steward,” he says.
He intends his stewardship to stretch to the entrepreneurs that follow him, by supporting the Community Loan Fund.
“It really meant a lot to me to have (the Community Loan Fund) have that much faith and believe in me that hard that I could be successful,” Todd says. “Hopefully I'm able to help people by donating back, paying that forward.”
“You helped, so I'm going to help in return.”
Numbers that Tell the Story
We support local small businesses because of the greater impact they have on communities. They are the source of jobs and often are central gathering places that provide much more than goods and services.
Businesses like Blackcat Provisions are the heart of their communities. Investing in them brings returns that go far beyond their economic impact.
10.9%
National growth of food trucks since 2019.
6.4%
Estimated annual growth rate of food trucks to 2030.
175
Licensed food trucks in New Hampshire in 2022.
13,925
Number of veteran-owned businesses in New Hampshire.