Sarah Mattson on Entrepreneurship in Chattanooga
Sarah Mattson is the Director of Entrepreneurship for the City of Chattanooga. In this episode she discusses the vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in Chattanooga and sheds light on Chattanooga’s unique blend of big city amenities with a small-town feel, driven by its exceptional digital and outdoor assets.
About Sarah Mattson
As the first Director of Entrepreneurship for the City of Chattanooga, Sarah Mattson is dedicated to fostering growth in Chattanooga’s small business ecosystem. She spearheads initiatives to support local entrepreneurs and drive economic development. In her previous role as a Senior Small Business Consultant at the Tennessee Small Business Development Center (TSBDC), Sarah earned recognition as a State Star for her outstanding contributions to business development. Sarah also leads the Chattanooga Business Resource Collective, addressing policy issues and coordinating support for entrepreneurs.
With an MBA from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and firsthand experience as the co-owner of a plumbing business, Sarah’s leadership is rooted in both expertise and personal passion for entrepreneurship. Appointed by Mayor Tim Kelly, Sarah is committed to building a sustainable, thriving small business economy in Chattanooga. Sarah will also be one of five judges at The Phoenix Pitch hosted at the University of Chattanooga on Thursday, April 17th, from 5:30 to 8:00 PM. For more details, click here.
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[00:00:00] Spencer: Welcome to Signature Required. It is intended for Tennesseans by Tennesseans.
[00:00:06] Carli: What makes them tip, what lights they're fired.
[00:00:09] Spencer: We're pulling forward people that unless you listen to this interview, you might not know a thing about 'em. The heart of a Tennessean, the volunteer state is serve and we do so largely without self-promotion,
[00:00:24] Carli: and these are genuine.
[00:00:26] Carli: People that get up every day and want to make art or want to educate the nations, or want to have a heart of love in a way that makes a difference, learn
[00:00:36] Spencer: from 50 years of experience. Take a nugget away and then go share it with a friend. Sarah Mattson. Welcome to Signature Required. You are the director of entrepreneurship for the City of Chattanooga.
[00:00:52] Spencer: And for those that are not watching video but are just listening, we are sitting inside of a train car here in Chattanooga. [00:01:00] I'm excited to talk to you today. There is some really fun stuff in the water in Chattanooga, so thanks for being our guest. Yeah,
[00:01:07] Sarah: thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
[00:01:09] Spencer: So what do you do as the Director of entrepreneurship in Chattanooga?
[00:01:14] Sarah: Besides emailing, I like to tell everyone that I spend, um, my time trying to make Chattanooga the most fun and easiest place to do business in the country. So working on policy to make, doing business with the city easier and bringing together different organizations and entrepreneurs together to really create an ecosystem that makes Chattanooga a fun place to do business.
[00:01:37] Spencer: Chattanooga, you wouldn't think it, but is punching way above its weight class. I mean, the a type of business talent that has been attracted here is something that people are starting to really take notice of. What, what's causing that? Like, what is so attractive about Chattanooga?
[00:01:55] Sarah: Yeah, we're lucky. We have a great reputation and so folks move here.
[00:01:59] Sarah: we [00:02:00] have some really great assets, including our outdoor assets. You can be on a bike trail, mountain biking within five minutes from downtown, um, two mountains that you can hike every day. So I think a lot of people are looking for that outdoor lifestyle. And then on top of that. The quality of life, the cost of living is relatively low.
[00:02:19] Sarah: it's a great size city, so it sometimes feels like a big city, but with a small town feel you can really build a community really quickly. And we have some really incredible digital assets as well that I think is bringing a lot of businesses to Chattanooga. We were the first, um, city to have the gig.
[00:02:37] Sarah: Uh, fiber optic internet and uh, now I think it's up to a hundred gigs or something. It's a lot. And now we're working on quantum technology, so. Hmm.
[00:02:46] Spencer: And who's had the vision for that? Because it, clearly, this doesn't happen by accident because there's a lot of cities all across America that would give anything to be Chattanooga.
[00:02:55] Spencer: Right now. There's a lot of money flowing in here. Talent flowing in here. People are [00:03:00] already moving to Tennessee, but Chattanooga specifically, so who's responsible? How long have you been in the role? And just talk about who has been visioning this, because I know this isn't an accident.
[00:03:13] Sarah: I've been in this role for almost two years.
[00:03:15] Sarah: It's a new position that the city has, our mayor. Is an entrepreneur himself and he understands the importance of entrepreneurship and small businesses for a thriving economy. So he wanted someone who was just focused on supporting small businesses all day, every, every day. As far as our digital assets, I think a lot of that vision can comes from our utility board, EPB, which is just a world renowned.
[00:03:40] Sarah: Um, utilities company, uh, not very many people can say how much they love their utility company. Yeah, that's a real misnomer sitting here, like, really, I know, but in Chattanooga, we're all passionate about it because they give us top high speed internet in the world. Rare, never any downtime. As long as I've been, I've been a resident [00:04:00] here for 18 years.
[00:04:01] Sarah: Um, and so they led a lot of the vision of laying the fiber optic. They saw the opportunity and just had opportunity and timing made it happen. Now they're, they, I think, in collaboration with UTC, um, and some other partners are now, uh, working on building a quantum network. So we have a really incredible, innovative, um, utilities company that works very well with our local government and institutions.
[00:04:27] Sarah: Hmm.
[00:04:28] Spencer: And you mentioned the mayor. What's his name and how long, roughly has he been in that seat?
[00:04:32] Sarah: Yeah, mayor Tim Kelly is about to finish up his first term now and, uh, will be, elections are next month in March. And we'll be, voting for his second term at that time. So he's been involved in the community though for a very, very long time, being an entrepreneur himself and on many, many boards for nonprofits.
[00:04:50] Sarah: And so he's got a really great pulse on all the different nooks and crannies in what makes Chattanooga work.
[00:04:56] Spencer: And a term is two years, or four years, or four year terms. Okay? Mm-hmm.
[00:04:59] Sarah: Yeah, [00:05:00] you have
[00:05:00] Carli: your own entrepreneurial story. Tell me a little bit about that.
[00:05:03] Sarah: Yeah, so, um, I, back in 2011, we started a family business, a plumbing business, and it was just, uh, one truck in our driveway.
[00:05:15] Sarah: And over the course of a few years, the business was really growing, as you can imagine, plumbing's very high demand and it's really a turnkey business. Any trade industry, you can really hit the ground running.
[00:05:26] Carli: we're looking at entrepreneurship. Right now and the state of education across the Tennessee and what people are actually going to get degrees in. And there's this huge debate, right? Is do you go get a traditional college degree or do you go learn a skill or a trade such as becoming a plumber?
[00:05:42] Carli: And you saw firsthand the value of a trade skill business.
[00:05:45] Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. I'm passionate about the trades and I think it can be an incredible opportunity, and I think it's very misunderstood. People think that you're gonna be. On like an episode of Dirty Jobs, if you remember that show where you're just [00:06:00] gonna be like, I loved that show crawling.
[00:06:02] Sarah: But, and that's not at all the case. Like a lot of the trades you may, you know, be just working in high-end residential homes, installing faucets and light fixtures. And there's all kinds of different ways that you can have a career in the trades. It doesn't have to be a dirty or like. Completely blue collar job.
[00:06:21] Sarah: I always say anyone who thinks they might wanna be an engineer, I think should consider a trade because it's a similar skillset. And instead you get to use your hands more than you might if you are going to be an engineer and you thought you were gonna use your hands more and instead you're sitting at a desk a lot.
[00:06:37] Carli: you said 2011 is about when you were starting your business. Yes. And off camera we were talking about you have a 12-year-old and an 8-year-old. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct.
[00:06:46] Carli: So that's about the time. You were starting to think about having kids and how did that all, how does becoming a mom and running your own business?
[00:06:54] Sarah: Well, that was about the time. Let's see, I had my son in 2012 and yeah, it's [00:07:00] a lot to juggle. That's when life kind of is like, okay, we're not dinks anymore.
[00:07:04] Spencer: you're like, let's start a business and let's just also have kids at the same time. We're not sleeping anyway. So it was
[00:07:09] Sarah: actually a debate of like, should we have kids? First or start the business and we're like, let's start the business and then have kids. And it worked out like the business was running pretty, pretty smoothly after a year, and we felt like we had made a good decision and felt like we were in a good position to start having building our family.
[00:07:24] Sarah: Um, but a few years later is when I took a break from corporate world and that was much, much needed. Mm-hmm. It couldn't have come soon enough and I needed that to be able to focus. At that time I was pregnant with our second and I needed that time to focus on our family a little bit more and kind of, regather everything and get everything back on track.
[00:07:47] Sarah: And then,that's when I was like, I'm gonna go back to work. I got bored very quickly. Um, and also was working on my master's at that time too. Oh wait, so you're having babies.
[00:07:56] Carli: Had your own
[00:07:57] Carli: business,
[00:07:58] Carli: had just left the corporate world [00:08:00] and were working on your master's degree. Yeah,
[00:08:01] Sarah: actually I was working in the corporate world when I started my, I was doing them all for a period of time and that's when I was like, A break sounds nice right now.
[00:08:10] Spencer: So in thinking about your role as Director of entrepreneurship, a couple things. First, it strikes me as really unusual that a city the size of Chattanooga would have a director of entrepreneurship.
[00:08:24] Spencer: Can you give context? 'cause I, I don't know that there's data out there, but just anecdotally like. Is that super unusual to have a director of entrepreneurship in a city the size of Chattanooga?
[00:08:35] Sarah: I've not met many. I go to a lot of conferences and, work with peer cities and I don't think, I think I was on another show or broadcast or something when someone said, you're the first ever.
[00:08:46] Sarah: And I was like, I don't know. I don't know the facts on that. So I don't think that is the case. Other cities. Certainly have people doing the same work and in a similar role with probably just a different title. So before my [00:09:00] position was created, it was just our economic development department that was doing all the same work.
[00:09:05] Sarah: Now it can just be a lot more focused. So I, I've not met another director of entrepreneurship in another city, but I think they're all scrambling trying to do the same work. But it's hard because they're a lot. They're spread thin. You know, it's hard to get it all done.
[00:09:19] Spencer: I think it's a great model for other cities to see because entrepreneurship, true to form is one of the most powerful change agents that God has ever created.
[00:09:30] Spencer: One entrepreneur can literally change the trajectory of an entire community, the jobs that it creates. You just have to get it right for one person, and it's incredible the impact that it makes. So I, I like that Chattanooga's. Created such an emphasis on growing it as your role as the director. I would feel intimidated in that role if I was hired to come in as director of entrepreneurship, because you just see that [00:10:00] title and you would think, okay, well I'm supposed to know everything that there is to know about entrepreneurship, and obviously that's unlikely.
[00:10:07] Spencer: Your job title. If it is your job title, then we're gonna talk even more, but maybe just talk about the. Job expectations of the Director of entrepreneurship and what your charge is to say. My answer is not to have insight to every business model that's out there, but my job is what?
[00:10:31] Sarah: The simple way to answer that.
[00:10:33] Sarah: I think my job's to listen to what the business owners. What issues they're having and what their needs are and try to fill the gaps. Either connect them to existing resources or identify if there's a resource that we can create to help them if multiple people are having the same issue. So is someone to be available to the entrepreneurs, to kind of liaison between the small business community and city government.
[00:10:56] Sarah: and also to all of our resource partners we have. [00:11:00] Over 30 different technical assistance providers in Chatanooga. We meet on a regular basis and we often talk about what's missing, how can we work together to make sure entrepreneurs know about the resources that are available to them. So I think that's the main thing, and I've learned a lot.
[00:11:18] Sarah: A lot of business owners have had issues with like particular aspects of city government, like getting permits and things like that, that they needed. So then we go and look at policy and see what can we do to make that process. Smoother for them. Um, we're all about, in this administration, all about removing the red tape.
[00:11:35] Sarah: So what can we do? Um, the mayor's called me before and said, Hey, I spoke to a business owner who's having this issue. How can we make this easier for them as opposed to call code enforcement. He's not doing it right. Go wait on hold. Yeah, that's not the role. That's not what we're trying to do. We're trying to figure out, well, is that a law and maybe is that law still necessary in 2025?
[00:11:57] Sarah: Hmm. So
[00:11:59] Carli: I'd have to [00:12:00] ask, I think you've answered it well, but I'm such a visual person. So let's pretend you have a pie. What pie slice of your time are you spending 50% of your time talking to entrepreneurs and another quarter of your time talking to people within government and policy? Or help me understand that pie slice of what is available to entrepreneurs.
[00:12:17] Carli: Yeah, through your role.
[00:12:18] Sarah: I'd probably speak to probably. Two or more entrepreneurs every day. I know that's not answering the pie question, so I'm gonna have to figure out how to math this out in my head. You reverse. Good for you. I would say I spend probably 75% of my time, working with our resources that are existing and trying to connect entrepreneurs to those resources.
[00:12:39] Sarah: what's some
[00:12:40] Spencer: examples of a couple resources? Yeah,
[00:12:42] Sarah: small Business Development Center, urban League of Greater Chattanooga. We, they have an entrepreneurship center here, and I know the one in Nashville too has a really great entrepreneurship resources score. Uh, we have an organization here called Launch Chattanooga that helps food and beverage and micro minority and women owned [00:13:00] businesses.
[00:13:00] Sarah: Our, our arts organization has entrepreneurship programs. So again, I, I don't wanna mess myself up by leaving people out, but there's about 30 organizations, um, that're supporting. So they're already doing great work, but a lot of times entrepreneurs will come to me and say, I don't get support for my business.
[00:13:19] Sarah: And I'm like, it's out there. Let's just get you connected. Mm-hmm. So we are. Planning events, I was, um, telling Carli that we're having our second annual Chattanooga Entrepreneur Week being held in May, and that's going to be a three day free conference where we'll educate and celebrate entrepreneurs in Chattanooga.
[00:13:37] Sarah: And the whole idea is to really just help them connect to the resources that are available to them. So that's 75% of my time, and then I probably spend about 20% of my time. trying to develop some grant opportunities and policies and things like that that can help support entrepreneurs. Hmm. I
[00:13:54] Carli: love that.
[00:13:55] Carli: 'cause you're really in a role of educating mm-hmm. Of being an educator. 'cause we've been in the [00:14:00] weeds in our own business where sometimes you just feel like you're underwater, you're working your tail off, and you don't, you get in bed at midnight and you gotta wake up and do it again and you're fielding the phone calls and the thought of how do I look for an olive branch to something that can help me?
[00:14:13] Carli: Yeah, you're just trying to keep the wheels on, literally, literally when you have a fleet. And so being that person to say, what do you need? Did you know that this exists? Yeah, that's like magical. You
[00:14:25] Sarah: don't know what you don't know. And I learned this. I used to, I worked at the Small Business Development Center here in Chattanooga for six years prior to this role.
[00:14:32] Sarah: So in that role, I served about, 4 to 500 entrepreneurs every year like it was, um, my job every day to sit down and talk to entrepreneurs for hours and hours and helping them with their business. So I really got a good understanding of the common issues everyone has and what resource. Gaps we had in the community.
[00:14:50] Sarah: So I was very excited when the mayor posted this position because I already had ideas, and that's what I said when I applied for the position. I was like, I [00:15:00] already know, like some ideas of what we can do. I've been working in the ecosystem for a while. Um, it was about six years. So
[00:15:07] Spencer: one of the things that, if I just had to guess, the challenges that people come to you with, top of the list to me is gonna be money.
[00:15:14] Spencer: Like most people I would imagine come to you and say, money, I need money. And what do you, yeah. So how do you wrestle with that part of your job? Are there resources available for people that come and say, I've got this idea, I just don't have any money. Uh, and, and what are a couple of challenges that that, that you get besides money?
[00:15:38] Sarah: Money is always, yeah, the main thing that everyone wants or they at least think that they want. And so one thing I learned when I was working with entrepreneurs at the Small Business Development Center is I. Money's not always the answer. And uh, you usually have to, take some steps back and create more systems first.
[00:15:57] Sarah: Usually, you know, you need to have a business plan [00:16:00] and financial projections, and to do that you need a bookkeeping system. So it usually creates an opportunity to like help fortify businesses, foundations before they can even begin to access. Money. And so one thing I say here in Chattanooga, we have a lot of financial resources in my opinion.
[00:16:19] Sarah: And uh, it's not a popular opinion, but I think we have a lot of financial resources. We have Kiva, we have our credit, local credit Union, TVFCU that has startup loans up to $75,000. Um, we have some foundations that have loan options. And, uh, of course SBA loans. So the money is out there. I think the issue is the businesses are not yet ready to receive that money.
[00:16:44] Sarah: So again, that goes back to the education piece of making sure your business is ready and that you're ready to get the money. Um, and then of course, all the time people are wanting grants. How can I get a grant for my business? How can I get a grant for my business? That is a daily [00:17:00] education of there's really not grants out there unless you are a research based or the grant is very, very competitive, like the FedEx grants and things like that, the ones that a lot of people hear about.
[00:17:14] Sarah: And so they, there are grants out there, but sometimes they're not worth your time and effort to, to get those grants. And instead you need to create a business model that, um, can work without. Access to free money. so that's something I work a lot to try to educate people on.
[00:17:31] Carli: I have to ask, when you're talking about trying to get someone even to the place where they can ask for help or they can't access money, how much is mentorship and trying to bring community mentors if somebody's just a couple steps ahead of you?
[00:17:42] Carli: How much of your job is trying to connect business to business? Maybe not even to resources, but to other mentor type relationships?
[00:17:48] Sarah: Yeah, that's something we're working on. 'cause that can be incredibly powerful, um, for folks to hear. Another business owner's story. 'cause I, I just really believe in the power of [00:18:00] storytelling, which I'm sure you guys do, um, having a podcast, but hearing someone else's story.
[00:18:05] Sarah: Especially, um, in our work at, at the City, we are very focused on, uh, serving minority communities and creating an equitable space for all chattanoogans. And so a lot of times for folks it can. It's hearing another woman who had young kids. Mm-hmm. Um, start a business and make it and do okay. Or hearing a minority person who started a food truck and now has a restaurant and they had struggles, but they got from point A to point B.
[00:18:33] Sarah: So I can too, it can be incredibly powerful. So we try to incorporate as much storytelling and connecting businesses to each other, um, for that purpose. At our entrepreneurial week, we, most of our speakers are local entrepreneurs. Just telling their stories and mentoring the, the future generation of entrepreneurs in Chattanooga.
[00:18:54] Spencer: One of my main objectives in storytelling is to also give a model for others that want [00:19:00] to do what you're doing. And so we've got community leaders all across the country that listen and say, I want this, but for my community. So to the extent that it's public or that you can share it. Would you mind just talking a little bit about what your department's budget is?
[00:19:19] Spencer: What the number of people that are available? 'cause what I'm hopeful to hear is that it might be something that others hear and say, oh, okay, well that's something that could work. Or it may be something where it's like, Hey, my budget is so big that it's gonna be just have to be a major priority, but just help us understand it so that way it might be more.
[00:19:40] Spencer: Replicatable for other people that here at, in other communities, just if you were counseling people, the systems that they needed to have in order to have something like this.
[00:19:50] Sarah: Yeah. So my position is within our economic development department, and I'm the only one working in entrepreneurship at the city.
[00:19:57] Sarah: You're me, A one. It's just me. Oh, okay. That's classically entrepreneur. We do [00:20:00] have a budget for, um, a, an. A coordinator position undermine that we'll probably bring on in the next year as we launch a future project that's about to happen. Um, so two people, but one thing that we have really tapped into are in our city, and if someone works in government, they're probably familiar with these resources, but, um, as city hall we.
[00:20:22] Sarah: We utilize a lot of national organizations. Uh, national League of Cities is one of them, as an example, and we participate in a lot of their programs that are sometimes providing grant funds for us to do pilot projects. Okay. Here in Chattanooga. Um, so, so you all are
[00:20:39] Spencer: applying for grants too?
[00:20:41] Sarah: Oh yeah. Yeah.
[00:20:42] Sarah: Now we do. The city has a huge grants department, as I'm sure most cities do. Um, but there's opportunities with an organization like the National League of Cities, and I think there's like strong towns and Link and there's, um, other organizations that you can tap into, [00:21:00] but they are. Like National League of Cities is funded by the Kaufman Foundation and so they use that money and they had specific entrepreneurship programs that I have participated in as in one of their cohorts.
[00:21:13] Sarah: And it, it costs the citizens nothing, no taxpayer dollars or go into this. And instead they give us grant monies and I can use that to pay for things and pilot projects. Um, so it really doesn't take much of a budget. I've always been a very frugal, kinda scrappy, I've learned scrappy, um, at the small business development center, we didn't have a big budget for doing creative things.
[00:21:36] Sarah: We were federally funded. So I've learned how to just do things, relying on, uh, social capital and using my network and resources to get a lot done.
[00:21:46] Sarah (2): Mm-hmm.
[00:21:46] Sarah: Where do you get your ideas?
[00:21:48] Carli: Like, do you have a peer group of people trying to do this type of work in other cities? Do you have a peer group of just other entrepreneurs that are scrappy, that are kind of feeding you ideas?
[00:21:57] Carli: Where are you getting your inspiration?
[00:21:59] Sarah: Um, a lot is [00:22:00] just meeting and talking with entrepreneurs on a regular, very regular basis, and meeting with the other technical assistance and resource providers to hear what's going on from their perspectives out in the field. So I meet with folks. Every day who are working with entrepreneurs to hear what they're hearing.
[00:22:19] Sarah: Um, but then also being a participant in these programs with like National League of Cities. I am in a cohort with other cities and we meet regularly. I've had the opportunity last year to travel to several different southern cities. We were in a program called the Southern Cities Inclusive. SCEI. Oh, okay.
[00:22:41] Sarah: Southern Cities, uh, inclusive program is for inclusive, uh, cities to develop more inclusive practices and policies. And we were able to travel to Savannah and Tallahassee, new Orleans, um, Knoxville to learn [00:23:00] best practices, like what are they doing, what's worked, what hasn't worked. In addition, they bring on experts who work with like national organizations who come in and can like provide guidance and mentorship.
[00:23:11] Sarah: So that's been a huge resource for us.
[00:23:16] Spencer: Entrepreneurship in general, I feel like is a lot like fire in that it has an amazing opportunity to catalyze change, accomplish huge things, but it can also kill you. I mean, it will. Single handedly sink a family's financial future and cause untold damage. And the lead in for that is.
[00:23:40] Spencer: Carli and I counsel entrepreneurs all the time that have an idea and they want to do something. And sometimes the best way that I can serve them is to say, this is not for you. Yeah. And not everybody is meant to be an entrepreneur, and sometimes that hurts people's feelings. Sometimes that's not what they want to hear.
[00:23:58] Spencer: It's what they need to hear. [00:24:00] And so I just wonder about how you balance that in your role, because clearly your mission is to promote entrepreneurship. I mean, you're the director of entrepreneurship, so that I, I can appreciate is your drive. But I also know that as a successful entrepreneur, you come across people sometimes that you know in your heart that it's not gonna work, it's never gonna work, or at least.
[00:24:24] Spencer: What I'm seeing here is not where I want to encourage further development. So how do you balance that in your role? What do you counsel people and deal with that situation so that way you know that you're serving them in the right way?
[00:24:42] Sarah: Yeah, I completely agree with you and that, that's a great question.
[00:24:45] Sarah: And I used to always say that counseling a person into. Not opening a business at the time, whether it's timing or it's just not the right idea, is as successful to me as getting the business [00:25:00] open and running. I'm
[00:25:00] Sarah (2): so glad to hear that.
[00:25:02] Sarah: Yeah. Because we want a thriving economy. I want thriving entrepreneurs.
[00:25:06] Sarah: I don't want people just throwing their whole 401k at it and losing everything. Yeah. The whole goal of our mayor's administration is to create a thriving economy for all. Chattanoogans and so we don't want everyone just throwing everything into the fire. You know, we want it to be a successful idea.
[00:25:25] Sarah: So that's why I think going back to taking advantage of resources, like the free technical assistance you can get, someone can help you really do the math and really come up with some projections for your business to try to at least have a better educated guess. Is, is this gonna be successful or not?
[00:25:42] Sarah: Help you with like market research and that sort of thing. Um, so no, I'm. I used to always tell people when I worked at the small business development center, that a lot of my job was telling people, not that they had a terrible idea, but I would usually let the numbers tell the story. I would help [00:26:00] 'em do the numbers, crunch the math, let's do a market study and see, and then if it's just, if it's not viable, it's not viable.
[00:26:07] Sarah: Yeah. And you need to cut your loss and maybe get a job or something. 'cause I want you and your family to thrive. Everything's not on the business like. You, you know, we want your household to thrive and grow. So come back with another idea. Yeah, yeah. Keep, go back to the drawing board. Mm-hmm. And come back like, you know, your entrepreneurship journey's not over.
[00:26:27] Sarah: Just this idea may not be the right place. And a lot of people want see big ideas in Nashville and Atlanta, and they want to replicate those here. And I'm, I love stealing ideas from big cities. But sometimes we just don't have the volume of people here in Chattanooga to support Yeah. An idea that might work well.
[00:26:45] Sarah: So a lot of times it's just, you know, not the right market fit and that's okay.
[00:26:50] Carli: How much for your small business owners, is it local people coming and being patrons of their business? And how much do you guys rely on tourism? [00:27:00]
[00:27:00] Sarah: I don't know the numbers on that, but we do get quite a bit of tourism and I think it depends on the, location, of course, like our downtown core, I think is probably a pretty big chunk of tourism for our food and beverage.
[00:27:13] Sarah: we do a lot of campaigning though to get our locals supporting our local businesses as much as possible. and I think we do, I think Chattanooga's really got a great community. Like we're not a very corporate type. City. we have a very thriving, small but thriving downtown, just full of wonderful local restaurants and shops and coffee shops, and it's, I, I would almost dare say it's hard to find a corporate location over a small business, in our downtown core at least.
[00:27:45] Sarah: So I would. I would say it's probably about equal. I'm just making that number up. I have no idea.
[00:27:52] Carli: I
[00:27:52] Sarah: would hope.
[00:27:53] Carli: And for our listeners that aren't familiar with Chattanooga or are trying to plan a trip or like, oh my gosh, this sounds really interesting, I wanna [00:28:00] learn more about this city. What do you think the biggest surprise is if they came to your downtown core, started hiking your trails, or were trying to come stay in the choo choo trains, which I can see from here.
[00:28:11] Carli: The train hotel, which looks wicked cool, and I have to bring my son. To be in there. What do you think would surprise them or what do you wish they knew about this city?
[00:28:21] Sarah: I think what might surprise people is again, that big town slash small town feel. You get a little bit of both and you know, it's one thing that might surprise 'em is how inexpensive our parking is.
[00:28:33] Sarah: If you're coming from Nashville, locals will say there's no parking and it's. Expensive. But if you spend time in a big city, you really appreciate our parking situation. In Chattanooga, we actually have ample parking and our street parking is just like dollars, you know, an hour if that. Like a dollar an hour probably.
[00:28:52] Sarah: So we have really great parking. And one thing I've always said that I love about Chattanooga is how accessible our downtown is. It is just easy to [00:29:00] get in and out. It's not a whole ordeal. You don't have to. Uber in or Lyft in, you can just roll up and park within a block of where you're trying to go and get in and everything's relatively affordable.
[00:29:12] Sarah: And I think that just adds to the quality of life that we're talking about. and it just, I think that's a great thing. I think that's what people fall in love with with Chattanooga.
[00:29:21] Spencer: Sarah, one of my very favorite things is to get to highlight success stories. It gives. A working example to people to say they did it so I can do it.
[00:29:30] Spencer: And that's what community is all about. So if you can think back, you've been in this role two years, what is the success story or something that you feel like can capture some of the spirit of Chattanooga in entrepreneurship?
[00:29:44] Sarah: Yeah, I think one great. Story is located here in the Chattanooga Tutu and that's Gate 11 distillery.
[00:29:50] Sarah: I think they've been around, has to be over five years now. And I think they just started kind of a mom and pop, like a lot of people, [00:30:00] like in their basement, you know, like trying to brew their own beer. But they decide to distill gin, I believe. I don't wanna mess their story up, but they started distilling gin, which I think is just really unique on its own.
[00:30:11] Sarah: And now they've had this. Thriving, bar set up where you can go in and try. They're locally and they've expanded beyond gen, but I think it's just a really great story and I love that they're in the choo, which is really like the heart of downtown, geographically, but also historically. And I think they're just really adding to that.
[00:30:29] Sarah: The vibe that's here and adding so much to our, our culture in Chattanooga.
[00:30:34] Spencer: See, I always appreciate entrepreneurship that begins in a basement because then, you know, it's authentically entrepreneurial because that garage where, where everyone should start garage. Yeah. Basement garage. Garage, garage. Yeah.
[00:30:45] Spencer: And I also appreciate that it's a distillery because if it's going well, you've got a product to celebrate. Yeah. And if it's not, you got something to drink away your sorrow. Yeah. So convenient either way.
[00:30:55] Sarah (2): Oh,
[00:30:55] Spencer: that's really funny though. And I, I, I, I really do. Think that that is [00:31:00] also uniquely Tennessee, right?
[00:31:01] Spencer: Yeah. I mean, we've got moonshine, all the stuff like that has every element of, of story to it. Yeah. That's, that's fun. Yeah. Sarah, one thing that we do at the end of all of our podcast is we do a little fill in the blank where you haven't seen these questions ahead of time. So the way this is gonna work is I'm gonna read you a short statement with a blank at the end, you repeat the statement back to me and then fill in that blank with.
[00:31:24] Spencer: Whatever word or short phrase you feel like finishes out that thought. Okay. All right. There's gonna be three of them. Okay. Number one, a thriving small business community requires blank.
[00:31:37] Sarah: A thriving small business community requires support.
[00:31:41] Spencer: The biggest challenge for entrepreneurs today is blank.
[00:31:47] Sarah: The biggest challenge for entrepreneurs today is.
[00:31:50] Sarah: Getting the resources they need to get their business off on the right foot.
[00:31:55] Spencer: And I really like that we've covered in detail this time that resources is so much [00:32:00] more than money because I think that's where everybody's headspace goes to is if I just had $25,000 if I just had this, but there is so much more resources.
[00:32:10] Spencer: Money is a thing, and you have those. But I really like that we spent time on that today.
[00:32:15] Sarah: Entrepreneurship in Chattanooga is uniquely collaborative.
[00:32:21] Spencer: I think that's really good. Seeing the emphasis that Chattanooga has placed on entrepreneurship is really what captured my attention to wanna tell this story because Chattanooga has crazy amounts of money and development and tech that honestly shouldn't be here.
[00:32:39] Spencer: Right? Yeah. I mean, it's unbelievable that it is, and the fact that it is wants us to come and say. Tell us why, tell us the story, and it makes, um, it doesn't surprise me at all that the city has made an investment in a role like yours to be able to continue the wins and the [00:33:00] sales that Chattanooga has.
[00:33:01] Sarah: Yeah. And to add to that, I wanna about the collaboration. that is very unique thing to Chattanooga and, and locally we call it the Chattanooga way. If you come here, we don't have a competitive spirit. You'll see all the like different bar owners working together to like create a bar crawl.
[00:33:17] Sarah: Everyone always finds a way to work together and, and. A lot of people really love that about Chattanooga.
[00:33:23] Spencer: Well, I love that you've given the model that you have, and I also like that you're traveling around to go to conferences and show a model. You know, there's 95 counties here in Tennessee, and I understand your objective is right here.
[00:33:36] Spencer: But I hope that there's some other leaders that will come alongside Chattanooga story and say, we can do this in other surrounding places. Because in that same spirit of collaboration. One winner. Even in the state of Tennessee. You know, you look at some of the major entrepreneurial success stories that have happened to your.
[00:33:58] Spencer: It can start in one county, [00:34:00] but it ends up influencing all 95. It influences the state, the region, the country, and I would love to see that story come out of your administration here in Chattanooga and outta Tennessee. So we will be rooting for you and we'll be happy to give. Your story a megaphone today.
[00:34:16] Sarah: Thank you. I would love to see that too.
[00:34:18] Spencer: Awesome. Thank you for being here.
[00:34:20] Sarah: Thanks for coming. Yeah. Thank you for having me. Yeah.
[00:34:27] Spencer: Sarah Mattson with the Entrepreneur Center in Chattanooga. I love seeing things that empower entrepreneurs and it's never exactly what you expect because when you hear the director of entrepreneurship, I could have come up with 10 different. Job descriptions for that, and I really didn't know what it would be, but to see what an emphasis the city is creating upon entrepreneurship in general.
[00:34:56] Spencer: That kind of overarches the whole [00:35:00] story is that this city cares about it and the results are showing. Mm-hmm. Chattanooga is punching so far above what it should be, that it's amazing and I think Chattanooga's. Letting the world know that, hey, there's some really impressive stuff going on here, and it is fundamentally altering the trajectory and the future for this city in all the most positive ways.
[00:35:24] Carli: I think one of the things I love the most about this conversation was how practical it was. We talked about. Not every story is meant to be an entrepreneurship story. And you are just as successful if you know when to not become an entrepreneur, as when you do become an entrepreneur. And when she was talking about the need for systems and strategies and knowing what resources and connecting the dots, it was so practical.
[00:35:49] Carli: And I love a visionary quote, as much as you love a visionary quote, and I love a song story. You know Rudy, Rudy, like You wanna root for the underdog. But these are people's livelihoods. [00:36:00] This is people's families. This is their 4 0 1 Ks being put all in one place to make it happen, and I just really appreciated her level of stewardship.
[00:36:09] Carli: Around that she wanted to do a really good job and you could tell she really cared. And I really appreciated how practical it was trying to give true resources like broadband, internet, and understanding how to develop a business plan. Um, things that I don't think every entrepreneur gets in other cities.
[00:36:24] Carli: Mm-hmm.
[00:36:25] Spencer: I also like the variety that they can serve, regardless of if you're in something digital, if you are selling food, if you're opening a bar, you have a trade skill. Some entrepreneurship, I feel like is too focused on what is in tech and what is about to be mainstream or what's cute,
[00:36:51] Carli: what's adorable, what's on Pinterest, what's the next, adorable, not that this is bad, but your next adorable portable bookshop, right?
[00:36:58] Spencer: Yeah. That, that, that [00:37:00] space is crowded. Yeah, and I really sensed that Sarah and her organization. Was just as thrilled for someone to come with a trade skill, with something that could have been on dirty jobs. She made that joke herself. Or if it was something that's high flying in tech, Chattanooga has both.
[00:37:18] Spencer: Mm-hmm. But I didn't sense that there was a bias towards one or the other. Mm-hmm. To say, well, we really prefer to work with people that are more like this, or were really more equipped to work with people that are more like this. If there was anything that I heard, it seemed like that they were most focused on those that are.
[00:37:37] Spencer: In the, the pre entrepreneurship stage. Um, and I think that could be an area that they evolve over time. Mm-hmm. Is they seem to be good of, they seem to have a good mission of you're thinking about this, you need help thinking about this and launching this business. I think as Chattanooga and as [00:38:00] CS program matures, it'll be interesting to see the types of offerings that exist to say, okay, you've made it to $500,000 of revenue.
[00:38:08] Spencer: What are the challenges now mm-hmm. That are there for you? And I think that as this matures will be part of the next chapter of the success story for Chattanooga. 'cause they keep doing this and they're gonna find more and more businesses that are hitting that $500,000 milestone and million dollar milestone.
[00:38:24] Spencer: And that's gonna be exciting to see.
[00:38:26] Carli: Yeah. And I think the mentorship piece that we just kind of briefly touched on, but as more and more businesses make it in Chattanooga. The mandate to give back the mandate to then go mentor the next season of entrepreneurs coming up behind you is a really, really big deal.
[00:38:44] Carli: And she said they're much more collaborative in Chattanooga than competition. Um, competitive. And I love that. Just start it off. She
[00:38:53] Spencer: said that much.
[00:38:54] Carli: She said they are much more collaborative than competitive with one another in Chattanooga. Even the bars having a bar crawl, trying to [00:39:00] get people to go from one place to another.
[00:39:02] Carli: That's an unheard of. In major cities. Mm-hmm. And I think if they can hang onto that charm and that there's enough room for all of us to be successful, we're not cannibalizing each other, we rise together mentality. How do we lend a hand back? How do we mentor, how do we continue to work together? You feel it when you walk around the streets of this city that there is something different and it's homey and it's cool and it's quirky and it just makes you wanna spend more time here.
[00:39:28] Carli: And if they can hang on to that while continuing this trajectory, I think. Man, imagine Chattanooga five, 10 years from now.
