After six years as manager of Silverlake Cheese Shop, Leah Park Fierro knew she wanted to start her own business that would express her passion for educating the community on the fine tastes of artisan cheese. Her startup, MilkfarmLA, is a neighborhood cheese shop that sells hundreds of international cheeses along with artisanal wine, beer and charcuterie from small, independent local producers.

Challenges

By September 2013, Fierro had written a business plan and found a location in the Eagle Rock area of Los Angeles. Knowing she needed help designing a business website, she attended a Pasadena City College small business event, where she learned about the newly opened Small Business Development Center hosted by PCC.

Best Advice

SBDC Directors Salvatrice Cummo and Mike Daniel as well as advisors Laura Lara and Se Reed helped Fierro develop an integrated marketing strategy, create a business website, and use QuickBooks for her bookkeeping. The SBDC team also introduced her to a key partner, the Foothill Workforce Investment Board (FWIB), which assisted Fierro through a partial subsidy for her employee salaries.

Client Impact

MilkfarmLA opened in April 2014 with two full-time employees. Already the store has exceeded Fierro’s expectations. “It’s above and beyond,” she says delightedly. “The reaction from the community has been very positive—people come in and say ‘I’ve been waiting seven months for you to open!”

Fierro is preparing to launch her website and working to get her alcoholic beverage license. “I already know that once we get our beer and wine license I’ll have to hire another employee and get another POS [station],” she says. During Small Business Week 2014, she received the Outstanding Small Business Award from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. “I want the business to continue to grow financially, create more jobs for people in the neighborhood, and educate the community about good food and fresh products” she says.

“I had worked in management and run a cheese store, but never actually had to do bookkeeping. To go from selling cheese to having to do accounting has been a massive learning curve, but the SBDC has been tremendously helpful — I don’t know what I would have done without them.” Leah Park Fierro, Owner, MilkfarmLA