Category: Business Owner Stories

Nav Small Business Grant Winner: Welly’s Real Fruit Ice Cream

Nav Small Business Grant Winner: Welly’s Real Fruit Ice Cream

Turning a converted horse trailer into a New Zealand-style ice cream shop has proven to be a winning recipe for Welly’s Real Fruit Ice Cream, a Port Angeles, Washington-based business that has been awarded $5000 in Nav’s quarterly Small Business Grant Contest.  Cofounders Lillie and Jacob Phillips started planning their business at the end of 2020 after years of saving and brainstorming business ideas. Lillie had spent a year living in New Zealand where she first tasted New Zealand-style real… Read More
Passion and Persistence Propels Herban Frequency to Win Nav $10,000 Small Business Grant

Passion and Persistence Propels Herban Frequency to Win Nav $10,000 Small Business Grant

“It’s so much more than the food. It’s about the love,” says Alexis Allen, founder of Herban Frequency. Blending her background in the music business with her love of creating delicious vegan food, she is growing a business featuring unique flavors. Herban Frequency is Nav’s $10,000 Small Business Grant winner for the fourth quarter of 2021.  “As a true music head and professional audio engineer for the last decade I utilize my extensive background in mixing records and approach cooking… Read More
Roseland Born Logistics: Nav’s 2021 Q3 $10,000 Grant Winner

Roseland Born Logistics: Nav’s 2021 Q3 $10,000 Grant Winner

Starting a business is challenging and takes a lot of courage. Starting a business in the midst of a global pandemic takes the courage and vision like that of Mark Davis and Chris Banks. They started Roseland Born Logistics LLC in April of 2021 because, like a lot of other small business owners, they wanted to be masters of their own destiny and help people with their transportation needs. So far, they have self-funded their startup (named to remind them… Read More
Artland Studios, LLC: Nav’s 2021 Q3 $5,000 Grant Winner

Artland Studios, LLC: Nav’s 2021 Q3 $5,000 Grant Winner

Central Oklahoma might not be famous as a hotbed for artists, but keep your eyes on Paden, OK because local artist Leslie Anne Martin and her business, Artland Studios, LLC, might very well change that. Growing up in rural Oklahoma, art provided an outlet, for a younger version of herself, to express her feelings at what she describes as “a really dark time in my life.” She recognized how lucky she was to have parents willing to invest in a… Read More
Sergeant Built: Nav $5000 Small Business Grant Winner

Sergeant Built: Nav $5000 Small Business Grant Winner

Joel McCoy started Sergeant Built in 2020 to bring custom, high-end carpentry services to the local Seattle community. McCoy is a graduate of the Krenov School of Fine Woodworking, and has focused his career on high-end woodworking products. Check out his beautiful work yourself here. What makes Sergeant Built unique? “A genuine care for the people I serve really shines through,” says McCoy. “Even as an introverted person, I am able to gain energy through interacting with my clients and… Read More
JW Equine Services Wins Nav’s $10,000 Small Business Grant

JW Equine Services Wins Nav’s $10,000 Small Business Grant

A passion for her business and a clear plan to put her grant money to good use to grow it has vaulted Jonna Wisher Ibañez, founder of JW Equine Services in Rosenberg Texas, to first place in the Nav’s quarterly $10,000 Small Business Grant.  Jonna has turned her lifelong passion for horses into a full service equine business that includes lessons, boarding and training horses. She plans to use the funds from the grant to help build a covered arena… Read More