Award-winning director and producer, Trisha Dalton, and editor and cinematographer, John Sears, are halfway through their 10-week journey interviewing entrepreneurs across the country. Recently, the Brooklyn-based filmmakers made stops in Louisiana and Texas to share stories of business owners in various industries.
Hometown Brewery
One inspiring couple is Andrew and Lindsay Nations, proud owners of Great Raft Brewing in Shreveport, La. The high school sweethearts moved from the nation’s capital to start the first brewery in Shreveport since before prohibition.
“We both had careers in technology. We’ve both been working in Washington D.C. for seven-and-a-half years,” said Lindsay, who like her husband, moved back home to Louisiana. “Everything we did in our day jobs was about beer.”
The couple ran a beer blog in the D.C. area, and eventually parlayed their expertise into a brewery operation that now creates jobs in their hometown.
Passionate Pursuit
Earlier this month, a Brookings Institution study showed that U.S. businesses are collapsing faster than they’re being created.
“Business churning and new firm formations have been on a persistent decline during the last few decades, and the pace of net job creation has been subdued,” according to the study’s authors. “This decline has been documented across a broad range of sectors in the U.S. economy, even in high-tech.”
However, passion for one’s product, great execution, and right strategy can offset taxation and regulatory policies emanating from D.C. A business can still thrive when its founders pour their heart and soul into a venture.
“We want to share what we love about beer with our hometown,” says Andrew, who displays a clear passion for his craft.
“We saw this business as an opportunity to … do what we love for the rest of our lives,” adds Lindsay.
Roadtrip
You can follow more stories of America’s entrepreneurs on the I Am Small Business Proud website (www.iamsmallbusinessproud.com). The campaign is being funded by Spark Business from Capital One.
Dalton and Sears is in the fifth week of their 35-city tour, “gathering exclusive content and insights into the lives of small business owners,” according to their rep. Capital One’s YouTube page has video features of entrepreneurs.
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