Jessica Jesse:

When you have your financial institution right there with you where you can pick up the phone, good or bad, it's amazing. It's a great feeling to have.

Frederick Royall III:

Entrepreneurs are leading through unprecedented times. Can you share any advice for founders seeking to access capital in today's market?

Jessica Jesse:

Hug your bankers. You know what I mean by that?

Frederick Royall III:

Yes, I do.

Jessica Jesse:

I really mean that. I think you need a very strong relationship with your partners that are able to help you scale and grow. And that access to capital is based on, you know, honest performance and that when you have your financial institution right there with you where you can pick up the phone, good or bad, it's amazing. It's a great feeling to have.

Frederick Royall III:

How has your approach to financial management changed in response to fluctuating or uncertain economic conditions?

Jessica Jesse:

There's two kind of viewpoints. There's the macro viewpoint where businesses of my size really can't do much. You're kind of swept by the current of economic times. So what we can do is look at the micro effects within our own organization, right? And whether that is the type of imports we bring in, whether it's how to eventually reinvest revenue, all these things are things we can control.

Frederick Royall III:

What has been your approach to reinvesting revenue? How has it changed as BuDhaGirl has grown and diversified?

Jessica Jesse:

Yeah, I mean, investing in talent is very important. Where are you going to grow, and are you bringing in the talent that's going to get you there? And so that's an investment. And it's a real, not only a financial investment, it's a time investment that you have to make. When you scale all the product categories, sometimes they're nonadjacent to what you normally do. And it's difficult. You need to really make sure that scaling isn't going to erode your original business.

END