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Ten years ago, I founded The Spice Suite, a spice shop based in Washington, D.C. Over the years, I expanded the retail shop into a strip mall, farmers market, and community business school, all built on a notion of making cooperative economics something more than just a Kwanzaa principle. I developed a model called Black and Forth.
Too many small businesses never get the chance to grow into what they could be. Nearly 20% of small businesses fail within their first year, and by year five, half will have closed their doors. Eighty two percent of business owners say cash flow is the biggest culprit. But the root cause goes deeper than just money, it’s about access. Access to space, visibility, and shared resources that keep money moving in the first place.
Black and Forth is about moving opportunity back and forth within our community so that more Black entrepreneurs can not only survive but truly thrive. When we share customers, platforms, and ideas, we rewrite the statistics and prove that success is stronger when it circulates.
How the Black and Forth business model works
Small businesses with handmade or uniquely-sourced products pop up in The Spice Suite and at our farmers market. Some of them even become part of the SpiceGirl membership group, which is completely free. In exchange for their time and help with customer service at the store, these business owners get access to a recurring space to sell their goods for free. (Side note: We welcome men, too, but we just happened to catch the attention of women-led businesses and it stuck.)
Business owners fill out a simple form on our website. They’re selected based on scheduling availability and their product offerings. We have a non-compete model, meaning if one business sells candles, another can’t sell candles on the same day. We extended this to our farmers’ market as well so that no two vendors have the same produce on the same day. This gives vendors an opportunity to maximize their profits and increase their visibility because their offerings are unique and exclusive. This has made popping up with us wildly popular. Snagging a spot feels coveted and rare in a climate where capitalism typically reigns supreme over community.
Bolstering our bottom line
Going back and forth with other small businesses is a new way to think about how we sustain brick-and-mortar operations. Hiring is one of the biggest expenses for business owners. In D.C., minimum wage is $18 per hour. We save about $19,000 per year in staffing by using the Black and Forth model.
Over the years, thousands of Black-owned brands have shared The Spice Suite’s space. Each pop-up has brought new energy, new collaborations, and new customers — and cross-promoting and sharing customers has been a key element to our success. We have consistently grown our social media following and have regular foot traffic. For comparison, the average small business spends $200 to $800 per month on social media ads. Plus, if I were to charge these businesses a fee to pop up, it may present an additional financial barrier.
Real revenue results
Black and Forth has been the heartbeat of my success with The Spice Suite. It proved that generosity and growth can coexist and that sharing space can actually expand it.
In year one, our revenue was $38,000. By year five, we had reached over $1 million dollars. We’ve been featured by platforms such as Forbes, Essence, BET, Sway in the Morning, CBS Morning News, The Drew Barrymore Show and more. We’re just as acclaimed for our passionfruit mojito honey and lemon pepper hot sauce as we are for hosting over 3,000 pop-ups. What began as a spice shop became a movement, and what started as my dream evolved into a platform for hundreds of others to dream, too.
Eight years ago, I even spoke with someone from the U.S. Department of Labor, who recognized it as an innovative approach to cooperative business structure.
I often say The Spice Suite is a dream incubator disguised as a spice shop. Black and Forth is how that dream became real — by building business through community, not competition. This space is where the proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together,” is actualized.
