SBDC Client Spotlight: Alpine Springs

Alpine Springs Water is a family business owned by Kelvin Parker and started by Kelvin’s uncle. It began, like most businesses, with just a handful of customers and had grown considerably making Alpine Springs Water a robust and successful business serving Sonoma, Napa and Marin Counties. Things were going great, until, unfortunately, Kelvin’s uncle fell ill. Kelvin saw a great opportunity to help his family and become an entrepreneur. So he decided to jump on board and take on running the business.

He achieved steady growth, after he assumed leadership. For example, he secured bids with a few local agencies. From there, the client referrals started to roll in for jobs all over Sonoma County. The growth path was well-worn and well-traveled by Kelvin by the time he found SBDC. Like most successful businesses and business owners, he hit that critical growth point where he needed outside support to decide how to overcome the challenges of growth. Primarily, the growth created pressing new problem to be solved.

The biggest challenge Kelvin faced, when we first met him, was that there were two other major bottling companies, in the company's service area, and the company had lost their main water bottling supplier. Kelvin, also, needed funds to repair a delivery truck and purchase another new truck to meet the new high demand and production levels. Taking the right path forward and finding the right lender isn't always easy and SBDC was there to help.

By working with one of our expert advisors, Kelvin was able to hire 3 new employees, secured his first loan for a new truck, secured a second loan to repair the broken truck, and to purchase more equipment. We're really proud of his success!

Are you a Sonoma County Small Business that could use some free assistance? Sign up for no-cost advising from the Sonoma SBDC (Small Business Development Center) today.