Riding the Wave: Meet the Owners of Two Ohio-based Small Businesses Arising Out of Uncertain Times
Posted on October 30, 2024
by Lindsay Williams, Small Business and Nonprofit Librarian

Origin Stories: A look at the early careers of now entrepreneurs Tom Otieno & Jennifer Beachy
“I graduated college in 2009 during the Great Recession. I couldn’t find a job in my field (non-profit), so I signed up for a year of AmeriCorps service and then worked for my dad for a year after that (he is an excavator), as I was still having trouble finding a job in the non-profit sector in the smaller town I was living in. During this time, my college ceramics professor told me he was preparing to retire. I had taken ceramics courses my senior year to fulfill a general education requirement and really took a shine to it. My professor knew that, so he offered to be my mentor after he retired if I felt like trying my hand at pottery. I happily accepted his offer and moved to Lake James in Angola, Indiana, where he had a pottery studio and gallery. I worked with him for a few years while holding a part-time job in a local non-profit (finally did it!) and then I went full-time as a potter. I made pottery for a living for ten years, full-time for the last five years. During that time, I learned how much I enjoyed working for myself, and so I continued to do so with my next businesses, Toledo Soap Co. and now photography.”
Toledo-based commercial and event photographer Jennifer Beachy realized that graduating college during, as she puts it, “one of the worst times to find a job in modern history” provided her with something positive after all. “It really gave me a precious opportunity to be something I never expected to be – an artist and an entrepreneur.”

Origin Stories: A look at the early careers of now entrepreneurs Tom Otieno & Jennifer Beachy
Chef Tom Otieno’s East African food truck, catering, and culinary workshop brand – Jikoni Toledo – similarly came about during a time of nationwide uncertainty.
“I came to the States from Kenya for university, where I earned the credentials to become a successful physical therapist.” Otieno held this career for several years, employed by major medical systems and enjoying the work. “But then the pandemic came, and everything shut down. I was laid off for three months, then six… a lot of time to really reevaluate how I should be making a life for myself and for my family.”
With the pandemic offering Otieno previously unavailable time to experiment and dream, he recognized he’d always loved cooking; like physical therapy, cooking is a way to care for people and make them feel good.
“My cooking style uses fresh ingredients and health benefit-packed spices, so I am still supporting the community’s health.”
The Road to Small Business Ownership: Otieno & Beachy’s entrepreneurship journeys continue
“Being a home cook and chef are two very different things,” laughed Otieno as he offered the inside story of his earliest days of building Jikoni. “It just wasn’t coming together. I was a good cook but there was something missing in trying to translate those skills toward consistency for a bigger audience, and so I went back home to learn from my aunt.”
Otieno shared that in Kenya, families take food much slower than is typical here in America. They use fresh ingredients, take the time to embrace longer processes, and really “take the honor of cooking to heart. We cook slow and we eat slow.” His aunt helped the budding chef to refine his recipes and cooking style. When he returned to Ohio he hosted many dinner parties for family and friends. “I needed a way to have a lot of taste testing,” Otieno explained.
From Beachy, we received valuable advice to share with others new to small business ownership about her development into an entrepreneur: “Keep working another job until your small business is so busy, you simply can’t keep doing both. It’s really not fun, but if you can wait to go full-time with your small business until it’s almost bursting at the seams, then you will be in a really good position to have continued success. I did NOT want to have a part-time job for the first five years as a potter, but having income I could count on helped me make bold, correct choices for myself in my small business. I could take on the jobs that built the business as I wanted it to be while saving some money back as a cushion for when I jumped into full-time entrepreneurship. It was still tough sometimes in those early days of being fully self-employed even with that preparation, and I don’t know if I would have succeeded otherwise.”
Beachy transitioned from a potter to opening Toledo Soap Co. When asked about the change in direction, she shared, “I really do like making things that are useful. Whether it’s pottery, soap, or photos, all of which I’ve done over the years – they’re all useful things that people can value.”
When it came to assigning a value on paper to Toledo Soap Co. as Beachy leaned further into her current photography endeavor, she knew she was a bit out of her area of expertise so she looked to Toledo Library. “When I was working through selling Toledo Soap Co., I had no idea how to price it. I had a meeting with Linda Faye Lucas in the Small Business and Nonprofit Department, and she really made a difference for me, getting my head around pricing a small business. Linda’s expertise was vital to being able to successfully sell that business.”

Small Business Today: After finding success, Beachy & Otieno share their insights
When the Toledo Library’s Small Business & Nonprofit team was building their programs for Entrepreneurship Week the group discussed which local entrepreneurs might be best to reach out to for different events throughout the series.
“As the department team member who leans into the marketing side of Small Business, I had brought in Jennifer Beachy several months back to teach product photography. This has become an increasingly important skill as the world of eCommerce continues to grow, but it also translates to in-person sales – I challenge our entrepreneurs to think about their presentation at trade shows or markets, and how great photography might elevate that too,” explained Lindsay Williams, Small Business & Nonprofit Specialist Librarian.
Since Beachy’s Library classes launched earlier this year they’ve been full and on a waitlist, so the team added more – including one during Entrepreneurship Week. In the class, students will learn basic principles for taking excellent product shots with something they’re likely to already have – their smartphone. Beachy notes that “my extensive background in the maker world allows me to tap into that experience in making and e-commerce to help entrepreneurs style and photograph their products, spaces, and events.”
“We’re grateful to Jennifer for adapting the foundations of her own refined and deep photography skill set to her curriculum. She’s made product photography accessible and understandable to small business owners and nonprofits who are just getting started – no matter their level of technical knowledge,” shared Williams.
The Small Business & Nonprofit librarian first brought Otieno into the Toledo Library fold as part of the seasonal adult programs offered system-wide across all twenty library branches. “The night I sat in on Tom’s Spice Mastery Workshop at the Mott Branch I recognized that he was a great storyteller, and was willing to be vulnerable and very open about his entrepreneurial journey,” explained Williams.
The Small Business & Nonprofit team agreed that Otieno and the story behind Jikoni Toledo would be an excellent fit for their Meet the Entrepreneurs panel discussion and Q&A, which serves as the official kickoff to November’s Entrepreneurship Week program lineup.
“Tom is a strong teacher, and has a lot of valuable insight to offer entrepreneurs. He even offers a bit of a language lesson along with the topic at hand – for example, through his class I learned that ‘jikoni’ means kitchen in Swahili,” said Williams with a smile.
While Beachy is teaching Product Photography instead of participating in the panel discussion, she offered this advice to new small business owners: “Try not to make decisions from a place of fear or scarcity. Those decisions generally have short-lived benefits, if any at all. Always keep your long-term goals in mind, and run ideas by a trusted, level-headed friend/associate/mentor if you can. Then take a beat to really feel through the choices and potential outcomes before making decisions. I’m rooting for you!”
The Small Business & Nonprofit Department invites entrepreneurs both established and just getting started (or dreaming!) to continue learning from their fellow small business owners during Entrepreneurship Week. The programs take place November 12th – 15th at Main Library and include:
Meet the Entrepreneurs: Entrepreneurship Week Discussion (Tu) November 12 | 4 — 5 p.m.
Making Connections: Entrepreneurship Week Networking Event (Tu) November 12 | 5:30 — 7 p.m.
Product Photography: Principles for Smartphones (W) November 13 | 1:30 — 3 p.m.
Pricing your Craft and Handmade Products for Profit (W) November 13 | 6 — 7:30 p.m.
Managing Business Banking (Th) November 14 | 3 — 4:30 p.m.
Social Media Marketing Map (F) November 15 | 1 — 2:30 p.m. |
Learn more and register for Entrepreneurship offerings at toledolibrary.org/sbn.

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