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00:00our attorney charity dean is in studio good morning good morning good morning good morning
00:06tell people again who are listening for the first time what you do absolutely so i am the president
00:12and ceo of the michigan black business alliance we serve black businesses across the state
00:17and i am here with a very special guest today mason yeah you brought tiffany with you tiffany
00:22give us a uh formal introduction of your whole name and what you do all right well my name is
00:29tiffany patterson i am the owner of grand trolley charters which is a historical trolley that runs
00:37around the downtown the city of detroit um i also own grandeur cool wine shop i'm a winemaker there
00:43well it's my shop and i make wine at the wine shop and it's located in east village on kerchival
00:49avenue
00:49let me talk about the the trolley first and um how's that work and how do we see it and
00:56what happens with that okay so grand trolley um you can just go to the website if you want to
01:01book
01:01for it's like a private charter so we do history tours family reunions we love weddings uh things
01:08like that corporate events a lot of partnerships that's coming along um so you can find us at
01:13www.grandtrolleycharters.com um that's where you'll book for your private event um or you can also find
01:21us on social media handles such as facebook and instagram what led you to a business like that
01:26and what did you know about it well i didn't know anything about it it's been a long roller coaster
01:33of fun i would say um i started to see the trolley when it was years ago when i uh
01:39was going on business
01:40trips for my corporate job um i was in tennessee and i seen a trolley go past and it was
01:46a wedding
01:47going and i said oh that is so cute um i didn't think anything of it at the time it
01:52just was really
01:52pretty but when i uh put myself in a position to start investing in things i said hey what about
01:59that trolley because i don't really see any in the city detroit so i did go and purchase a trolley
02:05in
02:052019 and i brought it up here so how would a family uh reunion use your services give me a
02:12description
02:13so for that we're we typically pick you up from uh your location so most family reunions that we do
02:19in the detroit area are either on belle isle they're on chantler park uh places like that so
02:24basically you you go online you book the trolley it runs for two to three hours we take you on
02:30historical tours around the city so what we'll do is since most family reunions it's a lot of people
02:36we can only fit 24 passengers on each trolley we have a couple so we only can fit 24 passengers
02:42and
02:42usually book one or two um when you do that we do it in groups so you'll have like your
02:47first group
02:48of 25 they'll jump on we have an historian that speaks about the history and he takes us around
02:54the city uh we're in a lot of the historical neighborhoods like indian village um sherwood forest
03:00university district we'll see this trolley going what color is it it's red and gold it's big yes it's
03:08like a big san francisco trolley okay it's beautiful uh mine is at the original it's original like
03:15restored so i have all the original seats in there we uh fix painting we touch a couple things up
03:21just so it's nice and shiny so it existed before you bought it yes it did why was it sitting
03:29when you purchased it um well i actually got it from an auction i i'm not sure why they did
03:35that but
03:35uh what i did is i did a little research so my background is a supply chain and also some
03:42finance
03:42so when i was looking for trolleys i kind of knew what to do so i found an auction um
03:48in a different
03:49state and i went down and took a look at it um got in contact with some people from the
03:55dot in that
03:56particular state they went and helped me look at it and i bid on it and brought it up here
04:01if we're
04:02talking business what was your competitor when you got into that business um at the time i did
04:08have there was another trolley company um that was not in the city detroit uh one of them uh it
04:15was in
04:16gross point so it was just a little while a little ways well not too far away but it was
04:20just it was
04:20pretty close so i kind of benchmarked off of the trolley that was existing in gross point at the time
04:26they're no longer operating but i think i may have an opportunity to try to get in there and support
04:31that but it was really it's it wasn't too many competitors for me you the trolley business we're
04:37talking business what was the biggest business challenge after purchase
04:47insurance so a lot of people uh that's that's the one thing that i did not know um first off
04:54where
04:54we have very high automobile insurance in michigan and in the city of detroit uh with me being a detroit
05:00based business when i first started i couldn't get insured it was i my trolley sat for about a good
05:07two years it was it was very very challenging um also at the time i didn't have a cdl license
05:14it was
05:15an impulse purchase and i'm thinking cdl license for us yes oh i'm sorry so a cdl license is a
05:22commercial
05:22driver's license so uh i have a class b and uh passenger carry and i also am school
05:29school bus certified because we charter children and things like that on our trial as well are you the
05:34driver i used to be for many years how many years have you been in business uh this is my
05:41well i would say the fourth season of me actually moving going into five but i like i said i
05:47owned it
05:48started in 2019 but did you not did you not go in the bedroom when it got dark and cry
05:55i still cry
05:57it's a lot i mean did you think you made a bad decision i never did i did not feel
06:05that way but
06:05i did have family members and friends that just said tiff don't worry about it another thing that
06:11happened outside of insurance is before the trolley started my head gasket blew oh and i hadn't even
06:18been on the road and that took a lot so one thing that i that was when most of my
06:23family was saying
06:24well tiff it's a lot it's gonna cost almost eight thousand or nine thousand to get a head like the
06:29head gasket fixed on a trolley it's a commercial vehicle isn't like your car i didn't really know
06:35anything about the different auto like commercial auto repair places i found an awesome person that
06:41still helps me to this day why didn't you quit i spent too much money i had too much drive
06:49and i
06:50can just i just i wanted it to be here and it was something that i wanted to do and
06:55i feel that it was
06:56a need in the city i know there's a there's a lot of bus companies they have parties but i'm
07:01about
07:01history i'm about family i'm about love and we didn't have that and for me i wanted to be able
07:07to provide a service that we can do with our family i have two boys at that time i had
07:11one son
07:12his name is chase um at that time when i purchased it i think chase was like three four years
07:19old and
07:20i was trying to find things for us to do when he's home and it's everything you can do that's
07:26entertaining is for adults so i couldn't bring them in and then it's it's i got tired of just
07:32being at the park i said so what what can we do so that's why i didn't push my trolley
07:37to be focused on
07:38parties or or alcohol and it's you it's so many other bus companies to do that you um before we
07:46talk
07:46about um your wine business how did you meet charity dean and her business well charity dean being a part
07:55of
07:55well being the ceo and president of mbba i had a whole lot of mutual friends that were telling me
08:01about the business and telling about the organization um when i first found out about it
08:06um at that time i didn't personally meet her but i was there and uh i enjoyed all the services
08:13and
08:13enjoy all of the opportunities and connections that was uh provided for what did you use from them
08:20oh i had um at that time i wasn't using things for the trolley i was using more things for
08:26the wine
08:26shop so um i had participated in the max hardy hospitality program is that something that they
08:33were afforded you yes it was a program that was to for people in hospitality businesses so do what
08:39to help with you know getting the since i'm in food well you consider the wine is food and beverage
08:45to learn about the different ins and outs of it the things the regulations rules permits that's needed
08:50things like that um i enjoyed that it was a lot of information also uh i participated in it was
08:57a meeting that they had with huntington bank where they came inside of the the mbba hub and they taught
09:03us about funding and taxes and things that you need in order to prepare yourself for uh your business so
09:10at the time i didn't have any of that stuff i wasn't i've been in a family of business but
09:15i i never
09:15been in the front for me to be able to do these things myself you come out of corporate america
09:21you
09:21buy a trolley it sits you've had it you now six six years six years when do you find time
09:29to learn how
09:31to make wine oh well this is so the the funny story is the trolley is here really
09:40kind of to help the wine shop so i've been making wine for nine years and when i first started
09:49um i just was making it as a hobby and my friends and family were taking it and just giving
09:54it to
09:54their friends um why did you learn i learned it to find something to do it was just something fun
10:02to
10:02do at both of these weren't really supposed to be a business it was just something fun to do
10:06um i learned by just googling pinterest honestly when i when i when i first made the wine it was
10:18terrible yes what was missing the first time um i was just using things that was purchased from a
10:24grocery store instead of actually connecting with wineries and vineyards that was able to have the
10:30right product for me to be able to produce the wine the way it should be made um with me
10:35not being
10:36licensed a lot of people wouldn't give me musk or grapes and things like that because i didn't have
10:41the proper licensing but i did end up finding a winery that said hey yeah you want a bucket yeah
10:47you can buy it and i bought the little bucket and i brought it home and i started mixing and
10:52making
10:52and that was the first time that that batch was good but the other ones were horrible your company is
10:58called grandeur crew so grandeur crew wine shop why that name grandeur crew see everything is just
11:06organically fun so for me the meaning grandeur means beautiful like splendid wonderful uh and then crew
11:15means vineyard but it was just me and my girlfriends on the phone one day and she said tiff what
11:20you're
11:21gonna name your wine you can call it tiffany's wine so we went on the um loc uh website and
11:28was just
11:29googling names and trying to figure out what's the name that no one else have and we found grandeur
11:35and i was like okay well let's do wine vineyard grandeur crew and that's really how it happened so
11:41my girlfriends that's an amazing story uh charity dean yes sir uh closing closing thoughts today well first
11:49i've had the wine and it's delicious uh so make sure you get the wine she brought us some she
11:55did
11:55um my closing thoughts are you know stay connected with the black business alliance www.blackbizalliance.com
12:03come see us at the hub uh please support grandeur crew and the trolley uh tiffany patterson is doing
12:10amazing amazing things thanks for having us mason you're very welcome angie tiffany uh what high school
12:17i went to king high class of 2000
12:23class of 2000 yeah then i lived down the street uh during that time i was up there all the
12:30time
12:30see high school because i lived in the lafayette oh yeah in the apartments next to the coleman young
12:36rec center okay so i'm right down the street charity dean congratulations again and tiffany
12:41congratulations thank you thank you thank all of you for being here today yeah thank you guys
12:47having us
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