Tiffany Johnson is a seasoned business leader in her community, renowned for her impact in helping underserved small business owners get on their feet. Over the last decade, she created a $150M Black Business Accelerator, founded her “eCom House” initiative to empower multicultural entrepreneurs, and joined the board of a Seattle-based nonprofit. Yet Johnson’s own entrepreneurial journey began in a setting far removed from all the boardrooms and corporate meetings.
“It all started at my community gym,” she recalls. “One day I was there with my mom, and I happened to be talking to her about how I should maybe start making juices again. And would you believe it: I looked over and there was a sign that said, ‘Juice Bar opportunity.’ It just felt like it was meant to be.”
Inspired by this unexpected sign, Johnson soon embarked with her husband on building the business of her dreams: Fresh Squeeze Juice Bar, a fusion of health, community spirit, and innovation based out of that very gym in Puyallup, Washington. Setting up was straightforward enough: She reached out to the location, provided her financial statements, and got approved for her first American Express Card, the Blue Business Plus Card2. By June 2023, they were up and running. Just a few months after opening its doors, Fresh Squeeze has grown into much more than a spot for nutritious beverages: It’s a beacon of community engagement and youth mentorship.
“Our mission is about serving healthy drinks,” Johnson says proudly. “But we also want to enrich and empower. Community is deeply embedded in the work that we do.” Serving the seniors and millennials who frequent the gym, today she has five employees, several of whom she helps fund through the juice bar’s new scholarship program. The juice bar also participates in volunteer initiatives, including collaborations with organizations like a foundation for military families, reinforcing its commitment to giving back.
Harnessing American Express for business growth
The business’s relationship with American Express played a pivotal role in propelling Johnson’s venture forward. “We couldn’t have done this without our Cards,” she shares. American Express not only provided the financial flexibility necessary to jumpstart the juice bar; it also enabled Johnson to purchase the necessary equipment to meet health department standards. “I hadn’t realized how expensive commercial equipment could be,” she admits. “But now we’re revenue positive, and it’s thanks, in part, to our relationship with American Express.”
Despite this initial success, however, Johnson still faced a hurdle common to entrepreneurs: managing cash flow. Grasping the intricacies of money in and money out is vital for any business, especially for a growing one like Fresh Squeeze. Johnson realized that while she had the necessary capital to sustain her business, there was still a need for a more comprehensive solution to manage her finances effectively.
A powerful platform for managing cash flow
This is where American Express Business Blueprint™ came into the picture. Johnson discovered this free, online cash flow management platform at a conference she’d helped organize for Black leaders in e-commerce, at a critical moment when she was looking to optimize her business’s operations.
Designed to help make cash flow management more efficient, Business Blueprint provides a single location where businesses can see a current snapshot of their account balances across their American Express products, like Business Cards and American Express® Business Checking. Customers can also link external business cards and bank accounts to the platform’s dashboard to get a more detailed picture of their expenses and revenue all in one place with a single login.
The platform became even more powerful when Johnson used the personalized cash flow insights. Expense alerts and account balance projections from the platform can help her anticipate future cash flow needs, which gives her time to plan for potential gaps. Plus, she can explore more American Express products that are designed to support the growth of small businesses like hers.
Johnson says, “Part of my plan was always to manage my cash flow a bit better and clean up my books.”
“Business Blueprint has really given us a solid overview of what’s coming into our business, and what’s going out,” she adds. “We can work backwards from there to refine a few of our processes.”
In addition to providing a comprehensive view of her cash flow, Johnson found another valuable use for Business Blueprint: optimizing her inventory management. A key challenge in the food and beverage industry is managing inventory costs effectively, a task that Johnson admits she once found mystifying. “One of my priorities was figuring out our spending on inventory in specific areas,” she explains. “I wanted to identify where we could cut costs without impacting our sales.”
Business Blueprint offered a solution through its detailed expense categorization. This feature allowed Johnson to analyze her expenses by different categories, giving her a deeper view of where the juice bar was allocating its funds. Now, she can strategically decrease overhead costs in certain areas without compromising the quality of her products or services.
“Business Blueprint helped us approach this challenge,” she explains. “So, we can maintain profitability while continuing to grow.”
Looking ahead, Johnson is optimistic about the future. She plans to explore other American Express products for small businesses. Tools like the American Express® Business Line of Credit3 can help fuel the next phase of growth for a business if they apply and are approved for a business line of credit. “There are some things that we are interested in doing to scale, like having our own retail supplements,” she says, “and we’re looking to do fresh meal prep for the gym community.”
Her journey behind the juice bar counter is a testament to the power of passion, hard work, and strategic partnerships. With the continued support of American Express and the insights provided by Business Blueprint, it is clear Johnson’s business has plenty of fruit yet to bear.
Story Footnotes
1 American Express Business Blueprint™ is the small business digital experience that allows a customer to view on one digital dashboard summary account information for the following American Express small business products: American Express® Business Cards, American Express® Business Line of Credit, and American Express® Business Checking. The customer can also choose to link their third-party issued business bank accounts and business credit cards to Business Blueprint. Not all third party accounts or cards can be connected to Business Blueprint. Business Blueprint allows the customer to view data insights and track their business cash flow and expenses by viewing reports that American Express prepares using the customer’s linked account information. Business Blueprint provides a 30-day bank account balance projection, using the daily balances from the customer’s linked bank accounts from the last 90 days. To be used in the account balance projection, the customer’s bank account must have at least 90 days of data available. While the cash flow management service from Business Blueprint is currently free, each of the business products from American Express that are visible in Business Blueprint has its own fees, eligibility criteria, application process and approval requirements. The Business Blueprint service (including any data insights provided to the customer) does not constitute legal, tax, financial or accounting advice, and is not a substitute for obtaining competent personalized advice from a licensed professional. You should seek professional advice before making any decision that could affect the financial health of your business. American Express makes no representations as to the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the reports, projections, data or account information that are available to the customer from Business Blueprint.
2 Individual Card Product application and approval required.
3 American Express® Business Line of Credit offers access to a commercial line of credit ranging from $2,000 to $250,000; however, you may be eligible for a larger line of credit based on our evaluation of your business. Each draw on the line of credit will result in either a separate installment loan or a single repayment loan. All loans are subject to credit approval and are secured by business assets. Every loan requires a personal guarantee. For single repayment loans, we charge a total loan fee that ranges from 0.95%-1.80% of the amount you borrow for 1-month loans, 1.90%-3.75% for 2-month loans, and 2.85%-6.05% for 3- month loans. Single repayment loans incur a loan fee at origination and the principal and total loan fee are due and payable at loan maturity. There are no required monthly repayments for a single repayment loan. Repaying a single repayment loan early will not reduce the loan fee we charge you. For installment loans, we charge a total loan fee that ranges from 3-9% of the amount you borrow for 6-month loans, 6-18% for 12-month loans, 9-27% for 18-month loans, and 12-18% for 24-month loans. Installment loans incur a portion of the total loan fee for each month you have an outstanding balance. If you repay the total of the principal of an installment loan early, you will not be required to pay loan fees that have not posted for subsequent months. For each loan that you take, you will see the applicable loan fee before you take the loan. Once you take the loan, the loan fees that apply to that loan do not change. We reserve the right to change the loan fees that we offer you for new loans at any time. American Express reserves the right to offer promotions to reduce or waive loan fees from time to time. Not all customers will be eligible for the lowest loan fee. Not all loan term lengths are available to all customers. Eligibility is based on creditworthiness and other factors. Not all industries are eligible for American Express® Business Line of Credit. Pricing and line of credit decisions are based on the overall financial profile of you and your business, including history with American Express and other financial institutions, credit history, and other factors. Lines of credit are subject to periodic review and may change or be suspended, accompanied with or without an account closure. Late fees may be assessed. Loans are issued by American Express National Bank.
Single repayment loans may become available to eligible new and existing Business Line of Credit customers at different times.
If you elect to have your loan funds disbursed directly to a third party payee, you are required to provide accurate and complete payee information. Payees must be located in the US or US territories. The per transaction payee payment maximum is the lesser of your then available line of credit and $100,000. Not all payee industry types are eligible. We may refuse a payee in our discretion or for reasons beyond our control. Loan funds sent to your payee may take up to three (3) banking days to post to the payee’s business bank account, although payments may be delayed for a number of reasons and the payee’s bank may have their own policy regarding how quickly to post a payment.
If eligible, you can be approved in minutes for a line of credit from $2,000 to $250,000 when we are able to automatically obtain your business data and verify your bank account. If a manual review is required, it will take longer to provide you with a decision.