“We’re a small business, and Gateway focuses on small businesses. You don’t feel like a number, you feel like a person.” – Alicia Gardner, Owner of Speakeasy Salon Suites
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Other resources:
- Gateway’s business banking and financing services
- Gateway Bank customer spotlight: Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek, AZ
- Deposit account opening checklist
- Video: When and How to Get a Loan
- Video: How Do Loans Work? An Overview of the Elements of a Loan
- An overview of the loan process
- Checklist of documents to submit with your loan application
Transcript:
We decided that we needed to come up with the name, and so the name that she came up with was Speakeasy Suites.
My name is Alicia, and I’m Matt.
The idea [for Speakeasy] was that you would have that one-stop shop, and that you would come in. In fact, we’ve had several clients that come in, and they spend the whole day here: maybe they get their teeth whitened, while their dog’s getting groomed, and then they get their hair done, and that’s the whole idea.
Not only is that a a super efficient way for clients to come in to get things taken care of, but it’s also a great business thing because everyone gets to build on each other. And that’s kind of the culture that we fostered. Not everybody’s competing, but there’s plenty of people to go around. And the idea is that everybody builds each other up, so there’s a lot of exchanging and “Hey, I’m going to take care of your your lips today, and go ahead and take care of brows.” Everyone works together to try to take care of whoever that client is.
You want me to tell the story? Okay, alright. We’ll tell the story [about our vision].
There was a picture I saw at the time of a goat that was jumping over a giant cliff to try to reach the other side. It was talking about how that goat doesn’t think about falling in the bottom. It’s only thinking about getting to the other side. And that’s what we were doing. It didn’t matter that it was a bigger vision. It was a more powerful thing, and we manifested it. We knew what was going to happen. There was a lot of trials and tribulations and things that we never ever saw coming, but none of it mattered. We actually never saw anything other than the finished goal.
We’re part of the Mesa Chamber of Commerce, and our ambassador recommended you guys visit [Gateway] for the bank. They said that you guys were amazing and that you had great customer service. Obviously we’re a small business, so we’re trying to focus on a business that helps small businesses.
Big commercial banks are not as friendly. Local community helping local community: that’s what we looked at. A small bank we knew understood what we needed, that came from where we came from. That’s how we felt a connection there [at Gateway], and that’s what we wanted. We wanted someone that was intimate enough to understand what we were going through, our demographics, our situations, and things like that. That’s what we found in Gateway.
I think the biggest part of the way the bank interacts with its customers is a big deal. You don’t feel like a number. You feel like a person! There are relationships that are built there, and there’s always someone that greets you when you walk in. Everybody’s been helpful.