The economic downturn of 2008 forced retired Fortune 100 executive, Artura Taylor, back into the workforce. Instead of working for someone else, she launched her own business, TDG Scientific, to supply lab equipment, chemicals, PPE, and more to the corporate and government sectors. Like many Black business owners, Taylor found it difficult to access capital to scale her business. Thanks to financing through the Abbott-LISC Initiative to Support Diverse Businesses in Health, Taylor’s business now has the resources to invest in its IT infrastructure and grow its bid department to pursue more contracts.
In today's economy, small businesses face many challenges – especially those owned and managed by diverse entrepreneurs.
Just ask Artura Taylor, president and CEO of Dallas-based, TDG Scientific. As a Black woman with a hearing disability, Taylor forged a unique path to entrepreneurship. She retired from a Fortune 100 company in 2004, but the economic downturn a few years later pushed her back into the workforce. A friend suggested Taylor become a government supplier of commodities, and that’s how TDG was born.
“Coming out of retirement was hard,” Taylor recalls. “When we explored the world of contracting, I wasn’t sure of the first step to take, but I knew that building strong relationships would be important.”
Since founding TDG in 2009, Taylor has molded the Black-, disability- and woman-owned small business into a highly successful Tier 1 supplier of lab equipment, supplies, chemicals, and PPE, while at the same time offering good employment opportunities to disabled workers. (A bit of supplier 101: Tier 1 is a supplier that has been certified to directly sell products and services to a buyer; while Tier 2 provides the Tier 1 supplier with the products and services that are sold to that buyer.) TDG’s national footprint serves some of the largest pharmaceutical companies and municipalities in the country.
As one of only five vetted, Tier 1 diverse suppliers in the nation that can source the entire catalog of items the pharmaceutical, government and corporate sectors need, TDG has built hundreds of strategic relationships with the largest manufacturers in the world. It is through these relationships that TDG now holds more than $9.7 million in multi-year government contracts in Texas alone, making it one of the fastest-growing small businesses in the region.
When the global pandemic shut down the supply chain beginning in 2020, TDG used its resources – along with a heavy dose of strategic problem solving – to find new sourcing options to ensure their customers and contracts were fulfilled. But as is the case for many diverse business owners, finding access to low-interest capital to scale was a challenge – especially with a recession looming.
Thanks to a $100,000 working capital loan and a $140,000 growth capital investment, made possible by the Abbott-LISC Initiative to Support Diverse Businesses in Health, TDG will be able to invest in its IT infrastructure to achieve full integration across marketing, procurement, accounting, and customer relationship management systems. This funding will not only enhance customers’ purchasing experience, but it will also enable TDG to double the size of its bid department and strategically pursue 3-4 times more contracts across R&D, pharmaceutical, government, and higher education industries.
“It can be difficult for suppliers to secure the working capital needed to manage growth,” said Tamara Underwood, a small business underwriter with LISC. “Working capital plus low-interest funds for technology upgrades will make it easier for TDG to improve its efficiency, increase its market reach, and become a premier Tier 1 diverse supplier.”
With a goal of $20 million in revenue by 2026, TDG is now positioned to leverage this capital to broaden its base to better weather uncertainty and scale to the next level.
“This funding from LISC and Abbott will not only propel TDG Scientific to new heights, even faster than we thought possible,” said Taylor. “The new growth will also spur more job creation for the disabled and help us build intergenerational wealth for our employees.”