Video: A Buzzing Business Gets a Boost from Comcast

It started almost on a whim as a single beehive in a friend’s backyard in Seattle’s Phinney Ridge neighborhood back in 2011. But more than 13 years later, Amy Beth and Peter Nolte’s affinity for honeybees has grown into one of Shoreline’s most unique businesses, Rainy Day Bees.

We had the opportunity to interview the couple, which now has beehives in nearly 50 locations throughout the region – in neighborhoods, on business rooftops, at farms and in nearby forests – and they produce unique honeys, each of which has its own distinctive flavor depending on what’s growing nearby.

“We had this self-discovery of how urban honeys can have just this wonderful complexity and that the neighborhoods that the hives are in actually affects the flavor,” Amy Beth said. “Each neighborhood has its own personality.”

Rainy Day also produces specialty honey products, such as honey cocoa and Nordic spice creamed raw honey, as well as beeswax candles.

The company is one of 100 small businesses in King County recently selected to receive a grant package through the Comcast RISE program. The grants, to be awarded in September, include $5,000, a technology makeover from Comcast Business, creative production and a media schedule from Comcast Advertising and business consultation services.

The various components of the package aim to help small businesses with everything from technology and advertising to business coaching and funds for operations or growth initiatives. The technology piece offers grantees free computer equipment and 12 months of internet, voice and cybersecurity services. Recipients also receive a professionally produced 30-second TV commercial, media strategy consultation, a year’s worth of access to online educational resources and personalized coaching sessions.

Over the past five years, RISE has provided a total of $160 million in monetary, marketing and technology resources to 14,500 small businesses nationwide.

Amy Beth Nolte said the Comcast RISE grant comes at a key time for Rainy Day Bees as the company looks to scale up its sales. The funding will help it do just that, while the technology assistance will help them automate some of their email and marketing processes.

“I’m a beekeeper, not an email marketer, and in our business, there’s a lot we need help with, like email automations, strategy and marketing to make our lives easier and simpler,” Amy Beth said. “Each piece of this grant really fits in with a need that we have right now and will help push us forward.”