After over 26 years in a corporate finance job, Reed Kelly needed a change. He left his executive position to re evaluate his career path. “I saw that most of the wealth stemmed from entrepreneurs and business owners, so that’s the path I decided to go down.”  After living across the country Kelly knew he wanted Nashville to be his home base. “I saw what Nashville was becoming and that the restaurant industry was booming and I’m a foodie”. Not as interested in starting a restaurant, he looked for a way to support this unfolding industry and saw the opportunity to start Southern Kitchen Services.

Southern Kitchen Services supports restaurants and bars by cleaning commercial kitchen exhaust ventilation systems. Since all commercial kitchens get at least a quarterly inspection it’s a necessary service in the industry. After outgrowing the storage units that Southern Kitchen Services started in for their equipment and crew, he knew it was time to get a space for the company.

Kelly started looking out on his own but became frustrated with the process quickly. “I would see a space online, drive over there to see the building is occupied and in some cases had been for over a year.” Kelly connected with Lucius Carroll, an advisor at TenantBase, after looking at one of the buildings online. “We were looking for light industrial space, which is pretty tight in the Nashville market.” said Carroll “but after doing a mapping project we saw that we could go a little outside of the city based on where his employees lived and where his clients are located. Based on that we could find a space closer to his needs.”

Once they narrowed down the best location they were able to find a new construction, white box, 2200 square foot flex space, that they can customize to their needs fairly quickly. “It’s something we can grow into and logistically it will help to have all of our crews and equipment in one place.” says Kelly.

Kelly started Southern Kitchen Services about 6 months ago and revenue has already exceeded expectations. “Starting a business can be overwhelming. Before you jump in be ready to commit to every aspect of it.” says Kelly as he reflects on the last 6 months. How did he get started? Kelly was the one constantly on the front lines. “All I did for the first month was sales, making a ton of calls then the jobs started to stack up.”