Ranya Batal and Tarik Batal, cofounders of healthy snack company Sibz, lost everything in the Palisades fire. In an instant, the sibling duo lost their homes and consequently, all of their business materials.

Not only did this include their inventory, but also marketing materials, signage, tables and incorporation documents.

In the midst of dealing with all the issues that come with losing a home, Ranya Batal was also forced to figure out how to keep her business – which had only officially launched nine months before the fires – alive. With no inventory to satisfy orders for nearly a month after the fires, the business took a hit.

Sibz is not the only small business faced with having to repair the damage caused by this year’s wildfires. Estimated losses of economic output from disruptions to businesses located in the fire zones range from $4.6 billion to $8.9 billion over the next five years, according to a February report from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

Whether business owners were directly affected through lost structures or have been feeling the heat of losing their customer bases as communities are scattered in temporary housing situations, the impact lingers.

To bring exposure to some of these businesses, Bank of America and U.S. Soccer hosted an expo-style small business marketplace at SoFi Stadium before the U.S. Women’s National Team’s match with Brazil on April 5.

Comeback for Sibz’s snacks

With the majority of Sibz’s sales being direct-to-consumer online orders or through Amazon.com Inc.’s marketplace, the Batals primarily operated Sibz out of their homes, meaning they also lost their place of work.

In addition to order fulfillment strain due to lost inventory, the fires caused issues with marketing which, for a newer business like Sibz, is key. While Ranya Batal was bouncing between homes of friends and family before moving into a place this month, it wasn’t easy to film and post content promoting the date-based snack bites on platforms like TikTok due to the discomfort of doing so in someone else’s space coupled with issues of her own mental bandwidth.

“Even just the mindset of jumping back into being the face of this company has been taking some time,” she said. 

After pushing herself to attend Bank of America’s business marketplace to get back out there, Ranya Batal said she was surprised by the event’s reach and the participants’ high energy.

“It was good for me to start up again,” she said. “It was an absolutely amazing opportunity. I had great conversations with the other founders, listening to their stories and their resilience as well.”

An unexpected outcome of the fire for Ranya Batal was that it gave her pause to rethink some aspects of the business.

“I have to definitely be more strategic with my time… We made a lot of mistakes in the beginning, spending money where we didn’t need to,” she said. “I’m kind of looking at it as a completely fresh start of relaunching our business.”

A few changes to Sibz include making package sizes smaller to be more “grab and go” versus bulk packages and being more strategic in reaching consumers.

Business owners look to rebrand

Like Ranya Batal, Diana Gonzalez, founder and chief executive of Cactus Foods, views the Eaton fire’s disruption to her business as a chance to partially rebrand as well. Cactus Foods uses cactus, spinach and flax seed for its Cactus Crunch chip product which comes in sea salt and jalapeño, aiming to reimagine the tortilla chip for those with dietary restrictions or who are looking for healthier alternatives.

Selling both direct-to-consumer and also through L.A.-based independent stores such as Hanks Organic in downtown and Burden of Proof in South Pasadena, Gonzalez ran into similar issues of lost inventory, marketing collateral, exhibit booths, merchandise such as T-shirts and hats and more when her Altadena home burned in early January. 

“I was frozen for the month of January,” Gonzalez said, adding that she wondered if she was “ready to do it all over again.” 

But ultimately Gonzalez decided to bet on herself, taking inspiration from the center of her business: the cactus.

“Like the cactus, we’re very resilient,” she said.

Part of this resilience meant “a chance to start over,” Gonzalez said, adding that the company has changed up its packaging, tweaked its formula based on consumer feedback and is focused on finding opportunities to connect with customers including participating in BofA’s marketplace.

“My home burned but my business is not going to burn,” Gonzalez said, adding that running a company is a distraction she needs now more than ever as she deals with all the complications of losing a home.

Gonzalez said she was “blown away” by the April 5 event and that it was a great opportunity for brand awareness and “sharing war stories” with other businesses affected by the fires.

In terms of navigating assistance programs, the process has been time consuming, overwhelming and often without reward. Having applied for nearly 10 grants, Gonzalez said she only found success through TMC Community Capital, a loan agency headquartered in Oakland but with an office in El Segundo.

“The fire is a job. It requires that many hours – and it’s a job I never asked for,” Gonzalez said.

Finding a new customer base

Brayan Angel De La Torre’s family has been selling tacos in Altadena since his first birthday party when their neighborhood cookout made a mark on the community. They started off with a catering business before opening a brick-and-mortar which went through a few iterations before becoming Tacos don Pillo.

The restaurant’s building, which has been occupied by the family for 30 years, escaped the path of the Eaton Fire – though a forced four-week closure and the absence of thousands of locals put pressure on the business.

“We lost a lot of our usual customers (who) as soon as I see their faces, I know exactly what they’re going to order,” De La Torre said.

After a month with no sales and no return in site for many residents, De La Torre knew he needed to attract new customers and has been pleasantly surprised at the amount of business brought in by clean up and construction crews as well as outsiders looking to support local businesses in the area.

The re-opening of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge has also helped.

To try to encourage more folks to come out to Tacos don Pillo, De La Torre handed out $15 vouchers to attendees of BofA’s event last week.

“I never had that type of exposure before,” he said. 

The event also gave businesses the chance to receive free marketing through in-stadium and nationally televised announcements during the soccer broadcast. In addition to the advertising benefits, De La Torre also found the event to be an avenue to connect with other business owners impacted by the fires – some more directly than his family, he said.

“It just makes you feel some type of way like, ‘Why them and why not us?’” De La Torre said.