We recently connected with Asha & Cordarrius Pitts and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Asha & Cordarrius thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

Asha- As tough as this business can get, I can honestly say that I am happier as a business owner. I finally wholeheartedly enjoy what I do. I do believe that everyone is not meant to be an entrepreneur, but I can boldly say that being a business owner was meant for me.

I have had a few corporate jobs prior to becoming an entrepreneur and when we launched I was working in a corporate position simultaneously, so I do know what it’s like to have a regular job and I do think there were certain facets of my corporate positions that shaped me for the better as an entrepreneur, more so on what “not” to do, and how “not” to act as a leader so I am forever grateful for those opportunities there was beauty in those positions for sure, and many lessons learned, and although we can never say never-however I am no longer interested in working a corporate job any more.

Asha & Cordarrius, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I, Asha, am the owner and cook of Vego Taco food truck along with my husband. We have been in business for 2 years and we offer vegan and pescatarian taco cuisine. We decided to open this business due to the lack of this type of cuisine in our hometown.
I think what sets us apart is simply what we offer. We have a specialty and we are not “just another” taco shop.
Many people call on us because they need/want what we offer for specific dietary needs rather than what’s typically offered from your ordinary taco stops, and once they call on us and taste “the difference” they fall in love.

We opened with a goal in mind which is to offer healthier eating choices for our community.
We are young entrepreneurs so one of our key focus areas are our younger generation as they are our future and we would like to help in inspiring the importance of better nutrition by drawing in as many young people as we can, and offer tastier vegan options.
We offer vegan and seafood options and although we serve many customers who are indeed vegan, there are also many customers we serve who are not vegan, and then we have those customers who are pescatarians and transitioning to a vegan diet and we would like to be that help in ultimately converting those customers to a vegan lifestyle.

We aim to redefine eating vegan and make it more popular, and I can honestly say we are doing just that.
We get so much positive feedback and we currently have a 85% customer return rate that we pride ourselves on because that lets us know that we are appealing to the majority.

We still hear and see when a lot of customers hear the word “vegan” followed by “eh I don’t know if I want to try that” and it truly makes us so happy when those same customers give in to giving vegan a try for the first time, after a bad experience elsewhere and fall in love with our vegan options and then say ” I can become vegan if I can eat like this everyday!”We hear that weekly and that is what we mean when we say we want to “redefine” vegan food; those compliments are motivation.

We are so proud of the love and support that this business receives. We just received a “People’s Choice” award from our city in the Taco and Vegan/Vegetarian category with only 2 years in. That was one of our most proudest moments as we were taken aback by even the nomination and when we received the call that we placed we were speechless because there were many other significant restaurants who were in the same category who are able to allocate more time into their business than we are due to our other work schedules, yet our supporters still pushed for us to win. That was truly a tear jerker.

Although we hold our hometown on our back, we get so many out of town customers weekly and it humbles us so much because we drop the ball with our social pages and never feel like we do enough marketing but to really thrive outside of marketing and social media; we know that it can only be God making room for our gift.

If there is one thing we would like for everyone to know is we are not only a vegan taco truck. We serve vegan and seafood tacos. That is a very common misconception that we still hear and see often due to the name of our truck.
We also serve some of THE BEST seafood tacos, quesadillas, nachos, and rice bowls in the area.

Our customers tells us it is always “the flavor” of our seafood that gets them hooked and our motto is “where healthy meets flavor”, so it’s very satisfying to hear compliments that aligns with our motto.

How did you build your audience on social media?

We initially sent out invites to build our social media presence, but the majority of our audience on social media built itself. We don’t engage as much on social media as we should, so the majority of the audience that we do have was built as our customers came and tried us out. Once our customers come and try our food they are going to ask “how can I find you”, and we either give them a business card or direct them to our website and social media handles so that they can follow us.

We are still building/growing our social media platforms and our goal for the new year is to boost our social media presence more than we ever have to help our audience grow even more.

The honest advice that we can give those in business that are starting to build a social media presence and even those that already have that presence or a solid audience is to not get so caught up in the likes, group comments, memes, etc.
Although it feels good to know that you have people that like what you offer, we know from experience that likes/followers on social media does not always equate to revenue. We may get 5-10 reactions on a post and get 100 customers, or you may get 100 reactions on a post and only 5 customers, so we like to tell all of our business friends to not get so caught up in the “likes’ because what ultimately matters is how many of those “likes” can you get pulled in as actual customers or sharers of your business, the same goes for followers.

It is great to have many followers yet we have also learned from experience that you can have thousands less followers than another business and still receive more actual business. So, we always advise to not get caught up in that part of social media, but instead use it as a tool to help advertise your business and put your focus more in to making others aware of what you offer by constantly posting photos of your products.

Also, professionalism matters in business!

You don’t want to always mix business with personal life/issues, drama, etc. Remaining professional sets you a part as being a true professional, because you never know who is watching as a potential customer and if you are always straying from business on your business page you may not retain customers.
As for us, we take the good with the bad in our business what ever was or is said negatively about our business we truly never let it bother us. We grew the thickest skin very early on in business and we do not let negative feedback get to us at all. It is not that we don’t care, we are just very confident in what we serve and our service. If there is ever an issue that a customer honestly experience from us and it makes it to social media we handle it professionally from our end, we don’t respond to issues in groups, posts, comments, pages etc.and that’s another piece of advice that we like give to other entrepreneurs because if you’re not a strong business minded person the negative can bring you and your business down.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Number one, what we serve-our delicious food. Also, our service and compassion for others. We strive to provide the highest level of customer service. We do not believe in treating every customer the same, because if we’re being honest, every customer is not the same. So, we treat every customer according to their individual needs/wants.

Our compassion for others is what ultimately helped build our reputation and we will forever hold that same compassion no matter how far this business goes or how much it grows,
There have been several upcoming businesses in town and out of town and even businesses who are not yet in a legit place in this business who have reached out to us for help on how to start this business legitimately and as time permitted we provided the necessary help that was needed to start and grow their business and whereas we see others who may charge for helping other businesses we only charged those businesses to go out and succeed on their own. It’s a beautiful thing to watch other small businesses succeed far more than they ever thought they could.
We didn’t have any one to help us when we started, we wrote out our blueprint and took it step by step and learned on our own and we are still learning, but we do not mind helping others who need us, if we have the time because we wish we had that help when we started. We don’t want any recognition from what we do to help others, we just want to see glory on the other side.

Also, we have had several organizations, businesses, churches etc. who reach out to us and they “can’t find anyone” who will serve what they are looking for and we are always “that one” that comes through for them.

When ever we are available and the setting, and time, is suitable to our schedule, we always take ourselves out of it and put the client’s needs in the forefront.

We will meet customers needs even if we can’t be there we will offer our catering service because we have been charged to not only be in this business to chase money, but to be a difference, and to make a difference through love, kindness, and compassion for others.

Lastly, We have been working towards another venture since the early summer and we are still working on it (outside of Vego Taco), and we can’t wait to share it with our community and surrounding areas. Stay tuned for the growth of Vego Taco.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.vegotaco.com
• Instagram: vego.taco
• Facebook: Vego Taco