We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amanda Moore. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amanda below.
Alright, Amanda thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
I always had an “office job” and when covid hit it became a “work from home” job. My whole life I have been very creative and enjoyed making things from scratch. On the side I would play around with cake decorating, desserts, flower arrangements, holiday decor, etc. I decided to give the Charcuterie trend a try and I loved it! Being able to make flowers and designs out of meats, cheeses and fruits really caught my eye. I began making charcuterie boards to take to friends and family. With a confidence boost from said family and friends, I decided to start selling them on the side. One thing led to the next and I had the opportunity to open a brick and mortar business. I always wanted to be my own boss and run my own business. But leaving a career with a guaranteed paycheck was terrifying! My grandfather was an entrepreneur and started his own business which supported my grandmother and their 5 children. That has always been an inspiration to me. I decided to meet with a financial advisor to see what it would take for me to succeed financially. After talking numbers, I knew I could make it happen. So I took the leap! I left my career, asked my retired mom if she’d like to help me and the rest is history!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Grazing Thyme as a brick and mortar was a way for me to showcase my Charcuterie to a broader range of customers. We set up the store as a small cafe. You can come in and order a Charcuterie Board or Grazing Table for a future event. To suffice your immediate meat and cheese cravings we created “Adult Lunchables” which was our take on the ever popular kids lunchable. Of course, ours are larger and a little more sophisticated. We now have 4 different lunchable options: Traditional (meat, cheese, crackers, fruit, honey stick, chocolate), Mediterranean (pita, hummus, veggies, olives), Pizza (pita, pepperoni, pizza sauce, cheese, fruit) Chicken Salad (House made chicken salad, crackers, cheese, fruit). These are made every morning and available in our Grab & Go cooler for quick and easy purchasing. In that cooler we also make 4 different kinds of wraps: Chicken Bacon Ranch, Chicken Salad, Turkey BLT and Grazing Green which consists of grilled chicken, spinach, cucumber, feta cheese and ranch on the side. You will also find our house made Granola Bites in a couple different flavors in our Grab & Go cooler. This cooler has become very popular amongst our customers as it is a way to get something quick and healthy, which is often hard to do. To keep things in line with our healthy options, we offer several made to order items as well such as Acai Bowls, Grain Bowls, Fruit Nachos, Smoothies and Immunity Shots. What we love most about our space are the wrap around floor to ceiling windows, quaint seating areas perfect for catching up with friends or working on your laptop. We have outlets near each seating area to allow for easy plug in of your devices while you enjoy coffee and lunch with us. Parents and kids alike love stopping in for an Acai Bowl or Bubble Tea.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
We often get compliments on how friendly we are. Kindness is a huge core value of mine. I believe that you can change someone’s entire day with just a smile or a greeting. Being kind and friendly to our customers has helped create our following. You can have great prices and/or the best tasting food but an unwelcoming or rude experience can lose customers forever. Word of mouth travels fast and the greatest compliment we can get is having our customers recommend us to their friends and family. Nothing means more to us!
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
We recently moved locations, as we had out grown our previous building. Our new space gives us much more visibility which has increased our foot traffic tremendously. Because of this our sales have tripled! Location is EVERYTHING! We moved about a block down the street and most of our customers didn’t know we existed before the move. My best advice to new business owners would be to research where you want to be located based on visibility, traffic flow and parking availability. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @Grazing_Thyme_Company
- Facebook: @GrazingThyme
