We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ariel Bonkoski a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ariel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories 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?
I am extremely happy as a business owner. Prior to and during the first couple years of business, I was still managing a retail store full time. I worked for a great company! But that’s not where my passions were. Starting my business was my way to make my life more fulfilling and make my passions into my career. I am SO glad I made the leap into starting my business. I am also glad that I stayed at my retail management job while I started my business even though it was extremely difficult. I was working 70 hours a week some weeks, but it allowed me to save a lot of money to further my business.
Ariel, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I teach about wild mushroom identification and foraging! I really fell into this world on accident. It surprises people that I grew up disliking eating mushrooms! But I discovered that there are wild mushrooms out there with all sorts of flavors, textures, and beauty. I spent a lot of time practicing mushroom identification and started leading forays in 2019. I spent the next few years sharpening my skills and putting together a course to teach people about wild mushrooms. I started my business early in 2022. Now I teach multiple styles of classes including online classes, classroom workshops, guided hikes, or a combination of both classroom and hiking workshops. My favorite thing about my job is that I get to connect folks to nature and create new hobbies and passions for other people.
I’m most proud of my passion for helping others using my identification skills. I give a lot of time helping folks identify mushrooms from all over the world. As of this moment, I am the #3 fungi identifier on iNaturalist in the world. I have identified nearly 100,000 mushrooms for other people so far this year.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I had a positive reputation in the mushroom world prior to starting my business and was a large reason why I was confident enough to start my business. I was very active in many online mushroom foraging and identification forums, including many large groups on Facebook. In these forums, I was helping people identify their mushrooms and teaching other things about mushrooms. I was so active and accurate, that I was then asked to join the admin team for many of these online forums and groups. I have also maintained my activity in these groups throughout my business ownership which has brought me a fair amount of business.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
I actually cashed out my PTO from my full time management job to pay for my website, LLC, and other small expenses. I started this business with basically no overhead. Because my business is based on education, becoming a business owner was relatively easy for me financially. I will be introducing merchandise into my business soon though! I saved money from working both my full time retail job and my business at the same time, which will allow for me to try new things with my business.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.arielsmushroomco.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arielsmushroomco/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Ariels-Mushroom-Co/100077918934445/
Image Credits
Ariel Bonkoski, Alan Bergo