Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ben Gardner. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ben, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

In 2021, I was 8 months into running business and everything was moving fairly steady. I found the opportunity to be a vendor and Pumpkinfest in Franklin, TN and decided to look into it. From what I read, 100,000 people come from all across the state of Tennessee to attend this festival. I thought having exposure to a new client base and that amount of people would help grow my business. I decided to apply to be a vendor and the costs associated were far higher than I was accustomed to. I decided to dive in and hope for the best. I ended up making more bagels than I ever had before for the event and showed up on Saturday morning ready for a 14 hour day of selling bagels. Unfortunately it was raining and 40 degrees outside and from what I could tell there were not 100,000 people there. Sales were very slow and nothing planned out the way I had imagined. I ended up going in the negative for the day and went home cold, wet, and tired. From this experience I learned to stick with what I know. I am thankful that I had the experience and to learn from it. Since that festival my business has grown organically and is better than ever!

Ben, 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?

Being from New England I grew up having bagels at every corner store in my town. Upon moving to Nashville I found this was not the case. After a couple of years of being bagel-less I decided to put my kitchen aid to work. Hours upon hours of research I had my first batch of bagels and they were just how I remembered them! About a month after this initial batch and lots of tinkering with recipes a friend recommended that I should sell my bagels. I was skeptical but decided to put a post on our local Facebook page. Much to my surprise I had lots of interest and made 10 dozen bagels that night in my little home kitchen. Word began to spread around town after that initial batch and the orders began coming in. At first I only offered home delivery but soon that grew to be too much for my home kitchen. I decided to move into Citizens Kitchen in East Nashville to have more room to grow. I began selling at farmers markets around town and now it has become a staple for hundreds of Nashvillians every Saturday morning at Richland Park Farmers Market. If you come and get a Big Ben’s Bagel, it will be fresh, hand rolled, and delicious and give you a taste of the North East.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Big Ben’s Bagels was started with $50, a trip to Kroger, and an idea. I wanted to bring the people of Nashville the best bagels they had ever had. The first year of business invested every dollar I made back into the business to help it grow.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Consistency, consistency, consistency. I believe that having a great product day in and day out is important to gaining and retaining a customer base but it’s not only the consistency of your product. The consistency of your attitude and ability to show up are also incredibly important. When I first started farmers markets I would typically take 1 weekend off every 6 weeks just for a reset day. After that 1 weekend off my customers would come to me and tell me how much they missed my bagels that weekend. I learned that being present and prioritizing the needs of your customers helps scale your business to new heights.

Contact Info:

• Website: Bigbensbagels.com
• Instagram: Bigbensbagels_nashville
• Facebook: Facebook.com/bigbensbagels

Image Credits
Big Ben’s Bagels