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

Edwina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you have any advice regarding quality control and maintaining quality as your brand grows?

Two pillars in our company structure is maintaining a variety of cigar offerings as well as the quality of our customer service experience. And although growth is good, that can become challenging especially during the beginning stages of a company. Although our company is 3.5 years old, we recently moved to a new location that offers a 60% increase to our lounge seating than our original location. Our humidor is also 3 times the size of that location which houses our cigar offerings.

The challenge is figuring out which cigars to add to the shelves that yield an immediate profit versus those that move slower depending on the clientele. And staying abreast to the newest cigar releases that are happening daily within the industry. You not only have to invest into the cigars but also into the humidification that can properly maintain the larger amount of cigar offerings. We purchased a new system that is now tapped into our water line and within 6 months of open, we are needing to add another humidifier that can maintain the growth we’ve seen in this location. The winter months can become particularly challenging due to the drop in the building’s temperature which directly effects the quality of your product. Plus, the investment of an additional humidification system is not something that is generally budgeted during year one. The same type of growth that is happening inside of our humidor is reflective to the growth we are seeing in our seating area.

The influx of customers and clientele that are buying our products are needing a place to sit and relax during their cigar experience. This means having the necessary seats for those clients as well as an adequate amount of staff that can give them an experience to remember. Growth often demands a larger output than you may see a return on your investment and within the time necessary to deem the business profitable. Our current budget affords us the ability to hire a certain amount of staff, but many days we are in need of more staff members in order to give the experience that our brand represents. Staffing is one of our main concerns to uphold our growth. This means bringing in new employees that may be less experienced in the cigar industry which is a niche business.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I fell in love with this industry during a year of my life where I needed to re-evaluate my direction and took a pivot towards cigars. I was drawn to the relaxed atmosphere and the conversations that take place inside of a cigar shop. An opportunity was presented to me and I felt it was the right time to take a chance on something that could afford me certain freedoms while spending more time with my family. My background is in sport as a former athlete and coach, so many of the disciplines necessary to run a small business are natural for me. I often tell people that there are parallels between running a cigar lounge and head coaching. In college athletics you have donors/sponsors/investors, those people you seek funding from. Funding is necessary for an entrepreneur and small business owners. Learning how to communicate that need, prepare business plans and making sure proper licenses and budget report are maintained operate within that vein. As a coach you have to recruit certain players, that’s similar to drawing in your base clientele. Head coaches need assistants just like business owners need partners or staff. The type of product that takes the field or the court is closely related to the product offerings, the look and the flow of your business, that’s the visual of your brand. And then there’s social media that has completely changed the game. Your activity on social media to keep your team relevant and in the face of recruits is no different in this industry. Our activity on all of our platforms is a separator. Posting new product, upcoming events and our community engagement is captivating to our clientele.

I am proud to offer a space where people feel safe while enjoying their cigar of choice. A place where they can Chill, Relax and Unwind. Our business carries some of your household cigar brands and we partner with quite a few boutique companies hoping to introduce our customers to something new. With the size of our space, we can host a wide variety of events whether we initiate the show or have outside groups wanting to rent out our location. We are located right off of Interstate 35 which offers an easy to find location and a quick stop for our “grab & go” customers.

We are active on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and have created a YouTube Channel that captures many of our events. Anyone looking to find our location or to stay abreast with the day to day happenings can follow us on those platforms.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I was introduced to my business partner as a potential investor. That role grew into a silent partnership agreement and now he is very much boots on the ground. We compliment each other! A few of Jacovie’s responsibilities include all of our tax requirements, licenses within the city and state, changes to governmental regulations, seeking out funding and potential investors, amongst many other hats I ask him to wear. Our ability to keep the lines of communication open and our connection to one another is what has sustained this company.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

We overcame some major hurdles in 2021 during the move of our retail location. We prayed that the transition from Duncanville to Lancaster would be smooth with only a 60 day downtime, but that did not happen. We were met with some unforeseen hurdles during the build starting with rainy weather that revealed leaks in the roof that delayed our contractors and their workers. We entered into a split project, something I hope to never do again, where half of the build was our responsibility and the other half was on the owner of the building. That collaboration causes a delay if there is not clear daily communication between the two sides. Contractors need to work in collaboration with one another and everything needs to be on a timeline. Every step inside of the build has to be green tagged by the city inspector and those appointments have to be scheduled which then again pushes back your timeline. Once we finally approached the end of the project, the last test was to make sure we could retain the smoke inside of our rented space. That step then again revealed holes and leaks inside of the building. With smoke, unlike water, its hard to pin point exactly where the leak is coming from if you smell smoke in the neighboring space. Each of those inspections and re-inspections have to be scheduled and often times carries a re-inspection fee that was unplanned. Not to mention the time that it takes to submit plans and to get your project approved before you can swing one hammer inside the space. A 60 day project turned into a 6 month project by the end of our build. That took a great deal of resilience and perseverance by me and my partner. Most days we had to encourage each other that the process would all be worth it in the end.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.blowinsmokecigarlounge.com
• Instagram: @blowinsmokecigarlounge
• Facebook: @blowinsmokecigars
• Twitter: @BlowinSmokeCigr
• Youtube: Blowin’ Smoke Cigar Lounge
• Yelp: Blowin’ Smoke Cigar Lounge