We were lucky to catch up with Erika Ponzo-Jones recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Erika thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I think collaboration is key. Everything in life turns out to be more interesting if you partner with someone. Having only one opinion operate any field becomes so one note and can also set a limit or boundary on growth. One of my daily and long term goals is to “each time, improve.” Having a second person contribute can help expand your mind. Even if it in a form of a disagreement, the disagreement still opens your mind to new ideas. A disagreement is NOT a bad thing. Music, art, books, science experiments….everything is better with collaboration.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My partner Jessica Sarwine and I started Oh La Vache in the height of the pandemic. Before OLV, I owned a deli-restaurant for 8 years in Highland Park (Monte 52). I decided to close it down because I had just had a baby and did not have the ability to be at work as much as the pandemic required. Also, I was commuting from Long Beach making it even more difficult to be available for Monte. My husband had the idea to close the restaurant and open a Cheese Shop in Long Beach. No commute, less employees, less hours, less GREASE! And with the help of a partner, we could spread the hours out between us. The idea of the cheese store did not come out of nowhere. I have been working with artisan and imported cheeses since 2006 when I worked at the Cheese Store of Silver Lake for 5 years. I continued on selling cheese and teaching classes at Monte 52 as well. Jessica was working at Beachwood Brewery, and although she loved it, I was able to persuade her to come open this cheese shop with me. She is the ying to my yang. ALL of the things I can not do (or don’t want to) she is really really good at. She does marketing, branding, the books, the website, the bills and much much more!
Now we have a business together that we are both proud of and where we get to do the things we are most passionate about! We truly feel lucky to be where we are today!

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Jessica and I both had some personal saving and matched it. For the rest of the capital we applied for loans through the Small Business Association. They help you set up a business plan to submit to lenders FOR FREE. We targeted ones that were no interest loans for women ran businesses. We were able to find one that fit our needs. Badahbing Badahboom.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Jessica’s ability to pull fans in from social media has been a HUGE help in growing our clientele. Getting the word out! The Long Beach community is also so close knit, which has been amazing. The businesses around us are all so supportive to each other and help spread the word. So many restaurants have been buying their cheeses from us, instead of purveyors so they can let the customers know where they got their cheese. Having said that, the word of mouth is also a great way to grow the clientele.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ohlavachecheese.com
• Instagram: @ohlavachecheese
• Facebook: @ohlavachecheese