We were lucky to catch up with Jessica Tadlock recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, what do you think about family businesses? Would you want your children or other family members to one day join your business?

I think family businesses can be amazing or they can turn out horribly. From my experience, my husband and I have two younger children, one being a young teen and the other just under 10. Since they were young they have always seen mommy and daddy as entrepreneurs for the most part since my husband and I both run our own companies and we both help each other within our companies. They get to grow up seeing if you work hard and have a good attitude and good people skills you can be successful running your own business. With that they have slowly learned some different aspects of both companies and although they are still young they have both done age appropriate tasks within our companies (family businesses) and have expressed interest in doing more within them when they are old enough. For example, with my freeze dried candy company they are both able to help with labeling bags and our oldest helps bag candy at times and with time I will start teaching her more of the business side as well. So long story short, in my experience in the aspect of children coming into a family business, if you teach them right so they know as much as possible, all the hard work that goes into a business and how to run it properly I feel there is a better chance for them and that business to succeed as long as it is a business they are interested in. Them having interest in the business is one thing I feel is really important for a family business to succeed as it goes down the line. I think it can be a great opportunity for your children to be set up for success when done properly. On the other hand, if a “child” wasn’t involved in the family business and it was just handed to them when they are old enough with them not knowing the hard work it takes and dedication or especially if it is a business they have no interest in, I think it can go very badly and the family business could crumble because of it. Overall though in my opinion I think family businesses are great if done properly.

Jessica, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Jessica, I am a mom of two, wife and business owner residing in beautiful East Tennessee. The company I own is Sunflower Sweets based out of the Knoxville area and I primarily make freeze dried candy with the additional seasonal freeze dried sweets added in as well. I got into this business solely because of my husband. He was the first of us to hear about freeze dried candy and had mentioned to me about making it. So after doing research (which is something I ALWAYS have to do) I bought my first machine in fall of 2022. I was the first person in my area providing freeze dried candy, selling it both locally and on my website, Sunflower-sweets.com, so it was very popular and sold rather quickly. Which was definitely a pleasant suprise. A few months after I began I also started selling wholesale to local stores as another way to get my candy to more people. In the little over a year I have had this business I have grown to have 4 freeze dryers and currently in 9 stores throughout East Tennessee. It definitely takes a lot of time, hard work, and determination but I love what I do and I am so grateful to be at the place I am now with my business. The amazing feedback I receive from customers and the love, support, and help within my business from my family are definitely good motivation to have and greatly appreciated as well. One thing I feel somewhat sets my business apart from some of the others in the industry, which is something my husband jokingly gives me grief for, is my quality control. I know at the end of the day it is candy and people will eat it but if I think it looks “rough” or even a slight chance of it not being 100% then it doesn’t get put in the bags for my customers. I feel like I am not doing my customer’s justice if I don’t provide the best product I can so therefore my quality control can be a bit relentless at times. However, because of it I have had customers reach out to me saying they tried another brand’s freeze dried candy and it just wasn’t the same. Now I’m not mentioning that to toot my own horn, just to simply say my customer’s satisfaction is my top priority and it shows because of it. My continued goal for my business is to keep my customers happy, keep producing good quality freeze dried candy, hopefully continue to grow my business and get my freeze dried candy into more local stores.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

When I started making freeze dried candy it was my husband who brought up the idea to me. He mentioned it to me and about me making it, so I went ahead and began my research into the process of freeze drying candy. After my beginning research I went ahead with buying my first machine and a little bit of supplies and got to work. When I began I didn’t necessarily expect much to come from it besides it being a possible side hustle but I was the first person to sell freeze dried candy in my area, selling it both locally and on my website, and it just took off! Which was amazing! A few months after I started I began reaching out to some local stores to ask if they would be interested in buying my freeze dried candy wholesale to sell in their stores. There were a few who weren’t interested and others were but that is part of the process and you don’t know until you try. If someone says no, you simply try again until you get a yes. So I began my business relationship with one and then added more from there which has got me into 9 stores locally currently and up to 4 freeze dryers. Now don’t get me wrong there is quite a bit that actually goes into making freeze dried candy if you want to do it correctly and I definitely have had my trials and errors along the way but with any business there is always a learning process and more things to learn all the time. This business is definitely a lot of hard work but looking back to even a year ago I would have never expected my business to be where it is today and I honestly can’t wait to see what it looks like in another year from now!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best source of new clients for my freeze dried candy business has honestly probably been some of the local stores that carry my candy. Some of the stores are in a little bit more of a “tourist area” so it gets put in front of potentially a lot of new customers and keeps those stores continuing to purchase more from me as well as customer’s finding my website from my labels to order more directly. Another good source has been Tik Tok. Now I don’t post a lot on that platform like I probably should but when I do I make somewhat behind the scenes clips, or show before and afters of the different freeze dried candy or sweets and it tends to draw quite a bit of attention and new customers to my website.

Contact Info:

• Website: Sunflower-sweets.com
• Instagram: Www.instagram.com/sunflower_sweets_tn
• Facebook: Www.facebook.com/sunflowersweetsTN