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

Jewel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later

If I could go back in time and start over, I wish that I had started laying the ground work for my business sooner. However I think I launched at the perfect time. I had the extreme privilege of being a full time stay at home mom for 16 years, and it was only when my children were older and more independent, that I decided to jump full time into creating my business. If I had started sooner, I would have lost precious time with my family and had to make hard choices surrounding how we raised our kids and the activities they participated in. If I had been focused on my business, I would not have gotten to be that hands-on mom that I wanted to be. Family always come first. That said, I wish I had made more long term plans before I began this venture. I kind of jumped in head first and made things up as I went. It worked out, but not without a lot of creativity and some stress.

Jewel, 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?

As I said, I was a full time mom for many years. My husband and I have four children, who we have home educated. Two have graduated, one is in his last year of studies, and our youngest is just 10 years old and has a bit to go. Since I chose to stay home with the kids, we were a one income family for a lot of years. That meant I had to get creative to be frugal. One of the ways I did this was to cook 100% of our meals from scratch. I love cooking! I grew up learning with my grandpa, who was a cook in the Navy during WWII and it just became a passion. In 2011, I received an invitation to become a Brand Ambassador for Allrecipes.com, and then a few years later, became a contributor to Allrecipes Magazine. My main focus was recipe development. During that time, I found out that I was really good at making cocktails. It started out as just fun with friends, and then a hobby business. As I grew and more people followed me, I was able to step away from Allrecipes in 2018 and start working The Boozy Blonde full time. I make a variety of delicious and fun artisan wine slushie & cocktail mixes using real fruits. They can be mixed with a bottle of wine or 2 cups of hard liquor to make an amazing boozy concoction! They can also be used to make tasty mocktails with club soda or ginger ale. For those looking for one drink at a time, we have our extremely popular Adult Drink Pouches. Think of “Capri Sun” but for grown ups! These single serve mixers come with a straw and are consumed right from the mixing pouch!

In addition to cocktail mixers I also make a full line of gourmet dips and desserts, unique seasoning blends, salted caramel sauce and elderberry syrup. I am always playing with flavors and dreaming up the next fun thing!

In 2021, I took a huge leap and moved from working out of my home and renting hours in a community commercial kitchen, to leasing my own 1800 sq ft facility. I now have a commercial kitchen fused with a gift shop. We have a full restaurant and liquor license, so we’re able to serve food and drinks, but also feature the best local products from Ohio’s small businesses.

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

Funding my business was definitely a scary leap of faith. As I mentioned we were a one income family for many years. Although my husband had a great job, supporting a family of six with one paycheck can be a bit of a challenge. My best friend was selling $5 jewelry from a direct sales company. I signed on for their $99 start up kit and started hustling that bling as best I could. I treated it as a serious full time job and I squirreled away every cent that I made. After about 18 months I took the leap and invested the measly $600 I had in profit into ingredients, packaging, and business cards.
Then I went to work. I started out selling my mixes at a local flea market on the weekends. I kept saving and growing and eventually was able to get into our area’s more high end artisan markets. The rest is history.
In the course of five years I was able to turn a $99 investment into a six figure income. My husband was able to walk away from his high stress corporate job and I was able to bank roll his start up dream business.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients has been being the personal face of my brand. I absolutely love what I do and I love being the one to tell people about it. Shows are where I shine. Connecting with people one on one, telling them my story, letting them taste my products – it drives me and it makes me so happy to see others enjoy my creations.

Connection is definitely the best source of finding and keeping clients. Number two would be word of mouth. Happy customers tell their friends.

Contact Info:

• Website: BoozyBlondeOhio.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/boozyblondeohio
• Facebook: facebook.com/boozyblondeohio
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@bombshellgifts

Image Credits
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