We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katisha Johnson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katisha below.

Katisha, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned while working at a prior job?

The most important lesson I learned from a job was always have a plan B! I say that because my original professional background is in law. I was a paralegal for many years, my husband and I, We actually met at a Law Firm in Downtown, Chicago. We were both top paid, senior paralegals with heavy workloads. We commuted from Indiana during the week in order to build someone else’s dream, all while raising four young children.

The owner of the firm at the time really grew fond of us. He even helped us financially a time or two outside of our work environment. We built a relationship with him, the office manager, and other attorneys. We were complimented for our great work and although they couldn’t deny our worth to the firm that at all changed one Valentine’s Day.

It was a Friday after work that I will never forget because my husband had bought me all types of gifts and we were headed to dinner. Before we left the boss called us into his office, he asked us to take a seat and literally said to us “I love you guys, you do amazing work, but today we have to get a two for one”. Yes, my jaw dropped like yours did too, lol!

They didn’t fire us due to lack of productivity, it was simply because they were bringing attorneys in making less than the top four, paid paralegals so they phased us all out of a job. It wasn’t personal, it was a business move for them.

To be honest at first we didn’t know what was happening because we’ve never been fired before. Once we realized what was going on I had to grab my husband’s knee to calm him down. So, that day we lost 89K in salary at one time with four kids at home.

That was our awakening moment, we didn’t have a plan B. We decided that we will NEVER let anyone control our income like that again. Which brings us to today, where we are full time business owners & entrepreneurs.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

The name of my business is called Skrumptious Gourmet Fruit DeLite’s LLC. It officially became a business in 2017, the reason why I point that start date out is because I started making my products in 2014 for family events only. My family and close friends would go crazy when they tasted my product so my supply and demand light bulb went off.

I make gourmet, delicious toppings tapered on grapes, pineapples, strawberries, and bananas. I have over 15 different toppings! My signature and top sellers are my Taffy grapes and Skyeberry Crunch grapes (strawberry shortcake), which we named after our daughter, Skye.

Once we decided to make it into a business, we got to work, utilizing our network and it started catching on fast. To be honest, our start up was moving so fast that it began to scare me a bit. I worried about not being able to keep up with the demand and the ability to make sure that I could actually continue to provide top notch customer service.

I listened to my customers! I am very cautious and careful about the quality of the fruit DeLites that I create. I pride myself on resolving issues fast and being a business woman of my word so I make sure I deliver on the deliciousness that I promote. My customers have expressed their love for my spirit, the love I create my products with and they are some of the most loyal people I’ve encountered. The love is mutual on my end as well. I realize wholeheartedly that without them my business wouldn’t exist.

We’ve only been in Georgia for three years now and our first two years was pretty much shut down because of the pandemic. Covid really affected our business. There was no way as a business owner to foresee such a rare occurrence. Now that things are somewhat getting back on track in this world we are working hard to get things back going, as well as, revamp & relaunch our brand on an expanded level.

We are committed to providing the best service and we’re working hard to solidify our brand because we know that we have a special offering that people will never get tired of eating. We are taking all precautions and following safety guidelines to give our current and new customers a peace of mind and a guarantee that when purchasing Skrumptious…. Delicious will be Intentional!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I would say connecting with my customers as much as possible and treating them like people more than just customers. I pride myself on remembering names, their kids name & our brief conversations as much as possible. I believe this quality coupled with being pretty much the only company that provides the kind of variety of fruit DeLites as we do seems to make our name ring amongst the customers and people they refer to our products..

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

Our best sources of new customers is definitely referrals via word of mouth. Also my husband and I are VIP Members of the only Ultimate Lifestyle Club in the World so a large portion of our business comes from fellow members, their friends, their families and the word of mouth that extends from their satisfaction & liking of our product offering as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thetaffygrapechamps.com
• Instagram: Skrumptious01
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Skrumptious/