We were lucky to catch up with Kim Livengood recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kim thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

Hamlet’s Eatery opened in July 2020 during the COVID shut down. It was created out of being hangry. My mother, Judy Alexander, and I opened The Bazaar on Apricot & LIme five years ago. She bought a warehouse in the middle of an industrial area to have “one place to do all her shopping”. The Bazaar is home to over 40 local creators and curators and has been named Best Gift Shop 4 years in a row. There is no place to eat near The Bazaar and I was always hungry. I have no experience in the restaurant business but knew we needed something. When a friend approached with an idea (but had no money), I thought it was a great time to learn! So I bought a used food truck and opened Hamlet’s Eatery. The tagline is “to meat or not to meat” and for every traditional item we have a vegan option.
I was lucky to have a talented friend who is a graphic designer who was getting married. In exchange for all the graphics, I catered his wedding.
Hamlet’s Eatery will celebrate three years in July.

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?

Here is my bio: Kim Livengood, APR, CPRC is a serial entrepreneur and Public Relations Professional. She co-owns and operates The Bazaar on Apricot & Lime, which is home to over 40 local creators and curators. She opened Hamlet’s Eatery during COVID because she was hungry. A graduate of The University of Florida’s Journalism School she kicked off her career by creating and publishing Eclipse magazine for eight years. She has successfully sold each of her businesses including Hotel Ranola and Willow506 boutique. She spent five years at Tervis as their Public Relations Director before going out on her own. She serves on the local and state board of the Florida Public Relations Association and the Sarasota Chamber of Commerce. She was instrumental in having The Limelight District officially recognized by the City of Sarasota. Kim is currently training for the 2023 New York Marathon.

Hamlet’s Eatery is a cool concept. It allows vegans to dine with their carnivore friends. The food is amazing and Chef Teylor was named the 2023 Best Sarasota Chef in Sarasota Magazine’s Readers Choice.

Hamlet’s strives to offer a fun, kid and dog friendly place where everyone enjoys good food, beer, and Prosecco on tap.

Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?

I have sold three businesses (Eclipse magazine, Hotel Ranola and Willow506 Boutique). The best advice I can give is to learn to let go. It’s hard when it’s your “baby”. But even your own baby has to get their wings and fly away.

Did I ever do that? No. In my first business sale, they hired me for 3 years to stay on as a consultant. Yet, they never took my advice. When I sold the clothing store, I tried to stay involved to help the new owner. She was not a good manager and would forget to come in to pay her employees. I got so upset I ended up with Bell’s Palsy (apparently it is brought on by stress).

Learn from my mistakes – when you sell. Stop trying to be involved. If the new owner reaches out to you with a question, be there for them. But otherwise stay out. They are buying your business because it has value. But they are also buying because they think they can do a better job. Let them.

And final advice – never name a business after your children. When Willow506 boutique was run into the ground and ceased to exist, it hit harder because it was named after my daughter.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

We are very active on social media. But not all platforms. We picked two (Facebook and Instagram) because those were the ones that I understand and could focus on. You can’t do it all.

We were lucky that before COVID shutdown we had already built a decent following on Facebook. When our brick and mortar closed during the shutdown for two months, we turned to Facebook to keep our Bazaar going. I knocked off Home Shopping Network and went live every day calling it Bazaar Shopping Network (BSN). I showed off products that were inside that could be delivered, shipped or picked up curbsite. This went on every day for several weeks. When things in the world got even crazier, I planned to stop. But a customer who lived in another state, begged me to keep going. She said it kept her connected to her happy place and gave her something to look forward to. BSN is still happening weekly on Facebook Live and up to episode #179.

I plan to continue to do weekly BSN as long as we average 1,000 impressions.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bazaaronapricotandlime.com/ and http://hamletseatery.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bazaaronapricotandlime/ and https://www.instagram.com/hamletseatery
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BazaarOnApricotAndLime and https://www.facebook.com/HamletsEatery

Image Credits
Cliff Roles, Susie Chinn, Kim Livengood