We were lucky to catch up with Kourtney Awadalla recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kourtney, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
I came up with the idea of creating sprouts juice from an idea of creating a late night sort of fast food but healthy vegan spot that you could get quinoa bowls, salad bowls, smoothies, juices and etc after hours like around 1-2am. This concept came about because back on 2013-14 I stopped eating meat and went pescatarian / vegetarian and at the time I would still go out some places to club with friends and the only thing open late that I could eat was fries lol. So my idea of creating a space where us more health conscious individuals could have something healthy to eat was thought of. However, knowing it may be far fetched at the time to open as a young mom I thought what can I start now to help bring it into fruition and sprouts juice was created to supplement the idea until I could get it up and running. Now because I was active and always in the gym I was a smoothie or shake girly but naturally because of my healthy lifestyle I learned about juicing and the idea took off from there.
It then sprouted into much more given the circumstances of the community I resided in which is considerably food deserts and learning that most of the ailments that my community and people in my family had suffered from was a direct result of what we consumed and became more important for me to tackle this initiative and create a more healthier and affordable way of consuming fruits and vegetables.
Kourtney, 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?
Well, My name is Kourtney Awadalla, I am a newark native and single mom to a beautiful baby girl. I created sprouts juice as a give back to my community, We are currently the only official cold-pressed juicery in the city operating in the heart of newark in the west ward which is #4 in the state of food deserts. This is most important to me because a lot of people are unaware of how valuable and major it is to have a cold-pressed juice bar in the hood. We are on what Newarker’s would call the number blocks lol. It’s some of the toughest spots in newark and one of the most urban places to be, making it one of the places that sprouts juice is needed most.
Cold-pressed juice is the highest form of extracting juice from fruits and vegetables leaving you with a very nutrient dense and clean juice that will help heal and aid in nurturing of the body. Juicing alone is used for so many healing practices whether that’s healing cancers, diabetes, weight loss etc. Being the only in newark with this type of machine and ability to produce juice makes Sprouts Juice an anomaly.
Although it’s been tough running the business and keeping the doors open sometimes the reactions I get and the people I get to serve makes it so much more worthwhile, I’m addition I get to help the community thrive. For instance my community garden initiative where I donate all of my compost to them for them to feed their soil and worms and keep growing vegetation.
Furthermore, sprouts continues to support the community with being involved in different events, doing brand partnerships w/ different companies and business as well as teaching kids in the schools about living a healthier lifestyle and about juicing.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
Surely, this could go two ways the initial start back in 2018 when I first launched sprouts & 2023 when sprouts became a brick and mortar.
Well, I’ll tell you a little about both. 2018 was special it was my first true go at entrepreneurship and to see if I had what it took, for my birthday I asked the guy I was seeing for a breville juicer for my birthday that was my first juicer which I burned out rather quickly making orders lol. I had my mom purchase bottles for me. I made my own logo which I screenshot from a sight I made it on to avoid having to pay, I made a Generic label online as well that I ran with for the first maybe 200 bottles I ordered which I could not wait to get rid of because of how flimsy they were. Then I began to officiate a little more via research, trial and error.
Fast forward to 2023 I had my logo redone by a good friend of mine Savonne who actuals owns a phenomenal brand called Aya Paper. I completely rebranded the labels which I still make myself. Then I cashed In my stock portfolio and invested about 10-15000k into opening up my shop. I still to this day work a 9-5 that helps supplement bills and keeping the lights on while I run sprouts.
Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?
Kool story with a supplementary income for sprouts, so we have a business partnership with Amazon whereas they delivery packages ranging in 15-40 packages daily to the shop for us to delivery in the immediate area of the shop. So everyday except Sundays now I deliver packages in the neighborhood. This has definitely helped supplement income bringing in a few extra hundred a week.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.sproutsjuice.com
- Instagram: Sproutsjuice
- Twitter: Sproutsjuice
