We were lucky to catch up with Laura Ross recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Laura, thanks for joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

From the beginning, sustainability and care for the world we all live in has been fundamental to our operations at Cleveland Vegan. First and foremost a vegan diet is a more environmentally kind way of eating. Eating a plant-based vegan diet reduces the deforestation, soil degradation and greenhouse gas emissions associated with meat production, helping to slow climate change.

At Cleveland Vegan, we also use all compostable to go containers and plastic ware, napkins, etc..

We use a local compost company to compost all of our food waste or we donate left over food to an organization that distributes the food to local shelters.

Our hope is that these practices become standard practices for all restaurants.

Laura, 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 Laura Ross and I own Cleveland Vegan along with my husband, Justin Gorski. Initially we started as an all vegan catering company in 2012 and it quickly exploded. We opened our storefront cafe and bakery in 2014. We continue to operate our full service catering company along with the cafe and bakery.

Our food is good because we care!

Our staff are incredible and care about the work they do, our customers and each other.

I am blessed every day to have this incredible opportunity to do this work.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

From the beginning, each and every job (no matter how little) we got as a catering company, we took exquisite care with. We made sure the product going out was top notch and followed up with each and every customer. We donated lots of food to a variety of events, anything to get our food out there.

We also looked for employees that we felt were good and honest people. Staffing can be such a challenge, but we felt an honest, trust worthy employee was more important than a seasoned kitchen employee.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

Our team follows up with every customer after they place a catering or bakery order with us. We thank them for their business support and ask them if they have any feedback on their order. We also communicate with our customer base with at least one/two monthly newsletters.

We also believe in providing an incredibly kind and excellent customer service experience. Without that, no matter how good the food is, customers are not as likely to return.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.clevelandvegan.com
• Instagram: @clevelandvegancateringandcafe
• Facebook: @clevelandvegancateringandcafe
• Twitter: @clevelandvegan