We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marquita May a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Marquita , appreciate you joining us today. One of the most important things we can do as business owners is ensure that our customers feel appreciated. What’s something you’ve done or seen a business owner do to help a customer feel valued?
One day our regular customer came to our food truck and God told us to bless her with two meals. She only wanted one, but we told her to get two and take the other one for lunch the next day. She was in disbelief and was very hesitant and actually started crying. She finally accepted our blessings. In the next couple of weeks we saw her again and she began to tell us I only had a couple dollars in the bank, but wanted to get a burger from you all so bad. Our business is God led so we always do what our God tells us. So she double her meal that day and tipped us very big. So now we started crying. Not even knowing that day she was about to give us her last and we all got blessed. We know our purposes are being fulfilled. Our customers go above and beyond for us and we make sure we do the same.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Our names are Ashley & Marquita. Collectively we are the WiseGirls. We are two sisters who decided to change our lifestyle as far as our eating habits, our hobbies, our relationship with God, and other things. First we started with what we eat. We tried different things until we researched and found veganism. As of now we still are learning. We began to try different foods in the vegan section, but what we discovered was that vegan food in our community was very scarce. We then conversed about figuring out a way to have food here and for others as well. We came up with our food truck. We decided our name would be WiseGirls because we know we are wise and that’s our family name. We began our journey August 13, 2021. We actually introduced our city of Murfreesboro, Tennessee to our food truck in April 2022 when we had our soft opening. A moment in time that we would never forget. Now here we are 3 years later serving the best plant based burgers, fries, sweet potato fries, and refreshing lemonade from city to city and state to state. We give people an option for if they are turning into vegan, want to take a break from other foods, vegans, and anyone who is willing to try. We love what we do and it shows in our food. We have even got people to try that said they would never eat vegan or plant based food. It’s in our hands”the blessings”, the love, the peace, and we literally love what we do and that’s what sets us apart. It’s unexplainable how we have touched so many lives just by our food. Our motto is Changing lives One Plate At A Time.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
We hadn’t been on social media in over 10 years. So when we started our business we had to figure out what was next. Our cousin encouraged us to get on social media to get our name out there. In the first couple of weeks we wanted to quit because we were getting negative comments. He reminded us that in our family we don’t quit and these people actually do not know us in real life so just keep going. So we began to build our empire. We stepped out of our comfort zone, started networking, built our Tiktok followers to 1,000 so we could go live, we posted videos everyday,etc. We definitely put in work on all social media. It didn’t matter if we had zero people in the room or room full of people we kept going. The key is to be consistent and keep going no matter what and that’s how you survive in this entrepreneurship. Just Be Yourself and your people will come. Strangers will support you. Don’t get discouraged if your friend or family don’t support you. Just remember this is Your Dream.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Our authenticity helped built our reputation. We are very relatable, personable, down to earth, patient , kind, lovable, and very understanding. We treat our customers like family. We take time out for our customers and make them feel welcomed. We try our best to remember our customers by their face or name.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wise-girls-llc603.square.site/#items
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wisegirls603?igsh=MTlpdmI2bXN3b3JwaA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: wisegirls603
- Twitter: wisegirls603
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@wisegirlsllc603?si=-7yx3miIuiOFuEYA
Image Credits
Ashley Butts
Marquita May