We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Natalie Anderson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Natalie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

When my husband and I were first dating I told him my dream was to open a business one day. He sketched out a design for a storefront with a big sign that said “TBD” (to be decided). Two years later we began making that dream business a reality. We had a product and a location, all that was left was “TBD”. We thought about why we wanted to open a business. We wanted to be productive members of our community, we wanted to give back to causes that we care about, we wanted to be a workplace where employees could grow and flourish, we wanted to provide a fun environment people could come and enjoy a healthy meal of fresh fruit. Opening a business for us was like planting seeds that would grow and develop a more healthy and vibrant community. We named our business Fruitful Acai Bowls because we felt like that encapsulated our vision. We felt like when people saw the name Fruitful they would get a taste of all that we were trying to do.

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.

I have wanted to open a business for a very long time, so knowing that. I went into college ready to study something that would give me a steady job, but also help me in the future if I ever got the opportunity to open a business of my own. That opportunity came quicker than I expected. I worked in public accounting right out of college and at the 1 year mark I decided to quit my job and take the risk of opening Fruitful Acai Bowls! We are a quick-serve restaurant specializing in acai bowls and acai smoothies. I love what I do and I am so thankful that I get to do it in my hometown of Lawrence, KS.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Over the past year and a half I have had the privilege to manage an incredible team and continue to learn as I go. I will forever be learning what works and what doesn’t. Most of my team consists of high school and college students. Over 35% of my current team consists of team members that have been with me since the first day we opened. Two things that I’ve seen contribute to increased team morale is encouragement and communication.

I think encouragement is huge. People want to be encouraged for doing a good job. The more I can notice what positive things my team is doing and encourage them in that the better for our business and for their personal growth and development.

Consistent team meetings where we talk about what is going well and what needs correcting has also been helpful for managing my team. It gives me the opportunity to talk face to face with my employees all at one time to remind, redirect and correct them, but it also gives them the chance to speak up about problems they are having and ideas they have for the business. I think that two way communication is so important.

I also think just talking to them about their daily lives when I see them and keeping up with what I know about them can contribute to high morale. It’s important to me that my employees feel known and valued in the place that they work.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

We have a loyalty program at our shop where when customers buy 10 bowls or smoothies they get their next one free. Our point of sale system tracks their points by their phone number so there’s no need to remember a punch card or anything. Its simple and the reward is so substantial that I think it really incentivizes people to come back again and again!

Contact Info:

• Website: fruitfulacai.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fruitful.acai/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fruitfulacaibowls
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fruitful-acai-bowls/mycompany/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/fruitful-acai-bowls-no-title

Image Credits
Jayde Berroth