We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Noura Knows Best. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Noura below.
Alright, Noura thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so one thing we think people don’t talk about nearly enough is investments – either time or money. What’s one of the best or worst investments you’ve made and what did you learned from the experience?
The daily investment in my health, doing the things that physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually put me at my absolute BEST and best able to do all that I’m passionate about. As a CPA of almost 20 years with my own practice, my background and success is in the business and finance world first, but it’s the research and self-work I’ve invested in my health to support it that has allowed me to birth my SuperFreshies™ nutrition bar company and Lean Out Now™ health and wellness business and endure the hard and long path of entrepreneurship.
What you eat, the way you move, and most importantly how you think, speak, and view yourself and the world around you all make up your health. It’s a never-ending job that single-handedly creates your world and future, day in and day out.
Noura, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My street name is @NouraKnowsBest And I gained my biggest fame to date being on the reality-tv show Survivor Season 39 which aired in the Fall of 2019- the year before Covid hit. I was the last female standing and a “final 3” finalist.
I’m a CPA of 20 years and solely own SuperFreshies.com and created the Lean Out Now™ health and wellness program
I’m originally from the Washington, DC area and now living my best life in Miami Beach, FL
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
For my first business, I got a 0% credit card and pulled the funds to purchase the equipment I needed. I had a QuickBooks training seminar business and used the cards to buy an overhead projector and the supplies to give out to students; it also paid for the room I had to rent out and ads on Craig’s List to advertise the seminars. After that, I was able to pay for the variable costs with the revenue of each upcoming seminar.
To start my SuperFreshies™ nutrition bar business, I used the funds from my CPA practice and “day job” to research, develop, produce, package, deliver and trademark my first product.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
I originally created my nutrition bar in my kitchen out of need. I was working 10-12 hours at a computer doing hourly work and constantly felt stressed, hungry, and stress-eating; the worst of all worlds! So I started researching superfoods that could be combined with a good amount of fiber, protein and healthy fats with very little sugar to satisfy my insatiable appetite and sweet-tooth. I started making smoothies and then reduced them to puddings that were more portable and easier to consume. I would bring them into my gym and pass them out for members to try. I didn’t have much intention but to “give back” to the community but members quickly asked me to make these “protein puddings” for them and even hand-deliver them to their homes! People were paying me $5 for 2-ounce jars and $10 for 4-ounce jars of puddings. That’s when I knew I was onto something. It wasn’t easy transporting around puddings that I would keep on ice in a cooler. One day, a member told me I should make the puddings into a bar and that she knew a member at our gym who had already created his own line of bars. She told me the name of his producer and that producer ended up preparing me my first nutrition bar prototype for my first nutrition bar flavor: Green Dream™ Today, SuperFreshies.com has 3 nutrition bar flavors.
Contact Info:
- Website: NouraKnowsBest.com
- Instagram: @NouraKnowsBest
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nourasalmancpa