We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Pamela Evans. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Pamela below.
Pamela, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?
On the first day, our second business opened (in the midst of the Pandemic) my phone rang. I picked up the phone after several rings, the kind where you know someone is trying to reach you to find out that John Oliver’s father had had a heart attack. At the root of our business is a love story of myself and John Oliver but we have had to face an uphill of personal trials. Our catering business primarily focuses on weddings. I was a financial advisor with a stable job and benefits for 17 years who fell head over heals for a chef. When I came into his life, we immediately became focused on the sole goal of growing this baby – Funky Fresh. It’s not just about food, its a style. There has been so many personal and financial sacrifices we have made. About three years into growing the wedding catering side, we decided to open our second business – Funky Fresh Donuts. Two weeks after we had given a $ 40,000 check to the contractor – the world shut down. Our best year ever turned out to be a nightmare. Everyday we would get emails with weddings cancelled. Weddings was our only form of income and they were shut down, plus we just signed a lease to open a new business. Nine months of pain, we finally opened our doors in November when the came that John’s dad had had a heart attack. We had less then $ 100 bucks in our checking account a couple of days before the store opened and were just hoping for the best. Fast forward to now, I recently lost my father in the same fashion five months ago. Very unexpected, very suddenly. During all of this, we launched our third business – Funky Fresh Cocktails while growing our first baby Funky Fresh Catering. This all has happened in the span of 7 years. Along with loosing family members, we have had confrontations with employees (like the time our employee would not move out of our house), and other crazy unbelievable things that someone would just not believe. However, we are a little bit stubborn, caring and work-a-holics that believe in this dream of ours. We have both found our passion and believe that we can continue to grow Funky Fresh into something bigger that can benefit employees and hyper focused on community giving.
Pamela, 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?
John Oliver’s background was cooking. My background was finance and planning. Together we are able to combine our two talents to help families celebrate. It may sound silly but memories are worth making. Weddings are a special moment where two families come together. We are so proud that we continue to bring flexibility to an industry that is not flexible. For example, we never take deposits. Both of our parents owned their own business and I do think it had an impact on our core values – we believe in the “old” way of doing business, the hand shake and trust. Our brand is an experience. You not only experience our brand through our good food but also through the transactions from emails to the actual day of weddings and serving others. I think John Oliver and I are old souls and definitely have some hippy roots. Whether its at our wedding catering, our little donut shop or having a nite cap at our cocktail lounge – you will feel the Funky Fresh vibe and spirit!
Have you ever had to pivot?
If you own a business, you must be able to pivot. I think one of the things that John Oliver and I have been able to do is quickly navigate decisions. Sometimes we made the wrong one, sometimes the right one but we kept pressing forward toward our common goal of making Funky Fresh a success. You can’t be afraid to change the plan (ie pivot) and you can’t be afraid to learn from your failures (reflect, then pivot). Being able to pivot in both business and life is a key factor in your overall success. If you cannot navigate and change with the tides, you may fail.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Trust – to be honest, I’ve always been a glass is half full type of person. Very positive and very outgoing. Sometimes I have trusted blindly. I think this can be a good trait and sometimes a negative trait. We have had several instances where staffing did not have the same goals or vision that we did. I think that I’ve not had to “unlearn” trust, I have had to re-think trust. I think you must have trust in your organization and you cannot let the negative experience that just happened, really affect your trust for the new person in front of you but you have to realize not everyone has the same passion, the same drive, the same optimism, you can’t trust that they will just feel their way through the organization – YOU have to give them guidance on the core visions of the company. Sometimes its just not a good fit, and that’s ok but you have to trust your employees each and every time.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.funkyfreshdrc.com
- Instagram: funkyfreshdrc
- Other: ffcocktails; funkyfreshdonut
Image Credits
@javarosephotography @whitneychasephoto