We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ruth Kidd Johnson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ruth below.

Ruth, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

In 2019 my husband and I purchased our first duplex property with a store front in the basement. He being an entrepreneur his whole life was drawn to such a property to build stability for our family and hopefully future generations. I was a Health professional with no interest in owning a business really but I was on board for whatever. After some thought my husband casually suggested well since you make smoothies and juice daily why don’t you open a juice bar, there is nothing like it in the area. I was immediately taken back but intrigued by the idea. Well I began researching what it would take to open one, equipment, licensing, registrations and the design and layout we wanted. That list was long but every week we attacked at least one thing on the list until eventually there were no more bullets left. Although COVID was at its height and things were majorly setback from a open date of September 2020 to December 2021 we kept pressing forward confident that we would be successful regardless of the current pandemic. Although our checklist was complete and we began the process of inspections by state officials we were naive in this field and further delays occurred. We officially opened in March of 2022. It was a long journey and learning process in every field you could think of with regards to opening a physical storefront. I am appreciative of the journey though and glad that I had first experience with it because we are fully prepared now if we see fit to grow to more locations.

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.

We are a family run juice bar. We seek to fill the gap for nutritional, healthy food options within our area which is classified as a food desert. I spent almost 10 years healing myself of an inflammatory disease and this journey led me to have a passion for better health for all of my family and friends. We sell cold pressed juice, smoothies, salads, wraps, supplements, as well as other homeopathic products. We also seek to connect with other black owned businesses with health driven products so that we can be a platform for them building their businesses as well.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn controlling everything. In the food business you have no control over many areas of the business. Of course you have to be strategic with planning for everything but there is no guarantee on how your days will look. The ups and downs are not necessarily a gauge of how successful your business is because its a part of the business. Look more at your bottomline and your following. It was hard for me learning this and Im still learning it day by day.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

We were about a week shy of our 1 year anniversary in Feb of 2023 since our grand opening and we were hit with a stolen vehicle being driven right through our store front. To say the least I was heartbroken. We spent all night cleaning up the store, with no wall, window or door waiting for our contractor to arrive at 8 am and the insurance inspector to arrive shortly after. There was no police patrol or anything. With my husband and dog we waited and cleaned for hours. This incident alone could have made us walk away from it all but our commitment to this community and our people made the rebuild that much greater. Our community was rooting for our return and that’s what kept us going. Each day people would stop by to say hello, check on the progress or offer a hand. We couldn’t let them down now. So we pushed forward and with almost two months of being closed we finally reopened.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.niecysfabulous.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/niecysfabulous_juicebar/?hl=en
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/niecys-fabulous-juice-bar-no-title

Image Credits
Photos taken by Niecys Fabulous Juice Bar