We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shadan Kishi Price . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shadan below.
Shadan, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
The idea of Leila’s originally started as a plan for a brick and mortar restaurant. I had been wanting to do it for a while so when I was in one of my Hospitality Management classes and we needed to write a sample business plan…I knew exactly what business I would choose…my own! Since then it morphed from an imaginary restaurant to a real life food truck to what it is now…a consumer packaged item in the freezer aisle.
Going to school for Hospitality Management was so important for me and gave me the tools I needed to know what I needed to do to start my own food business. That being said, you can learn everything in class and there will still be some unexpected real world things that throw you for a loop.
I ran into lots of hurdles, especially with a sort of niche business like mine, where even the people in charge of whatever paperwork, etc didn’t necessarily have an answer for me right off the bat because what I was doing had either never or rarely been done. In the larger scale of grocery foods, plant-based foods are still a very small portion of the market…especially in Texas!
It took a lot of time to get together my business plan and get the proper licenses and paperwork together. When I had the food truck, it took a lot of time to build a customer base and find locations to serve food. Pivoting to grocery retail took even more paperwork and licensing, not to even mention the process of getting stores to even agree to meet with you to then hopefully get your product on the shelves. It’s a continuous work in progress but every new store brings a new set of customers which ideally leads to more opportunities.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I originally started out by getting a degree in Visual Arts Studies and teaching art. I realized that even though I love making art, my real passion was in making plant-based food. It started in 2007 when I became a vegetarian and just needed to learn more recipes for myself and it has brought me to where I am today. Once I got into this industry, my goal was to get more vegetarian/vegan options out there for people to try. I’m not trying to force any lifestyle on anyone, but I just think the option should be out there wether you want to eat plant-based for the day or if you want to make it a more permanent life choice. In fact, I especially love when I get meat eaters to come back again because they didn’t realize they would love a plant based food so much.
Another important business goal for me has been to give back. I think it’s important to help the community around you. As a person and as a business we have donated or helped with charity drives for a variety of issues but the ones I focus on the most are animal rescue, refugee resettlement, and LGBTQ+ causes. I moved here as a refugee as a child and I never forgot the help we received from kind people and if I can do anything to help someone else, I want to do that.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I think what has helped me grow and retain my customer base is the quality of my product. I could have easily used cheaper ingredients to make more profit but I have a standard I would like to keep my food at which is the most important thing to me. My cost of supplies is likely higher than other people making a similar product, but I am happy with what I am putting out there and hope that my customers appreciate it as well.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
Networking is and has been the most important tool for my business, both in acquiring new vendors and also in growing my customer base. That’s something they should tell more people about when they’re in school. I like to do in-person events, I join groups, and I just like to talk to people in general. You have to be ok with talking to people and you also have to be ok with a lot of rejection. Not everyone is going to be interested in what you are selling and that is fine. The hope is that you meet more people who are interested than the latter.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.leilasfoods.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/leilasfoods
- Facebook: Facebook.com/leilasfoods
Image Credits
Shadan Kishi Price Autumn Natalie Laetitia Knight Brad Holt