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

SHURINA, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with 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

I started The Naked Bar with my daughter Christina. She felt the desserts I’d been making were better than any other vegan desserts we’d bought. We decided to start the business together,. We began by discovering what the legal steps were for selling food. We learned we needed to get ServSafe certified, then get a cottage license and business license. Those were the basics. There is so much more involved in starting a food business.

We began selling food at local fairs and events. This allowed us to share our food with the community and let them know we existed. Later we created a website and began delivering food to customers. We had to figure out how to increase business outside of local events. This was truly a learning curve. It took research and networking to learn how to best sell our foods. The process can be frustrating, but we hung in there because we knew we were offering a superior product.

SHURINA, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a mom that was trying to help my child. My daughter was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. She did not want to take traditional medicine for the rest of her life. We were able to find a nutritionist that changed her life through diet and lifestyle changes. She was placed on a predominantly plant based diet. It’s amazing that food can heal the body. I started the journey to plant-based eating with her. To make the easier, I started making raw vegan sweet treats. Over time I learned what ingredients work best together. It became fun creating new desserts..

What sets us apart from others is our dedication to offering raw vegan desserts. These desserts are free from processed sugars and flours. Raw desserts are made from nuts, fruits, spices, and lots of imagination. That is the why of our business. We eventually added baked cupcakes and cookies by request from a family member with an allergy to dairy and eggs. We went a step further and started creating non-raw vegan cheesecakes. We’ve always stayed true to our core mission which was to offer a healthier vegan dessert.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

We pride ourselves in providing great tasting desserts and customer service. It’s important that every order looks great and tastes better. We eat with our eyes first. When it tastes as good as it looks you have a repeat customer. Providing top customer service is extremely important. Service with a smile should always exist in every business. Treat people the way you want to be treated. That’s how we do business.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

We used our personal savings to start our business. We started making desserts out of our kitchen with a cottage license. Within a year we were able to use those profits to expand the business without the need to take out a loan. As we expand more, we may need to look into other options such as grants and loans.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thenakedbaratl.com
• Instagram: @thenakedbaratl
• Facebook: @thenakedbaratl
• Other: Google: https://g.page/r/Cc8D32ZYYO0wEB0/review

Image Credits
Pictures taken with Snappr. We have full permission to use as we wish.