We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Susan Buttery. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Susan below.
Hi Susan, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
In 2009, I saw the documentary, The Gerson Miracle. The movie introduced me to juicing and the amazing benefits of having fresh juice daily. I have never had caffeine as part of my daily routine but when I started juicing, I felt an amazing boost in energy and I really liked how I felt after consuming my juice. The Gerson Miracle is about Dr. Max Gerson and how he was curing different types and stages of cancer in the 1940’s here in the U.S. He spoke in front of congress with two senators from Illinois and Florida backing him and his findings. When Dr. Gerson testified in front of Congress, he submitted clear evidence that his process of coffee enemas and fresh carrot/apple juice help to cure over 50 patients of his with different types of cancer. Congress awarded him $1 million to continue his research. One would think that this would have made a splash in all the newspapers but sadly, the pharmaceutical companies planned a big party for news reporters that night of the decision was handed down for Dr. Gerson to get his funding. Thus, this incredible news was only broadcasted by one radio announcer at NBC news and after a 30 year career that broadcaster was released from his job as a result of announcing Gerson’s accomplishments with treating cancer. The pharmaceutical businesses flexed their muscles and got said reported fired. I found it crazy that the pharmaceutical companies back then, had sway over news outlets via advertising. This fact upset me quite a bit and when I sold my bar/restaurant in 2010 and semi-retired for 18 months, I really got into making tasty, healthy juice recipes for myself and friends. While I was not working I was doing quite a bit of yoga at my friend’s studio a few blocks from my house. After class, I would go home, make some juice, and bring up a couple glasses to my teachers at the yoga studio. They loved all my juice flavors and when the hair salon next door to the yoga studio went up for lease my friend called me immediately to take over the lease and I put a juice bar right next door to the yoga studio. It was a perfect match for a person who loves a healthy lifestyle. I was one of the first juice bars in Orlando to offer made to order juices, not just pre-packaged cold press juices. My customers can enjoy building their own juice to their specified needs. The transition to owning a bar to a juice bar made perfect sense to me as I was already a vegan and had given up the last of my meat eating in 2009. I still enjoy some seafood but I don’t eat any land animals or dairy. I love talking health with my customers and after I opened Juice Bar in 2012, I took a few nutrition classes online to learn even more about juicing and the effects it has on one’s body. We are celebrating our 10 year anniversary this December 1st and I a very proud that we still have a very good customer base after being opened for almost a decade.
Susan, 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?
Juice Bar offers fresh, made to order juices as well as bottled cold press juices. We offer one to five day cleanses and we have a small variety of vegan bites such as our vegan, gluten-free chia muffins, veggie fold ups, na protein power balls. We are one of the only juice bars in Orlando that lets a guest customize their own juice. You can choose up to 5 ingredients and can make a juice that satisfies your dietary needs. We are next door to the busiest and biggest yoga studio in town and the owner and I are close friends so that helps our relationship by our businesses being symbiotic with each other.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
When I sold my restaurant/bar in December of 2010 after owning it since 1995, I put the proceeds of the sale in a savings account and travelled quite a bit over an 18 month period. I was already heavy into home juicing and when I travelled to other states and countries, I always sought out other juice companies so I could observe their business practices. New York City is a favorite vacation spot of mine and that city has so many juice bars to choose from that I gained a lot of knowledge there. In 2009 in Orlando, there was only a juice bar in a Whole Foods. We didn’t have any stand alone juice spots and when I opened in December of 2012, I was the very first stand alone juice bar that was not part of another business. When I purchased the hair salon next door to the yoga studio, the owner was moving to England and wanted to unload her entire salon including fixtures to me for a reasonable fee. I turned around and sold the salon equipment on Craig’s list and recovered half of the purchase price with selling items like a facial chair and lamp and a pedicure spa chair. My lease was quite cheap and still is to this day because I signed a 5 year lease with several options. I highly recommend to anyone that is investing in their own business to always sign a lease that has renewal options for at least 10 years. And you should also have the right to assign your lease to another business owner in case you ever want to sell your successful business. This is what I did when I had my restaurant and it set me up financially to invest a little bit of money that I had made off that sale into another successful business venture.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
After owning my juice bar for two years, I decided in 2014 to invest in a cold pressed juice machine that would enable us to sell daily cleanses. This was quite a big investment as said machine cost $18,000 and I was not sure how much the machine would increase my profits. I knew that by offering juice cleanses for $50 a day, we would make the money back on that machine pretty quickly if I could get my customers interested in trying juice cleanses. I updated my website to include a “why we cleanse” page and a page on “how to prep yourself for a cleanse”. I did several 3 day cleanses myself so I could accurately describe to my customers how I felt and how my body reacted to being on a cleanse. What I did not predict was the extra revenue my cold press machine would bring to me. We started selling our juices at a few locations within 2 miles of my shop and one spot in particular, a vegan cafe a 1/2 block away from my place, paid off the juicer in less than a year. Being able to manufacture and bottle my my own juice increased my revenue stream by 50% and It was the best decision I have made to date for my business.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.juicebarorlando.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juicebarorlando/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/juice-bar-orlando?osq=juice+bar
Image Credits
Jessica Thompson Photgraphy