We were lucky to catch up with Tia Little recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Tia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
The Little Grapevine was created after my husband and I wanted to create a business that will eventually create a legacy for our children and family.
In 2019 I was having a tough time breaking into the tech industry and my husband suggested we create something for ourselves that we had total control over to eliminate disappointment from corporate experiences. He wanted me to find something in a business that I absolutely loved. I told him that if there was one thing I can say that I love than that would be wine. So as a result we began to research what starting a wine business would look like. We researched licensing, how to manufacture and what blends we would like to present for our launch.
In March of 2020 we were ready to have this huge launch party to introduce our wine business. However, life had something else in store as the world literally shut down.
We knew that we would have to pivot in order to get our brand circulating through the city. We then decided to launch the business with our ” Wine on Wheels” service. This is where we set up local delivery for customers. We promoted our service through social media which really took off!
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 started the business to have a brand that we could build with our family name attached to it. It was important for us to not only have a wine business but to also be unique in our approach to set us apart.
Because we started our business in March of 2020 we had to get creative with ways to get out product out to the public.
We knew that a lot of people wanted to find away to celebrate with families but really couldn’t due to severity of the pandemic. As a result we started a virtual wine tasting kit. For special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, bridal showers etc…we would put together a box with 4 mini 5 oz blends, pre-packaged cheese, crackers, nuts and chocolates and we would delivery these kits to our customers guests and offer a wine tasting via zoom. This way family and friends could come together virtually and enjoy the wine while we discussed the origin of the grape, food pairings and allowed time for feedback to gage what wines customers enjoyed most.
It felt amazing to offer this service and see so many smiling faces on zoom. It really was a great way to bring loved ones together over an amazing glass of wine.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
The beautiful part of having a great product is that we were able to sell out pretty quickly. We didn’t initially quite know how to gage our inventory. Also, we didn’t want to be in a space where we were consistently sold out and had nothing to offer our new customer base.
We then decided to offer charcuterie boxes in the interim to have something to offer our customers when wine was out of stock or low inventory. This turned out to be a hit! As a result, we now are able to offer wine and charcuterie as a package which really set us apart from other wine makers.
How did you build your audience on social media?
We started promoting our business in November of 2019. We knew we would have to create a social media following since we planned to launch end of 1st quarter the following year.
In November of 2019 which is my birthday month. I celebrated my birthday by having fun contests a giving away 20 bottles of wine for free. Contest included our followers creating names for certain blends, sharing blend ideas, and simply sharing our page.
This helped engage our followers and got them excited to see what we had in store for our official launch.
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