We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Trey Williams a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Trey, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you find your key vendor or vendors? Maybe you can share the backstory and share some context and the relevant details to help us understand why you chose them, why they chose you, etc.

So my organization is built around who and what black people are in Cleveland. I knew that my idea might be good enough to get attention so we could partner with local black small businesses like Jah’s Catering. She uses our honey in her catering service and in her own product, Jah’s Artisan Honey. We work with local daycares like Stem Kids daycare on Kinsman road. We teach their children agriculture on a regular basis and they help us sell our main service which is education. We partnered with Dope Soaps to produce our newest product in our all natural lip balm. We think our partners choose us for the same reason we chose them, we all have a vision, a want and a need for a community for the generation behind us. We want our ideas to impact the world positively

Trey, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

So I’m one of a few black beekeepers in the Cleveland Area and probably the most well known. I got into beekeeping to help my neighborhood out, I wanted to show my people another way to have a successful business in the hood by using the things right in their face. We sell a variety of honeys, lip balms tinctures and we are adding more products monthly to our shopify page which you can find on our Instagram and Facebook pages.
Tours and educational visits to Hood Honey begin start up again in June of 2024 and end in November. We have classes for youth groups and adult groups focusing on Honeybees and the things they do. We will also be adding Nigerian Dwarf goats to our farm and will be developing educational classes to the community.
What sets us apart from other farms is our location in the heart of a major American city with neighbors on all four sides of us and a major road less than 500 feet away.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

My initial funding was $3000 in my retirement and 401k or something like that. I pulled it out and bought two bee hives, two bee packages, Paid some artist to paint the hives. honey jars, labels and logo.

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

leaving a paycheck every two weeks is very hard and the longer you go with out it, it leaves you in a weird place. You love the freedom and ability to grow your business during those 8 plus hours per day and you never want to go back. But then if your plans on your own dont pan out right, then you feel the pressure of bills! But I didnt give up and most importantly I have a family that has worked very hard in life and has been able to support me as I grow the family business

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Hoodhoney216
• Facebook: Hoodhoney216
• Youtube: Hoodhoney216

Image Credits
Majestic Photography