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

Yuri, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

I feel very comfortable and without the support of friends/family l wouldn’t have ever considered starting my own business. A very good friend of mine and my younger sister believed in me and my talents so much that they helped me come up with the name of my business, build my social media page, create business cards, and market my boards.

I am very fortunate that l have had such an outpour of support from friends and family. Not only have they supported my work by purchasing my charcuterie boards but they’ve also helped spread the word about my business.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi! My name is Yuri Alvarado – small business owner of Goodies Aboard out in the Orange County area. I specialize in making creative charcuterie boards for all occasions. I previously worked in the corporate world for almost 20 years and most recently decided I wanted to do something different. Goodies Aboard was established in September of 2023 and still a work in progress.

My passion began during Covid, as we had a lot of down time. l started to invest some of my time watching YouTube videos on how to create boards. After much practice and eating a lot of salami and cheeses (let’s not forget drinking a lot of wine haha – thought I throw in some humor) I realized how much I enjoyed making charcuterie boards and eating them. Many close friends and family members were kind enough to remind me how creative l was, and encouraged me heavily to start a small business. So now here we are!

I take a lot of pride in my craft and making sure my customers are satisfied. What sets me apart from other small businesses that specialize in charcuterie boards: The quality of meats, cheeses, fruits, etc. used along with the presentation. Making boards really allows me to tap into my creative side (which for a long time I thought I didn’t have.) and really put forth time, effort and love; all within an affordable price.

At this time l am excited to continue to grow my business and see to what great opportunities this will lead to.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Social Media, word of mouth and networking! I am a huge fan of networking and have landed some great opportunities just by doing so. I carry my business cards with me everywhere. I happened to land a recent opportunity with a local Cosmetic Center that is planning to host a quarterly open house in which they serve ordeuvres and refreshments to their existing customers. I am an existing client of theirs and one of the employees mentioned that they usually order charcuterie boards for these events. I immediately mentioned to her about my business and next thing you know the office manager is reaching out to me to coordinate and place an order. You just never know how opportunities will arise.

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

Friends and Family have made a huge impact in building my reputation. Apparently during COVID I wasn’t the only person who picked up the hobby of making charcuterie boards. I started noticing a lot of small businesses selling charcuterie boards come up on social media which discouraged me at first to even considering to start my own small business. I feel very blessed to have such an amazing support system of family/friends (you all know who you are :) ) who really believed in me and my creativity. After much chirping in my ear, l really started to ask myself “what is stopping you?!” Eventually I took the plunge and I am grateful that I did. Thanks to my support system and their word of mouth for connecting me with people and other businesses to put my business name out there and help build my clientele. The best advice for anyone out there who is considering starting up their own business whether big or small, is to take a leap in faith and not to fear the possibility of failure. “You never achieve real success, unless you like what you’re doing.”

Contact Info:

• Instagram: goodies_aboard