Eesti
Interview with our own ebster and “Good Crunchy Food” creator Anastassia Kepa.
What kind of company is Good Crunchy Food?
GoodCrunchyFood is a startup that saw ambition in the Middle East that would fit the expected requirements in the Baltic Market. We realised that not so many people are capable to bring foods from there as well as establish healthy business relationship with that region of the world. It took us some time to create the brand vision and how we would like to position the company itself. But at the moment we are only dealing with foods that are healthy and made with of the finest quality that the Middle East can offer.
Where did the idea of creating such a company come from?
The idea sparked off at one of the family dinners when I realised that it would be good to launch a company at the same time as running my Bachelor Degree. Since before that I have assisted my family for 6 years in a logistics company, I realised that it is possible for us to bring assets from abroad and make Estonian Market interested in. First of all, I had to draw the business plan on paper to make it sure that the business won’t be a failure. As soon as the plan was ready, I purchased my flight tickets and went down there. It took us a lot of time to find manufacturers and suppliers who could make our plan into action. At first, we started working with apple chips, after that we also added the lemonade branch. Currently, we are working on adding 330ml lemonade bottles, juices, and water.
How much has EBS contributed to your entrepreneurial spirit?
EBS gave me an opportunity to meet nice people who helped me a lot working on this big project. Starting from the main design, copywriting, photography and web page development. Besides that, EBS showed itself as a perfect network through which news about the company establishment may be done. Luckily, I’m currently studying International Business Management in the Finance field. The information gathered within lectures from mentors and teachers helped me a lot to take the business on the next level and manage to enter such big stores as Selver, Kaubamaja, Stockman and etc. For me the most grateful experience was meeting welcoming mentors who were sharing information about running their company, bringing out examples of what was success and failure for them.
What advice would you give to those who have doubts about whether to put their business idea into practice or not?
The best thing you could do before starting your own thing is to work for someone else first(preferably in the same area). You could see and test everything from inside of the company and really figure out, if you want to run something similar or not. When you decide that you are ready, then a business plan is a must-have. It allows you to count all expenses and possible profits. It is essential that the person would include all possible risks that would prevent the startup from going bust. Besides all of that, before starting something on your own, the person should find a team with whom he/ she would like work with. It is impossible to pull out everything on your own. It is much better when you have a team that follows you, assists you and helps to develop the company.
Editor Liisa-Maria Lillepea
