A Germinating business coming to fruition

I introduce to you : seed bites. The story behind these decadent bitty snacks is far from small. The story is inspirational and truly started with a seed that was planted into 2 very tenacious women.

That seed sprouted into a fruitful business named, eloquently, Seed Me.

Much like a seed, this passion of feeding nutritious snacks to people, was nurtured time after time with love and dedication.

Countless hours of research and trials went into finding the best combination of ingredients with high nutritional values without skimping on decadent flavors. They are surprisingly flavorful without artificial sugar or oil. They completely change your perception of what’s healthy and what’s not. It is possible to eat healthy and enjoy it, the same way a person may enjoy a chocolate bar. It is possible to feed children sweet treats, without actually feeding them sugar-laden snacks.

With a growing demand for more organic and/or vegan snacks, these treats really hit the spot and put all the other popular granola bars to shame. With health issues like malnutrition and stress on a rise, more and more people are learning that veganism is the way to go. I can’t think of a better time for these bites to start sprouting out into the markets and into peoples’ homes and lunch boxes.

However, the process of this germinating business is just as fascinating as the final outcome. It is actually what I am here to discuss, the dirt, the behind-the-scenes stuff. These 2 women I mentioned above are young entrepreneurs with an accounting background Mirelle Dimitry and her bestie, Stephanie Ciotti. Mireille always had a passion for cooking nutritious food. In fact, it's her secret dream to become a nutritionist. Long before this business started, she was constantly coming up with various recipes and researching their health benefits. She demystified vegan food with her I-can’t-believe-this-is-vegan recipes. Why do some people assume that meat-less food is also taste-less? I blame it on society, especially our parents' era.

For as long as I can remember, drinking milk and eating meat were advertised as essential sources of proteins and calcium. We are wired to believe that the more we eat meat, the stronger we get. We need to rewire our brains and in turn, our nutritional choices. Very difficult feat. - guilty as charged! Despite being from Egyptian and Italian descent, Mireille and Stephanie managed to rewire their brains.

Mireille went from making naturally flavored candy for her children to natural home made chocolate spread. Being a mother of three children, she had a mission to feed them nutritious wholesome food but also tasty. Taking into consideration all the restrictions of school when it comes to food allergies, she was determined to come up with a recipe for a snack that would satisfy their taste buds while conforming to food restrictions. The snacks had to be peanut free, gluten free, sugar-free and organic. They also had to be made from wholesome ingredients that were loaded with nutrients.

There began the countless hours of research and trial, or as she likes to call it, R&D, research and development. She planted the seed. This tenacious momtrepeneur teamed up with her partner in crime, Stephanie, to make it a marketable product. They joined forces with their knowledge of business and accounting at the front seat. Stephanie, on the other hand, took on the role of social media aficionado for marketing purposes. She also skillfully reaches out to clients and takes care of finances. She is meticulous in her work and makes sure 200% of the time that the product is presentable, tasty and well delivered. With her keen eye, there is not room for mistakes!

There began a journey a little over a year ago that exponentially became successful. One must wonder how did they do it all while having full-time jobs and being full-time mothers to children under seven years old? The secret lies in their passion. Passion is definitely the driver in this endeavor. Organization is also an important factor. They both have specific tasks that they are and they relentlessly follow through and follow up. Every hurdle that gets in their way is perceived as room for growth, not a challenge that would deter from pursuing their dream.

Being mothers of young children and wives of supportive husbands, they compartmentalize their time so that they don’t skimp on details of every aspect of their lives.

Holistic Approach

In this day and age marketing not only involves the typical advertisement of the product but also involves the process that lead to the making of that product. They reach out to their clients using social media for every step of the process. People get to know the product AND who developed it. People are curious to know how the business is growing and these two tenacious women are transparent in every step of the way. They involve other aficionados of the business by reaching out to local influencial entrepeneurs with similar beliefs. They educate their clientele on not only nutrition, but on the business aspect of things and on how to juggle between family life and business. They tackle topics like nutrition, entrepreneurship, work-family balance and well being. They do so by holding weekly live meetings on Instagram. In addition to that they constantly add catchy information on their social media pages. They are there and they are accessible.

This approach is very smart, in my opinion, because this attracts more people to their product. They managed to sustain a relationship with their clientele which attracted them to their product, the seed bites. In every relationship there must be an investment of time and in this case, money. Well, the sweat and tears were well worth it because they are now reaching national deliveries as opposed to only local just a few months ago. All of that in about a year worth of time! Kudos to them! The seed that was planted a year and a half ago has now grown into a successful fruitful business.

These two inspirational women are a testament of tenacity and dedication. They proved time and time again that if you work hard you can follow your dreams. As cliché as this sounds: when the going gets tough, the tough gets going! Chapeau ladies!