Q1: Kindly give our readers an introduction to your business. Please include what your business is all about, in which city you are located and if you have offices in multiple locations/ cities.
Ans:- At Nagen Vegan Bakery we make delicious gourmet vegan cookies with meticulous attention to the ingredients that we use. We are located in Naples, Florida.
Q2: Kindly give us a brief description about yourself (it should include your brief educational or entrepreneurial background and list some of your major achievements).
Ans:- Brief Self-description
◦ Carl Veus: Alumni of Lorenzo Walker Technical High School, Member of the Rotary Club of Naples Bay.
◦ Franko Cardozo: Alumni of Lorenzo walker Technical High School, real estate agent, co-owner of Cardozo Bros Detailing.
Q3: What inspired you to (start a new business venture) or (to make significant changes in an existing business)? How did the idea for your business come about
Ans:- Nagen Started as a class project in our entrepreneurship class at Lorenzo Walker. The idea came from our vegan friends having issues finding vegan pastries around Naples. With our love for sweets, we started making our own vegan cookies (our infamous chocolate chip cookies). We started selling them to our classmates, then at farmers markets, and then online. After we graduated high school, we decided to keep growing the bakery, and make it be the best vegan bakery in Naples.
Q4: What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
Ans:- Advice
◦ When you have a dream, and you believe in it, follow it.
◦ Business is not as easy as it seems. When times get hard, do not quit – keep going. If Amazon made it, so can you.
◦ Ask for feedback.
Q5: What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
Ans:- Top 3 skills to be a successful entrepreneur.
◦ Patience: everything won’t go the way you want it to.
◦ Adaptation: the markets are constantly changing, and you will always need to stay up to date with it.
◦ Vision: need to be able to see where the business is going, and where you want it to go.
Q6: How many hours do you work a day on average?
Ans:- Hours of work
1)It all depends on what we have going on for the day, but we usually work about 8 hours a day on the bakery.
Q7: To what do you most attribute your success?
Ans:- We mainly attribute our success to our patience. We have had super hard times running Nagen Vegan Bakery. It required us to be patient and composed to solve our problems in the business. A perfect example would be the “corona virus”. During the “pandemic”, we had shut down everything. It was a hard time for us to figure out how we would get through it, but by staying calm and composed, we started investing in key parts of the business and got it off the ground.
Q8: How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
Ans:- We use a combination of both face to face and social media marketing, but our most successful one is face to face. Sometimes the mouthwatering pictures and description of the cookies can’t compete with the taste of the freshly baked cookies.
Q9: Where did your organizations funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture?
Ans:- As partners, we funded everything out of our pockets.
Q10: What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
Ans:- The best way to achieve long term success is to stay consistent. Staying consistent teaches you to be more efficient and help form new ideas that weren’t there before.
Q11: Where you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
Ans:- 5 – 10 years from now, I see Nagen Vegan Bakery to become the name brand of Naples, with products in cafes and stores all over the nation.
Q12: Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
Ans:- The company that we admire the most is Athrex. They are a local company just like ours and grew from nothing to a major company in Naples, and all over the world.
Q13: How important have good employees been to your success?
Ans:- We do not currently have any employees, but employees make everything go smoother and faster. And we plan to expand and hire employees soon.
Q14: How long do you stick with an idea before giving up?
Ans: I don’t like giving up on my ideas. I write them down, so I don’t forget about them.
Q15: What motivates you?
Ans: My motivation is the feedback that we get from our customers who buy our cookies. It’s touching to see how much people love our cookies.
Q16: What are your ideals?
Ans: The idea that I am currently working on is making an organic cookie.
Q17: How do you generate new ideas?
Ans: The ideas usually come from my surroundings, videos, or our customers.
Q18: How do you define success?
Ans: Define Success: Success is anything that helps you grow your business.
Q19: How do you build a successful customer base?
Ans:To build a successful customer base, it is important to provide quality items and services to your customer.2.
Company Detail:
Company : Nagen Vegan Bakery
Address : 2285 2nd Ave SE –
City : Naples
State : FL
Country: United States of America
Zip : 34117
Phone : 2393212374
Email : Info@nagenfla.com
