You have a unique idea, a clear vision of how it is going to work, and a passion for bringing your product to customers in order to improve their lives. That’s pretty much everything an entrepreneur needs to start a new business, right? Not so! The Illinois Small Business Development Center (SBDC) of McLean County at Illinois Wesleyan University can help make great ideas better and their execution a little easier.
Goldinfusion LLC delivers frozen smoothies made with wonderful, unprocessed ingredients directly to your door. To enjoy, simply empty the contents into a blender with your desired liquid, blend, and feel your body start running like a well-oiled machine.
Owner Paul Garcia says his desire to start a business grew from his lifelong involvement in the sport of wrestling, where he was solely and individually responsible for victories or losses. His idea took off from his own physical fitness. “Nothing is as crucial to a happy life as your mental and physical health,” he says. “We need a variety of different, nutritious, plant-based food to truly maximize our bodies’ potential.”
Paul says SBDC was “the single largest contributor to assembling my passions and ideas into a real business. Hearing about them was a blessing.” His first and biggest problem was finding a commercial kitchen that was willing to rent production space. “SBDC provided me with three names of people I could contact, and all were willing to provide kitchen time free of charge!,” Paul says.
“I let SBDC know about my serious lack of knowledge on the financial/tax side of things,” he adds. “They brought in a banker to answer all of my questions. It cleared up so much of my confusion.”
Paul’s initial idea was to run a smoothie stand at sporting events. That morphed into selling wholesale to retailers and now an online platform to sell direct-to-customers. As his business grows, Goldinfusion will be putting a large portion of earnings into promoting and funding mental health-related causes and organizations.
What does the future hold for Goldinfusion? Paul says he’s more concerned with quality and customer satisfaction than massive growth. “Young people are concerned about businesses actually doing good for the world, and I think that's fantastic. I want people to see Goldinfusion as a brand that's solely concerned with improving people's quality of life, not making money. To be honest, I want a slow, and steady growth - to make absolutely sure we're retaining supreme quality in all areas of business.”
To improve your startup idea, to refine its execution, or with any other business questions, email us at sbdc@iwu.edu.