Ella Jesmajian, is a New York native and the cofounder of Honey & Roses Coffee, an online coffee platform that “brings the best of the coffee shop to your door”.
Prior to founding Honey & Roses, she spent a decade working in the restaurant industry for chef Michael Psilakis. She also found success with several short-term e-commerce ventures such as Lily & Lorelei, which focused on imported bespoke Moroccan products. She is a photographer and artist at heart, so her favorite part about running a business is the exciting outlet for her creativity.
What is Honey & Roses all about?
Honey & Roses is an online coffee marketplace that prides itself on “bringing the best of the coffee shop to your door”. Partnering with 55 small-batch roasters and dozens of bakers and chocolatiers, Honey & Roses Coffee is creating the ultimate at home coffee experience.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
We first started out as a website tower one could purchase sustainably and ethically sourced craft coffee, but Honey & Roses Coffee Co. has since morphed into a curated marketplace with three product groups: Coffee, Homeware and Sweet & Treats. We partner exclusively with independent businesses and artisans across the US; each product and partner on the platform promotes a community-positive and sustainable lifestyle.
Both my Co-Founder Joe and I have always had a passion for travel and a love of quality coffee. We began this journey after years of seeing the world and experiencing different cultures. We know there’s nothing like the feeling of waking up in a new place, eager to wander out your door and try a local coffee shop. The delightful immersion you experience while drinking coffee on a trip is something you want to take with you when you return home, even if you can’t take the coffee itself.
Our aim is to recreate that feeling for you in the comfort of your own home. The sense of community and caring that small-town artisans have for their craft, from where they source their ingredients to how they prepare and serve them, has been the catalyst for us. We provide a marketplace that connects you to these communities around the US and helps support small businesses. Honey & Roses is the best way to shop for the greatest small-batch coffee roasters from all over the country, sharing their stories, values, and craft with the world.
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
- Persistence, Passion, and Hard work. It might sound like a cliche, but being an entrepreneur is not as easy as it might seem. You have to be motivated, even when you feel discouraged. You have to have self-discipline to create a schedule and stick to it.
- You have to be passionate about what you’re doing, as passion is the fuel behind your work ethic. You have to be flexible and adaptable, as things are constantly changing.
- Lastly, you have to love the hustle. There is no magic formula. It’s going to take a lot of work, consistency, dedication and luck. For some it might seem daunting and maybe it’s not for everyone. But seeing your company grow and overcoming the inevitable challenges are the most rewarding and fulfilling feelings to have as a founder.
How have the pandemic and Lockdown affected you or your new business?
Lockdown is all we have ever known! We really started actively trading in January 2020, so we only had about 3 months before the pandemic hit! It has been a roller coaster ride of emotions and challenges.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
Customer service and being a supporter of TRULY small businesses. One of the major complaints we hear from our customers that have also used our competitors is how little the competitors care, and how they do not feel genuine. We do our utmost to offer a personal feel, and while we can’t solve every problem, we do our best to work with our customers on problems outside of our control.
Another point I want to raise is that almost all of our vendors are TINY. Many of the operations consist of just a few people – these are the types of businesses we want to support. Look at any of our competitors and you will struggle to find any vendor below a certain size, as they are simply not interested in being flexible enough to work with the challenges of smaller businesses.
What were the top three mistakes you made starting your business, and what did you learn from them?
- Thinking you wouldn’t need as much money as you actually do to start something, inadequate planning from a financial perspective for marketing, product, inventory, etc.
- Thinking it would be a lot easier to reach new customers (impacted by COVID and moving online) but in reality finding much more competition, difficulties in getting exposure, roadblocks in gaining new customers.
- What you think might sell may not sell; it’s not just about what you like— you have to have many perspectives and be open to asking for other opinions.
Tell us a little bit about your marketing process, what has been the most successful form of marketing for you?
Social media marketing, focusing on Instagram has brought us the most success. We pay attention to aesthetics and photography more than other brands and we are consistently creating unique content.
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
Exposure, and shipping. By far the biggest challenge is just getting people to see us and find out who we are. In a competitive industry like coffee, it does not take long for bigger companies with multi-million dollar budgets to drown out marketing efforts. It makes it very expensive. We rely on our customers, word of mouth, and a superior service to carry our name to the market.
As for shipping, customer expectation is generally dictated by timelines from companies like Amazon; while we do our best, it is not always possible to offer 2-3 day shipping. Managing the expectation has been a focus, and I’m pleased to say most of our customers are generally understanding.
Another facet of the shipping challenges is unreliable carriers. With an increase in demand over the pandemic, particularly over the holidays, it doesn’t seem to us that the carriers have chosen to respond and increase staff accordingly. The American consumer is conditioned to hold the shipper responsible and the carriers, knowing this, often assume no accountability.
Once again, the only way for us to deal with this has been to communicate with our customers and manage their expectations. This isn’t always a perfect solution, of course, and over the holidays we had to replace many items out of pocket due to shipping losses and delays – but that’s just part of the challenge.
What are you learning now? Why is that important?
Analytics! In order to understand customer behavior in an online marketplace, we have to understand what they are doing on the site and how this influences buying habits and user experience. It’s like learning a new language!
If you started your business again, what things would you do differently?
I think the biggest thing would be focusing on the analytics early. For the first year, we were really flying blind as to what our strategies were actually accomplishing. If I were to do it all over again, I would get reporting set up from the get-go!
What’s a productivity tip you swear by?
TAKE A BREAK. The best tip I can give is to give yourself a full day off if you can every week. As an entrepreneur, it’s often easy to find yourself never clocking out. But in my experience, I am never more productive than when I have taken some time away to clear my head. It lets me really prioritize and shift my focus to where it needs to be.
What helps you stay driven and motivated to keep going in your business?
Believing in the mission and true goal behind the company. It’s easy to lose sight of why you founded your company in the first place. If you stay true to the passion, drive, and vision you had originally created, your goals for the success of your company will likely manifest.
What is your favorite quote?
“You cannot control everything that happens to you; you can only control the way you respond to what happens. In your response, is your power.”
– Anonymous
What valuable advice would you give new entrepreneurs starting out?
Plan out what you want to do, where you will source the funding, how you will market etc. You don’t need to do an extensive old-school business plan before you get anything to market, but you should have a high-level idea of what you’re going to do over the next 6 months.
Who should we interview next and why?
We have some amazing roasters and sweets partners who have incredible stories. These range from doctors who became bakers, to small business owners who gave up everything to become coffee roasters. There are so many incredibly inspiring stories waiting to be shared.
What is your definition of success?
To be able to support yourself by doing something you love, something that makes you happy and keeps you inspired and fulfilled.
How can readers get in touch with you?
You can email us at help@honeyandrosescoffee or DM us on Instagram at @honeyandrosescoffee.com. We are always here any time of day to chat!
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