Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Lara Adekoya, Founder & CEO of Fleurs et Sel, located in Los Angeles, CA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Fleurs et Sel is centered around cookies, compassion, and community. At Fleurs et Sel, we are customer and community obsessed. We make handcrafted and thoughtfully made cookies in small batches in flavors like Sea salt chocolate chip, Vanilla bean sugar, Caramelized butter pecan, and more.

Our customers are very diverse, including all ages, races, ethnic backgrounds, and more. At cookie pick-up, we see friends, families, moms swinging by for pick-up with the kids after school, and couples picking up cookies on the weekend for a treat! We also cater to some of the major studios and businesses in LA, including Amazon, MGM Studios, Netflix, Hulu, and Apple! Above all, our customers are very open-minded, supportive, compassionate, and excited about our products and cookies!

Tell us about yourself

I started Fleurs et Sel during the early days of the COVID-19 Pandemic (April 2020). I was furloughed from my sales position at Nordstrom, where I had been working for four years. Shortly after getting furloughed, I knew I had to get busy and figure something out. I was craving connection and wanted to find a way to connect with my community despite the stay-at-home orders, strict Covid regulations, and the grim outlook of the Pandemic. I was inspired to follow my passion for cooking and community and decided to start a business centered around my passion and what I knew made me happy: human connection and being authentic and of service to others. I woke up one day and baked two dozen chocolate chip cookies. I used social media to market my small business. I started doing cookie deliveries during the "stay at home" orders of quarantine to uplift and reconnect with friends, family, and even strangers who had found out about my small business. Before I knew it, my cookies were drawing long lines of loyal cookie fans to my West Hollywood apartment, where I would wake up at 5 am, bake from dawn until dusk, and meet customers for cookie pick-up in the evenings. While my business started small with a few cookie deliveries, I found that my cookies were creating community, spreading compassion, and creating a vehicle of connection not just for myself but within the Los Angeles community. Cookies and being able to bake and share my craft is a true labor of love that has afforded me the opportunity to have an impact and uplift others in ways that I have never imagined. I am motivated each day because I have a community to serve and an important message and story to share with the world.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I am so proud of how far I have come. Only three years ago, I was hustling cookies out of my car, rolling a black wagon around Los Angeles filled with freshly baked treats, and selling my cookies to strangers on the street. I have felt many of the growing pains of being an entrepreneur- especially after losing my job, filing for unemployment, and having little experience and resources to start a business from the ground up. However, instead of seeing these as obstacles, I have taught myself many things and turned these "no's" into opportunities to grow. There are many things that make me proud about Fleurs et Sel: the Cookie Pop-Ups that have brought together hundreds of supporters from all over LA, the press articles with Good Morning America and the LA Times that have amplified my story and my voice, and the friendships that I have built with the men and women of the LA Mission/Skid Row Community who uplift me and affectionately call me the "cookie girl." I am so grateful and proud of the relationships that I have built with my customers and am very happy to say that Fleurs et Sel is truly more than cookies - it is about compassion, building relationships, and being resilient in the face of adversity.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

One of the hardest things that come with being a business owner is setting boundaries and knowing when to take a break. There are always things that need to be done, and there's no such thing as "turning it off." Learning to find balance, set boundaries, and stand up for me has been one of the hardest things!

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Passion: find something that you are passionate about and center your business around that. Don't be afraid to be different!
  2. Intention: be intentional about your customers, your product, the community you are looking to serve, and the impact that you would like to have on others.
  3. DIY mentality: there are so many things that I did NOT know (when starting a business) that I have had to learn on the go. Have an adaptive mindset and attitude to getting things done.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.fleursetsel.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fleursetsel/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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