I would say for anyone
starting a business,
what I would do over and over again now
is find a business coach.
Find a coach, find resources,
the Incubator program
is one of them that is fantastic.
There are lots of others as well,
I'm Jessie Dean, and my business
is Asheville Tea Company.
So tea is the second
most consumed beverage
in the world, next to water.
But the problem is that
most tea's on the market,
are filled with fake flavorings,
and our source from thousands
and thousands of miles away.
And that results in a lack of a connection
between the consumer
purchasing a tea product,
and the grower who actually grows,
dries, and produces those herbs.
So at Asheville Tea Company,
we partner with local and regional farms
to create craft teas, for
a taste of the mountains.
We never use flavorings.
And this way there can
be a connection really
from seed to sip.
I am most proud of the fact
that so far we have stuck
to our values, and
stayed true to the values
that I had when I started the business.
I wanted to create great jobs,
do my best to be a good leader
and provide a good, a
positive work environment.
And I wanted to have a positive impact
on our natural environment and community.
I think that as a
company grows and scales,
a lot of things change and shift,
but those have still remained
guiding tenants for me,
and I'm proud of that.
- I feel like I'm growing
a lot during our time here
at the Incubator program.
Not sure that grith is done yet. (laughs)
I think it's still in progress,
but I've learned a lot
during this time period
like how to pitch our
business, how to project out
our financial model to fly for five years.
How to create a new product,
all of those kinds of things.
So I've grown a lot in terms
of my business knowledge
I think during this time.
I think some of the most
valuable lessons I've learned
so far are around leadership.
I tend to be someone who is
super positive.
Like everything's great
and it's gonna be awesome.
And in realizing that
there are actually a lot
of challenges, both for me personally,
and for our team as we
grow and things like that.
And being able to just comfortably
talk about those things,
has been a growth area for me
that sounds like a small thing
but has really been huge.