"This moment that you have when you have absolutely no idea how you are going to make something happen, but you know that it has to get done." - Alexandra Clark
Coming from a family of creatives, the time Alexandra Clark spent with her parents always involved working on creative projects. She started Bon Bon Bon with nothing; she completely funded the endeavor. "Ultimately, I knew that if I could find the right space, I could at least get started." She started by sending her chocolate to hotels everywhere for them to use in their turndown service. Now 27-year-old Alexandra Clark made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and she is the first artisan chocolatier in Detroit, MI, in 40 years.
Usually, it's confidence that enables people to prove their product is the best. For Clark, her self-doubt was the moneymaker. "By not opening for retail, thinking that nobody would want the product," Clark's business accidentally made itself exclusive. This exclusivity created hype that Clark didn't even know she was creating. She finally listened to her neighbor, "Crazy Mike," who suggested she opened her little kitchen for retail once a week. The first day she opened for retail brought in so much business that she was able to pay off an entire year of rent.
Listen to the whole story to find out how Clark turned her teenage dream of owning a sweets shop into a reality.