Flavors of the Isle

Ebony Williams has been steadily building her business, Flavors of the Isle, at Findlay Market for six years. They joined Findlay Kitchen in 2018, and shortly after, they started popping up at Outdoor Market to sell their jerk chicken and connect with customers face-to-face. They soon realized that having some extra equipment and their own mobile license would allow them to pop up at Markets, events and festivals all over the city instead of just at Findlay Market. 

In 2019, Flavors of the Isle received a Findlay Kitchen Scholarship that pushed their business to the next level. “It helped our business tremendously,” Ebony says. With the funds, she purchased the equipment she needed to qualify for a mobile license – a three compartment sink and a mobile hand-washing station. Because they had their own mobile license, Flavors of the Isle worked their first Taste of Cincinnati that same year, where they served 5,000 orders of jerk chicken during the event.

In addition to her scholarship money, Ebony was able to attend Findlay Learn’s Growing Into a Storefront program fee-free. Over the course of nine weeks, the class learned about calculating the cost of goods, marketing and branding, operations, and much more. “The course was totally needed to understand this business, understand how to manage it, and how to move it forward,” she says. “If I didn’t have the scholarship, and the educational portion, we wouldn’t be here. It is absolutely imperative that this [scholarship] continues.”

It’s not uncommon for small businesses to experience difficulties in the first few months of operation. Even with Findlay Kitchen’s wraparound support, many businesses still struggle to get off the ground because starting a business is just that hard. Scholarships like these can lower common barriers entrepreneurs face at the outset of their business. Help more business owners like Ebony grow and thrive by donating to the Findlay Kitchen Scholarship Fund.