Help us get our smoothie bar off the ground!
We are offering great rewards including pre-paid smoothie punch cards.
Secret Garden Smoothie Bar is a dream coming true for two best friends, Sera Dixon & Llewellyn Gannon, who are OBSESSED with whole-body-health, and, of course, SMOOTHIES! These two women are both health-conscious mothers with a genuine passion for sharing their experience and gathered knowledge of health, wellness and nutrition.
Kale Shake with Granola, Blueberries & Toasted Coconut
*Combined, the two owners have business and management experience in the food, restaurant, catering, retail, arts and crafts, fitness and beauty industries, including customer service, photography, website design, floral and botanic design, event planning and management, holistic personal training and horticulture.
Sea Greens & Protein Flower Shake
Our Vision
A neighborhood smoothie bar... a sanctuary of health and inspiration where a commuter, artisan or neighborhood local can enjoy a nutritious smoothie, breakfast bowl, or healthy snack in a modern space and urban garden.
"We believe that food is medicine, and will be serving only the highest quality organic ingredients, sourcing as much locally as possible."
*Our smoothies will be nutritionally dense, have plenty of add-in options suitable for specific diets such as vegan, Keto and Paleo, and most importantly, will taste incredible! Most are designed to be a complete meal, full of protein, healthy fats, vital nutrients and nutritional supplements.
Green Smoothie Bowl with Banana, Kiwi, Calendula, Bee Pollen & Granola
To play up our garden theme all smoothies will be topped with something crunchy, like granola, nuts or cacao nibs,as well as edible flowers, all included in the price!
*On our list of favorite ingredients and supplements are kale, organic local berries, adaptogens, CBD oil, medicinal mushrooms, matcha, blue-green algae, micro-greens powder, protein-powder, collagen, almond butter, avocado and coconut milk.
Pineapple & Mango Lassi with Bee Pollen
"Secret Garden Smoothie Bar will be designed to inspire!"
*Our entire space will be bright and modern, bohemian, cozy, full of lush plants, beautiful details, local artwork, and eco-friendly products.
The backyard will be beautifully landscaped and complete with seating, fire pit and string lights.
We will be renting out the entire space for private events, contributing to the revenues of Secret Garden while engaging with the community.
Acai Bowl with granola, cacao nibs, dark chocolate, bee pollen and flowers.
Events will play a key part in the community building aspect we are going for at Secret Garden Smoothie Bar. We are planning a variety of events both during business hours and after, and both private and public.
*A couple examples of events we plan to throw would be a sunrise hour-long workout led by co-owner Sera who owns Ocean Soul Fitness, a poetry reading and open-mic night led by co-owner Llewellyn, also an amazing poet and photographer, flower crown making workshops, wellness pop-ups, astrology meet-ups and a Sunday smoothie party with live music andbackyard yoga.
Carrot, Mango and Coconut Smoothie with Goji Berries
Where We Are Now
As of late July 2018, we are in the final stages of planning. We have the PERFECT space leased, with our exact location being central to all of Portland and zoned for high-density residential and commercial buildings, with current construction (including a large hostel!) underway on both cross streets.
Secret Garden Smoothie Bar is placed between a major parkway and intersecting commuter bike-paths allowing for easy-access and high visibility.
Our new space is getting close to finished!
We worked very hard on our business plan, and with it ALONE, raised enough start-up funds from family (Thanks guys!) and our supportive community to cover our overhead costs for a year as well as our manufacturing costs for 6 months. There will be a little leftover money from our initial fundraising campaign to contribute towards the buildout of the space, such as building the smoothie bar counter and shelving, and the extra bathroom required for permitting.
The back yard will be beautiful!
Llewellyn's husband (Llewellyn's a co-owner), Mike Munzing (of Munzing Structural Engineering) bought the building in which we are housed and is currently finishing up renovation of the entire building and property, to be completed by August 1st 2018. His office will be the entire second floor, and Secret Garden will be on the first floor. We mention this because we want you to understand how AMAZING this place is going to look once it is completed, both inside and out. Also, because Mike is helping us with our architectural plans and permitting, for our building phase, which is happening soon, among other things.
Mike designed our space to have high-ceilings, beautiful lighting, polished cement floors and lots of light. We will be decorating and building the bar with a modern-industrial meets bohemian design, lots of reclaimed wood, white tile, bold wallpaper and bright accents along with TONS of plants, thanks to Sera (co-owner who runs a floral and botanic design company called Hyacinth Orange.
Floorplan of ground floor!
Why We Need Your Help
While we are flush with a business plan, passion and knowledge, we are low on start-up funds. This is where YOU come in... We are seeking funds to purchase our:
- Equipment (Triple-Sink, Handwashing Sink, Mop Sink, Containers etc.)
- Appliances (Blenders, Dishwasher, Refrigeration, Ice machine etc.)
Everything adds up so quickly! We won't be able to get this project off the ground quick enough without your generous support, so thank you in advance! We put together some wonderful rewards to entice y'all to help these two best friends make their dream a reality.
Cauliflower & Cacao Smoothie Bowl
Risks and challenges
Our main challenge is coming up with the necessary start-up capitol required for the build-out and purchasing of appliances and materials.
We are using a multi-pronged approach to secure start-up capitol. Sera has applied to several Portland small-business grants and already got word that she is approved for a $5000 grant! Additionally, we are both contributing personal savings and are preparing now to apply for small-business loans depending on the outcome of this Kickstarter campaign.
We are putting our hearts, soul and life savings into this project and will be moving forward no matter what.
The equipment is all priced and picked out according to the budget we came up with in our business plan. We have begun the permitting process. We have a list of all of the necessary licenses we need as soon as our permit is approved. An amazing team of supportive friends and community is on hand to guide us in permitting, design, bar layout, bar design and buildout, lighting design, landscaping and marketing.
The main risk is not getting people in our shop buying smoothies! Which is why we are hiring an advertising professional to outsource our advertising such as emails and local mailings of coupons. We are also planning on working with a marketing and business coach who will be assisting us in developing our marketing strategies while encouraging us to refine our brand mission and outreach strategy.
Luckily, we picked a perfect location that is underway with heavy development of high-density buildings so we are confident that with proper outreach to our target market and community building via our events, we will have plenty of customers. Plus we believe our outstanding, healthy offerings will speak for themselves!
