The final episode in our Festive series Katia from Bio Valbonne our first French interviewee pops on to reflect on her first year in business in 2017 and 2018.
How do you go from an idea to setting up a shop to opening it, marketing and making the business work. She shares her business model for this organic delicatessen and greengrocers
There is noise in the background as we recorded in her shop!
KEY POINTS
Originally from The Vosges area Katia Laouar enjoyed her time here before moving South. She spotted a gap in the market and opened the Bio Valbonne grocery in March 2017. Her background was helping her parents in their shop the Cremerie du Cap .
This helped her to eat well and have a passion for good food, whole foods, gluten free , organic, vegan offerings.
Bio Valbonne work closely with local artisans for Fresh produce bread, cheese, cookies, delicatessen and pukka teas.
When thinking about opening a business: Focus on your ideas , visualise what you want, be flexible with the idea and believe in yourself. Ensure you understand about all the paperwork and administration that feeds into your business plan.
Marketing – Katia looks for cost effective ways using the internet . Maximising visibility via Facebook and Instagram. Work your network.
She tailors what products they provide to their customers.
Challenges have been the hours needed to run the shop. So need energy and balance internally to be able to cope with the demands.
Vegan and Vegetarian how ready is the French market?
Valbonne is an open village, dynamic and international.
Katia likes to do sport to balance her energy Crossfit in Antipolis, goes running near the sea on the Cap d’Antibes. Swimming in the Olympic swimming pool it’s heated and open air.
Important links mentioned by our guest
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/biovalbonne
Instagram:biovalbonne
La Marmite Vegetale https://www.facebook.com/lamarmitevegetale/
http://www.cannes.com/fr/sport/piscines/centre-aquatique-grand-bleu.html
Key tags
#organic #bio #biovalbonne #valbonne #france #rivierafirefly
COMMUNITY FACEBOOK GROUPS
Type Cotedazurliving in facebook all one word our Free community for everything about living and visiting the cote d’azur
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cotedazurliving/
Home and Garden ideas
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HomeGardenAlpesMaritimes/
Business and networking
Riviera firefly cocoon. https://www.facebook.com/groups/fireflycocoon/
Our sponsor – This podcast was sponsored by KidooLand the Little English School who have just opened inscriptions for the next holidays for 4-16 year olds KidooLand nicknamed “the little English school” by our clients has a year round premises is set up for the little and big people. We run English activities all year round as well as holiday camps in Vallauris Sophia and Valbonne. With the Ados that we get to explore the Cote d’Azur in great depth .. Mougins, Cannes, Biot and more for cultural and really fun outings and this year we add in community awareness projects. www.kidooland.com
Riviera Firefly is your online guide to living on and visiting the French Riviera and the Côte d’Azur. We cover topics such as Education for children and adults, Places to visit, Health and lifestyle, hobbies and leisure and have lots of fun here in the Alpes Maritimes. We also talk to inspiring local entrepreneurs and small businesses about how they started their careers in France, dealing with administration and what brought them here in the first place. Topical issues such as Brexit and what this means to expats will also be covered in 2017. Our online directory and magazine can be found on www.rivierafirefly.com
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Download for free A pdf on all the books mentioned in the 10 podcasts in series 1 www.rivierafirefly.com/bookclub