Adun Spice Co.
2021 INTERVIEW
Description of your business
The Adun Spice Company, is a Cleveland based spice shop providing sustainable and ethically sourced spices, salts, and herbs. It is located in the The Van Aken District, 3441 Tuttle Rd, Shaker Heights, OH 44122.
It is founded by Chef and creative Ramat Wiley. The name “Adun” means flavor, sweet and sweetness in the Yoruba language, a tribute to her Nigerian heritage. Adun believes that food is the key to life.
Share your recent business success!
In 2020, while working as a food stylist, things began to slow down tremendously. This left me with a lot of time to figure out what would be my next move.
Whatever it was, I knew in my mind, I wanted to start small and build. So I began to think about all the things I love to do and things that I said that I had wanted, and spice shop immediately came to mind. It was something I always looked forward to finding on my travels. I've told close friends about it, but never had time to act on it until now. So I started with getting a few recipes together, also some classic blends and salts and Adun Spice Company was born. Thinking of a way to honor my mother in what she loved, I found a way to give back to the community and highlight people doing the work to keep our people fed and cared for.
In 2021, Adun Spice Company was highlighted for being a small business created, thriving, and giving back in Cleveland by Key Bank with a nationally broadcasted commercial. This only increased visibility and brought us new customers! Being a chef/stylist, I have been fortunate to have made many friendships with other chefs and shop owners that have been amazing with providing so much advice and knowledge on how to get started on the next things I knew I wanted for Adun, opening a storefront space. This meant getting all of the business in order to be ready to apply for funding and being approved for a space. So a dear friend introduced me to Dora of Honeycomb Cleveland, who in turn told me about The Small Business Development Center at CSU.
How did the SBDC at CSU help you?
The CSU SBDC helped me get my business plan together by recommending software, and gave critique on the business plan to prepare me for applying for funding, and getting my financial projections together. This all helped me obtain funding, as well as securing my first retail shop at The Van Aken District in Shaker Heights.
Have you recommended the SBDC to anyone?
Yes! I have recommended the SBDC to my sister, who is also a small business owner, looking to grow her successful Lash business.
Anything else that you would like to add?
I look forward to sharing the assistance I received from the CSU SBDC with many more people that are looking to prepare themselves for the next step in growing their business! Katie and Jessica are beyond amazing, I appreciate both of you more than you know!
SUCCESS UPDATE: The Adun Spice Company in May 2022 was featured on WKYC – check out the video here.
(Photos courtesy of the Adun Spice Company Facebook page and WKYC)
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