Meet Natalia Rendon and Clara De Niz | Manager

We had the good fortune of connecting with Natalia Rendon and Clara De Niz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Natalia and Clara, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
We truly believe there’s been a few key factors for the success of Antojolandia starting with teamwork we have always maintained very open communication among us when it comes to any descion making or difference of opinions. In a partnership you won’t always agree on everything so it’s super important to talk about what each person wants while maintaining respect and always working as a team not as an individual . Consistency and hard work has been the foundation of our business we have pushed each other many times because it does get to a point where you want to give up. It’s difficult to stay motivated when you first start because your growth is gradual plus you have to work every weekend and holidays.While you build your business you don’t see results immediately and that’s the key you have to build & continue to work and slowly you begin to see progress . It’s important to have partners you can rely on that have the same work ethic and dedication which absolutely helps to keep you motived during difficult times. Lastly having a great product is key we truly have grown our business based on the taste of our products giving samples of our desserts and having our customers spread the word throughout the community.

What should our readers know about your business?
We love our business and how much we have grown over the years the best part of Antojolandia is how we started. We started with a table outside of a Mexican grocery store we had no sign no menu all we had to sell was a Mexican dessert called Bionico which not many people knew about. We began giving samples to everyone that walked into the store and that’s how we slowly began selling more and more every week. People loved our product and began coming to look for us on the weekends and slowly as we grew we added more and more items. The most important part of our growth has been our customers when people love what you sell they tell everyone about it and that’s exactly how we have become a known business in the community by word of mouth. The biggest challenge is showing up consistently every single weekend rain or shine missing big family events holidays and gatherings. Days when it’s cold & raining you just want to stay home but for us that’s not an option we show up regardless of the weather no matter how tired we are we have always taken our small business very serious even when we didn’t have a storefront.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Since most of our families are out of state we have a lot of visitors from out of town and this itinerary is the go to for us. First stop would be Tacos La Villa in Smyrna for some Mexican food from there we would definitely have to go to the battery grab some drinks walk around, check out the shops and catch a Braves game. For the second day we would recommend going for a coffee at Marietta Square then heading over to Roswell Mills to check out the waterfalls and go for a walk. Later in the afternoon Ponce City Market would be the best place to have dinner enjoy the rooftop with the view of Atlanta while playing miniature golf. To end the night the ferris wheel in downtown Atlanta would be our choice plus you can have drinks during the ride and you enjoy another beautiful view of the city.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
We want to definitely say thank you to all of our family,friends & customers who have been so supportive and have always encouraged us to keep going. Special thank you to our immediate families back home in Los Angeles & Mexico who support us from thousands of miles away who are truly our #1 supporters in anything we do. To the inspiring Mr. Ciro Covarrubias thank you for taking a chance on us, believing in our business and for giving us the opportunity & helping us open Antojolandia. We want to thank Ana De Niz for all your incredible support from the very start thank you for allowing us to start our business out of your kitchen thank you for your continuous support and for helping us at our pop-ups & festivals.Lastly, our shout-out is dedicated to Abraham De Niz, sometimes you just need 1 person to believe in your dream just as much as you do and for us that person has been Abraham. When we first had the idea of starting a pop-up we mentioned it to him & his first response was you should start this weekend which completely gave us the motivation to start. Since our first day when we did our first set up he showed up to help us promote ourselves and helped us set up while helping us pass out samples of our bionicos. Throughout the years he has been the person that we turn to when we need help with our business and most importantly he has encouraged us to dream bigger. Thank you Abraham for believing in us, for trusting us with our vision and for all your hard work. Thank you for the dedication you put into helping us open Antojolandia we couldn’t of done it without you.

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