We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Diego & Maria Galindo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Diego & Maria, thank you so much for joining us and offering your lessons and wisdom for our readers. One of the things we most admire about you is your generosity and so we’d love if you could talk to us about where you think your generosity comes from.
There’s a lot of factors that build up and develop one’s generosity. In our case, it has to do how we were raised, and a mixture of our values, morals, and sense of identity. Our family grew up in Perú, where our culture is very rich and diverse. Within our Peruvian culture we’re primarily know for our hospitality with one another and our solidarity that we share as well, to name a few.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Nonna’s Sweets was established during October of 2023 with a mission to expand and serve our local community with popular Peruvian sweets. We reside in Colorado Springs and there isn’t a high awareness of the Peruvian bakery scene. Nonna’s is Italian for grandmother, as we also have some Italian background within our family. We mainly offer Alfajores and Pionono. Alfajores are a classic South American cookie which is filled with ‘manjar blanco’ and sandwiched between two short-bread cookies. All while being topped off with powdered sugar and a hint of anise to top it off. A Pionono is a delicious sweet treat for in between, as a dessert or a cake. It is a made with a soft and light sponge cake, filled with ‘manjar blanco,’ which is Dulce de Leche (sweet caramel milk spread). Our lovely grandmother has passed down her delicious recipes for these sweets that we still use to these day and have yielded exceptional satisfaction.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Starting a business is exciting, but it’s more enjoyable when you love what you do and it’s truly a passion of yours.
The first quality that was highly impactful in our journey is having a passion for baking; passion fuels perseverance. When you have a passion for something and you love what you do, you’ll be able to push through more obstacles, and ultimately keep on improving your skills.
In addition to, you should also hold a certain level of business acumen. It’s important to understand the business side for sustainability, to be more effective, and efficient.
The last quality would have to be having exceptional customer service skills. This is one of the many ways you can stand out from your competition and set yourself apart.
If you’re early in you journey, there is a plethora of tools and resources out there to help you out, don’t limit yourself. My advice is to stay as organized as possible, learn to be innovative and adapt with change, and network with your community to increase your presence.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
One obstacle with our small business at the moment is our visibility at times. Without sufficient visibility, it’s hard to grow your business and attract new customers.
We definitely have an online presence within FaceBook and Instagram primarily. Some of the things we’re doing to increase our visibility is investing in Local SEO’s and maintaining our community presence. Ultimately, it’s a matter of being consistent with our offerings to differentiate us from others, using targeted advertising and being present in our local community events. Also having a consistent customer engagement through our social media platforms.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nonnas.sweets719?igsh=NDVjb3cwMjczMjRt&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/pgXEwsPqNNbLES37/?mibextid=LQQJ4d
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
