Justin Anderson produces and distributes Anderson Trail “The Original Premium Moist
Granola.’ Justin’s inspiration to start a granola business came during a vacation
with his best friend during his freshman year. He came across granola that was not
crunchy and liked how it didn’t stick in his braces. When he returned home, he cooked
up some granola for his Boy Scout friends and his family. Everyone loved it and
the idea of a granola business was planted. He used a $500 loan from his grandmother
to get started and now his business has gone from word-of-mouth selling to online
orders and a contract with Central Markets.
Q: What is your business?
Justin: We manufacture and distribute the original creamy and moist granola.
Q: When did you start your business? How old were you?
Justin: I started the company when I was 16. I was on a vacation with my best friend
and his mom, and we went to this bed and breakfast in New Mexico and at this one
breakfast they were serving soft-baked granola. And so I just fell in love with
the stuff because it was like nothing I’d ever tried before in my life. I went home
and came up with my own recipe and I brought it on a Boy Scout campout and my friends
loved it!
Q: Was cooking always a passion of yours?
Justin: Oh yeah, my mom taught me how to cook when I was real young. It took me
about 10 different tries in my mom’s kitchen to come up with the perfect granola
recipe. My family didn’t like it when I was in the kitchen because I left a really
big mess! But after about the 10th time I came up with something I was really satisfied
with.
Q: What were some of the challenges you faced in starting the business?
Justin: The biggest challenge in starting this business was finding a commercial
kitchen to make the product in. When you’ve got a food product you can’t make something
from your house and sell it to people in stores. I called the largest woman-owned
caterer in Houston and she called me back, said she wanted to meet with me the next
day and she said, ‘when do you want to start!’
Q: What kept you going when there were problems or challenges?
Justin: What kept me going was everybody saying this is the best granola they’ve
ever had. And the fact that Central Market would want to put it in their store because
Central Market only sells good stuff.
Q: Did you get help or advice from other people?
Justin: My aunt said she thought it was the best stuff she’s ever had. She said,
“Justin, you really should think about starting a business and selling this at your
high school.” So that’s what we did.
I also met up with a young entrepreneur while I was in Colorado. His name is Evan
MacMilan with the Chocolate Farm. I told him my idea and that I wanted to meet with
him because he was a successful young entrepreneur who had a food company. He pretty
much said go for it! He was the first person outside of my family that told me that
I could do it.
Q: How did you finance your start-up business?
Justin: Originally my grandmother gave me 500 dollars and I spent that within about
two days because I had to buy ingredients. From there I got my grandmother to cosign
on a business credit card with about 10,000 dollars on it that I used for the next
couple years to finance the business. Last August I got my first real investor who
bought 35% of my company so I can grow into some more retailers and to get into
distribution.
Q: Were you able to pay yourself from the beginning or did you have to put in a
lot of unpaid hours?
Justin: I’m still technically unpaid. I just pay myself for whatever bills I needed
to pay. You’re investing in yourself by not paying yourself a lot in the beginning
so that you can just keep the business running. As long as you are working to get
your big goals done and in place you will eventually be successful.
Q: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned through your experience as an
entrepreneur?
Justin: I think the most important thing is along the lines of meeting people is
that you’ve got to work really hard to keep all the connections going and not make
anybody made because you will run into them again.
Q: What would your advice be to other kids thinking of starting businesses?
Justin: I think one of the most important things that you can do starting a business
is find a mentor, somebody that you can talk to regularly about what’s going on
with your business so that you can learn from their mistakes so that you don’t have
to pay your mistakes later on.
Q: Anything else you’d like to share about your experience as an entrepreneur?
Justin: I think to start if you’ve got the ideas, start it and do it as early as
you can and don’t wait. And I think that’s one thing that’s good about being a young
entrepreneur is that you’re physically under your parent’s roof and you don’t have
to pay rent or anything and you can afford to experiment.
