Today, we’d like to introduce you to Janelle Doyle.
Janelle, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
It’s Poppin! Gourmet Kettle Korn started from a dream of wanting to be an entrepreneur and being able to work for myself.
We started doing events over the weekends until we happened to stumble upon the 7th Street Public Market in Uptown Charlotte. Once I saw the market, I knew I wanted this to be our first location.
The atmosphere, the people, the location, we knew this would be a perfect spot for us. It just so happened that someone was moving out, and it was the perfect time for us to move in 6.5 years later, we are still there and will soon be opening our second location on the Boardwalk in University.
Let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road as I had to first learn how to start and run a business. I had no idea what to do, but I spent many, many months learning how to run a business.
Modeling examples from people and other businesses that were already in the position where I wanted to be and asking many questions certainly helped with challenges that could arise. One of the biggest hurdles that a lot of other businesses face is hiring and retaining reliable employees.
We’ve had many different employees over the years. Some were great, and some were not so great. This can really be challenging as having a reliable staff can be detrimental to your overall success.
As you know, we’re big fans of It’s Poppin! Gourmet Kettle Korn. What can you tell our readers who might not be as familiar with the brand?
It’s Poppin! Gourmet Kettle Korn is a gourmet kettle corn company located in Uptown, Charlotte, North Carolina. We are known for having over 60 flavors of delicious kettle corn, but we are also known for our fried chicken kettle corn flavor. It’s delicious and unusual, and it is a topic of conversation.
We encourage people to sample it when they come to our shop, and once they try it, they fall in love. However, our most popular flavor and best seller is cookies & cream. It’s our Klassic kettle corn, which is sweet and salty, then it’s covered in white chocolate and huge chunks of Oreo cookies.
What makes you happy?
Meeting new people each and every day makes me happy. People from all over the world make their way to Charlotte and visit the 7th Street Public Market.
I speak to nearly every single person who walks through those doors, and getting to know people and having small talk, even for a short couple of minutes, really allows me to get to know so many different people from different backgrounds, nationalities, and cultures really helps me to understand how people communicate and their different likes and dislikes. However, everyone likes popcorn, lol.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://itspoppinkettlekorn.com
- Instagram: @itspoppinkettlekorn
- Facebook: @itspoppingourmetkettlekorn
