A Refreshment Business Brings a Flavorful Take on Business Success
Mango Verde Frozen of Polk County
When Martha Hazzard visited Colombia with her husband, she never imagined the trip would inspire a business venture. While there, her husband tasted a mango refreshment made from a blend of three green mangos, a flavor unique to the region. He was captivated by the taste—unlike anything he had tried in the United States. That’s when Martha Hazzard and co-owner, Sandra Ordoñez had an ‘Aha’ moment and their business journey began.
Martha Hazzard partnered with Sandra Ordoñez to bring this exceptional flavor to the Polk County area. They import the mango pulp directly from Colombia to maintain authenticity and enhance their frozen mango refreshments with popular toppings like Salt, Chamoy, and Tajin. The combination has quickly become a local favorite.
Starting a business, however, came with challenges. That’s when the Florida SBDC at USF stepped in. Business consultant Randy Hayes provided guidance on crafting a detailed business plan, building a professional website, and obtaining certifications as a woman-owned and minority-owned business.
“The information we received from Florida SBDC USF was very important for us because we are very struggling try put everything together for create our business and we call many places, and nobody sent me the information. When we meet with Randy, he helped us make the magic, put everything together, and now this is a very success business,” Hazzard said.
Since launching, the business has seen steady growth. They’ve expanded their customer base and established a strong local presence in the Lakeland Square Mall. “We start three and a half months ago, and we did festivals and pop-up markets, and now we have our permanent location, we have our Kiosk in the mall. The people love our product,” Hazzard said with a smile.
Hayes also guided the dynamic duo in obtaining their business certifications and creating brand awareness. “The other thing that SBDC helped us, we have our certification, the minorities and the women-owned business, and this is something amazing for us. Randy helped us create our emails, this is very important,” Hazzard explained.
Looking ahead, the co-owners plan to scale their operations and continue leveraging the Florida SBDC at USF’s expertise. “In the future, we will use the SBDC Florida with hiring people because Sandra and I [are] working now for November and December, but our plan is in January, hiring somebody for help in here,” Hazzard said. “And we can use the Florida SBDC for marketing and many things they have for help the small business,” she added.
The passionate business owners didn’t end the interview without mentioning how they often spread the word about the Florida SBDC at USF to their colleagues and people that they meet who are in need of business guidance.
“We all the time recommend people [that] have a dream for have a business [to] contact the Florida SBDC,” Hazzard said. “We have a WhatsApp group and we put all the information [of] the Florida SBDC in that group and say, if you need [to] create the correct form of your business, contact them, they help you,” she added.
