For Tiffany Green, the co-owner and founder of Dillonades, creating a local lemonade brand was a way to move forward past life’s struggles and, very literally, “make lemonade out of lemons.”
Founded initially in the early 2000s and reopened in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, Dillonades is a fresh fruit lemonade company that specializes in preservative free, non-GMO lemonade with a variety of fruit-infused flavors.
Of particular importance to Green is the organization’s commitment “to providing not just lemonade, but a lemonade experience.”
Green, who runs Dillonades with her son Dillon, said that she initially began selling homemade iced tea and lemonade over a decade ago while she was acting and doing commercials. In need of alternative funds, she took her love of cooking and experimenting in the kitchen and began creating her own juices that she would then sell to local barbershops, salons and businesses.
As Green tells it, “When life threw me lemons, I made lemonade.”
But eventually, Green said that a combination of career commitments, the busy schedule of raising a family and general burnout led her to move away from the business for a period of time. It wasn’t until she saw the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic and began to receive encouragement from her son that she decided to reopen Dillonades for business.
“I stopped for a while because it was a lot on me on the weekend, selling juices and carrying those heavy coolers up and down the steps. So then sometimes you run into the burnout and then you stop. (But) during the pandemic, I was like, ‘you know what? I’m going to give it a shot.’ (So) me and my son talked about it, and I was like, ‘we want to name it after you, Dillon,’ and he was willing to help me with it. So that’s kind of how we brought it back,” said Green.
“But this time it was a little bit different because I had so much experience in terms of marketing and how I wanted the product to look and the labeling. All of that is me, the logo, all that stuff is stuff that I designed myself, and then I just knew how to market it, because when you’re hustling on the street, you always get told ‘no.’ You get more no’s than yes’s. But it was a way for me to build a business before I even realized I was turning it into a business. So I already kind of had a customer base because so many people followed me for so many years now.”
Green said that since reopening in 2020, Dillonades has been growing and beginning to move away from their pandemic business model of making deliveries and into the realm of stocking stores around town. She said that it’s been important for the organization to be able to interact with their customers and make sure they are able to share in the “Dillonades experience.”
“I enjoy when I see other people and they tell me how much I’m inspiring them. I enjoy employing people that are in my community. To have a product that actually landed space in a supermarket is really good because I didn’t come from a family who taught me this whole business concept or how to create a product and sell it,” Green said. “Everything that I’ve (learned) has been self-taught. A lot of this is trial and error. So other people that come from my community, it gives them hope that they can do it too.”
Green said she is most appreciative of being able to share this experience with her son who has been learning the ropes under her tutelage since the reopening of the business.
She said she hopes that this whole endeavor will allow her to leave a legacy that can be passed down to future generations.
“I enjoy having my son with me so he can understand the business. With him being so young, he’ll be able to take the business and help it grow more as he gets older. Because he’s learning at such a young age, he’s able to understand business marketing, selling the product, developing the product, and he gets to see how hard I’m working. So he has a different appreciation for the business because he’s actually a part of it. He can see the growth,” Green said.
While Dillonades has been in some area supermarkets along with several other local spots, including Marinucci’s, Ricci’s and The Wiz Cafe; its newest stores are: Naseem’s Mini Market (1540 Point Breeze Ave.), Boccellas (37 W. Eagle Road, Havertown PA) and Godfrey Grocery (912 Godfrey Ave.). For more locations and information, go to: www.Dillonades.com.
“Sometimes when you’re in a business, you don’t actually get a chance to see the growth. When your goal is such a bigger goal than where you are that particular day, sometimes you don’t get to see the steps,” she said. “With me, he gets to see how the business has been growing. … The goal is to leave a legacy and turn this into a global brand. That’s ultimately what I want to do. That’s the goal.”
Read the complete article at: Philly Trib
