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When Angela Shen sold her food tour business, Savor Seattle, it wasn’t a simple decision—and it involved many tears. After pivoting her business to curated food boxes throughout the pandemic, Angela wasn’t feeling challenged professionally or personally, so she decided it was time to maneuver on.
However the entrepreneurial drive that made her succeed with Savor Seattle never faded. After trying a company job and taking day without work to travel, she decided to begin something recent: Savor the Wild Tours. Her recent business offers novel food experiences in Washington’s local wilderness, reminiscent of mushroom foraging and oyster shucking.
“You need to be a lifetime learner. Should you’ve stopped or you’re feeling like, ‘I do know enough, I’m a professional at this already,’ that is no fun,” Angela said. “I’m having far more fun today than I actually have had in years.”
At Savor Seattle, Angela had a team of 30 to 35 team members creating and running food tours together with her. Along with her recent business, she’s a solo entrepreneur and does all of the work herself: finding locations, creating itineraries, and leading tours.
When making a recent business, Angela also adopted a recent mindset—less give attention to success by way of profits and more on providing quality experiences.
“It won’t be 30,000 [customers] a yr like we did before, perhaps a pair hundred, perhaps even a thousand,” Angela said. “That private touch and that impact that we have now is a lot deeper, and it makes me completely satisfied. That may be a marker of success that never was a part of the equation before.”
After owning and dealing on Savor Seattle for 17 years, Angela felt her identity was intertwined with the identity of the business. With Savor the Wild, she tries to compartmentalize work from her personal life to avoid stress and burnout. As a one-person operation, she’s capable of run the tours on her own schedule, allowing her to spend more quality time together with her family and work on other business ventures, reminiscent of business consulting.
“I used to be lucky as an entrepreneur to have began a successful business early in my profession, so I actually have this privilege now of not having all of that pressure on me to say my success in life is defined by this one business,” Angela said. “I feel really pleased with that, and my kids got to see that, and I believe now it’s about showing them and myself that I’m able to more.”
Along with Savor the Wild having an analogous namesake, Angela maintains Savor Seattle’s values of diversity and inclusion in her recent ventures. She makes sure every customer feels welcome at each experience, regardless of what they give the impression of being like or where they arrive from.
“I do not really appear to be your average mushroom forager. Most individuals I encounter within the woods look very different,” Angela said. “As someone who’s of minority background and needed to take care of adversity to get to where I’m today, and can proceed to take care of it, I intend to make it easier for others to return into this space and to accomplish that in a way that feels protected and welcoming.”
When debating big business decisions, other business owners can learn from Angela’s journey, including the next suggestions:
- Stay true to your values. While Savor the Wild offers different experiences from Savor Seattle, each businesses foster a spirit of adventure and inclusion, representing the business owner’s values.
- Form useful partnerships. Throughout her journey, Angela found trustworthy business partners that helped her think through tough business decisions and even connected her with the corporate that bought Savor Seattle.
- Take heed to your gut. When debating the sale of Savor Seattle, Angela listened to her hunch, leading her to a satisfying decision that opened doors to recent opportunities.
Take heed to the episode below to listen to directly from Angela, and subscribe to Behind the Review for more from recent business owners and reviewers every Thursday. You may also take a look at our 2021 episode with Angela.
Available on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and Soundcloud.