I am beyond excited to be starting my internship at HunnyBon in NYC! HunnyBon is an e-commerce candy company whose products have been researched, hand picked, and approved by a nutritional counselor, with the health of you, animals, and the planet in mind. HunnyBon candies and chocolates are organic, vegan, sustainablyproduced, minimally processed, and are always free from GMOS, refined sugars, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, dairy and animal products, artificial sweeteners, colors, flavors, and additives, preservatives, pesticides, and trans-fats. With Hunnybon sweets, you will never have to feel guilty or shameful about feeding your sweet tooth. The best part is, these candies taste so good. They are of significantly higher quality than the chocolates you buy at the grocery store, and they are made with real ingredients such as natural sweeteners. Please feel free to learn more about these sweets (here).
Besides gaining experience working with a startup, I am proud to be a part of this project because I believe in the product. It is unfortunate that 2 in every 3 adults in the United States are considered overweight. (National Health and Nutrition). For most people, putting on weight is much more difficult than losing it because humans crave sugar. Many of us have a sweet tooth and need to satisfy our cravings. This is where Hunnybon comes into play! These natural chocolates and candies help us indulge without putting chemicals and unnecessary fats into our bodies. People need to limit their intake of artificial flavors and colors, corn-syrup and high-fructose corn syrup, refined sweeteners, cheap processed ingredients, GMO ingredients, preservatives, transfats, and even plastics because all these ingredients have been linked to serious health disorders like ADD/ADHD, Autism, Cancer, Infertility, Diabetes, Obesity, Heart Disease, Asthma/Allergies, Learning Disorders, Nerve Damage and even Brain Damage. HB I am passionate about HunnyBon because it provides a healthy alternative to the sweets we crave.
On my first day of work, my boss Kim had me sample almost every candy! I couldn’t possibly try them all in one day, but I definitely tried everything by the end of the week. Kim has been in the nutrition business for many years and has experience providing nutritional counseling in both Israel and the United States. She is passionate about what she does and she started this business to merge together her love of sweets with her healthy lifestyle. She enjoys making people happy and feels that helping people to live a healthy life is a wonderful thing.
After conducting a taste test of each product, my favorite HunnyBon snacks were the no Sugar ‘Milk’ Chocolate Hearts and the strawberry SuperFruit Chews. After sampling the products, Kim gave me a tour of the office and the warehouse and demonstrated the storage and packaging process. The candy is kept in wine coolers to stay fresh since it is not made with chemicals or preservatives. The company values its’ careful and delicate shipping and storage process to ensure the products arrive in perfect form.
During my first week at HunnyBon, I am focusing on marketing and public relations. I am helping to manage the company’s social media platforms, specifically Facebook and Instagram. This includes taking attractive photographs of the products and thinking of creative marketing campaigns that would be relevant to the candy and themes of the season. Kim and I talk out our ideas during one-on-one meetings and I hope to discuss more of my ideas and how they have come to life in my next blog post.
I am also communicating with different organizations about how to ship HunnyBon sweets to Canada without the product getting stuck at customs or racking up high export fees. I called the Canadian Consulate to request information and am now in the process of getting the proper documentation in order. Hopefully we can get the company approved to ship the product across the Canadian border without hassle.
In the near future, Kim and I will be working on standardizing financial statements and preparing information for investors. The company is currently seeking angel investors and hopes to expand into physical locations but first they need to complete their fundraising package. This includes organizing their financial information to show how HunnyBon sales are growing and expected to grow even further. I am looking forward to the financial aspects of the internship most because I am excited to implement the skills I have learned at Brandeis into the real world, for a this small but fierce startup.
