Hi, I am Hallie Thompson, the owner of Wholesome Hal’s a healthy food stand. I started my business last summer selling smoothie bowls, protein balls and banana bread at the Great Falls Farmers Market. I was able to combine my passions for eating healthy and protecting the planet by using biodegradable or compostable packaging for all my products. The missing piece was my passion for writing and sharing my opinions on things such as eating healthy, protecting the earth and the various ways to be an eco-warrior, so I have decided to start this blog.
For my very first blog post I would like to talk about my journey in becoming a business owner at sixteen.
I took a business class my sophomore year (I am currently finishing my junior year) and the end of the semester project was to create and present a business plan in a mock shark tank. I created Wholesome Hal’s inside the cubicles of the business room at Great Falls High just hoping to get an A in my class. However, the more hours I poured into my business plan, the more and more I fell in love with the idea of Wholesome Hal’s. I truly believe that healthy food gets a bad rap for being too expensive and bland, this is not the case. I loved the idea of showing Great Falls the truth—my smoothie bowls are both DELICIOUS and NUTRITIOUS without adding any sugar. After getting second place at the City Shark Tank Competition and winning a $500 scholarship I got the crazy idea to start Wholesome Hal’s. I started buying blenders, getting licenses, making phone calls and smoothie bowls like crazy. Then one Saturday in July, I was at my Farmers Market debut.
I have had so much fun being able to sell clean food with little to no refined sugar in all my products and showing Great Falls that healthy food is in fact delicious. It has been an amazing experience and I can not wait for what happens next.
I would lastly like to thank everyone that helped me along the way. I would first like to thank Mr. Donisthrope, my business teacher for helping create my very first business plan and for eventually encouraging me to join DECA and get first place in my event! I would like to thank my parents for supporting me and not thinking I was too crazy. I would like to thank my sister, Lizzie, for being my most honest test subject and a splendid helper. I would like to thank my Papa Randy for helping my buy my trailer and my Goofy Papa for helping me buy my generators. I would like to thank Mimi for helping me prepare the night before my debut and Nana for helping me create a dairy-free, gluten-free, sugar-free banana bread recipe. I would like to thank Gavin and Reece Groshelle for being splendid helpers as well. I would like to thank J&V Restaurant and Fire Supply for offering to give me free stuff. I would like to thank Baylee Raye Furthmyre, the Blair’s, Lauren and Darby Rich and Susan Wolff for being some of my most supportive customers!
Lastly, I would like to thank every single one of my customers because when you buy from a small business an actual person does a happy dance (I am that person).