In our series on who says current students don't work hard + the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, meet Bella Williams who goes to UNR while also leading a vending company called Nature's Candy, following in her father's footsteps.
Her own business is selling nuts and dried fruit at local events and parades.
As the daughter of an event planner Williams grew up in the Reno festival scene.
“My dad organizes street events in Reno and he got me into vending,” said Williams.
After one and a half years of vending, she is still going strong, selling with her friend Greydon Geil while they both attend UNR.
“One of my dad’s closest friends was selling the nuts before and he offered to kind of hand it over, but not fully completely, so I could do it as a side hustle,” said Williams.
If you’ve been to any City of Reno or Sparks events, chances are you’ve seen Bella at her booth. Her two favorite events are the Rib Cook Off and the Italian Festival.
“I like the Italian Festival the most because of the culture,” said Williams. “I really like the Rib Cook Off because it’s the biggest show of the year and it's exciting.”
Williams’ father learned the business from his father , who started Williams LTD, a company based out of Tahoe that eventually moved here to coordinate events. They currently have contracts with The Row casinos in Reno and the Sparks Nugget.
Williams’ typical day of selling is filled with waves of customers, followed by slow times. During those slow times she offers samples to try and bring people in. Although some customers take advantage of those samples.
“My least favorite are the people that try everything and then leave,” said Geil.
“Yeah the people that sample every single nut and then don’t buy, its like okay thanks,” said Williams. “Then they don’t even give me a tip afterwards, like I gave you half my nuts bro.”
By the end of event weekends she usually brings in between $800 to $1000 dollars for smaller events, and between $1500 to $1600 dollars for larger events. Her product cost runs up to $600 for an event so profit margins are small.
How busy Williams’ booth gets depends on the times when people are hungry.
“I think its depending on when people are the most hungry and desperate for just anything to eat,” said Williams. “So they just see my nuts and they’re like ‘OK fine’ and try it and then they end up buying it.”
Some of Williams’ strangest customers are the drunk ones, like one guy who kept asking for their numbers.
“Drunk, loud, crazy, kooky customers are my least favorite,” said Williams.
“There was this one time when a drunk guy tried one single nut and then he stood at my booth for like 30 minutes just advertising for me,” said Williams. “He was talking to every person that walked by saying ‘You have to try this’ and I was like ‘thanks,’ and he was scaring all the customers away.”
Out of all the nuts she sells there is one nut that stand above the rest.
“My favorite nut is the cinnamon roll nut because I had never seen it before and when I tried it it was life changing,” said Williams. “It’s glazed in sugar and it literally transforms the whole almond.”
Williams says her next upcoming event is “Crafts For Christmas” inside the Nugget on Thanksgiving weekend.
“Be there or be square," she concluded.