Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalia Ortiz.
Hi Natalia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I am the owner of a very creative and innovative Ice cream shop called Snowrolls located at the International Plaza in Tampa.
A bit about me first. I was born in Colombia and I have lived in Australia and in The Cayman Islands. When my son was 11, he confidently told me he wanted to become a Tennis athlete and play for a great University in the US. At that point, I started visiting Florida and realized that this was the perfect place for him to pursue his dream of competing and becoming an athlete reaching top-ranked junior in the Country. Right now, he is playing for Boston University.
However, in order to achieve all this, we had to first migrate to the US, which was not an easy and straightforward task. So at that moment, I decided to invest in the idea of opening my own Ice Cream store as my investment in order to obtain a visa.
As a child, I always loved ice cream but always needed to settle for the typical flavours. Ice cream always made me happy but I also knew that it would have been awesome if I could create my own “Masterpiece”. So many years later, I made that dream come true.
Snowrolls is all about that. We don’t just sell Ice cream we MAKE ice cream.
We have our own signature flavours ranging from Brownie, Cookie Dough, Oreos, Creme Brulee, Banana Split, Chocomint, Smores, Cotton Candy and Berries and Nutella.
Our customers can also create their own masterpiece and select from our ice cream base of Vanilla, Chocolate, Coffee and Strawberry and mixed in any combination of toppings (we have about 30 to choose from).
Our customers can see their own masterpiece being created in front of their very own eyes from beginning to end.
As time went by, I started realizing that a lot of people were left out due to allergies and food intolerances. So I decided to create a Dairy-free and Gluten-free ice cream as well. That way, everyone walks away happy like me when I was a kid.
I have been raising my kids for 19 years and it was the perfect time to apply my entrepreneurial knowledge and skills as I hold a business degree.
Combining my passion for Ice cream and business seemed like the perfect marriage at the perfect time.
I am ready to grow my business now and I am in the process of franchising the business as a lot of people want to replicate my business idea and my delicious ice cream rolls.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Absolutely not. When COVID hit, I had to close the store due to the mall not allowing anyone to be operating for an indefinite amount of time, but because of my Visa restrictions, I knew I needed to stay open and in business. So I decided to relocate to the International Plaza and I opened June 15, 2020 (right at the beginning of the pandemic). It was not an easy road and I encounter many challenges along the way but slowly but surely I started seeing my business getting busier and bringing a smile to people’s faces for the mere fact that they got out of the house to enjoy some ice cream was just beautiful and emotional.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Snowrolls?
I am a firm believer that if you have a dream or an idea, you must owe it to yourself to go and pursue that exact thing. Like my son and myself, we both had dreams and we both worked really hard for them. Now we are in this wonderful Country called The United States of America. A country full of opportunities for those willing to work hard and open doors.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Eating ice cream ALWAYS brought me happiness. No matter what.
Contact Info:
- Email: infosnowrolls@gmail.com
- Website: www.snowrollsicecream.com
- Instagram: snowrollstampa
- Facebook: snowrolls
Image Credits
SNOWROLLS
