BEST OFFICE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION!

sweetriot

Location
New York, New York

Business Profile

sweetriot is creating a sweet movement to fix the world!  We do that through sourcing and producing in Latin American, using recyclable, reusable tins that feature emerging artists, and providing a healthy-all natural product that is only 1-2 calories per ‘peace’.  We make all-natural chocolate treats called ‘peaces’, and we work to create a more just and celebrated multicultural world for our next generation.

A sweetriot is a joyful celebration of culture, diversity, and understanding — it is the opposite of a civil riot, which is dangerous, violent, and oppressing. We have a set of values we use in our daily business practices which are key to the soul and foundations of our company.

• We use premium, high quality, and all-natural ingredients.
• We believe in equitrade with developing countries.
• We celebrate culture and diversity through our products.
• We create sweet experiences for our customers, partners and employees.
• We are young at heart, energetic, down-to-earth and contribute to the greater good.

We view social responsibility in 3 key areas:  Our Product. Our People. Our Partnerships. We worked hard to create something that is healthy, yummy, green, natural, and created end to end with our partners in Latin America.  Secondly, Sarah the founder and chief rioter is committed to building a workplace, which is empowered, team-oriented, positive, and service oriented. On the inside of our company, we need to be responsible in order to serve our partners and rioters effectively. Thirdly are our partnerships with our retailers, and the rioting community.   sweetriot is sold in over 2500 retailers nationwide including Whole Foods, Sur la Table, Cost Plus, and other specialty/natural gourmet retailers and on sweetriot.com

sweetriot has been covered by The NY Times, The Today Show, Forbes, Newsweek, Business Week, Gourmet  Magazine and more.   sweetriot was recently named as a finalist on Fast Company’s ‘Fast 50’ list and in the Top 3 of Fortune’s Small Business Competition.  sweetriot has been called out as a ‘Sustainable Product & Green Gift’ by Vanity Fair, CNN, Food & Wine, and was selected for the New York Gift Show’s “Sustainability” exhibit.  sweetriot also won the “Green Product Award” at Expo East.

The “sweetest” part about a riot is that it never happens alone, and we hope to inspire others to create their own sweet movement to promote or bring attention to a cause they believe in whether that be socially responsible business, living a ‘green’ lifestyle, or promoting a healthy lifestyle. Join the sweet movement to fix the world!

Visit www.sweetriot.com


Contest Entry

Challenge:
sweetriot (maker of all-natural chocolate treats called 'peaces') has a small rioting team with no budget for an admin or office manager in sight.  The FT team of rioters (our employees) constantly used to look around and wonder who was in charge of supplies, office cleanliness, and office structure and direction.  When something was wrong with the office, there was nowhere to turn.  sweetriot is a chocolate company so even one day a full supply of chocolate was placed in storage by the heater and completely melted.

Solution:
1 - To begin, after having no clear person for general office tasks, we decided to create the rioting 'homebase' team.  This team included the 3 individuals who traveled the least and who could help on the homefront.  They were put in charge of office beautification and stabilization.  One can simply email homebase@sweetriot.com with any concerns.  As a CEO, I feel better staying focused on sales and critical business issues and having an official team to ask about office tasks/well being.  

2 - When we moved into a new office, one member of the homebase team stepped up to be in charge of design, furniture, and layout including runs to IKEA when necessary.  We were able to fully furnish our office for just over $1,000 in New York City.  Furthermore, our Board pitched to help the homebase team with photo frames and gifts to support the office culture.

3 - Lastly, when we moved into a new office, we asked our customers for new office names.  They sent many ideas including 'peace pad' and 'central riot agency.'  Eventually our customers voted online for the name to be 'riot room.'  It's free to ask your customers and they feel good about being part of the process.  :) At small companies, you must marshal resources from your customers to your board to your very own team.  You just can't do it alone.  Today our riot room is a happy home.

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