Every weekend, 鶹Ƶȫ University student Zoe Noel travels throughout northeast Ohio, filling the streets with the aroma of coffee and freshly made donuts.
For Noel, a junior marketing major, her love for the craft began as a young child baking with her grandmother. Combining her love for sweet treats with her dream of being an entrepreneur, Noel says she approached her parents one random day with the idea of a coffee and donut food truck.
“My dad didn’t even blink, and he said, ‘let’s do it,’” Noel said.
Using a play on her first name, she came up with Zonuts and Lattes, a food truck that specializes in freshly made donuts, specialty lattes, and cold brews. Noel said her idea behind the food truck was to bring something to the community it didn’t already have.
“I figured there’s not anywhere you can get a fresh donut around here, and I love donuts,” Noel said. “And what goes great with donuts is coffee.”
Zonuts and Lattes has eight different donuts to choose from including their signature Zonut, a cinnamon and sugar donut with marshmallow drizzle. The other seven flavors can be dressed up with a variety of options like sprinkles. Another menu option are the Zo Stix, which are cream sticks from a variety of flavors to choose from, such as vanilla, chocolate, maple and Oreo.
Before opening last May, Noel said that she worked to perfect the menu and bring in items that she knew people would love.
She also strives to balance work and school while focusing on her grades.
“It was a little overwhelming at first, but it was always fun,” Noel said.
Owning her own food truck has been both challenging and rewarding for the young entrepreneur. Every weekend, she and her parents arrive at her location for the day two hours before opening to begin the donut-making process.
“We make all of our donuts fresh every day, we don’t ever sell a day-old donut,” she said.
They have a good routine now. But when they started, there was a lot of trial and error.
“We experimented with thousands of donuts before we opened. I just love recommendations from our customers too. They’re like ‘you should put this on a donut!,’ and then we try it and sell it.”
Noel is an example of how 鶹Ƶȫ’s distinctive programs prepare students for the real world and give them the tools to enter the workforce with confidence. She recognizes how her time here at 鶹Ƶȫ and the classes in her marketing major have helped her with the entrepreneurial process.
“I feel like I’ve gained a lot of knowledge from that, and now I can put what I learned into my business, and it’s really cool to see them correlate,” she said.
In the future, Noel hopes to expand her business by adding to the menu, expanding her trailer, selling Zonuts and Lattes merchandise, and eventually expanding into multiple food trucks.
Noel said this May she should have her bigger trailer running up, which will allow her to add more options to the menu. This summer, the plan is to serve different lemonade flavors and snow cones.
Her favorite part about running a business is getting the opportunity to sell to her classmates, and watching her customers become regulars.
“I have these people, and what they look forward to every week is the Zonut truck,” Noel said. “That just makes me so happy and makes me want to do my job every day. It’s because these people look forward to me being open.”