A Las Vegas native who attended UNLV and graduated with honors from the Professional Fitness Institute, Nikki Steven was a fitness expert as early as age 22, when she owned and operated a personal training studio.
“Then I was inspired to create a food program that would complement my clients’ fitness regimens, and I created my first food product with $150,” said Steven, who founded Ideal Foods, which provides packaged meals, in 2014 and serves as CEO.
“My passion to develop food products for my clients now shapes my driven success with Ideal Foods. As a child, one of my 'dream jobs' was to pretend to have my own business. I would collect my parents' unused check registers and expired credit cards, and make pretend business transactions. However, I never thought I would own and operate a USDA- and FDA-regulated food business.”
In 2015, Ideal Foods became certified with the National Women Business Owners Corporation as a women-owned and -controlled business. Soon after, the company received its grant of inspection with the USDA, which took sales from approximately $300,000 to approximately $3 million in just one year.
“Recently, we received certification to manufacture kosher and halal food products,” said Steven, who supports Shade Tree and founded the nonprofit Children’s Fitness Foundation in 2009, implementing her fitness and nutrition program, “Move with Us” at several at-risk schools throughout the Las Vegas Valley. “Continuing to grow Ideal Foods will allow us to build our dream building. Then we will have the foundation we need to continue to grow and establish Ideal Foods as a national food brand.”