Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsey Judson.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am in a way an accidental entrepreneur. After working in er and critical care for a little over a decade as a registered nurse, I had 3 children in two years. When my last was an infant, I decided that I would not be returning to nursing and would instead work from home. A couple of years later I took over my grandparents’ business that happened to be a convenience store in my hometown of Marquez. I literally had no clue what I was doing… I was just figuring it out as I went along. My husband is an oil and gas distributor, so he was a huge help. He is also the one that has taught my typically over-analytical self to just jump and build my parachute on the way down so that it what I did. On a whim, we bought a little shack to add to my store as we both had a dream to own a sno cone business as kids. After a high school friend had made a joke about adding rum to his sno cone, I found out through my hospitality lawyer that, due to zoning, I could also add daiquiris to go. It really took off in my small hometown. Then…. the covid shutdown hit. While the rest of the world shut down, we kept grinding as our primary businesses were considered essential. During a late night on the back porch with some friends drinking wine, we decided that I needed to add a second location. Within the week, we had put in an offer on a piece of land that we found by accident while looking at other properties. It was not even on MLS at the time. It was like it was just meant to be! Just the perfect property for what we had envisioned. After lots of trial and error with the shipping and supply crisis of 2021… we finally had a location to do a little business, sell a few sno cones, and sling a few drinks!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
NO! If you are looking for easy, do everything you can to avoid small business. Small business is hard, but the pandemic and the current global environment have made it even harder. Every day it’s some new problem, from supplies to cost of goods, everything is just insane. The hardest part is building a consistent and steady team. In some ways, we have been beyond blessed, in others it had been beyond frustrating. I am a very driven person. I want my businesses to succeed and then some. I want to serve my customers and make my mark. However… My priority is always my husband and my girls. We have to be super careful and super intentional about making sure “all the things” stay in alignment with that due to being so busy with our businesses. It’s really easy to let work and the dozen problems that pop up day to day take over, but you just can’t do that.
As you know, we’re big fans of LouLou’s at Cedar Creek. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We are the very definition of small business. My husband is my business partner. Half the time my kiddos are at work with me. We are the ones out searching for equipment and staying up late trying to make sure everything meets our standards and fits our program and then arguing with each other to make sure everything fits the sometimes different vision that both of us have. I try very hard to be fun and creative and to make sure that our little cold creations are something that people will tell their friend about or share on social media. Most of the time I try my new daiquiris out on my girlfriends. Before we added “Manuel’s Mangonada,” I called my buddy that had been requesting it on social media and he and his wife and daughter got right in their car and came over and tried it that very day to make sure it was up to snuff. It passed the test:) but there were two others that day that still needed work. I am not someone that is scared of a little constructive criticism. Our long-term employees become our family. Their concerns and anxieties and victories are things that we care about and feel along with them. As far as branding, welllllll what you see is what you get. I try to be the same person on social media that I am in real life. That twang that you read in a FB post is just as small town as it seems. If you are looking for perfect and polished and filtered… I am not your girl, and this is not your place. I like to be transparent about what is working and what is not. I think this helps customers be a little more forgiving as things inevitably go wrong or as we try new things that don’t play out. Whether it’s equipment or just simply too busy (which is an amazing problem to have), they can see that we are trying our ass off and they appreciate that. Most do anyway. We still get a Karen or a Richard here and there, but I would venture to guess we have less than a lot of businesses, I think the reason is that people know we really are doing our best and want to serve them and please them, If I screwed it up… which happens as I am human… Then I will try my very best to make it right and our returning customers can sense that. I say pretty often… if you can’t be happy at a snow cone place… then you can’t be happy. I am referring to employees and customers. What we do is fun and joyful. That feeling is contagious.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I am assuming this question is about Dallas. My business definitely benefits from being this close to the metroplex. The reason the CCL area is growing like it is because it’s far enough away to feel like an escape but not too far to return to the real world on Sunday evening. We are far enough out that it makes people feel like they are getting away for the day or the weekend. We have had people drive down for just the day. That makes you feel good. That people are curious enough to drive over an hour just to support your small business. As far as Seven Points, which is where we are actually located, I love that it has that super small-town feel to it. I am a small-town girl myself (my hometown has a population of 220), so I think we fit right in.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @loulousatcc
- Facebook: LouLou’s at Cedar Creek Lake
Image Credits
Lacy Johnson Photography
