Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Haley King. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Haley, appreciate you joining us today. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

The biggest blessing I have had in the success of my business comes from my wonderful staff. I can’t tell them enough that they are just so wonderful, respectful, courteous, and responsible, and they take initiative. I have had some employees since day one of my business and they are the ones that set the foundation of the staff that we have today. A lot of our hiring process happens through word of mouth and people knowing the standards of the staff that we do hire. The biggest advice I can give when it comes to staff is to make sure they know they are appreciated. They are the ones that are dealing with the public day in and day out and they are the reason we have returning customers as my focus is other business necessities. If it wasn’t for them creating and maintaining such a fun, welcoming, and family-friendly environment, my business would not be where it is today, nor as successful. When owning a business, take all of the bosses that you have had in the past (good and bad) and take out the qualities that you appreciated as an employee under them and manage using the good qualities and learn from the bad qualities.

Haley, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Haley King. I own Stella’s Homemade Ice Cream and Cakes in Murrells Inlet and Conway, South Carolina. We have been open for about a year and a half and we have had so much fun making quality and premium homemade ice cream and cakes for our awesome customers. I was born and raised here and my drive has always been to give back to the community that helped raise me, and owning my own ice cream shop has helped me in doing so. We have created a fun, family-oriented environment where we get to serve, not only delicious, hand-crafted ice cream, but doing so with buildings that make it fun just to hang out and play games. We have made over 135 recipes of homemade ice cream that we have had raving reviews over….so much so, that Stella’s was named “Top Rated Ice Cream Shop in South Carolina” on Google in our very first year open! We believe this is due to our amazing staff, our quality ingredients, and delicious cakes and ice cream, but also because of our creative and fun flavors. We have had flavors like, Red Velvet, Cosmic Brownie, Gooey Butter Cake, Cookie Butter, Boston Cream Pie, and soooo many others!! It’s a must-try whenever you are in South Carolina!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Along the way in my journey of opening an ice cream shop, I’ve had people that weren’t supportive or said I was too young, or that I shouldn’t be in business, but honestly, those comments only made me want to prove them wrong. Your age or other people’s opinions of your abilities have no bearing on whether your business will be successful or not. Drive, determination, and love for what you do will allow you to succeed. Lean on those that do support what you want to do, and allow them to build you up, rather than allowing the negative comments to tear you down.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I think being born and raised here has helped a little in growing our clientele. Where I live, it is more of a tourist destination, and what has helped me is those people that have known me since I was a kid and knew my determination and character, they have always been supportive and have always helped spread the word about my business. My friends, and family continue to share about their experience of Stella’s and almost take ownership when telling new people about the store. Just like people say “it takes a village” when raising kids, well I would go as far as to say it takes a village to grow a business and I am quite blessed to have such a supportive backing of people that love me and my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: stellas-icecream.com
• Instagram: @stellas_ice_cream
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StellasHomemadeIceCream/