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

Isaiah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

One goal we set out to achieve was to become a vendor at the State Fair of Texas. We started by joining an organization that offered spaces. Simple enough through our membership we signed up at the appropriate time and paid our fees. But then the real work began and the realization that we needed to change our processes quickly set in. The first obstacle was not planning how many pouches of kool-aid pickles, kool-aid pineapples and kool-aid pineapple juice to take. The obstacle was how we would achieve such a grand number. Money was obviously going to be an issue. We were previously using the bootstrapping method which worked on a small scale but not any longer. The quickest way was credit cards which worked out wonderfully with all of the approvals we received! We began to attempt to build relationships with companies that provided the ingredients to our special recipe. Two of the three companies refused to sell directly to us and pointed us towards the stores. The third company would sell direct but demanded cash up front, remember we’re using credit cards. Taking their advice, we were able to successfully order from a local stores warehouse for one ingredient . Unfortunately, we were unable to order three major ingredients from other stores warehouses, so we had to visit many locations many times cleaning out their stock to fulfil our quota, can you believe the looks we received. The next obstacle was storage. Where would we store all these ingredients and most importantly where would we store all the product while it was soaking and after it was bagged. Speaking of bagging, the other obstacle was did we really want to punch a hole in a label and place it on a pouch 9000 times. Absolutely not! This led to a new design of preprinted pouches to simplify the process. Of course yet another obstacle presented itself. Did we also want to count 9000 pouches before and after each day we sold or even try to keep up with sells by marking it on a sheet of paper as the day went by. NO! So we now have a website (www.iceyskoolaidpicklesandpineapples.com) that comes with an inventory system to help us out in that department. The last obstacle still in the thinking tank, is can our team of 3 achieve the entire process and if not, who should we invite to join us? We believe the experience of preparing for the State Fair of Texas will definity benefit us as our business continues to grow .

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Icey’s Kool-aid Pickles and Pineapples started when a 9 year Isaiah wanted to buy a dirt bike. His father showed him how to earn money instead. The goal was met but has now changed. Now 12 years old, Isaiah wants to be able to provide employment to others. We sell kool-aid pickles, kool-aid pineapples and kool-aid pineapple juice. Our customer say it’s an experience of happiness when they enjoy our products. We are competitive in pricing and our flavors are like no other. Supporting this business is supporting a future not only for Isaiah but for others that are inspired by his story to create their own future.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

We receive feedback from our customers regarding our packaging design and our flavors. Word of mouth regarding the two is a major contributor to our reputation.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

Our products are made in our home. We purchase the ingredients but we do all of the mixing. The recipes are created by our flavorologist Blake (Isaiah’s Dad). Manufacturing also includes the packaging. We started out with glass jars but when they became hard to locate, we used resealable pouches a fellow business was using. When those pouches did not work for our liquid products we discovered a different resealable pouch and have used them thus far. Regarding labeling the pouches, we started with simple hand written office labels from the dollar tree. Eventually we upgraded and printed mailing labels from a home printer that were designed by our graphic designer Kahdessa (Isaiah’s Mom). The labels began to experience problems when placed in ice so with a recommendation from another business we upgraded to waterproof labels through a printing company. Our packaging will soon change again due to the growth in business and need to simply the process. The manufacturing process is ever changing with improvements or creating new recipes. Having a great team and networking will help along the way!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.iceyskoolaidpicklesandpineapples.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/iceyskoolaidpickles
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/iceyskoolaidpickles
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@IceysKoolaidPickles
• Other: www.tiktok.com/iceyskoolaidpickles

Image Credits
Kahdessa Henderson Isaac Brown