We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Malcome Childs a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Malcome, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

The way I came up with the idea was from doing daiquiri tours with my wife. We love going to daiquiri shops and playing the games. One day we were walking in the park together like we normally do, and we were talking about business ideas. I told her the last time we went in the daiquiri shop, the guy took our order and made the drinks within 2 minutes. I said to myself, he just made almost $20 in 2 minutes. I asked my wife if she like the idea, and she loved the idea. After I did the math, and I seen the profit margins, I knew all I had to do is get the people to come in. My goal was to make a daiquiri shop filled with things I would love to do when I go in a daiquiri shop.

Malcome, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

For all the people who have never heard of me, I am an entrepreneur with many talents. I own a barber, and I am the “Barber Magician”. The name of the daiquiri shop is “Magical Daiquiri Hut”. My goal is to spread magic around the city. I have been an entrepreneur for most of my life and I honestly feel like you have to be chosen for this lifestyle. I have worked for different companies in the past, but it wasn’t meant for me to work for someone’ else’s business. I feel like it is meant for me to provide jobs and opportunities for my people. I grew up in poverty where it was hard to find a job being a male African American. I am happy to be in the position to help my people and give them knowledge to make them better at the same time. Getting the keys and watching the process happen right before my eyes is something that I can not explain. Being business owner is not for the weak and it is extremely tough, but it brings me joy watching people having fun and enjoying themselves in Magical Daiquiri Hut.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When you make up your mind about opening a business and you act on that idea, you have to have resilience. I remember when we got the key to building I thought everything was gonna be smooth because I had everything planned out, not to mention it was a daiquiri shop right before we got it. I didn’t waste any time, I got my contractor in immediately because time is money. After we got the liquor license, we moved forward with getting the rest of the paperwork and that’s where the nightmare started. I quickly found out that the building wasn’t up to code and the previous tenants were working illegally but I was to far in to back out and pick another location. So now I’m dealing with unexpected expenses because we had to get the building up to code. What people don’t tell you is how to pass inspection from the fire marshal. We ended up paying thousands for a fire alarm system because the building didn’t have one. In our lease it states we have to take care of everything on the inside and they take care of everything on the outside. With that being said we also had to add a sink behind the counter and water heater plus another exit door. All of this has to be done in order to pass the fire inspection. All of these things equaled to more than $20k. After we completed those things we set the appointment for the fire marshal to come in and when she got there it was one thing after another. So of course we failed and mind you, months are going by and we still have to pay rent. The things she was asking for are not in a manual you can buy off Amazon. So after her 2nd visit we finally passed but we had to pass the health inspector now. When he came in the nightmare got worse. We had to change the ceiling tile in the bathroom, change the ceiling tile in the lobby, add a water heater, make sure every faucet get to 130 degrees Fahrenheit etc. At this point 6 months have passed by and we still haven’t opened for business but we are still paying rent and extra money on unexpected expenses. A lot of people told me to give up, or turn it into something else so we can get the doors open. I said I’m not gone stop until I open up my daiquiri shop. It got to the point, my contractor was like “I don’t want no more of your money” he really felt bad for me. I just kept the faith and stuck to the plan. After the health inspector came the 2nd time he said one of the faucets was only getting to 100 degrees Fahrenheit and I told him “we can’t fail again”. We have to pay every time the inspector comes out. He said I’m not gonna fail you but you just make sure you fix this issue and send me a pic. That day was the happiest day of my life because we dealt with this process for 8 months. You have to fight for what you want and don’t give up when things get hard.

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

I have a crazy story about my product and how I was able to overcome that obstacle. I always loved daiquiris but I didn’t know how to make them. I was wrecking my brain on how I was gonna open a daiquiri shop and I didn’t know how to make daiquiris in bulk and what the measurements would be. When I went to look at the property before we got the keys, I made a video of the whole place so I can start brainstorming on ideas of how I want to set up everything. One day I was looking at the video and I noticed the previous tenants left a bunch of buckets in the kitchen. The previous tenants happen to be a daiquiri shop. When I looked at the buckets I noticed a name on the side of the bucket. I zoomed in on my phone so I can make out what it said. After I figured it out, I googled the name and it happen to be a company that make the mix for you. This company is your own personal mixologist and they deliver the product to you. I set up a meeting with them and prayed the product was good because I didn’t have a solid plan b. I went and had a 4 hour meeting with this company and they let me try a few different drinks. After talking to them they set me up with a company to get the top of the line machines. So now I have my machines and I have my product that I am able to order more of every week and they deliver it to my daiquiri shop.

Contact Info:

• Website: Magicaldaiquirihut.com
• Instagram: @Magicaldaiquirihut
• Facebook: Magicaldaiquirihut
• Other: We are also on Tik Tok with the same name Magical Daiquiri Hut.

Image Credits
Photographer: Hermandante Cherry