Kevyn Lee-Wellington

Making business moves…

Q&A with Kevyn Lee-Wellington, the Chief Executive Officer of Fluffy’s Sno-Balls in Los Angeles, he discusses his company and challenges.

What is Fluffy's Sno-Balls, and what inspired you to start it?

Fluffy Sno-balls is a New Orleans Mardi Gras theme concept that makes authentic New Orleans sno-balls. These shaved ice confections are topped with over 85 flavors, including sugar-free options. We are also the Home of the Cheesecake “stuffed” sno-balls.

In 2005, I graduated from the illustrious Tuskegee University. I graduated that spring, moved home that summer on a Friday, and then Hurricane Katrina happened that Sunday. I lost everything! My paternal grandmother was missing, my maternal grandfather was missing, and my family was fragmented across the South. I felt intellectually arrogant, so I got in my car, drove nonstop, came straight to California, and went directly to the Red Cross. I said, “my name is Kevin Lee; I need food, shelter, and clothing,” so the Red Cross gave me $1,000 on a gift card and put me in a shelter. I used that $1000 to buy suits and shirts because I knew I needed to interview.

I was hot and depressed walking Venice Beach, and I was craving a New Orleans sno-ball, but none existed. The only thing they had in Venice was frozen yogurt and ice cream. I thought to myself; someone needs to bring New Orleans sno-balls here to California…I said I would, but you know it costs money to start a company, and I literally had nothing.

I focused on my corporate career and eventually ascended to Vice President of Operations for U.S. Foods; then, I did it again with the cannabis company.

In 2020, when COVID-19 happened, I said, "I'm tired of working for other people, I'm tired of dealing with racial micro-aggressions, and I'm tired of being the only one who looked like me in the room." So, I stepped out on faith. What I thought was a 16-year dream deferred, God has proven to be a destiny fulfilled.

Are there unique challenges to starting a business as an LGBTQIA+ person of color? For example, finding investors for minority-owned companies is much more challenging.

I wouldn't say that there are challenges specifically as it relates to being LGBTQIA+, but I will say that there are challenges of being an entrepreneur when you are Black in America. Access to capital is one of the biggest challenges for one, access to a lot of grants is challenging as well because many grants specifically are for either women or if they are for people of color it's very generalized but nothing for black gay men or black men specifically, so in the areas of financing and funding there are a lot of challenges for black entrepreneurs.

Running a company has its good times and bad times. Can you briefly touch on how you've overcome a challenge and how you celebrate a company win?

As a company, we are faced with many challenges, many highs, and many lows. Many people often times jokingly tell me that I make entrepreneurship look easy. If any person is an entrepreneur, they will know nothing about being an entrepreneur is easy, no matter how one may make it look. When it comes to challenges, I've been faced with many challenges as an entrepreneur, from lack of capital, lack of access to capital, having my business vandalized and burglarized, and you know, even having rude belligerent customers coming into the store who are clearly mentally unstable or intoxicated on some type of a substance; but I would say I live by the adage you can't control what happens to you in life, you only can control your response to what happens to you in life.

What I know for sure is that when it came to access to capital, I knew that I had to make sure that my company was financially solvent and that my books were accurate. I have a bookkeeper and an accountant; they were the first two people I hired in my company.

In terms of lack of capital, one of the things that has always been very important to us as a company is to keep systems and processes, run a very lean operation, and really look at how we can utilize and maximize the talents of our employees and make operations as a whole more efficient. This also allows us to provide a lot of cost-cutting, value-added initiatives to the bottom line.

In regards to celebrating wins, one of the things I've learned as an entrepreneur is that you have to stop and smell the roses. We've had many great successes, and Yelp currently rates us as the number one ice cream shop in the entire state of California, as well as being rated the top 5 ice cream shop in the entire United States and Canada combined. We also have partnerships with some of the largest corporations and have recently signed a 5-year contract with one of the largest sports organizations. So, when we have positive moments like that, it's very critical for us just to stop and really take it all in and really appreciate the work that we do daily.

Since this company was created, we have been consistently rated five stars on Yelp, Google, & Groupon, respectively, with over 500 customer reviews, which is virtually unheard of in the restaurant industry. Fluffy’s Sno-balls pays a lot of attention to detail, quality, and customer service. Our product tastes so good because we use quality products, but we also wrap customers up in that southern hospitality that gives you an unmatched customer service experience.

What advice would you give someone interested in starting their own company?

The best advice I would give someone trying to start their own company is to know what it is you want to do and be prepared to work as an entrepreneur. You're going to work harder and longer than you have with any other job you've ever had in your life. Also, find out what your unique value proposition is. What separates you apart from your competitors? What is the thing that you do best versus your competitors? Perform a SWOT analysis and identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats so you can totally dominate your competitors and dominate the industry.

Another thing I would tell entrepreneurs is to look at your finances; you want to make sure that your personal finances are in order, as well as your business finances. Your personal finances are going to weigh so heavily on you receiving funding as well as finding potential investors, so you just want to make sure that your personal finances are solid. Finally, Read! Read! Read! You must educate yourself, you must learn things, and don't take what everybody says as the Holy Grail. You must do your due diligence to understand your industry, your business, and your customers, and what you need to do to delight them, woo them, and keep them coming back… razzle and dazzle them, as I like to say.