‘I Wanted to Do My Own Thing’: Birmingham, Alabama, Boy Operates His Own Shaved Ice Business

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” is the age-old question that every young child is asked. While some children may fantasize about becoming an astronaut or a ballerina, 12-year-old Mario Mack is already living out his dream of being an entrepreneur by operating his own shaved ice shop on the weekends.

The middle school student from Birmingham, Alabama, first got the idea for “J’s Pop-Up Shaved Ice” two years ago, drawing inspiration from his mother’s hard work ethic, CBS 42 reported.

“She really liked to work for herself, and I saw that, like, early on when she started and I thought it was really cool,” Mack told CBS 42. “So, I wanted to do my own thing and start a food truck.”

Mack bought his first trailer with assistance from Urban Impact Birmingham — an organization dedicated to assisting the next generation of entrepreneurs.

“We try to really create access and opportunities for all entrepreneurs. So we have programs, we have capital access, and we also try to develop in the district as well,” Courtney Craig, the program manager at Urban Impact Birmingham said. “It’s necessary. We need to have a wraparound approach in our community when we’re serving entrepreneurs and we need our kids to have something productive,” said Craig.

Craig said she has seen an influx of ambitious, young entrepreneurs in the last couple of years. The Wall Street Journal reported during the COVID-19 pandemic that applications for new businesses rose to their highest levels since 2007.

Many young, Gen-Z, entrepreneurs have found their success through e-commerce such as drop-shipping — the ultimate extension of the “just in time” manufacturing and delivering model developed before COVID hit. Inside Sources reported last year that now self-made, multimillionaire, 24-year-old Sebastian Ghiorghiu has made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling products on Shopify.

As for 12-year-old Mack, he is keeping himself busy with school and work, hoping to one day own his own restaurant.

“Whatever you put your mind to you can do and whatever you’re passionate about you should do it because it could really come true,” said Mack.