Senior Alex Davis is the Founder and CEO of Ice Shack STL, a mobile dessert service that carters events for people of all ages.

“I mainly do shaved Ice but I also have what an ice cream truck can bring,” Davis said. “To get started I needed to get a business license and health permit for each city. Getting different permits and licenses was definitely the biggest obstacle.”

He has always had an entrepreneurial spirit which has helped him throughout his career.

“I have always liked to do things like this ever since I was a young kid,” Davis said. “I’ve always loved making money, I framed my first $100 bill and worked little jobs like mowing and shoveling snow as a kid.”

Ice Shack STL donates 7% of all profits towards the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) whose goal is to reduce the number of Suicide Deaths by 20%.

“I wanted to put my pain to work,” Davis said. “The reason I wanted to raise money towards a cause that obviously our school and class has been through, that was a big goal of mine to raise money and awareness.”

Ice Shack STL broke even its first year and Davis plans to double profits in this upcoming year.

“I have a little billboard on Manchester road of me and my truck,” Davis said. “But its mostly the relationships. I best thing I learned is the people you know will help you get the word out.”

This is the third year of operation and Davis as catered about 75 events.

“The hardest part is there marketing of it,” Davis said. “Getting my name out there and everything is hard cause I am so small and have a low budget compared to larger companies that have more resources and larger name brands.”

You can hire Ice Shack STL through the website, iceshacktl.com, the email, [email protected] or text directly at (314) 707-8372.

“Some advice for people wanting to start their own business: you have to reach out to the customers cause they won’t reach out to you,” Davis said. “You gotta go up to the places in person cause emailing and calling won’t work.”