Starting a business from scratch, sisters junior Funmi
and sophomore Olamide Ayeni created Genki Slush, a
beverage business that has been featured in the Festival
of Nations and Oktoberfest.
“I felt like there were no healthy options out there for
kids,” Olamide Ayeni said. “I love slushies, but my mom never
let me have them because they are unhealthy, so my sister
and I decided to make healthier options. Our drinks actually
have fruit in them instead of just sugary mush.”
The sisters came up with the business for a camp
known as Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. The
camp is for high school students and is a competition that
gives winners a cash prize.
“I did the business plan and the math, and Olamide
made the recipe,” Funmi Ayeni said. “Doing that
combined both of our strengths. We won the
competition, and we got money because
of it.”
The sisters had to come up with a
business plan and present it in order to
win money from the NTE camp; the
presentation itself took two weeks.
“I always expect perfection,”
Olamide Ayeni said. “If I expect it
to go far, I do anything to get it to
where it needs and I look for solutions
to any problems that arise.”
The sisters get the ingredients,
including fresh fruit, from Trader
Joe’s and Schnucks. They purchase
ingredients that are fresh
and mostly organic.
“We did market research, so
we had mango and strawberry
frozen drinks, and in October we
had pumpkin spice frozen and a
warm drink,” Olamide Ayeni said.
“For winter we are thinking vanilla
because of snow. The whole basis is to
have an alternative solution to other frozen
drinks like slushies; these are all natural ingredients
and healthy, and there’s also no dairy.”
The name “Genki Slush” comes from
the Japanese word for “healthy” due to the
healthy alternatives for slushies.
“We haven’t found a place we can sell,
a vendor, because we have been busy with
school,” Funmi Ayeni said. “We will be registering
and legalizing our business pretty
soon — our mom and dad will help us with
that.”
The sisters will continue with the business,
and they hope to have an outside
store-front by the time Olamide Ayeni
graduates high school in 2019.
“It’s always in the back of my head,
I’m always thinking about it,” Olamide
Ayeni said. “About seven hours a
week we just see what we have and
look for more opportunities to sell:
what flavors are in, what fads are
happening — it’s not a chore for
me at all.”