How specialty milkshakes and a lot of work brought growth (and Mark Cuban) to The Yard
Posted On January 12, 2020
What does it take to win on Shark Tank? What does it take to create a successful business in the same space where others in the same industry have failed?
Chelsea and Logan Green can answer both those questions. The owners of The Yard Milkshake Bar, our guests in the latest episode of “What’s Working With Cam Marston,” opened their first location just three years ago and now have franchises in four states with others in the works. Among their investors: Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who bought a stake in their business after a successful appearance on the ABC business pitch show Shark Tank.
What’s their secret? Preparation, ingenuity and a lot of hard work.
“For us, there’s 24 hours in a day,” Logan says. “You’ve got to use them all.”
Chelsea first went into the ice cream business when a custard shop located in a building owned by her father went out of business. After several years of running that business in Gulf Shores, Alabama, she and Logan were approached about opening another shop in a location in the coastal city where several other similar businesses had failed.
“We knew that if we were going to do it, we had to come up with something really exciting, something no one in our area had ever seen,” she says. “So we decided we were going to do milkshakes, something really crazy – put all these crazy toppings and fit it on one milkshake.”
They opened on the weekend of the Hangout Festival, a massive annual music festival on the beach that draws thousands each year, and did so well they had to close the store for two days to replenish their stock and hire more employees.
Since then, the business has grown, even with specialty milkshakes costing as much as $14. Chelsea and Logan describe how they’ve improved efficiency on the line, where the business’ name came from, how they support their franchisees, why maintaining a “semi-destinational” approach to growth is important to them, and why social media has been the most important tool in growing their business.
They also share the inside scoop on their successful appearance on Shark Tank, including how the selection process works, the preparation behind the pitch itself, how the deal is signed afterward and why Cuban was the perfect investor for them.
The lesson in their story? Anything is possible with vision and effort.
“Never underestimate the amount of effort it’s going to take to get something done,” Logan says. “That’s the way Chelsea and I go about absolutely everything: a thousand percent every single time. Go big every single time. If it doesn’t work out, that’s OK. When it does, it’s pretty glorious.”