Inspiring Conversations with Shameika, Shane, and Madison Howell of Maddy’s Juice Bar

Maddy’s Juice Bar started in 2019 as an idea inspired by 8-year-old Madison who watched videos of children on YouTube having lemonade stands. She wanted one of her own and my husband and I immediately said yes! Madison prepared two pitchers of Kool-Aid, I made a poster board, and we all walked to our neighborhood park asking only for donations for a cup of grape or blue raspberry Kool-Aid. That day, she made $55.50! This experience gave her the idea to make this a business of her own. With the help of her dad, she decided to create fresh juices inspired by his Jamaican heritage. We launched in March 2021 with one flavor; a hibiscus tea called Sorrel which is a flower native to Jamaica and typically consumed during Christmas time. We ambushed our closest family and friends on a Saturday afternoon and gave them samples of juice to try. It was well received! This excitement led us to continue and by the end of the year we had 3 custom flavors. In 2022, we have created 5 custom flavors with more to come. Our hope is to create juice that is delicious and nutritious while honoring the culture my husband experienced as child in Jamaica which is being passed on to Madison today.

There have been so many learning experiences along the way. We had our own ideas as well as being flooded by ideas from family and friends. From the beginning, we wanted to create a custom product that had its own uniqueness hoping that this would make us stand out from the rest. In the beginning, some of the first challenges were figuring out how to create a recipe in bulk, where to buy ingredients, materials, and labels, how to ship our product, how to gain more customers outside of our immediate circle, and how to advertise/market ourselves. We had soooo much to accomplish and had to figure the best way to go about it all. We are so thankful for God opening up these doors because we had no idea how to do any of this before we began!

Maddy’s Juice Bar is a fresh juice company owned and operated by 11-year-old entrepreneur Madison Howell in partnership with her parents Shane and Shameika Howell. We began in August 2019 with just an idea of a Kool-Aid stand and from there we decided to make it official. The pandemic put our plans on hold and then an unexpected pregnancy really sealed the deal to wait. After a devastating loss of our son Greyson who was born premature on December 22, 2020, our materials sat idle until March 2021. We decided that it would be now or never and on one Saturday morning we would launch Maddy’s Juice Bar officially. We only had idea for one juice to start so we made a small batch, bottled it, and ambushed our closest family and friends. It was well received! We posted it on social media and sold 100 bottles in mere days. It has been going strong and since then we have created 4 other custom flavors using fresh ingredients!

We specialize in handmade juice using fresh fruits and vegetables. We are known for our colorful packaging and labels. Each juice has a unique label and color-coded cap. We like to keep it a secret of what the next juice or color will be and will involve our customers online through polls, live broadcasts, contest and raffles to see if anyone can guess the new flavor. We will offer the winner of the contest the opportunity to be the first to taste our newest juice for free. They get super excited!

We are also known for our namesake Madison’s picture on the labels. The “little girl” on each bottle has a unique expression and color of juice in her cup to match each flavor. “She’s so cute!” is what we hear when people see our labels for the first time or “Who is Maddy?” and then we point to Madison who is shyly smiling. We like to address each customer by name and will post their smiling faces with their purchase on our social media pages. Maddy loves personalizing her posts and packages, so each post, package, and paper bag is hand signed with “Love, Maddy” and she really means it!

We are most proud that we took an idea completely from scratch and created something that is uniquely ours. Each of our recipes, labels, names of our juices, merchandise, slogans, and fan base were completely hand-crafted by us. We have really made a name for ourselves in terms of being recognizable and relatable to our small yet growing customer base. The fact that our CEO is 11 sets us apart from most small businesses and she (like us) are learning as we go and grow!

I would want your readers to know that although we are a family-owned small (very small) business, we strive for excellence, professionalism and to continue to represent our family and culture through our juices! We can be reached via social media through our Facebook store @maddysjuicebar4 and IG @maddys_juicebar. There, they can keep up with all of the pop-up shops or vendor shows where we sell our juices in person. We also offer shipping and have shipped to about 14 states thus far! If they are local, we offer local pick-up and delivery.

I believe one of the most important lesson we have learned along the journey has been to allow ourselves to learn as we go and allow ourselves to fall but to pick back up and keep going. We had no idea how to even ship a package locally when a curious customer wanted to try our juices in Traverse, City, MI but now, we have shipped to over 14 states! Likewise, we had never sold our juices outside of friends and family and when invited to a pop-up shop, we had no idea what to bring or how to sell in that type of environment. Since our launch in 2021, we will have participated in over 40 vendor shows, 2 radio interviews shipped to over 14 states, participated in Detroit SOUP pitch contest, and have met and networked with so many people along the way. We still have such a long way to go! Our goal is to become a household name with the hope of getting on store shelves! It’s all a learning experience. Some things work better than others, but it is up to us to figure out what is best for our business and most of all our loyal customers. For Madison, it has been learning how to work for something you want. Maddy’s Juice Bar went from an idea to an actual business because she put the work behind her heart’s desire. We all have our days when we feel like we aren’t doing enough or making enough profit or want to throw in the towel, but we have to remember that this is bigger than us and our little angel Greyson is in Heaven cheering us on to keep going!