Meet the Owners
As an adolescent, I was a late-developer; skinny, shorter than the other boys, and pretty self-conscious about it. I suppose that this is where my journey that led up to the conception of Squeeze began. At 15 or 16, I started lifting weights in my basement and had my first protein shake. It was kind of gross, but still, I was hooked. I was desperate to do something about my size, and before long, I became quite the expert smoothie maker. In 1995, I had my first smoothie that I didn’t make myself, at a shop in Los Angeles called Juice Plus. I enjoyed it and the best part was that I didn’t have to do the work. Juice Plus became a regular stop for me and it didn’t go unnoticed that it was busy every time I visited. It got me thinking, and although I didn’t act on my ideas at the time, they never left my mind.
The next step on the journey occurred in 2006 when I purchased my first juicer. Every morning, I’d make myself an orange/carrot juice and it was great, but the prep and clean up sure was a pain in the butt. I spent about 20 minutes of my morning making that juice. It occurred to me then that I certainly wasn’t the only person who must find making juice a nuisance. People would surely place value on having someone else make it for them. Now the gears of my brain were really turning. Ideas started going down on paper a little at a time. A menu of juice, smoothies, and lots of food items starting coming together. Eventually, work began on a business plan for an organic café and juice bar, and was completed in 2010. Financing was very difficult to come by, however. Rather than be discouraged, I started a little home-based juice cleanse business, and this is where Maureen came on board. As the business grew, we kept our eyes open for the perfect location for the store we wanted so badly. Being patient and persistent, we found it and together we forged Squeeze.
Squeeze is quite a bit different than the business in my original business plan, but it is the perfect business for us and came at the perfect time for us. I know that if I got what I wanted all those years ago, the business probably would have come and gone already, and would just be a memory. In these years, I’ve learned so much about nutrition, about juice, about food, and about business. I’ve grown so much personally, and I met Maureen. That growth and knowledge has put us in a position to succeed. Having a dedicated partner who cares about our business as much as I do has put us in a position to do great things and to sustain success. Squeeze was a long time in the making and has been so worth all the time, all the effort, and all the struggles, and I can’t wait to see what the future brings.
Lessons learned along the way: Be patient. Have faith. Never give up.