Today we’d like to introduce you to Cody Hagan.
Hi Cody, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up just outside of Greenville, NC and from a young age I had a vision of owning my own business. At the time I always had a dream of it being a fun park type place with mini golf and go carts, etc. Fast forward and interests changed some. I went to college at East Carolina where I graduated with a Sports Management degree and then spent two season working with the Carolina Mudcats. It became clear quickly that working in sports wasn’t the passion I thought it would be and when the team decided to restructure their front office roles it gave me an opportunity to spread my wings and fly outside of sports. I took a job with Sky Zone Trampoline Park in Raleigh as the Assistant General Manager where I learned a lot about the ins and outs of running as business. Sky Zone is a franchise and I got to work hand in hand with the owner of that location who really took me under his wing. When the General Manager left I was elevated to his role becoming one of the youngest GM’s in the park network nationwide. I continued to work closely with the owner spending over 4 years there learning everything it took to run your own business. Eventually it became clear that it was time to spread my wings again as I had maxed out everything I could do at Sky Zone. The owner never once tried to hold me back, instead offering up his full support to help me enter the next phase of my career – owning my own business. I spent nearly a year researching many different business ideas – at one point I was extremely close to opening a BarCade type place, but that fell through. Then on a family trip to the Outer Banks in the summer of 2021 it hit me like a lightbulb – Why is there no Pelican’s SnoBalls locations at the beach? We had a Pelican’s a mile away from our house and we often visited it. The match seemed perfect. So then I began to dive deep in to Pelican’s and their franchise system. It became clear very quickly this was the business opportunity for me. So I sent in an inquiry to their team and after going and searching for location to build a store at the beach a true thing of fate happened. My wife and I had found out she was unexpectedly pregnant with out first child and we had always said when she got pregnant we wanted to be closer to home (Greenville). Well within the span of 2 weeks after finding out we learned that a Pelican’s in Greenville was for sale – fate was calling. So like a crazy person I walked away from my career and guaranteed paycheck at Sky Zone and purchased the Greenville franchise while my wife was pregnant. That first year was extremely tough but it also showed us there was a path to success here. Then the housing market went crazy post covid and we never found a place to move back to Greenville. Fate struck again – while visiting the Pelicans by our house in Knightdale, 2 years in to owning the Greenville store, the owners of the Knightdale location offered to sell to me. We couldn’t pass up that chance so then we had 2 stores. Fast forward another 2 years and we just recently opened a third location in Winterville, NC. A crazy dream turned in to a full on reality in a very short span.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Absolutely not. There have been a ton of hiccups along the way. The first main struggle was how do afford to purchase the first location we bought in Greenville. At the time I had no idea how hard it was to get a business loan with no prior experience. Nowhere would offer anything more than a credit card and I needed cash. We ended up having to borrow money against our house to make things work.
Other struggles have been the sale of our property in Knightdale to a new owner who wants to eventually tear the building down to make way for a new office building there.
Then there’s all the unforeseen upkeep costs and the unexpected new changes pushed out from the franchise yearly.
Nothing worth having comes easy though and every challenge has made me stronger along the way.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Pelican’s SnoBalls was founded originally in Garner, NC and we serve a New Orleans style shaved ice along with other things such as ice cream and PeliShakes. Unlike the traditional snow cone you had at the fair growing up we sell and very soft and fluffy SnoBall that melts in your mouth as you eat it just like real snow – no crunch at all. Our product is hand crafted with each order and by far the coolest thing to me is our countless flavor options. We have over 100 standard flavors ranging from fan favorites like Blue Raspberry and Tigers Blood to crazier options such as Dill Pickle or Toothpaste.
We pride ourselves on creating a family atmosphere with outdoor games, music, etc. We love to put a smile on our customers faces and we feel like we offer the best dessert experience anywhere in the area.
Plus we offer a mobile unit food truck that can bring the fun right to your door step as well!
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success is different for everyone. For me, obviously I want to be financially successful and set up my family long term with a business that can be passed down for generations. However, I also find success in other areas. I can see success in our staff members who are often in their first jobs graduating from school and going on to do great things. Success can be creating a new menu item or seeing a customer light up when they try our product for the first time. Success is a byproduct of happiness in my eyes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://pelicanssnoballs.com/
- Instagram: @pelicansofknightdale
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/knightdalepelicans/
