17-year-old entrepreneur scoops up success in North Omaha | Dining

OMAHA — When a teenager says his business inspiration is McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, adults tend to pay attention.

After all, how many kids (let alone their elders) even know who that is?

Entrepreneur a’Ron Burns, for one.

Burns, a 17-year-old Omaha Central High School senior, already has his own ice cream store. And it’s not even his first business venture (that had something to do with e-commerce.).

Roll-N-Sweetz has been open for about a month in a strip mall near 59th Street and Ames Avenue. It sells rolled ice cream, created when a cup of a’Ron’s “secret mix” (refrigerated milk and sugar are two ingredients) meets a surface that’s cooled to 21 below zero.

Employees smooth it to a thin layer, mix in things like candy and cookies, then create rolls that are served in cups with a variety of toppings.

So far, Burns says, he’s pleased with the community’s response.

“It has been crazy ever since we opened,” he said last week.

That success doesn’t surprise Willie Barney, who founded the Carver Legacy Center with his wife, Yolanda, and another couple, Martin and Lynnell Williams. The center, a joint venture with American National Bank, helps Black entrepreneurs realize their dreams.

Barney said a’Ron and his mother, Alexis, came to Carver for help earlier this year when they were running into snags as they renovated the space they leased for the store.

He was immediately inspired by Burns, who calls himself a serial entrepreneur.

“We were really blown away by their business plan and their strategy,” he said. “His brilliance really impresses everybody he speaks with — the homework he’s done, the research he’s done and his experience in entrepreneurship.”

The Carver people were so amazed following their initial talk with the Burnses that they took immediate action.

“After that meeting, we got in our cars and actually walked through the building with him,” Barney said.

The result was a $95,000 investment in the project from the Carver Center for the renovation and equipment Burns needed to open the store.

Burns said he’s been interested in business since he was a young kid. He read everything he could about entrepreneurship, including material about Kroc, who made millions in the fast-food business.

“He’s an influential person,” Burns said. “I watch a movie about his life every night.”

He got the idea for Roll-N-Sweetz from working at a similar store downtown. He targeted North Omaha for his first store because he wanted to support his community, not only with a business unique to the area, but also with the jobs it would create.

He canvassed neighborhood shop proprietors and conducted additional research to gather statistics for his business plan. He learned that 24,000 cars pass by the area every two days and that residents and business owners missed the Dairy Queen that used to be nearby.

And he did it all while faithfully attending classes at Central.

“I had to mature quicker than some of my peers,” he said.