‘I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

August 27, 2008

‘I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream’

Lake Carolina residents have had plenty to scream about since the community’s first ice cream parlor opened nearly one year ago. Sprinkles Ice Cream & Sweetery keeps customers coming back scoop after scoop to enjoy the shop’s 24 flavors of premium ice cream and made-from scratch baked goods. 

Considering Sprinkles’ success and the line of customers that appears at its door every afternoon, it may be a surprise to discover that the shop’s owners had no experience in the ice cream industry or in business ownership when they decided to open Sprinkles.  “I never would have seen myself owning an ice cream shop. It was not even on my radar,” said Cameron Dixon, who owns the business with his wife, Carmen. Cameron was enjoying a successful career as a mortgage broker before he traded his briefcase for an ice cream scoop. “I was climbing the corporate ladder. I had just received a promotion and had the respect of my peers. We had just bought a new home in Washington, D.C.,” he said. There was no reason for the Dixon family to expect anything to change.

That is, until they visited Lake Carolina and walked through Town Center. Carmen’s parents were retired and lived in the community. On a weekend visit, the couple saw something special in Lake Carolina. “We just loved the sense of community here and the diversity of cultures in Lake Carolina, not to mention the wonderful schools,” Cameron said. “I had never seen anything like Town Center. The idea of opening some kind of business here was appealing.”

That very weekend, the couple set the biggest change of their lives into motion. “We arrived on a Friday and bought our house in Harborside on Saturday,” Cameron said. Cameron was able to transfer to a job in Columbia, but the idea of opening a business in Town Center kept coming up. “My parents owned businesses when I was growing up, so I guess the entrepreneurial spirit is in me, too,” he said.

Using their family and friends as a focus group, including their two sons, Caleb and Christian, the Dixons began brainstorming types of businesses that could succeed here. “Ice cream parlor was at the top of the list every time. It was almost divine,” he said. The name of their new business seemed divinely inspired as well. “One day I just noticed my son’s toys sprinkled on the floor, and it just fit perfectly,” Cameron said. The couple added “sweetery” to the name to reflect the home baked goods they sell in addition to the ice cream. Carmen bakes the cookies, brownies and pound cake for the shop, and the pound cake has become an overnight success. “We started selling just slices of the pound cake, but now we’re selling whole cakes, and we’re even shipping them across the country,” Cameron said.  As Carmen has learned to bake cakes by the dozen, Cameron has learned the art of cake decorating. After taking one class, Cameron now designs and builds custom ice cream cakes for customers. “The first one took me five hours,” he said. “Thankfully, I’ve improved my time significantly since then.”

In the year since Sprinkles first opened, Cameron quit his corporate job to run the ice cream shop full time, and the business has enjoyed incremental growth each month. “We’re seeing at least one new customer every day,” he said. The keys to success, Cameron said, are his family’s faith and the Lake Carolina community. “Carmen and I were very nervous about me quitting my job, but our faith came alive and has sustained us through this transition,” he said. “We are so blessed to have this opportunity.”

The Dixons remained convinced that Town Center was the ideal location for Sprinkles. “We believe in the ultimate vision of Town Center. Lake Carolina is our home, not just where we own a business. This isn’t our ice cream shop; it’s Lake Carolina’s shop,” Cameron said. Looking to the future, the Dixons are making plans to open their second Sprinkles location, and you can be certain that their community-centered approach will continue as the business expands. “Our primary product isn’t ice cream,” Cameron said. “It’s customer service. We hope our customers see that every time they come in.” Now that’s something to scream about.

Article by Shelley Cadena