HELENA — Opening a new business is never easy. Especially now. But that’s the challenge the Aasved sisters have picked up in Helena, and they’re tackling it by hitting the ground rolling.
“It’s a lot more fun than I was expecting. I really love coming into work,” said Payton Aasved who runs Aasved Acai with her sisters Paige and Presley. They sling acai bowls across the Capital City this summer.
But it’s not all fun and games.
The two Montana State University psychology majors and their Helena High School sister are learning as they go. With some help from mom and dad, the three navigated their way through the health department and other proper paperwork. Order ingredients, prep and serve the bowls, interact with customers online and dealt with a few surprises.
“Learning to drive this and haul it around and how to park it. Just the things you would never think of,” said Paige.
Like all potential business tycoons, they’ve also learned that to succeed you have to be your own best employee.
“It’s super nice, you get to create your own schedule. That’s what I’ve loved about it. But I’d say the most stressful part is it all comes back to you," said Payton. "You don’t have other people to like… It’s just my sisters and I running this all.”
Speaking of that… if you’re thinking being crammed in a hot trailer all summer with your siblings sounds less than ideal. That’s not the case here.
“It’s fun, we get along, so it’s not challenging. If we didn’t get along, I think things would be much harder," said Presley But we all just kind of, worked together as one and do our own jobs, and I think it turned out to be pretty successful how we do it, so, that’s good.”
And for mom Kathy, seeing her daughters working together like this means the business is already a success.
"How fast they, kind of just got it. I mean, the prep is a lot," said Kathy. "The cutting the fruit and doing this and the logistics of getting ready for today and them to see them get in the truck and drive away with this trailer and be independent, it’s been really fun. Then to watch the three of them together has been super fun.”