Carthage entrepreneur Dayana Hernandez’s Fridas Paleteria appears to be well on its way to becoming a Panola County business success story.
Armed with $100, a dream, a trailer, and support from friends and family, her year-old enterprise has experienced steady and encouraging growth. With her dessert and snack shop, Fridas Paleteria, Hernandez recently took a leap of faith and moved from the original trailer operating out of a parking lot to a more permanent home at 226 N. St. Mary St.
A year ago in July, she invested her last $100 to kick off Fridas Paleteria, featuring healthy snacks and sweet treats. A year later Hernandez, 26, is operating a growing business with strong support from the community, she said.
“It’s a crazy story. I was basically broke,” Hernandez said. “It’s been hard work but it’s been worth it. When we opened here, our business more than doubled what we’d been doing out of the trailer.”
Open from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 8 p.m. on Sunday, the business is open more than 65 hours a week. That represents a lot of hours behind the counter and on the floor of Fridas Paleteria.
But Hernandez is already starting to see the fruits of her labor with a promising future.
“Some family members told me I was crazy,” she said. It was hard, she said, especially in the beginning as she juggled getting her own business off the ground while holding down a job.
But she is proud of the success she has had and the knowledge of the obstacles which have been overcome to grow her business.
Hernandez was born in Mexico and has been in Texas about six years. Among the challenges she has faced was overcoming language barriers and having few friends and family nearby as a support network.
Working full time at a local restaurant, she had a dream to venture out on her own with a promise of a brighter future. Hernandez was determined to turn that vision into reality.
From day one, she followed a basic rule of successful operations, taking revenues and reinvesting them for growth.
Her initial $100 investment included a trip to the local Walmart to purchase two bags of chips, sour cream and a few other staples needed to serve her first customers from the trailer located in a parking lot.
She plans on hiring some help soon, but initially Hernandez has been assisted by her younger brother, Marco Hernandez, who is a Carthage High School student.
“He’s really encouraged me and told me ‘Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it,’” he said. “He said ‘Sister, you can do this.’”
Marco, working behind the counter, had a big smile on his face as he listened to Dayana explain the journey she has been on in the past year.
Support from the Carthage and Panola County community has inspired and encouraged her. Fridas Paleteria is a member of the Panola County Chamber of Commerce, which hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony when the business opened at the downtown location on July 15.
“We’ve really had a lot of support from this community and Keri (Perot-Vance) and the chamber have been great,” Hernandez said. Vance, chamber executive director, said it is exciting to see a startup enterprise like Fridas Paleteria grow and flourish.
“We are proud to welcome new member Dayana Hernandez, owner of Fridas Paleteria,” Vance said. “Her determination in opening her small business is inspiring.
“Fridas brings something new to our market and we encourage you to stop by the new downtown location,” she said. “We invite you to shop local, eat local and visit Panola County often.”
The clientele has spanned ethnic groups and ranged in ages from youngsters, their parents, to lots of older residents, he said.
While the menu has a distinctly Mexican flavor, Hernandez said the offerings appeal to nearly all taste buds and ethnic groups.
“We’re an authentic Mexican place,” she said. The offerings include fruta picada (mixed fruit cups); mini pancakes with fresh fruit like strawberries, bananas, Nutella and sweet cream; elote en vaso (a cup of Mexican corn); conchitas preparadas (wheat wheels with cheese); dorilocos/tostilocos (Doritos with pickled pork skins and sour cream, avocado, tomato and peanuts); along with nachos and banana splits.
Flavored waters, Mexican snow cones, frappes, fresh fruit smoothies, real fruit popsicles and more are on the menu. Hernandez said the namesake for the shop comes from her favorite artist, Frida Kahlo, a native of Mexico.
Kahlo, who died in 1954, is remembered for bold, vibrant colors with attention to celebrating Mexican culture and that of the country’s indigenous population, according to the website fridakahlo.org. A reflection of those bold colors can be seen in the decor at Fridas Paleteria and the logo which Herndandez had designed locally by Franciis Gonzalez and Twisted Peach Designs.
The logo features a wide-eyed young girl with flowers in her hair dressed in bold colors. Hernandez said plans for the future include building the business at the current location and eventually opening other locations.
“We want to keep everybody happy and provide the best service possible,” she said. Along with fresh, quality ingredients, that combination has been the backbone of the success Fridas Paleteria has seen so far, Hernandez said.
She hopes it will continue to propel the snack shop well into the future.
