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"Happy Hour" Makes for Happy Business

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  When we first interviewed our next guest several years ago, he and his wife were operating the Gin Joint, a bar in Charleston and after being frustrated with the time it took to make craft cocktails once they got home after a busy night, they began bottling their own mixtures that became so popular they sold the bar to focus solely on the cocktail mix business which has now grown into three separate lines.

Mike Switzer interviews Joe Raya, co-founder of Bittermilk, Tippleman’s, and Barcoop Bevy in Charleston, SC.

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After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.