Making Lemonade is a series of conversations with young entrepreneurs who have overcome obstacles, embraced change, and turned lemons into lemonade.
It’s a bold decision to launch a business soon after graduating college, but for Omar Kasim, the time was right. He spent hours researching the food industry and reaching out to investors to bring fast-casual restaurant Con Quesos to Fayetteville. But no matter how much hard work and sweat he put into his dream, there are no guarantees in entrepreneurship.
“That uncertainty tends to scare people, but that really excited me, because it could have gone so many different ways,” Omar says. That open-mindedness helped him (and his biz) through countless storms, from a partner unexpectedly seizing control of the company to COVID-19. The key, Omar explains, is knowing what you can and can’t control. At one point, he even made the shocking decision to leave Con Quesos. But when the opportunity to come back presented itself one year later, he couldn’t say no, even though he’d return to a mountain of debt. It was a risky move, no doubt, but he was up for the challenge.
With support from the Northwest Arkansas community, Con Quesos made a comeback and increased its success during the pandemic. How’d Omar keep its doors open? Watch and learn from his story of resilience and unwavering optimism.
