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Michael Sneed From appliances to ice cream to YouTube, Dynamic Entrepreneur honoree stays busy in Selma By RANDY CAPPS
Like many successful business owners, Michael Sneed’s path to success wasn’t a straight line. Even the destination wasn’t quite where he thought he would wind up when he left North Carolina A&T with an engineering degree. But, in true entrepreneurial spirit, Sneed used his gifts, adapted and made it all work. For those efforts, he’s earned the 2021 Johnston Now Honors Dynamic Entrepreneur Award. “Fifteen or 20 years ago, being an entrepreneur was almost a bad word,” he said of winning the honor. “If you told somebody that you’re going to be an entrepreneur, you were looked at like you couldn’t cut it in corporate America. I’d like for more kids to look into entrepreneurship. College is always a good way to go, but with the cost of 10 | [ JOHNSTON NOW ]
college now, the amount of jobs that let you pay that money back is lower. We need to look more into entrepreneurship for kids, and let them tap into their creative and artistic sides. I ask kids all the time that come into the ice cream parlor, ‘What’s your dream?’ Then I find out that a lot of kids don’t dream anymore. Things don’t have to be so organized. Let kids go out, explore and make mistakes. That’s how we learn in entrepreneurship, making mistakes. You’re not going to learn business and not make mistakes.” A native of Stovall, Sneed left North Carolina A&T with an engineering degree. But he picked up a few skills along the way that would come in handy for him later. “While I was in college, I worked at Sears as a repairman,” he said. “All my friends told me that, if all you’re going
to do is repair appliances, you might as well quit (college). And I was like, ‘Once I graduate, I’m never going to fix another washing machine or dryer.’” Another business axiom is to never say never, as Sneed was about to find out. He was working for Nortel when it went under in 2001, and despite an exhaustive search where he offered to intern for free with companies to prove himself, he was at an impasse. But, he found the way forward just a few steps from his front door. “I started talking to the skilled tradesmen out at Flowers Plantation, and they were mad that they hadn’t had a day off in a couple of years,” he said. “The more I talked to them, I found out they were making more money doing plumbing and electrical than I was as an engineer. “I had signed up to take the electrical
