AERN home > Success stories > Super E Quick Stop, Tuskegee, Alabama, Summer 2007
Super Elisha Sets Up Shop in Tuskegee
Translate "Elisha" and the name literally means "God is my salvation." That's what Elisha Ligon will tell you, too, when he says, "The Good Lord brought me back. I know that for a fact."
Back? He journeyed from one end to the other--from addition to self-sufficiency. Ligon stabilized his life and took it a few steps further--he's managing two businesses of his own.
His newest venture, Super E Quick Stop in Tuskegee, opened with a bang on March 1, 2007. The Tuskegee Area Chamber of Commerce sponsored the event. Three of the chamber's ambassadors and Dr. Charles Thompson, president of the Tuskegee Convention and Visitors Bureau, were in attendance. He doesn't say so, but "Super E" must be Elisha himself.
"Mr. Ligon came to us in October of 2006 with no business plan, little hope, and over two years' worth of sweat equity and personal cash investments into a store project that seemed impossible to develop," said Carlos Finkley, executive director of AERN's Tuskegee partner, the Tusk-Mac CDC.
"It was a dream I had, but I didn't have the skills," said Ligon. He had located a building to house his dream, and worked on it himself, "little by little, by the sweat of my own brow." Ligon's stepson, Kelvin Turk, helped him remodel, paint, and lay stones for a front walkway. But after several years of renovating, Ligon says he couldn't come up with enough money to get the store on its feet.
That's when Rev. Lawrence Haygood Sr., a founding member of the CDC, recommended that Ligon come check out the new AERN program made possible by a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission. "He saw me struggling with that building and he knew I was hard working," said Ligon. Once inside, Finkley took Ligon through a program of business research strategies. He helped Ligon draw up a business plan and taught him business skills like budgeting, sales, and working with vendors.
"Mr. Ligon was such a figure at our center that many were beginning to believe he worked for us," said Finkley. "Ninety days later, Mr. Ligon walked out of our office with a business plan, a check from our revolving loan program for new businesses, and increased hope for Super E Quick Stop."
Ligon said he came to trust Finkley, the Tusk-Mac CDC, and the AERN resources. He said the business plan was the most useful tool, because it gave him an outlook on what he had to do to stick to the plan.
Super E Quick Stop carries everything from toiletries to canned goods, toys, and sweets for children. Ligon's special twist is an outdoor kitchen where he fries fish and barbeques ribs to add to the baked beans and potato salad he prepares at his own home. Seduced by the smoke from his barbeque and fryers, people stop in to the store for some extras.
A lot of convenience stores have hot dogs, said Ligon, but he especially wanted to serve food for the black folks in the neighborhood. "I know what they like," he said. "You go to have something extra to bring people in." He prides himself on the store's food, but also on courtesy and cleanliness.
Ligon is now focused on getting an indoor kitchen and some commercial deep fryers. He also plans to find some employees--perhaps an elder looking for activity, plus someone he can count on to man his register. Currently, he runs both the kitchen and the store, when he's not running his painting business.
"When you finally see the light, you want to do something meaningful," he said. "When you been a wreck for the community, you want to put something positive back in." That's what he means when he says, "The Good Lord brought me back."
Ligon knows he is also a role model for young people and an example of hope for those still gripped by addiction. Now that he's the one with the grip, he's setting his sights high. "I see Super E Quick Stops all over the country," he said.
From AERNews, Vol. 7, No. 2, Summer 2007