Celebrating Black Business Month With Karneisha Christian

August is Black Business Month and we’re highlighting amazing Black CEOs.

Karneisha Christian is a wife to a wonderfully supportive husband, Ken, who is also her business partner and co-founder of Pucker Up Lemonade Company. She is also a mom of two. She was born and raised in Compton, California, and now resides in Long Beach. In 2011, she hosted a Lemonade Stand at her kid’s school carnival as a fundraiser. This was the beginning of what has since grown to be Pucker Up Lemonade Co.

Growing up, both her mom and dad worked full-time and were also entrepreneurs. Their businesses helped support the family of 6 kids. Karneisha’s maternal grandmother was a sharecropper in Mississippi, who as a widow, left the Jim Crow South with her kids in tow for a better life and more opportunities in California in 1955. After arriving, she single-handedly raised her children and eventually owned 2 homes. Entrepreneurship is literally in Karneisha’s blood. We got to learn more about Karneisha and her success story.

What do you define as success?

Karneisha: I define success as a well balanced life; a healthy life that affords my family an opportunity to leave a legacy business to our children’s children.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

Karneisha: We’ve always paid close attention to our visual branding. We don’t just sell Lemonade, we are handcrafters of Pucker Up Lemonade!

In addition to our attractive branding, we’ve also created quite a name for ourselves by creating “refreshing destinations” within parties and events with our “All You Can Drink” Beverage Stations and Lemonade Stands. We started curating immaculately designed buffets featuring a variety of flavors of Lemonade, Iced Tea, and Infused Spa Water in 2011. This in itself isn’t uncommon, however we “squeezed” our unique flair into these Beverage Stations by incorporating each party’s theme or color scheme. We’ve fashioned themes such as Superman, Winter Wonderland, Star Wars, Up! the movie, the list goes on. Now we focus more on our own branding while catering, but will still honor our client’s requests.

What is your best selling product?

Karneisha: Our best seller is our Cherry Peach Lemonade, a mashup of stonefruits Cherries and Peaches. A close second is our Lavender Lemonade, my personal fave! I enjoy it with a splash of Sparkling Water and fresh mint. Sipping on a ice cold glass of it makes L.A. traffic non-existent.

Be sure to stay connected with Karneisha and Pucker Up Lemonade Company online @puckeruplemonadeco

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