If Kylee West’s last name sounds familiar in Fargo-Moorhead business circles, it should. She’s the daughter of Sarah West, the longtime finance-and-leadership pro turned entrepreneur behind Light Consulting and Dale Carnegie Training of ND and Northwest MN, who’s also been recognized locally for her work in business leadership and coaching
But this story isn’t about inheritance, it’s about initiation. In the span of a year, Kylee has gone from “maybe I’ll nanny this summer” to running a mobile dirty-soda operation under her own name, learning the unglamorous side of entrepreneurship the same way most owners do, with flat tires, dust-filled trailers, slow weekends, and the constant math of whether an event is worth it.
This fall, she’ll trade weekends on the road for a dorm room in Grand Forks, heading to UND for aviation management with a goal of becoming a pilot, and figuring out what business ownership looks like when college begins.
Q&A
Q: Do you have post-graduation plans?
A: I’m going to UND for aviation management.
Q: Is the soda shack business under your name?
A: Yep, it is.
Q: How do you plan to stay involved while you’re in school?
A: Honestly, I’m not sure yet. My mom and I have talked about it a few times. I’ll do it this summer. We’re planning something basically every weekend, but I don’t know what it looks like when I’m in college.
Q: When you say every weekend, what does that mean?
A: Not “booked,” more like planned. We’re finding something every weekend to go to like grad parties, town days, parades, events like that. Last summer was our first year, so we tried random things and hoped they worked. Our best sales days were community events like town days and parades, so we’re building the summer around that.
Q: How did the idea happen?
A: In March 2025, we went to Iowa for a concert and to visit family friends, and we saw basically the same concept down there. It reminded me of Swig, which is a franchise-style dirty soda place that’s really popular out west. My mom was like, “We have to get on this.” My parents are both entrepreneurs, so they moved fast. I think within a month we’d bought a trailer and started building it out.
At first, I was hesitant. Everyone else was getting a normal summer job, nannying or working somewhere, and this felt uncomfortable because it was different. But my parents are confident and have started a lot of businesses, so they already knew how to do it.
Q: Had you worked a job before this?
A: Right now I also work for Light Consulting, which is my first job. I worked it during the summer, and now I work here every afternoon.
Q: What do you do day-to-day?
A: I’m kind of the office manager at Light Consulting. I enter accounts payable and accounting things sometimes, and that’s been fun. And then for the Soda Shack, the planning is on me, including employees, inventory, cups, lids, straws, syrups, pop, and making sure the trailer is functioning.
Q: How old were you when you started?
A: I’m 17 now. I was 16/17 when we started. I turned 17 in May, and our first event was just a couple of days after that.
Q: What job did you think you’d do before this came along?
A: I’m a big golfer, so I wanted to work at Moorhead Country Club. That’s where I was leaning. But my mom really wanted to do the dirty soda business. They kind of pushed me into it, and now I’m glad they did. I learned more last summer than I would have working somewhere else.
Q: What did you learn?
A: Planning. I’m not a planner at heart. I like to go with the flow, but business doesn’t work like that. And perseverance. Some weekends were rough. Sometimes we were barely breaking even after giving up a whole weekend. It’s disheartening, but it forces you to push through.
We also had stuff happen that wasn’t planned. We had a flat tire, and once we left the trailer door open on gravel, it was full of dust.
Q: Have you learned what makes a weekend profitable?
A: Yes. We have minimums now, customers have to pay a certain amount before we’ll go. Otherwise, people will ask us to show up, and we’ll sell 20 drinks, and that’s not worth it.
My mom can usually tell if something will be successful, but she’ll still say, “Go see.” I think she likes that I learn it firsthand instead of just being told yes or no.
Q: So she’s helpful, but she’ll let you fail?
A: Yes.
Q: How much do your parents help you?
A: A lot of the business side is with payroll, paperwork, getting everything set up, buying the trailer. My dad helps too; his name is Chad. He’s started businesses, and in the summer, he helps fix up the trailer and checks in on what we need. He works in aggregate road dirt and hauling for Knife River.
Q: Are you involved in school activities?
A: I’m on the golf team at Park Christian. I played volleyball for six years, including varsity starting in eighth grade, but I’m done with that now.
Q: Are you excited for und?
A: Yes, really excited, and also a little nervous about not being home. But it’s close, about an hour and a half away, so that helps. It’ll still be a totally new schedule, new place, new town. Everything will be different.
Q: Why aviation management?
A: I want to be a pilot.
Q: Commercial pilot?
A: Not really. UND has a couple of paths, and it’s one of the top-flight schools in the country, so it makes sense. It sounds fun.
I have a cousin who flies a lot. He’s a farmer, and they have a private jet. I went into it and thought it was super cool. My mom also knows people with planes, and I went flying, and I thought, “This is what I want to do.”
I like my job here, but I get bored sitting at a desk. Flying feels more exciting.
Q: Did your parents teach you business growing up?
A: Not really. I learned by doing. My mom would sit me down and tell me what I needed to do. She did a lot at first, but she explained it as she went. And honestly, I grew up around it. My mom worked in finance leadership. I used to go to her workplace when I was little, and I knew everyone. Even before I worked here, I knew all the employees and their families.
Q: If you could talk to yourself at the beginning, what would you say?
A: Be more confident. I am confident, but events were intimidating, especially driving the trailer.
I raced dirt bikes before this, so I knew how to back up trailers, but this was different. We’d show up, and I’d have to back into tight spots between buildings. I had to just figure it out.
So confidence, in driving it, and in my skills. I know what I’m doing. I just have to believe it. This summer will be better because I know what to expect.
Q: Can you explain the soda shack for someone WHO hasn’t heard of it?
A: We sell specialty sodas and dirty sodas. A dirty soda is pop with cream added, just vanilla creamer. A specialty soda is any pop with syrup. Our most popular drink is the Looney Lagoon: Dr Pepper with cherry syrup, coconut syrup, and vanilla cream. Another big one, especially around the Fourth of July, is Firework Fizz: Sprite with cherry, blue raspberry, and Pop Rocks. We offer root beer, Dr. Pepper, Coke, Sprite, Fresca, cream soda, and you can mix and match syrups. We have a menu, but people can customize too.
Q: How many employees do you have?
A: Probably five or six. But it’s only me and two others who are more full-time. The rest are part-time.
Q: What’s been the most fun part so far?
A: I hired my best friends, and that makes slow days more fun. They went to college out of state, but they come back for the summer. Also, the choice. No one makes me go to an event, and no one makes me not go. You decide, and you live with the outcome. It’s a lot of decisions.
People think owning a business is cool, and it is, but they don’t realize how much work it is. All the little things add up: inventory, ice, supplies, getting up early, making sure employees show up, and paying people. It’s constant. But it’s something different. That scared me at first, and now I think it’s super cool.
Q: Do you think you’ll keep owning businesses long-term?
A: I don’t know. The career I want isn’t really a “business owner” industry, but maybe. There’s a local model I think is interesting—One Mile Runway (OMR)—I could see myself being part of something like that someday.
But I get bored pretty quickly, so I feel like I’ll have a lot of different jobs.
Q: Can people book you for private events?
A: Yes, private events, grad parties, corporate events, things like that. Email and Instagram are the main ways to reach us.
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