Lifetime business owners use fresh start to open smoothie and juice bar
Alison and Justin Nichols have been business owners their entire lives. For 30 years, they owned a company manufacturing lift chairs for the elderly. Alison’s parents started the business when she was 12, and after graduating from college, she came back with Justin to help run it.
A year-and-a-half ago, they had to close their family business.
In need of a way to start over, they opened a different kind of business in Birmingham: Square 1 Nutrition smoothie and juice bar.
Square 1 Nutrition has locations all over the U.S., but this is the first location in the Birmingham area. The Nichols completely renovated the building on Valleydale Road all on their own, laying hardwood floors and building countertops to make the space ready for its June 18 opening.
“It has multiple schools close by, a hospital and lots of clinics and offices. Lots of families live really, really close. It’s just a perfect location,” Alison Nichols said.
Square 1 Nutrition has a menu they share with other locations, but it also features a special menu with options only available in the Birmingham location.
All the menu items contain safe and natural products. They include meal replacement shakes, loaded energy teas with collagen and biotin for hair, skin and nails, specialty teas with energy and protein and health shots. There is a donut shot for weight loss and appetite suppressant, a gut shot for stomach issues and a headache shot for headaches and migraines.
Some customer favorites include the fried Oreo shake, the banana pudding shake, the Malibu Barbie beauty tea and the Captain America tea.
The Nichols, who have two daughters and a son, have been using Square 1 Nutrition products for about two years. Her son uses the hydration supplements because he plays a lot of sports. One of their daughters uses the gut shot, and the other uses the headache shot.
“That’s actually how we introduced the health shots ... we do them at home, and we’ve seen how it’s helped them,” Nichols said. “Nobody has the headache or the gut shots. [Those are] the ones we came up with.”
This is one of the reasons Nichols wanted to open a health-centered business. Seeing how Square 1 Nutrition products helped her family made her want to give the same opportunities to the community. Personally, she wants to be able to keep up with her children, and because she has been using the products for a while, she knows they work.
She said what makes their business unique is the vitamins and nutrients they offer in their products, which often aren’t found in the foods people eat.
“Most people do not eat well. We say we do, but we don’t when it comes down to it,” Nichols said. “These products give you a lot of the vitamins and things that you need, as well as that energy.”
They are hoping to add another location once the first one is well established in the community.
Square 1 Nutrition is at 5291 Valleydale Road, Suite 119. For more information, visit facebook.com/Square-1-Nutrition-174711704179462/.