Today we’d like to introduce you to Chip Byers.
Hi Chip, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My name is Chip Byers, I am Autistic, I am one of the owners of Rita’s Italian Ice in Central Florida and I am a member of the Board of Directors for the Able Trust (Florida Endowment Foundation for Vocational Rehabilitation)
It wasn’t really my plan to open my own business. I didn’t really have a choice. Prior to opening the Rita’s, I faced an incredible amount of employment discrimination. I had interviewers tell me “to come back when I learned how to talk right” and my own pastor told me that she wouldn’t recommend me for seminary because my “social skills just weren’t good enough for ministry” and that there really were no jobs for “people like me in the Church.”
When I moved to Orlando, I took an entry-level job in hospitality and I enjoyed it but I was always passed over for advancement, despite my many customer service recognitions and flawless record card. It got to the point that everyone I had started with had advanced except me and eventually, it was my coworkers who took notice and complained to upper management that I was being looked over. The area manager, seeing my record agreed and demanded that my immediate managers advance me, however, the “advancement” I was given was not the same high visibility position that all my coworkers were given.
They moved me to work the 2:00 AM shift, unloading trucks, completely hidden from view. And of course, no pay increase. In fact, I have never in my life been hired for a position that paid above the company minimum. And my immediate managers, because of their own prejudices were not happy about having had to advance me either and I had to deal with the backlash from them. So, I made the decision that I couldn’t do this anymore.
I chose to open my own business and I insisted that the majority of my employees needed to be Persons with Disabilities. I made it a policy that no one is ever to be hidden in the back of the store. All of my employees were to learn every task, be it cash handling or guest interaction, and every team member needed to be endowed with enough responsibility that they have the experience that they could advance to management should they choose to pursue it.
And with my staff of people who I have been told were “unemployable”, we operate one most successful Rita’s franchises in the country. So much so that we were recently featured on Undercover Boss where our store was held up as a model franchise. So the problem as I see it is; it doesn’t matter how well equipped someone with a Disability is to enter the workforce if employers are unwilling to give them chance.
All of us in the VR community spend so much time and effort trying to prepare Disabled individuals so that they can succeed when in reality, that is largely pointless if we don’t convince the business owners and employers to give Disability Workplace Inclusion a chance. That is my mission in everything I do. My work for Disability Inclusion extends beyond the work we do at Rita’s.
In 2020, because of our commitment to Disability Inclusion, we received an award from the Agency for Persons with Disabilities: Employer of the Year for Persons with Disabilities for the State of Florida. That was a tremendous honor and something I take a great deal of pride in. However, the award and our story made some waves in Tallahassee and a few weeks later I received a call from the Governor’s office asking me to accept an appointment to serve on the Board of Directors for the Able Trust which I was proud to accept.
The Able Trust was created in 1990 by the Florida Legislature to be the key leader in creating successful employment opportunities for Floridians with Disabilities. With the Able Trust this year, we are launching an exciting new initiative called Inclusive Florida: Powered by the Able Trust. This new initiative will bend a listening tour with cutting-edge research to identify the root causes of the Disability Employment Gap.
With this initiative, we will also be launching a new Disability Workforce Inclusion training program specifically designed for business leaders and employers that I will personally be assisting them to develop. It is our goal to close the Disability Employment gap within the decade. For the past 30 years, the Disability unemployment rate has sat at double the rate of the general population of Florida. This is ambiguous, to say the least, but we have an incredible team and we can and will do it!
As for why we chose Rita’s Italian Ice? I grew up in Philadelphia where Rita’s is everywhere. It is at the center of every community. It’s where you talked to your friends and neighbors. And it was that experience that I really missed when I moved to Orlando. I knew, because of the tourist neighborhood that I planned to open in that I needed to open a franchise as opposed to my own concept. Rita’s was just a natural fit. For starters, Rita sells “happiness.”
Creating an experience is our goal not selling a product and that fits perfectly with my philosophy. Secondly, Rita’s is a brand that truly values the work and input of its franchisees. Many companies do not so the corporate culture was appealing to us. And finally, I wanted to bring that aforementioned feeling of community, to the theme park and resort workers. I didn’t want another “tourist stop.” I wanted a place to be the center of the community for all the incredible people who make Orlando what it is.
The community has without a doubt been our business’s top priority. For example, when I learned that the Orthodox Community wasn’t able to visit our store, we had our store completely Kosher-ized so that we’d be able to welcome Guests from their community. And it was a lot of work but for me, it was completely worth it to know that everyone is included and that everyone has a place in my shop. These are the sort of practices that we are excited to bring to our new location on International Drive. It is very exciting for us to be able to expand and build in such a prominent location. We are all very excited about the incredible things we plan to accomplish there!
I’m really not the kind of person who enjoys listing “all the good things I do.” I’ve always maintained the philosophy that I don’t worry about anything other than doing what is right and I have faith it will pay off. I always say it is very practical to do what people call impractical because you’ll have no competition. I don’t know if I’m a good businessman or not, but I invest in quality and community and I insist on doing what is right, no matter the cost. Hopefully, that’ll work out for me in the long run. But I’m very thankful to be where I am.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I largely covered all that in the last question. But no, it hasn’t been a smooth road. I faced rejection time and time again because of the way I was born. To put things in some perspective we (Autistic Peoples) have come so far in the past decade that it is easy to forget where we came from and how far we still have to go. In society, we talk about acceptance all the time; so much so that it can begin to lose meaning.
But you have to remember, I grew up in a world where there were billboards on the highway promising an “end to Autism.” Where television shows portrayed being Autistic as a fate worse than death and where thousands of mothers would let their children die of preventable diseases because pseudo-medicine claimed: “Autism could be a side effect.”
I grew up in a world where health teachers told students that if screening could be developed in utero, it would be a humane option to abort Autistic children and a world where what seemed like every morning talk show host promised a future with a “cure” for people like me and where every April, mothers would take to the streets marching, dreaming of a world where all people like me would be eliminated, eradicated, and preferably never even born.
It was not an easy world to grow up in. “Autism Awareness Month” has always been the most challenging time for me as well as for my fellow Autistics as the month was consistently used to reinforce negative stereotypes, push us to the margins of society and give a voice to the most hateful people who claimed to speak for us all the while refusing to listen to us.
The idea of a successful Autistic person was unheard of when I was growing up, much less a successful Autistic business owner with a Disabled-majority staff. Looking back at how we have come is unfathomable to me. I know we haven’t yet made a dent in the Disability Employment gap, but for the first time, the State of Florida has an Autistic person working at the helm to fix that. And for some unfathomable reason, that person is me. Of course, many people feel I don’t deserve to be there, that I am a “token” and that I don’t have the experience that others do.
I can’t argue with that. My resume is weak but that was large because no one would give me a chance. Anyway, I’m not going to lecture anyone and tell them that Deserve to be here, because I didn’t inherently deserve anything. I’m going to earn their respect by serving this State to the absolute best of my ability.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Rita’s Italian Ice And Frozen Custard (Lake Buena Vista and International Drive)?
We are the world’s largest and most popular Italian Ice concept.
Our ices are made fresh, in-house daily with real fruit. We are also world-famous for our frozen custard, which is similar to ice cream but is richer, smoother, and creamier. We are also the original creators of the, often copied but never duplicated, Gelati which consists of layered custard and ice.
Above all, though we sell happiness. We aren’t just a sweet shop. We are an experience that brings neighbors and families together. We pride ourselves on our Guest Service and attention to detail and strongly believe in investing in quality. You will see that reflected in everything we do.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
We have had the absolute worst luck. Our opening was delayed by construction which caused us to miss our busy season. The first week of what should have been our busy season for 2020, Orlando shut down for Covid and all tourism basically stopped (and we are a 70% tourist business). All the contacts we had made for catering at the resorts and theme parks were laid-off and even when we could find events, no catering permits were issued by the county.
There were no avenues for us to make the money we needed to pay our expenses. Covid also greatly slowed down the construction of our shopping center leaving at least one-half of the stores vacant and the highway exit for our store that was promised to be built by 2022 is now looking to be completed in 2025. Luck was definitely not on our side, but it really wasn’t on anyone’s side these past few years. We didn’t end up closing so we made out better than a lot of our neighbors so we have that to be grateful for.
This year, however, our luck has turned! Tourists have returned and the local community has stuck by us! Not only have they stuck by, but they really appreciate all that we’ve done and that is what means the most to me. Moving forward, we found an incredible location to open our second location on International Drive near Universal Blvd, right in the heart of the tourist area. And recently we got a bit of national fame from appearing on an episode of Undercover Boss where we shared our story of community, diversity, and Disability Inclusion.
So hopefully (knock on wood) 2022 is looking bright!
Contact Info:
- Email: Ritasoflakebuenavista@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.ritasice.com/location/ritas-of-lake-buena-vista/
- Instagram: @RitasLakeBuenaVista
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RitasofLakeBuenaVista/
- Other: http://www.abletrust.org
