William H. Kelly III
Associate Editor
Jackson State University senior Raymond McCants is putting his entrepreneurial acumen to use with the opening of his own business, a hookah lounge.
The Detroit, Mich. native explains that a project for a class which involved coming up with a product, led to his decision to become a business owner.
“I had a class with Dr. Calhoun, we had to come up with a product and I came up with a frozen hookah hose and while doing the survey (for the project) one of the classmates on campus asked me was I about to open up a hookah lounge and I responded no and then I got to thinking about it, and I looked into it, and came up with the hookah lounge,” said McCants.
A hookah is a single or multi-stemmed instrument used in vaporizing and smoking flavored tobacco.
Uncle Ray’s Hookah Lounge is located at 2460 Terry Road in Jackson, Miss., next door to Skate N Shake skating rink.
“The lounge officially opened on Feb. 6, but this process has been ongoing since April. It was actually targeted to be in One University Place but due to some restrictions the school was not able to allow it. We started out in December and I found the location that we’re at now, in Jackson Square, and since then, it took about a month to get everything together,” said McCants.
Some may question why McCants decided to invest into a hookah lounge.
“The hookah lounge is something that is coming up now. A lot of them are popping up, especially in the urban cities, and in Jackson it is not really an option that you have so I figured bringing that to Jackson will help grow Jackson,” said McCants.
Along with managing a business and being a student, McCants is also very involved with campus organizations such as the Investment Club, American Marketing Association, Society for Advancement of Management, Jackson State Accounting Society, and the Student Government Association senior class business manager.
“It has its difficulties more so with the graduation process than class. Classes are nothing new and manageable but being a graduating senior deals with making sure you have all of the necessities needed to receive graduation clearance,” said McCants. “As far as managing everything, time management is key, going into each day knowing what you have to get done, along with sacrifice. Managing these things does come with a level of sacrifice, sometime its sleep, sometimes its social but you have to prioritize while maintaining a healthy balance of work and play.”
The name “Uncle Ray” actually stemmed from a name McCants got in high school from peers. His sister was known as “mom” by some of his classmates and the name flowed over to JSU during his junior year. Along with this, McCants says the name has a deeper meaning describing him as a person.
“The significance the name has grown to serve is that I am someone that you can come to if you feel you need help with anything kind of like that cool uncle in the family,” said McCants.
McCants describes the feeling he has of being a business owner.
“It is stressful; it is a good feeling to have. Like you said, when you have a brick and board, you can actually see the business; you can actually physically see it. That’s a benefit, it’s a feeling of accomplishment because it’s something that you wanted to get done and you were able to get it done,” said McCants. “It is kind of like having a baby, it’s yours, and you put it together. You just have to make sure you take care of it and take it through the needy stage and the maturing stage to the point where it can operate on its own.”
McCants plans to continue his education at Jackson State University as a graduate student, giving him the ability to allow his business to grow and thrive. For more information about Uncle Ray’s, visit his social media at unclerayslounge, or visit his website www.unclerayslounge.com.
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