Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Backus.
Hi Jessica, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Duke’s Adventure Golf is the childhood dream of my brother, David, and I. Growing up, we always played mini golf as a family- wherever we went, it was always the go to activity that we could both enjoy and be competitive with each other at as a family. As adults, we saw the additional fun that could still be had with mini golf, on dates, with friends, with families of our own. Seeing a need for something fun, easy, and inexpensive to do in South Austin, our dream to create Duke’s began. David and I approached everything from the ground up ourselves, with no experience in construction, small business management, or how to go about starting a business. There was a lot of learning and struggles on the way, but many more laughs and the reward of succeeding in the end. In September of this year, Duke’s will mark its five years anniversary!!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It hasn’t always been the smoothest road, but the more obstacles that have come up, the more we’ve realized that really nothing is insurmountable. Initial struggles that really had us questioning the possibility of this venture centered around dealing with the city. We had no water or electricity out to the property we purchased and it was INCREDIBLY difficult to get permits and final set up from the city. Due to the small size of our business and the relative uniqueness, we found it difficult to navigate traditional small business advice/process routes and we couldn’t garner enough attention when we raised a fuss. In the end, we were able to build the entire course with no electricity or water of our own on the site. We ran multiple hoses and many extension cords to the very best business neighbors one could hope for during our construction stage and got the course built after all! Water and electricity came through about two weeks after the initial construction was completed.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Duke’s Adventure Golf is a mini golf course in South Austin. We are family-owned and run by a brother/sister team – David and Jessica Backus. We are byob and fun for all ages!!
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
We love to have people come out to have events, parties, and celebrations at Duke’s. We’re always looking for new customers and word of mouth advertising. Being a part of the community is a main goal of ours and we are always happy to donate to school and organization fundraisers when asked.
Pricing:
- $8 plus tax for everyone over age 5
- $5 plus tax for everyone 5 or younger
- $4 plus tax for a second round, same day
- FREE second round, same day, for kids 5 and younger
Contact Info:
- Email: Dukesadventuregolf@gmail.com
- Website: Www.dukesadventuregolf.com
- Instagram: @dukesadventuregolf
- Facebook: Duke’s Adventure Golf
