Raised by a franchise-holding father, Dallas, TX, native and Hampton University graduate Alyson Rae Lawson knew what she wanted to do. While not running three McDonald’s like her dad, she has become the first Black woman to run not one but two Texas 7-Eleven franchises. Across the street from one another in Arlington, TX, each store has a gas station and both are booming.
Boosted by her Bachelors in Business Management from Hampton, Rae Lawson cut her teeth in various jobs. Numbers are one of her gifts. Balancing books for cities in Texas and Virginia, she additionally worked in the private sector while earning two Master’s degrees. Then, in 2017, something opened. Soon after she spoke with 7-Eleven about franchising, they held a contest.
“They had a women’s entrepreneurial contest,” Rae Lawson told VoyageDallas. “I entered, and because of my background, entrepreneurial spirit, and hard work over the months of the contest, I won! The prize was a 7-Eleven convenient store.” In 2018, she franchised the original store’s twin across the street.
In addition to her aptitude for numbers, Rae Lawson has a deft business touch, something she’s leveraging to support Black entrepreneurs. Her partnership with Robin and Andrea McBride typifies this. The McBride’s founded America’s largest Black-owned winery. Rae Lawson decided to stock their Black Girl Magic, which won’t stay on the shelves.
“I don’t know that we’ve seen an account like this before,” Robin said. “They brought in 10 cases of Black Girl Magic and they sold out the first day. She [Rae Lawson] said, ‘I can’t even keep these in stock.’”
Although start-up costs and hiring have been challenging, Alyson Rae Lawson has used her gifts to emulate her father as she had wished. Doing so, she’s supporting other Black entrepreneurs and elevating a community.
