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Are you envious yet? Who wouldn't want to be an ice cream mogul?

But it's been anything but sweet decadence. For a good portion of those six years, Pigott, who lives in Duncan, B.C. on Vancouver Island, has worked nineteen hour days, seven days a week. "I was working from early in the morning till early the next morning and just about killing myself," she recalls. "We weren't even going for walks anymore."

Fortunately, today she has found the balance that makes business ownership the goal of so many, and she really has forged the dream career.

They say do what you love, and Judy Pigott took that to heart. Beset by a series of family tragedies, she had decided to take time off from her stressful work in hotel management and computer training. "I was just kind of sitting there deciding what to do, and my mom suggested that I try something from home, so I started to think about it. Ice cream is probably my favourite treat, so I thought what fun that would be."

She also noted that Vancouver Island's long summers and gentle winters lent themselves to the business idea. They meant a good long sales season, with a few months in the winter to let her and her husband put up their feet. So she plunged in.

While she'd made a bit of home-made ice cream in the past, it was by no means even a serious hobby. "But if I decide to do something, I just do it, she says. "I can't stop till I get it done." A self-described "pit-bull" when it comes to tackling a challenge, Pigott immersed herself in manipulating formulas and learning about the chemistry of cream and milk.

From the beginning, she financed the business herself. "Initially it was on a very small scale, and I had a very large savings account." She laughs. "I don't have any RRSPs any more."

She had a commercial kitchen built on their property, and initially worked from there, cooking the custard on a stove, mixing by hand, freezing -- and tasting -- recipe after recipe. Armed with a small Sears ice cream maker that allowed her to make two small batches a day, it took her seven months to develop one she was happy with.

It was an instant success. Before long, The Udder Guys Ice Cream was being sold in half-litre containers in 27 grocery stores on the Island. And before long, Pigott found herself working crazy hours. "It was all by hand, and it just got bigger and bigger and bigger. Pretty soon I was starting at seven in the morning and finishing at two in the morning -- seven days a week."

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