Institute for Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurial Education Partner
FIELD TRIP 1 of 7 • Espresso Yourself Bakery
Andrea Ringhausen & Natalie Titus
When asked who their biggest inspirations are they both looked at each other. This mother daughter duo is unstoppable with their strengths being each other's weaknesses.
Andrea was a special education teacher for 27 years. When retirement was approaching she knew she wanted to stay busy. She came home one day and told her husband, I bought a building and I'm going to open a coffee shop. She put a lot of thought into what Jerseyville needed and at the time there weren't any coffee shops.
In the early days of owning the business, Andrea was coming in early in the morning before teaching and coming back in after school. She expressed the importance of putting the time into your business to get it off the ground.
She had no business experience at all and jumped in with both feet. One thing she has always known how to do is work her way around a kitchen. After owning Espresso for a while, she then ran 1880 Pizza Pasta House. This was another success.
Andrea does not use recipes and goes off of how something looks, feels, and smells to make sure it's just right. She said this is how her grandma cooked and she never saw her using a recipe.
Natalie has been key in both businesses with managing much of the day to day. When they hired Sara and Mackenzie, they felt like they finally had a complete crew. Sara knows how to bake like Andrea, which gave Andrea the ability to take a step back and work more on the business rather than in it.
When Natalie's health was in serious condition last year, Sarah and Makenzie stepped up and were essentially running the business since Andrea was spending much of her time at the hospital. They iterated to students the importance of having good employees and treating them like family. It is obvious that this is a family unit at Espresso. We are happy to say that Natalie is back to good health as many of you already know who see her smiling face at the window.
This team makes you feel like family as a customer. Andrea said they have gained many new friends from the running both businesses.
Be on the lookout for a new menu item soon! We can't say what it is, but we know you're going to love it!
Thank you for speaking with us today and for the baked goods! Everything was delicious! We strongly suggest the cinnomon rolls.
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