I had the great pleasure of sharing my story with a group of up-and-coming entrepreneurs at the Extreme Entrepreneur Workshop held last Friday at Metro Community College's beautiful Culinary Arts Building in Omaha, Ne. The day was full of great ideas, inspiring stories, and of course amazing cordial cherries for all!
I'm not sure who had more fun...me or the girls! With 21 sweet little chocolatiers and tons of chocolate we had a blast learning how to make chocolate sculptures and chocolate art.
This Monday, I enjoyed a lovely tour of Omaha's own artisan coffee bean roaster, the Beansmith...the owner of such is Chris Smith. Upon entering their quaint little manufacturing plant, tucked away in the industrial district of LaVista, Ne, I was captivated by the smell...I remember that smell...as a child I'd visit my grandparents a few times a year in Joplin, MO and one of my fondest memories involves coffee. Grandpa Sheldon would make his coffee at 5:00 am every morning, always black. I would stumble down their 100 year-old stairs and join Grandpa Sheldon at the kitchen table...just me and him, an English muffin, and of course his beloved coffee. My grandparents would've loved the Beansmith...the aroma of roasting coffee beans, the beautiful artwork, and the intellectual and conversational disposition of Chris Smith himself...such a great combination of attributes.
At The Cordial Cherry it's all about family, and well, chocolate of course. So, one of the things we love to do it get our kids involved, and we couldn't think of a better way to help them learn basic business concepts than to run a lemonade stand. Armed with Grandma Sheldon's recipe for cherry lemonade, a beautiful display that my dad built, a bunch of adorable miniature chocolatiers, we had the prettiest lemonade stand in town last Saturday!
2011 was a year to remember at The Cordial Cherry. In April, we relocated to our new location in Spring Ridge Plaza and built out the entire shop in less than a month. I hung up my teacher hat to become a full time chocolatier. We began teaching chocolate classes and hosting events at our new shop. We participated in the first annual Chocolate Festival and Sweet Couture, both of which were a big success! Thanks to Jen's nomination, I was chosen as one of the areas top 40 Under 40 business owners. We nearly doubled our December sales from the previous year. As we look forward to 2012, we have high hopes and big dreams!
