HANCEVILLE, Ala. – Wallace State Community College recently hosted its first Entrepreneurship Event, offering students insights from area business owners on what it takes to operate a business. Students from several college programs attended the event, including Business, Culinary Arts, HVAC, Horticulture and Salon and Spa Management.
“We hope this is the first of many entrepreneurship events that we hope to hold,” said Suzanne Harbin, vice president for advancement at Wallace State. “So many of you are in programs and fields where you aspire to have your own business. We want to be able to give you the tools to be successful when you graduate from here.”
Harbin pointed out that the college has already incubated five businesses, giving them a place to house and grow their fledgling companies. Those businesses include ZeroRPM, Sequence Health, DB Technologies, Chiron Dynamics, who received their first federal grant with NASA and Ethereal Engineering 3D Printing. She encouraged students attending to reach out to her if they may need assistance in getting their business off the ground.
Wallace State alumna Katie Fine served as the event’s keynote speaker, sharing how she became the owner of Karma’s Coffee House and Jubilee Kitchen + Bar.
“As business founder, wife and a mother of three, Katie models what it looks like to innovate from the ground up,” Harbin said in her introduction, “balancing family life and investing back into the community that helped shape her.”
Grit and perseverance
Fine’s story is one of perseverance. She started working at a local coffee shop when she was 15 years old and loved the job, especially getting to know the people who visited every day. She worked several other jobs and after graduating from Auburn in 2014 moved back to Cullman. Realizing she did not want to work at a desk every day, she started working at the same local coffee shop where the owner said he would soon be looking to retire and offered to let her buy the business.
“Turns out when you’re 24 years old and go to the bank with no collateral, they don’t want to just give you a loan,” Fine said. “They all told me no, but my heart was set.”
When one bank did offer her a loan under certain stipulations, she learned the next day that wouldn’t be possible because she would not be able to rent the building where the coffee shop was located.
Undeterred, she started looking for a new location and found a space in the Warehouse District where Karma’s is currently located with the intention of moving the coffee shop she was buying to that location. She even started a crowdfunding campaign to raise money. One customer offered her $1,000 for the crowdfunding campaign if she agreed to place his products in the business, to which she quickly agreed.
When the campaign fell through, that investor agreed to fund the business privately. Fine called the owners of the coffee shop and said she had the money and was ready to buy the business, but they had changed their mind about selling.
“At this point I had done everything in my power to make it happen,” she said. “But he did say on the phone, why don’t you just go open up your own.”
While it wasn’t what she set had out to do, she asked the investor if he would be willing to help her open her own business. He agreed, and with $40,000 she prepared the space for a new business and opened Karma’s Coffee House.
“One of the biggest things I’ve learned in being a business owner is that you’ve got to have courage and strength, and you’ve got to be able to persevere and you’ve got to be able to be kicked down, drug through the mud and you’ve got to keep your head up. Because otherwise, hard things are going to happen and if you don’t have the grit and tenacity to keep going on hard days, you better believe you’re going to just want to throw in the towel.”
She also encouraged the students to find the right people to surround themselves with.
“You’ve got to find people in your life, like your CPA, business professionals that you can trust wholeheartedly,” she said, adding to have other people in your personal life who will support you. “You’ve got to have people that are going to encourage you and really put blinders on the people that are not going to keep pushing you forward.”
Fine said you don’t need to know everything to start your business, but you need to know the people who to call to ask questions.
Leading a team is humbling, she said, admitting she’s had to learn along the way. She encouraged them to not be too quick to judge and make sure to listen and learn from others.
Unexpected opportunities
Fine said she was nine years into owning Karma’s when the option came up to open a second location for Karma’s. At first, she said no to opening a second location, but she thought the space suggested might be good for something else. “I decided to look for what Cullman didn’t have,” she said. “I did not want to open up anything that you could get in town. I think it’s important when you’re an entrepreneur to look for things that you don’t have in your area.”
She researched other wine bars and tapas restaurants in the area and with help from a consultant worked up a menu and décor for Jubilee Kitchen & Bar. And recently, she was able to expand Jubilee to offer an event center in a space next to the restaurant.
Both Karma’s and Jubilee came from unexpected opportunities, Fine said, and encouraged the students to be ready for anything.
“You have to be confident in yourself and believe in yourself and surround yourself with positive people, because you really never know what might happen when you’re willing to bet on yourself.”
Students also heard from a panel of area business owners that included Matt Pilkington of Stonehedge Horticulture, Jimmy Drake of J Drake Salon & Spa, Shirley Quattlebaum of State Farm and contractor Jim Snell. Each shared how they came to be in business for themselves and shared insights into business ownership, then answered questions from the audience.
Students in attendance said the event provided valuable insight into entrepreneurship and business ownership.
Wallace State Salon and Spa Management student Marilu Valdez of Cleveland said she appreciated the advice Fine and the panelists gave about surrounding yourself with a good team and people who support you as you start a business.
“I think it helped me realize how much goes into it and having a team beside you and trusting them, and your attitude toward things,” Valdez said. She said she realized she needs to think more positively and not be afraid to take chances. She said should focus on things that can go right rather than things that can go wrong, but always have a plan B.
“Because if it fails, at least I’ll learn from it and be able to keep going,” she said. “And if I don’t ever take that risk and take that chance, I won’t ever know. And I’d rather take that risk than stay with the regret of what ifs.”
College officials said they hope the event becomes an annual opportunity for students interested in entrepreneurship.
“Events like this are so beneficial for our students because they provide an opportunity to hear firsthand from entrepreneurs who are actively working in their fields,” said Amanda Tillman, WSCC Business instructor and one of the coordinators of the event. “We are grateful to these business owners for generously sharing their time and insights with our students. While we can teach the foundational skills in the classroom, the real-world lessons these entrepreneurs shared will be invaluable for students to pursue their own goals.”
