After friend and colleague Dave Forystek bought the Ferris Wheel building, he called McLean to discuss bringing in another local coffee shop after Foster Coffee Co. Lance McLean, a Davison native, studied Business Administration, Small Business Management, and Entrepreneurship at Ferris State University. “Our community is amazing with helping you out and getting you to the right programs or connecting you with the right people to help you where you have to go.”ĭavison native Lance McLean is the owner of Mi Coffee. “It’s going to get hard, but you just have to have faith in yourself, pray, have a great support system, and let people know what you need,” she says. She encourages fellow entrepreneurs to persevere and see ideas to fruition. Harrison enjoys the energy of being a small business owner downtown and hopes to provide residents with more activities to enjoy, apart from the bars, restaurants, and clubs nearby. The self-proclaimed ‘boatload of fun’ hopes to bring her personable staff and the best drinks to different venues around town, but also to act as a pillar within the Flint community. “Just to have that little help and support from my community is always a great thing.” Sheena Harrison teaches the art of mixology as the owner of Drinks of Essence Bartending School (Photo credit: Bryce Mata)“It was the best thing I could have done because now I am very informative and am very educated on my business and I know what to expect,” she says. Harrison competed in the 100K Ideas pitch competition and won $2,500 which helped the food truck purchase some of their big ticket items. Although drinks are her specialty, the world of food trucks was something entirely foreign to the entrepreneur.
Through their work together, Harrison has been able to finetune her business ideas, get access to important data, and define her target market. It was with this business that she became aware of 100K Ideas. Her latest business venture is the addition of a food truck, Fruits of Elegance, offering smoothies, slushes, Italian ice, fresh fruit kabobs, and other fresh goodies on the go. “There’s only one more and it’s in Detroit.”
“We are the only bartending school in Mid-Michigan,” says Harrison. She also teaches mixology classes for private events like team-building corporate outings, bachelorette parties, and birthdays. The Buckham Alley location provides ServSafe Alcohol certification and hands-on training in a bar-like setting. Today, her business portfolio also includes The Drinks of Essence Bartending School which launched in 2019. After working as a bartender for private events and weddings, Harrison started her own traveling bar, Drinks of Essence, in 2015.
She always enjoyed making mixed drinks so she looked into a fun new business venture within the bartending industry. Sheena Harrison - Drinks of Essence & Fruits of EleganceĪfter a long career in social work, Sheena Harrison looked to mix things up a bit.
#BARTENDER TRAINING MICHIGAN SERIES#
The recently-released seventh episode in the series highlights three Flint entrepreneurs who brought their ideas to life with resources and support from 100K Ideas - Sheena Harrison of Drinks of Essence & Fruits of Elegance, Lance McLean of Mi Coffee, and Jason Bey of My Bees Nest LLC. Their work has provided the launchpad for many new local business startups and has provided resources, funding, advice, and networking opportunities. Founded in 2017, 100K Ideas was created to help innovators and entrepreneurs feel relief from that financial burden and enable them to follow their dreams. FLINT, Michigan - Oftentimes, access to capital is the biggest barrier standing between a good idea and a great, successful business.
0 kommentar(er)
