On Apr. 1, the Center for Entrepreneurship hosted a panel, Main Street Innovators: Local Visionaries Reimagining Retail. The panel featured businesses including Steady Hand Cafe, District Refillery, and Fleur de Mer.
The panel explored topics including how to create memorable brand experiences that can help facilitate building loyal communities, how to balance having an online presence while creating authentic in-person connections with customers, and how to develop a sustainable business model.
Ashley Burk of the Steady Hand Cafe, with a Brick and Mortar location opening soon in Bradley Beach, is reimagining the traditional coffee experience through thoughtful sourcing, community spaces, and multi channel distribution. This has allowed to extend the brand beyond just the physical location of a traditional coffee shop.
Among the panel was Michelle Costa and Dana Weiss, both Monmouth University Alumni. Weiss from the District Refillery, located in Point Pleasant, is pioneering the zero-waste retail movement. This is an innovative business model that educates consumers and provides sustainable alternatives to everyday products. Michelle Costa with her co-founder and sister, Emily, own Fleur de Mer in Ocean Township. They are using design innovation and experiential retail to create memorable moments by elevating traditional floristry. While all of these brands are unique and different to one another, they all are reimagining retail.
The panel was well received by the student attendees. Ashley Bento, junior business organizational leadership major, said, “I loved this panel, the positive mindsets and ideas from these women helped so much, I found myself writing so many quotes from them. They had a great outlook on entrepreneurship and have an understanding of hard work, a great attitude, and sustainability.” She continued, “My favorite idea from them was to empower customers and make them feel safe, united, and comfortable together as a main goal for your business.”
The sentiment was shared by Alexandria Young, junior small business management and entrepreneurship major. She said, “I feel that attending the Main Street Innovators panel definitely helps shape my perspective of what it means to be an entrepreneur, to add value to customers’ lives while being receptive to feedback. While at the same time, understanding that you will never be able to solve every problem or request and that’s okay too.”
Alison Gilbert, the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, said, “We are excited to host experiences like this at the Center for Entrepreneurship–to bring real-world insights and create opportunities for inspiration and connection within our growing Monmouth entrepreneurial community. Our Main Street Innovators panel—featuring local visionaries including Monmouth alumni—exemplifies how we’re cultivating a thriving ecosystem that connects campus and regional entrepreneurship.”
Students gained a fresh perspective listening to the panelists speak and Bento said, “My understanding of entrepreneurship was changed when I heard the advice from Ashley Burk, ‘you don’t know what your business is until your customers interact with it.’ This made me realize I need to go with the flow and appreciate any outcome that happens when I place my business into the real world!”
Nasir Cole, junior business entrepreneurship major, also noted that Burk’s quote stuck out to him. He said, “One of the main takeaways I received from the most recent panel is that community can be one of the biggest parts of small and local businesses.”
Above all, the panel discussion inspired students who are on their own journey of starting up businesses. Young explained, “The panel did inspire me to start thinking of new ideas in which I can create a sense of community within my own tech-startup I’m building called Dialeco. The discussion of building community within their businesses is what truly stood out to me as it highlights the very human side of running a business. It is not just profits alone that matter but how you treat people.”
Bento concluded, “I have listened to a lot of entrepreneurs speak as offered in my courses. I have never heard their advice before and as a young future entrepreneur, I have tools from these women I can utilize when framing a business. I need to understand how to make it sustainable, bring people together, utilize partnerships, and see customers as helpful when they give you honest feedback.”
