Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Newton.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Gretchen Smith and I are the co-owners of Mugs on Milton. We both worked in downtown Alpharetta and kept hearing people in the area expressing the need for a local coffee shop. I always knew that I wanted to own my own business so when Wendy at Sis and Moon looked at me and said “Jenn you should open the coffee shop” I laughed it off, stopped myself and decided to look into it. After spending time researching, I knew it was a great opportunity for me!
Besides not knowing anything about coffee, I also knew that I did not have enough (or any) kitchen/baking experience and would need some serious support in that area–which is where Gretchen came in. Gretchen owned a successful home-based baking business and I knew she would be perfect to help bring the Mugs kitchen on board.
Having recently transitioned out of her baking business, it took me 3 times to convince Gretchen to even consider the idea of working on this with me. In the end, our ideas and vision were identical and Mugs was born. We created some great partnerships to learn the coffee side of the business and Gretchen taught me everything we needed for the bakery side of the house while we worked to get the first location open.
Since then it has been a whirlwind of exciting things! We expanded our first location about eight months after we opened to increase seating and offerings to our customers. The following year an opportunity we couldn’t turn down presented itself, so our second location in Milton/Crabapple was opened in July 2015. We have been really fortunate and thankful for the overwhelming support we have received from people in both communities and are looking forward to the Mugs future!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Our journey has been atypical in how smooth it has gone, not to say that we have not had challenges along the way. Most of the challenges we have faced have been nominal due to the fact that we put so much work into making Mugs right from the inside-out to start with. For instance, we have great business systems and processes that make changing things at the store-front level easier with little disturbance of the day-to-day activities. We also have a great partnership that allows us to manage both shops without being overwhelmed.
Our major challenges have been:
Rapid Growth
Our reception into the community allowed us to grow rapidly, which is a great problem to have but led us to change how we handle staffing, expanding offerings, increased raw goods, etc.
Staffing
Staffing is a challenge in every business, but once we figured out what worked for us, the shop, and our customers we have been able to reduce the stress and potential failures of adding new staff.
Staying True
From the beginning, we have made decisions that are true to our core-great coffee/tea and home made fresh baked treats. As we have grown we have had to make more of an effort to keep our decisions for the shop true to us. If it doesn’t further our mission to serve great coffee/tea and homemade treats in an environment that people feel welcome then we don’t do it.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a retail bakery and coffee shop. We specialize in coffee/espresso drinks and fresh baked treats. Our baked goods are made fresh daily in-house at both locations which really sets us apart from other coffee shops.
What were you like growing up?
Jenn-I think I have spent my whole life preparing to own my own business. I have always been great at creative problem solving, learning new things I think I might need, and coming up with new, more efficient ways of doing things. My background includes a little of everything and all my varied interests/paths have created a wealth of information, life, and education that I constantly use in my role at Mugs today.
Gretchen-I always enjoyed baking, even from a young age, and even thought that I might open a bakery one day. I didn’t start out as the best baker, but I have always been willing to try new things and work to get better. As my family grew, I decided to turn my love for baking into a home-based business to be at home more with my family. After years of working for myself, I decided to take a break–which is when Jenn found me for Mugs.
Contact Info:
- Address: 35 Milton Avenue, Alpharetta, GA 30009
12670 Crabapple Road, Suite 100, Milton, GA 30004 - Website: www.mugsonmilton.com and www.meetatmugs.com
- Phone: 470-268-8544 Alpharetta and 470-545-6106 Milton
- Email: mugsonmilton@gmail.com
- Instagram: mugsonmilton
- Facebook: mugsonmilton
- Twitter: mugsonmilton
- Other: #MeetatMugs
Image Credit:
Jenn Newton
