Bryson City woman gets REAL about business

BRYSON CITY- Stepping inside Mountain Perks coffee bar, one might never realize he was in a town with merely 1,200 year-round residents.

However, owner Jessica Brett hasn't forgotten.

"The town [of Bryson City] has been phenomenally good to me," said Brett.

A certified chef from the Culinary Institute of America, Brett has worked the past 12 years in restaurants such as the five-star Reliax Chateau called the Fearrington House in Chapel Hill, the Swag in Maggie Valley and Relia's Garden at Nantahala Outdoor Center. But soon, Brett realized her true dream was to open her own restaurant.

After working for the past year at The Winery at the Biltmore House, she discovered not only was she good at preparing food, she was good in front of a crowd. So when Mountain Perks Espresso Bar and Café in downtown Bryson City came on the market, she took the entrepreneurial plunge.

"I cook," she said. "I've done that for 12 years, but that doesn't mean I know how to run a business."

Brett's friends told her about the Rural Entrepreneur through Action Learning (REAL) offered through Southwestern Community College. These friends, local restaurant owners and REAL graduates, explained that this program helped them get their business, Everett Street Diner, on the right track.

Russ Seagle, Director of SCC's Small Business Center, and Keith Corbeil, SCC's Business and Industry Training Coordinator, spearhead the REAL program for Southwestern. The program begins with a weekend retreat at Fontana Village in February and is followed by eight classes over a two-month period. Seagle and Corbeil said that 18 people attended this year’s retreat. Of those, there were 14 business ideas on the table at the beginning. By the end, there were five business plans.

"It's one thing to start a potentially successful business, but it's quite another to start a business that has little or no chance for success," explained Seagle. "What we try to do is help people understand whether the business will be successful. It's more financially satisfying to NOT start a business than to start one that is destined to lose lots of money."

That focus on the feasibility of a business certainly helped Brett.

"The REAL program made me focus--made me think of small things that never occurred to me," said Brett.

Added Seagle: "Business owners don't necessarily need to keep their own books and do their own taxes, but they DO need to understand how books are kept…it's difficult to make decisions based even on good information if you don't understand it."

The REAL program gives potential and current business owners a close look at what it takes to run a business successfully--business ideas vs. local demographics, financial projections and research, effective advertising and funding sources. Additionally, the program assists students with writing a business plan - a plan that helps want-to-be entrepreneurs discover the risk involved with their business idea.

Swain County Chamber of Commerce agreed to allow Corbeil and Seagle to choose the best business plan from the REAL graduates and give the winner a one-year complimentary membership. Brett was chosen as the 2001 REAL business plan winner.

Nancy Buchanan, secretary of the Swain County Chamber of Commerce, said that Brett's membership would entitle her to a free ad in the Swain County visitor's guide, exposure in the Chamber's quarterly newsletter, a listing on their local web site --www.greatsmokies.com -- and on www.visitnc.com --the state's website. Additionally, Brett can put brochures in the Chamber; and, perhaps most beneficial to any new business, she will get referrals by the Chamber.

If you are interested in learning more about Southwestern's REAL program or if you are a REAL graduate and would like to reunite with REAL classmates, Southwestern will be hosting a REAL barbecue from 5-8 p.m. on Sept. 7 at Sylva's Poteet Park. You and your family are invited to come.