Kirchen Grinds Up The Coffee Competition

LANSING, MICH (Monday, May 02, 2005) - Deborah Kirchen learned the skills for running a good business from running a good household.



“While I was home with our children [three daughters] and caring for other children, I definitely learned about time management, prioritizing, multitasking and budgeting,” Kirchen stated in her application for the entrepreneurial award.



After her daughters were grown, Kirchen honed those skills to eventually earn the 2005 Entrepreneurial Award in the franchise category for successfully opening four BEANER’S Gourmet Coffee franchises.



“I think the toughest question I’m going to have to answer is how I got here today,” Kirchen said when accepting her award. “I was a preschool teacher, so standing here at the podium is really quite an honor for me. I have a lot of faith in my life, and I think I’m just following the road that was laid out ahead of me. I have a lot of support from my family, and I appreciate all they’ve done for me.”



BEANER’S was founded in 1995 by 2000 Emerging Entrepreneur Bob Fish and his partner, Mary Roszel, with their first shop in East Lansing. After adding a third partner, Mike McFall, the company started franchising in 1999. Kirchen has been the longest running franchisee with the company.



“I’m here because of their hard work,” she said of the three BEANER’S business partners. “I had been working at a small coffee shop in DeWitt, and BEANER’S had these little pamphlets out asking if you wanted to become a franchisee. I picked one of those up and had a meeting with Bob Fish and, for one reason or another, he thought I was a good candidate for it.”



With three children, Kirchen and her husband, Tom, had not built up a lot of savings, but they were debt free and had equity in their 1901 home, so they decided to mortgage it in order to buy the business.



“It was very scary,” Kirchen noted. “My husband said, “You want to do what? How much will it cost?” But Tom and Bob Fish believed in me.”



Kirchen signed her first franchise agreement with BEANER’S in 1999 and opened her first franchise on Elmwood Drive in Lansing in 2000, with a second one in the coffee shop where she used to work in DeWitt in 2001. However, when her mother-in-law was battling cancer in 2002, Kirchen sold the first store to make more time to care for her.



“I tell my beautiful girls that family is the most important thing, so I’ve got to make sure I live it,” she stated.



In 2003, Kirchen added another BEANER’S franchise in Delta Township, and she started another store in Grand Rapids in November 2004. Her niece is interested in the business, so she is running the newest site.



“At all of my stores, I have employees who are aspiring to own them, which will be fine with us when we retire,” said Kirchen.



As for her Entrepreneurial Award, Kirchen stated, “I’m very honored. I just didn’t see it until I started writing it down [for the application]; and when you lay it out in front of you, it’s like, “Gosh, a lot has happened over the past four years.”



Kirchen is also community minded, contributing the total gross sales for the day to charity on each anniversary of the opening of her Delta Township store. But Kirchen said running a thriving business has not been her greatest achievement.



“I want everyone to know I’ve felt success before because I have three beautiful daughters and a marriage of 29 years. I’ve just never had a plaque for it.”

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