Today we’d like to introduce you to DuWayne Hegel.
Hi DuWayne, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Pam and DuWayne Hegel are the creators and owners of The Urban Bean Coffeehouse Cafe. We are high school sweethearts born and raised in Bismarck, ND and have been together since 1976 (married since 1979).
In 2013, after a 22 year career with a Fortune 500 company, DuWayne received notice that he was being laid off. The news was not only shocking, it was devastating. Suddenly, what we assumed would be our future through retirement, completely disappeared! The virtual rug pulled out from beneath us. With much prayer and some tears, we put one foot in front of the other, so-to-speak, and began redesigning our future. After the initial shock wore off and job hunting was not producing anything of personal satisfaction, we began thinking outside of the box and decided to once again put our entrepreneurial spirit to work. (We had owned another small business in ND many years ago)
We took an inventory of our abilities, skills and passions. We thought about what our community needed that did not already exist. What niche could we fill? Pam’s obsession for good coffee and artistic ability for design, along with DuWayne’s 22 year background in food service management with great business operations and financial acumen, was our launching point. We thought about our love for eating out in restaurants and the difficulty in finding healthy and delicious options. And we thought about how much we enjoyed great coffee and spending time hanging out in various coffeeshops when we traveled. We decided that our community really needed this kind of place!
We began reading and studying coffee, coffeehouses, and how to start your own business. We decided to go against some of the advice (which is par for the course for us!) as we did not want to have a ‘target audience.’ We wanted our place to be for EVERYONE! This became a guiding principle for every decision that was to come. We knew that our menu and the furnishings would have to appeal to and accommodate everyone from mothers with children, to business people, to young adults, and to elderly customers. We set out to build a gathering place in our community FOR our community!
In the midst of all nearly a year and a half spent in doing our buildout construction, we immersed ourselves into the world of coffee, studying hours a day on coffee growing, coffee roasting, and all styles of coffee brewing, especially the science behind espresso extraction and steaming milk.
During this time, we were also creating menu ideas. We knew we wanted to use the highest quality and cleanest ingredients that we could find. We knew we wanted to create a menu that was completely unique, made with recognizable ingredients but all with a gourmet twist. We wanted to offer items that were fun and delicious that couldn’t be found anywhere else. We began putting ideas to paper and created a few recipes at home, but honestly, most were only ideas on paper until two weeks before we opened! (And I’m happy to say that everything on the menu is still selling well to this day!)
Through the years we have received many honors such as: voted Best Restaurant, Small Business of the Year, Top Ten Places for Donuts, and Best Coffeehouse. We enjoy a 4.6 star rating on Google Reviews with nearly 3000 reviews. We promoted ourselves in the first years almost exclusively on Social media. We have well over a million photo views on our FB and Website
After four years, our business became debt free – other than our mortgage. In that same year, business was increasing so much that we didn’t have adequate parking to accommodate our growth. We reached out to the owners of the building next door, who were the same people who had owned our current building. We worked out a purchase agreement and now own that property, and yet still find ourselves running out of parking space during our busier times.
We continue to strive for the best customer service, highest quality food and beverage to serve our community the best we can.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There were times that it was a smooth road. The first few years we spent a lot of time training, honing and retraining ourselves and our staff of approximately 30 full time people. Right before covid, things were running quite smoothly. Covid obviously threw a wrench into all aspects of our business with food and supply shortages, dealing with employees getting sick, losing staff who decided to work from home, etc. Since then, labor has been a struggle as that time period seemed to change people’s attitudes about work and serving customers. Bringing on and retaining quality staff seems to be more difficult. Minimum wage increases have certainly created a burden on our small business. And of course food cost is a challenge due in part to our commitment to purchase high quality products – we look for the best quality that can fit our price point, but sometimes we have to pay more because we won’t compromise on quality ingredients.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I think I have covered most of this in the previous couple of questions. Currently, Pam is our HR dept. – she does all of the scheduling, interviewing and hiring as well as taking care of any personnel issues that arise. Our daughter Melissa manages and trains our front of the house team as well as doing some admin work and her husband Chuck is a general manager who does much of the record keeping as well as other duties. It has been extremely helpful to have had them start this business with us and their dedication and devotion to our business has definitely had an impact on the overall success of The Urban Bean.
I am known as the “bean counter” – quite literally as I do all of the financial bookwork and pay the bills. I also do a large part of our maintenance and repair as well as oversee the food inventory, ordering and production.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
We have learned that owning a restaurant is harder than we thought but truly more rewarding that we could have imagined. We have learned that staying true to our mission and values needs to be the basis of every decision we make. As much as we love serving amazing coffee and food, we exist for people! We desire to be a local gathering place for our community and serving them has truly been an honor and a joy.
Our guiding principles have always been: Customer first, Authentic service, Healthy food with a gourmet twist, Delicious coffee, Team, Stewardship
Pricing:
- In our 11 years in operation we have only increased our prices 3 times.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://theurbanbeancoffeehouse.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/theurbanbeancoffeehouse
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/theurbanbean
