Q&A: These 3 Evansville women built eateries and families at the same time

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Opening a business is hard, and it’s not easy being pregnant, either. And having a newborn? Forget sleep or planning your day or … planning much of anything.

Still, in the last two years, we’ve met three female entrepreneurs who have created a food business and physically remodeled the space while pregnant, then rolled into opening with a new baby.

The Courier & Press asked them about the experience.

Kate Potter, 36, owns American Honey Boutique and Dwell Coffee Shop in Darmstadt with her husband Max. She opened Dwell on Jan. 12 and her son Adler was born Jan 14.

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Ashley Corbetta, 26, owns Bea Sweet Treats bakery in Newburgh with her mother, Stephanie Post. Ashley’s husband is Brennon Corbetta, and their son Luca is 3 months old. Bea Sweet Treats was a delivery business, but the new storefront opened on Dec. 1, about two weeks after Luca was born.

Brandie Scott, 30, owns Flourish Plant-Based Eatery with her husband Nick. Their daughter Aurelia was born on Nov. 22, 2019, and Flourish was set to open on March 16, 2020 — the day Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb announced a restaurant shutdown because of the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic.

After re-tooling for carry out, Brandie opened four days later.

What was your reaction when you realized you’d be opening a business and giving birth within weeks or days of each other?

Corbetta: We started drawing up contractor stuff for the building in February and I found I was pregnant in March. It was a surprise and very overwhelming. I was so excited, and then I realized the timing and was like, “oh.” We opened the store, bought a house, moved and had a baby all at the same time so when the upheaval was over it was over. This year we are just living.

Potter: I was numb for like three days and cried a lot at first. I was already overwhelmed. My parents were at the coffee shop building the day I found out, and I walked in and my mom looked at me and said, “What’s the matter?”

Scott: It came as a shock. We didn’t plan it and we were pretty far into the restaurant, and there was no turning back. We were like, “what are we gonna do?” But it all worked out as well as it could have during a pandemic.

What did you find most difficult?

Corbetta: We thought we’d open the storefront in September but none of the equipment came until November, so I was still painting, and it was hard to go up and down the ladder, and we were busy with orders. I went to my 32-week appointment and found I was in full-blown labor. I just thought he was moving around. My thought as I was getting in the wheelchair was, “it’s Thursday and I have three wedding cakes on Saturday.”

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Half of our equipment showed up while I was actually giving birth. The baby came on Friday and I left the hospital Saturday at noon, went straight to the kitchen, grabbed a cake and delivered it with my hospital bracelet still on. The next weekend we had three more wedding cakes – my Mom baked the cakes, but I needed to finish them. My husband stacked them for me because I couldn’t lift them.

Potter: I was almost 35 weeks when I went to an appointment and was told I was having contractions five minutes apart, and if they got to be three minutes apart, I needed to go to the hospital. Four days later we were having a building inspection and the contractions were so bad I almost couldn’t stand. I went in and told them I couldn’t work like that. They gave me a pill to stop it and he was finally born at 38 weeks.

After I had him I was lying in the hospital ordering supplies. I was stuck in the bed so at least I had something to do. At the shop, other people did the grunt work and I just supervised some things. It was very frustrating because I could see what needed to be done but couldn’t do it.

Scott: We expected to qualify for more loans, but we wound up doing all the work on the building ourselves. It was a lot. On my due date we came home and the whole basement had flooded and it was really stressful. Then I was like three weeks overdue and was doing the restaurant floors and painting. It was crazy, I was being really active just trying to get her out of me. When we opened, I was feeding her or pumping all the time, and I suffered from post-partum depression. But I like how the building turned out better than the original vision we had; it’s more of an accomplishment and more inviting.

What made it possible for you to achieve your goals despite the difficulties?

Corbetta: It wouldn’t have happened without my family support system, our parents and my husband. My mom is co-owner of the business, and my husband and I met in culinary school so he baked some things and he was a GM for Fridays for a long time so he could help run it.

Potter: My parents (Greg and Carol Broerman) were involved, and they said, “we’ll step up and help, whatever it takes. Don’t stress.” And my husband would drive me around so I could go in and see that things were going Ok.

Scott: Nick worked on remodeling after I had her, and I stayed home and healed up for a while and worked on the menu and operations. Sometimes Nick would stay home with her and I’d go in and try to work through things by trial and error; it was my first business so I was getting used to running a business, being a new mom and getting used to COVID.

What did you learn?

Corbetta: I’m a perfectionist, and one of the best things that came out of is that it made me learn to let go and trust that it will be ok. I also had to learn to verbally communicate and give directions rather than just grab things and do it myself.

Potter: I also had to give up control and that’s still really hard. I wasn’t able to attend barista training for the employees so I didn’t know the drinks. We got our first bad review on Facebook and I knew that my parents were there, and that I didn’t need to worry because if they had been aware of a problem they would have fixed it.

Scott: It was empowering to overcome all that while pregnant. It showed me that if I could get through that I could get through anything. Both of my children are growing up inside the restaurant and they’re learning too and it’s fun to watch.

Contact Aimee Blume at aimee.blume@courierpress.com.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville entrepreneurs who had a baby and opened a business