Grounded Coffee Shop Interior
Hello! My name is Abigail Speights-Hass, and I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English in December of 2020. As soon as I graduated, I began the process of starting my own coffee shop in Jonesboro, Arkansas. After months of paperwork and preparation, Grounded Coffee opened in June of 2021! Since then, we have been involved in multiple community events, hosted birthday parties and political meetings, and are looking forward to hosting the Jonesboro Public Library’s adolescent book club in October of 2022. I will admit, I was pleasantly surprised how well prepared I felt running a business as a young woman! Not only was my reading comprehension a major tool in learning business-related law, taxes, and procedures, my writing skills allowed my business to secure a grant through the Restaurant Revitalization Fund! However, what I personally find to be most helpful is something that I gained specifically due to the incredible faculty in UCA’s English Department: the ability to think critically about anything and everything. Because of the incredible faculty in this department, it is ingrained into me to stop and think, “Is there more to this than meets the eye?” Just like in literature, I look for patterns and parallels in business that help me run an innovative and cohesive coffee shop. This set of skills, to me, is what prepared me for life more than anything. A huge part of running a small business and managing employees is decision making. Because of the mindset that the English Department gave me, I have a waiting list of resumes of people wanting to work for my coffee shop in the midst of a “worker shortage.” Half of running a business is leadership, and I truly believe it is because of the amazing, supportive faculty in the UCA English Department that I am confident in my skills as a businesswoman, a writer, and a leader.