Local entrepreneur is brewing something new in Manawa

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

August 4, 2025

MANAWA – From farm life to fashion and cows to coffee, Jean Seeger said she is following her entrepreneurial spirit off her family’s farm for the betterment of her rural community.

Before taking the leap into business ownership, Seeger said she worked on her parents’ farm in her hometown of Manawa.

“I went to college for a year, didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I felt like I was wasting money because I didn’t have a plan,” she said. “So, I [finished my first year and] went and worked at Flowers and Things in Clintonville for, I believe, three years – [two of those] years [being] before my husband and I got married.”

After she and her husband, Jake, were married, Seeger said she started thinking of the lifestyle she wanted to raise her family in.

At that time, Seeger said it made more sense for her to go back to work on the farm.

“My mom is there [to] babysit the kids – it would really work out,” she said.

And for many years – describing them as “some of the best” due to the time she and her husband got to spend with her family – Seeger said that’s just what she did.

“It was a lot of fun,” she said. “Hard work, but a lot of fun.”

However, Seeger said after her father sold his cows and left the farm business, she decided it was time to step out on her own.

“I always wanted to have my own business, so it kind of just fell into place,” she said. “But honestly, I joke [that] if my dad hadn’t sold the cows, I probably would still be milking cows and working on the farm, because I did really enjoy it.”

Seeger said she and Jake bought their first building – located at 329 S. Bridge St. – in 2016 and opened a boutique, Hello Beautiful, a year later, in 2017.

Nearly a decade later, Seeger said their goal in buying a second building on the same street is to provide the city she grew up in with what its residents and its visitors believe it lacks.

Seeger said Manawa had a coffee shop “for many years” before it closed down and became a bait shop.

“[We’re] certainly excited that we have that store in town, too, because it just adds another something to our downtown, but so many people come in [to Hello Beautiful], almost weekly, [and ask], ‘Do you have a coffee shop in town?’” she said. “It’s missed.”

In a small community home to roughly 1,400 people, Seeger said when she decided to address this perceived gap in its amenities, she knew the solution shouldn’t be for a coffee shop to share a space with Hello Beautiful.

“I thought about putting it in my own business, but I feel like our town needs another place for people to go,” she said. “It’s a small town, and we do… have lots of things to offer, but I feel like another location [was] more important than putting it in my space that I already have.”

So, last spring, Seeger said she and Jake began looking at the building they would later come to own – located at 306 S. Bridge St. – right down the road from Hello Beautiful’s storefront.

“It just felt right,” she said. “I’m a pretty faithful person, so I just felt like [if] it’s meant to be, let’s do it.”

Community support, gratitude

In a June Facebook post announcing her and Jake’s new building and business, Seeger wrote that their “plan is to turn [the] special, historic building into a cozy little coffee shop.”

“I put the announcement out there because I had heard people were starting to talk about it – that they had heard the building sold,” she said. “I wanted to share the news about what our plan was directly from us.”

Seeger said their Facebook post received an outpouring of “heartwarming” gratitude and support from locals who had either missed the community’s former coffee shop or were simply excited that another potential gathering place was coming to town.

“The amount of people that took the time to like [and] share our post, comment on it [or] reach out – I [got] private messages [and] text messages – it was just amazing,” she said.

The forthcoming, currently unnamed coffee shop does not yet have an anticipated opening date, Seeger said, as the “historic building” requires renovations before its rebirth.

“The biggest thing [is] we want to keep the building looking like it [does] as much as possible, because it’s a pretty historic building in town and it means a lot to a lot of people,” she said.

However, Seeger said despite their desire to keep it as authentic as possible, the building’s condition calls for some necessary upgrades.

“The roof has to be done [first, because] we’re not sure what we can do [until] the roof comes off,” she said. “We’re not sure [which ones are] our weight-bearing walls…, [so, we don’t know] which walls we can take down in the interior to open it up a little. So, we just have to start somewhere and see what our opportunities are.”

A welcoming environment

Down the road from 306 S. Bridge St., Seeger said sits the first building she and Jake renovated for their first business, Hello Beautiful.

“We did most of the renovations ourselves with the help of family and friends,” she said.

Taking the former hardware store and turning it into the boutique it stands as today, Seeger said, was no small feat.

“We did a lot with that building when we renovated it,” she said. “[It had] a lot of fluorescent lighting [and] there was plaster on the walls. [So], we tore all that off and exposed the brick again.”

Now, Seeger said Hello Beautiful – which according to its Facebook page is a modern-day mercantile offering boutique clothing, unique gifts and home decor – gives her local customer base a close-to-home shopping option.

“My hope was [that] if you needed [to shop for] a quick gift or a quick outfit, you didn’t need to travel far to do so,” she said.

Seeger said her product selection is intentionally curated to differ from those of big box stores.

“I try to carry unique items and clothing you won’t find everywhere,” she said. “That is what makes shopping at small businesses fun.”

Though she and Jake are still trying to “brainstorm” how to turn their newest building – which used to be a garage – a few blocks down into a coffee shop, Seeger said she already knows she wants the space to be welcoming.

“We want to create an environment where it’s a place to come and meet your friends and hang out for a while, or have a little meeting with whomever,” she said.

Bringing something new to her community – especially to the downtown area of Manawa – Seeger said, is especially important to her because of the symbiotic relationship businesses operating in the village have.

“Our charming little downtown is so special – I am thankful for the connections we share and feel blessed to be a part of it,” she said. “It takes all of us working together for people to want to travel to [the area].”

Until her and Jake’s forthcoming coffee shop has an official name – “I have a couple of names that I really like, but I haven’t finalized anything yet” – Seeger said excited patrons should visit Hello Beautiful’s Facebook page for updates on the project.