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Coffee on the go, one ‘Sweet Sip’ at a time

Sweet Sip Coffee Company brings variety, friendliness, drive-thru to city

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December 9, 2024

NEKOOSA – Owner Macey Shutter said Sweet Sip Coffee Company’s premise is simple but powerful: Serve up delicious coffee on-the-go with an outdoorsy vibe.

The concept, she said, has resonated with area residents and visitors alike in pursuit of their caffeine wake-up calls.

In fact, Shutter said business has taken off faster than she ever imagined.

A hot start

Shutter said she established Sweet Sip at 706 WI-73 in Nekoosa in summer 2021, opening it the following fall during a hiatus from what would have been the first semester of her sophomore year at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP). 

Her vision, she said: To provide a local, small-town coffee drive-thru to bring luxury drinks at competitive prices to rural, commuter traffic heading through the area. 

The plan was to do just that, then return to college for the spring semester, but though she was enrolled and had a class schedule in hand, Shutter said Sweet Sip and its customer base had other ideas.

“I was three months in in December, and over winter break I realized there was no way I could make the classes work,” she said. “We were well over what we expected to be (in sales), and I was so grateful for our community. So I talked to my college advisor, and he said, ‘You’re going for a business degree so you can open a business – but you’re already doing what you’re pursuing a degree for, so give it a chance. You can always come back in the future as your credits won’t go away.’ So, I stayed focused on the business.”

A sip of inspiration

Shutter said before Sweet Sip, she was majoring in business and corporate finance at UWSP and working at a local bank. 

When her work hours at the bank conflicted with her school schedule, she said she took on a job at a local, start-up coffee shop that offered more flexible hours, not realizing it was going to stir things up – both literally and figuratively – as it sparked the idea of establishing her own shop.

“I was there before they had any customers and learned the whole background of the project and got to see all the work that went into the project,” she said. “I ended up talking to a college advisor about it, and they let me know they had a program through the university to pay for my entrepreneurship license.”

Sweet Sip Coffee Company is located at 706 WI-73. Submitted Photo

Recognizing Nekoosa’s lack of a drive-thru coffee shop, Shutter said she saw an opportunity to seize on the commuter traffic on the main highway driving from Pittsfield to Plainfield, or the reverse.

She said she credits her mom, Julie – who serves as the manager of Sweet Sip in addition to owning a garden center – and her aunt – who owns an embroidery shop – with leading the way with their own entrepreneurial endeavors.

“I know my mom was hoping for another entrepreneur in the family,” she said. 

The Sweet Sip difference

Shutter said Sweet Sip Coffee clientele appreciate the convenience of hopping off the highway’s exits to get their fill before resuming their trek to work, school or wherever life takes them. 

The drive-thru shop is open 12 months a year, six days a week, from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.

Situated in a building Shutter repurposed to reflect an outdoorsy/Northwoods vibe, she said Sweet Sip Coffee Company blends with the setting. 

Shutter said she wanted a design that meshed with the lake cabins in the area – almost naming the business Coffee Cabin before learning there is another coffee shop with that name in the state.

“As we have a few famous golf courses in the area, the people who travel here enjoy a cozy cabin aesthetic,” she said. “We wanted a very pine tree/tree plantation, cozy, earthy feel. We use a lot of neutral colors and cardboard products, so there’s a natural effect going on. Even our (coffee cup) stoppers are wood. We like a woodsy kind of feel.”

It’s what is inside the cups, though, Shutter said, that brings customers back. 

She said she did extensive research to find just the right coffee to offer, traveling throughout the state to try coffees and inquire about different shops’ respective coffee roasters. 

Shutter said she spent “two to three months” going from place to place trying coffees, and ultimately decided to go with a local roaster. 

However, she said when the installer for Sweet Sip’s Italian-made espresso machine visited the shop, the topic of a coffee roaster came up and he mentioned Ruby Coffee Roasters in Nelsonville. 

“That was pretty much the only coffee I hadn’t tried in a 150-mile radius, so I got in contact with their reps and they sent a whole box of samples,” Shutter said. “From the second I tried it, I knew that was it. I’m really lucky it worked out because there are moments when I run short on coffee, and they’re great about having bags ready for me. It only takes me 40 minutes to pick them up.”

Shutter said Sweet Sip’s repertoire includes house coffee and signature drinks, including lattes, cappuccino, frappes, refreshers (lightly-caffeinated, fruit lemonade drinks), teas, Lotus energy drinks, “secret” family hot cocoa, steamers and shakes. 

The signature drinks – also known as Sip’pables – she said, are among the shop’s best sellers. 

Shutter said she likens these signature drinks to “extra fancy lattes” with their own specific flavor combinations. 

Popular selections include Oatmeal Scotchie (butterscotch, cinnamon and oat milk), Avalanche (white chocolate and marshmallow), the Salted Caramel Latte and the Peanut Butter Cup Frappe, she said.

Shutter said Sweet Sip’s younger customers favor the frappes, as well as hot chocolate, steamers, teas, refreshers and Lotus energy drinks. 

Sweet Sip’s menu also includes two standard refresher flavors – kiwi green tea and strawberry passion – in addition to seasonal flavors. 

The monthly specials, Shutter said, are also fan favorites, which feature about five new drinks.

“These tend to sell very well, so much so that after publishing them on the first of each month, we see quite the increase in traffic (from people) anticipating the new featured flavors,” she said.

Shutter said Sweet Sip bases some of its drink offerings on the season, specific to what produce is available – always striving to innovate.

“We try our best never to repeat drinks from past months, which becomes a pretty tricky task,” she said. “I’m sure eventually that will not be the case, but we do our best to stick with it. It helps that employees, family, friends and customers request or suggest new creations or flavor profiles.”

Shutter said Sweet Sip’s drinks “can be made in almost any fashion” – including hot or cold, with or without coffee, dairy-free and sugar-free as well.
For those seeking a complementary bite to eat, Shutter said the shop offers breakfast sandwiches, muffins, cinnamon rolls, bagels with cream cheese, giant cookies and soup (seasonally). 

In the beginning, she said business was “a 75% drink, 25% food split,” though that has since evolved to a 65% drinks, 35% food split with the addition of breakfast sandwiches.

“And in the drink category, coffee is always No. 1,” Shutter said.

The customer service at Sweet Sip, she said, is a point of pride and a key differentiator.

“I’ve worked in customer service since I was 12 or 13,” she said. “Nekoosa residents enjoy the at-home atmosphere we try to create through smiling faces and memorizing our usual customers’ orders and their drinks. If we see their car in the drive-thru, we start to get their usual order ready. We know each of our customers personally and make it a goal to converse with the usuals. I hear people comment even more on our character than on the drinks themselves.”

Those customers keep coming back, she said – both the regulars who frequent the drive-thru or newcomers.

“Age, race, area codes – there’s quite a mix,” Shutter said of her customer base. “We don’t do much advertising, so I credit word of mouth as well as our social media.”

Sweet Sip does, however, utilize a “moving billboard,” she said: Sweet Sip’s mobile coffee van. 

Macey Shutter said Sweet Sip’s drinks “can be made in almost any fashion” – including hot or cold, with or without coffee, dairy-free and sugar-free as well. Submitted Photo

About two years ago, Shutter said she had the idea of adding a coffee-on-wheels to the business’s mix and mentioned it to her father. 

Three days later, Shutter said he found a 1964 Chevy Stepvan in excellent condition at the Iola Car Show.

Even though the vehicle was older, she said she gave it a chance – and a little elbow grease – and transformed it to allow Sweet Sip Coffee Company to travel to some key locations in the area.

“It’s proven to be pretty fruitful in getting the word out, as we will go about 50 miles out with it,” Shutter said. “We just try to bring coffee to the people in the middle of populated areas.”

Lessons along the way
Though Shutter said she has been benefiting from small business lessons since childhood when she would pitch in at her mom’s garden center, she said owning her own business has reinforced those lessons and taught her several more. 

Among them: Do what you do best and trust your instincts; don’t bite off more than you can chew and persevere during times of trouble or stress, she said – all of which Shutter said have come into play at different, unanticipated points these past few years.
For example, she said, she opened Sweet Sip at the end of the height of COVID-19, which many people said was going to kill the business before it started. 

Shutter said the timing of the pandemic was a non-issue to the business’s success – however, she was taken by surprise by how the war in Ukraine impacted her business, as a resultant petroleum shortage impacted her supply of plastic cups.  

“The vendor said I wasn’t going to be able to get 20-ounce cups for five weeks,” she said. “That’s our largest cup, and I had to figure out a game plan on how to make that work. I ended up spending five times my normal amount on cups to purchase 500 cups because I knew we needed them. We were fortunate to have a great sales representative who helped me through it.”

Community first, for certain
Shutter said she has always made the community the focal point of Sweet Sip and contributes to many community fundraisers, parades, giveaways and more as a way to recognize and thank the community for their patronage. 

She said she credits community members with making it possible for her business to flourish, citing in particular Paper City Savings Bank.

The bank not only made her aware of a Community First Accelerate Grant awarded through the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, Shutter said, but also “did almost all the paperwork and legwork” on Sweet Sip’s behalf. 

“And we found out a few days later we received the grant,” she said. “We are grateful for the $15,000 grant we’re using for small renovations to make our overall customer experience better.”

Those plans, Shutter said, include redesigning menu boards in the drive-thru, repair work to the gravel driveway and purchasing additional supplies and products.

“We are super grateful for this opportunity,” she said.

Check out Sweet Sip Coffee Company on Facebook for more.

TBN
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