Coffee shop owner found her success the old-fashioned way

OTHELLO — People who doubted that the old IronWorks on Broadway would become the sparkling new IronWorks don’t know proprietor Erika Rattray.

Erika is only 26, but she has the business savvy of a veteran and an entrepreneurial spirit with no bounds. In about a year and a half, she has turned an eyesore into a business that is here to stay. It reached the break-even point not long after it was opened.

The IronWorks that Othello residents knew as a welding shop is now a cafe, a market and, occasionally, a night spot. There is no sign it was once a dirty, dingy welding shop.

How this came about is a story of dreaming, frugality, planning and persevering. It’s a story most people wouldn’t attempt or even consider.

It started when Erika was just a child. Her father George often spoke to her and her siblings about the greatest benefit of business – being your own boss.

Erika’s brother Michael, farms and does custom farming in the Othello area. Her sister Tara owns a horse barn in Missouri.

“We are a business-minded family,” Erika said.

A 2008 graduate of Othello High School, Erika set her plan in motion after graduating from Washington State University in 2012 with a Bachelors of Art in Communications and Political Science. She took a sales job in Scottsdale, Ariz. with Yelp, a review website for small businesses. She learned about business and business trends, what’s popular and what’s not.

“There was no sit-down coffee shop in Othello,” Erika said. “That’s why I chose to do that.”

In one year and two months at Yelp, Erika had all the money she needed to start IronWorks. It was enough money that she could sustain her business’s start even if the revenue projections were off.

Erika accomplished the needed savings by walking to work, eating free, paying a low rent for living quarters, not spending needlessly and working with purpose.

“The company provided breakfast, lunch and dinner free. So that’s where I ate all my meals,” she said.

Erika returned to Othello in 2014 and started development plans for the new IronWorks.

George had bought the old IronWorks years before just to acquire the tools that came with it. The building sat idle for years. The exterior was a nasty white. The interior was just plain nasty.

“The City thought it was a joke that I was going to start a business in this building,” Erika said. “The building needed a lot of work and a vision.”

Erika rents the building from her parents. They paid her college education, but she had to do this on her own. They even required her to show them a business plan with adequate capitalization and a strong bottom line.

And Erika had to be the general contractor for the project. George would not pay for one.

“I didn’t know anything about it,” she said.

George agreed to remodel to Erika’s and the city’s specifications. That included a new asphalt parking lot, new side walks, outdoor seating and landscaping.

Using materials left by the previous building owner, George and Erika made the tables and chairs for indoor seating. She purchased the ones for the patio and all other necessary equipment.

George and Erika’s boyfriend, Jacob Jahns, did the landscaping, including the installation of large decorative stones.

“Dad and I laid the sod,” Erika said.

The project took about eight and a half months. Erika and George worked at least eight hours a day.

“People would stop by and ask what we were doing,” Erika said.

That turned out to be a benefit when IronWorks opened in January of 2015 without fanfare and only social media announcements.

“We were very busy,” Erika said.

IronWorks is still humming, she added. She’s had six to eight employees since the first day. Her mother, Kristy, helps her two to three times a week. George comes in often to take care of handyman chores.

You would think the busy-ness of a coffee shop would be enough for Erika, but it’s not. She placed a greenhouse in the far back of the property, raised 1,200 vegetable plants and sold about 1,000. She helps broker George’s donut peaches.

Erika started farming this year, growing an acre and a half of organic squash. She plans to add succulents to her greenhouse next year and start a U-pick strawberry patch at home.

“I like to make things grow,” she said.

No kidding.

Erika started IronWorks with coffee, breakfast breads and rolls and sandwiches. She added full meals, produce and plant sales.

Then she added live music in the patio one Friday a month. She hosts trivia nights indoors, in place of the music, during the cold months.

“These things don’t happen in Othello,” she said.

Oh, yes they do.

The question is: What will Erika introduce next?