Meeting Place founder writes memoir on entrepreneurship in Lima

LIMA — Two decades in business taught Jennifer Brogee to rely on her strengths, rather than imitate her competitors.

Brogee founded The Meeting Place on Market in 2002, ignoring naysayers and lenders who told her the downtown Lima coffee shop would likely fail.

Her mission: to start a business where development was needed.

“What I didn’t realize was that was a disadvantage for us, because it wasn’t in a high-traffic area,” Brogee said.

Operating an independent coffee shop in a struggling downtown amid the Great Recession, coronavirus pandemic and the rise of corporate chains like Starbucks and Biggby proved challenging, but Brogee forged ahead anyway.

Brogee reflects on her work in a new memoir: Can social entrepreneurship work in the Rust Belt? A mom, a dream and a declining downtown. The book is published by Lived Places Publishing as part of a collection of first-person accounts authored by emergent entrepreneurs.

“It’s important as an entrepreneur that you do something that’s unique to your strengths, because that’s where you’re going to be successful,” Brogee said.

“If you’re always trying to copy somebody else, you’re probably operating out of your weaknesses.”

For Brogee, that meant closing the coffee shop earlier, so she didn’t overwork herself trying to imitate corporate competitors.

It also meant drawing on her software experience to search for new customers online — starting an Etsy shop and using keywords like “gifts for mom” to sell gift boxes, tumblers and boxed lunches to people searching for last-minute gifts or a quick meal — and utilizing unused office space behind the coffee shop to rent to fellow entrepreneurs and remote workers.

“There’s not as much competition in that area,” she said.

Things are finally starting to turn around for downtown Lima too, which helps bring customers to The Meeting Place.

While foot traffic hasn’t quite returned to 2002 levels, Brogee said she sees more people downtown today than she did five years ago. And people are talking positively about downtown Lima in a way she hasn’t heard in years.

“That makes a huge difference,” she said, “because when you have pride in your city … then you talk positively about it. You talk it up. More people might be willing to invest, more people might be willing to stay and start businesses.”

Signed copies of Brogee’s book are on sale at The Meeting Place. The book is also available at https://bit.ly/45Vg5gR.