Misha Curtis shows her 'Sweet Side' through 3 businesses

Editor's note: This is the cover story for Monday's Progress edition, "Women in Business." For more stories on area women in business, pick up a copy of the Creston News Advertiser on newsstands.

LENOX – When the alarm clock sounds in the morning, the daily rat race begins for Misha Curtis.

She gets herself ready, gets her three daughters – ages 16, 10 and 8 – up and ready, fixes them breakfast and sees them off to school. And then, she departs for work.

But what she does in a given day is always an adventure for Misha, who with her husband, Mark, co-owns Curtis Heating and Cooling, Lenox Hardware and Lenox Hardware Sweet Side, all in Lenox.

Mixed in with operating all three businesses in Lenox, Misha, 41, still works as a nurse at Greater Regional Medical Center in Creston two days a week and is clinical nursing instructor at Southwestern Community College, and also coaches volleyball during the fall.

“It’s just a rat race every day,” Misha said. “People, they do ask me how I do it. I always say, ‘You only live one time. I’m going to do what I love because you never know if you’re going to have tomorrow.’ I have a big book that tells me everything I have to do, but I don’t worry about next week. I get through the day and see what I have to do. I prioritize my to-do list on what I have to have done and what can I shove off until tomorrow.”

It’s almost a full-time job just trying to keep track of her daily schedule and to-do list. But still, Misha finds a way to balance all three of her businesses, while also being a mother once the work day is done.

“Some days aren’t easy, but I just do what I can,” she said. “My main thing that I’ve learned is at the end of the day, when my girls are out of school, I shut it all off and just go be with them, whether it’s in their activities or whatever. They’re my main priority, no matter what. I’m able to let work go at that point. I always know it’s going to be there the next day no matter what.”

Three businesses

Misha grew up in Winterset and graduated from Orient-Macksburg High School before earning a degree in animal technology and eventually getting a degree as an RN from Southwestern Community College.

After marrying her husband, Mark, she found herself living in Lenox. After she graduated from nursing school, Mark started Curtis Heating and Cooling.

Mark always wanted to buy the hardware store in Lenox. Finally, in 2012, Misha gave in and the couple purchased the hardware store.

Part of the reason she caved and purchased the hardware store, Misha said, was there was an empty storefront next door to the hardware store being used for storage that she had an idea how to utilize.

“It always drove me crazy there was a nice storefront window and a store but nothing in it as far as retail,” Misha said. “I always thought Lenox needed a bakery or a cafe, so I think in about six months’ time after we bought the store, we tore it completely up. We tore up seven layers of flooring and there was suspended ceilings that we tore out, and we created the Sweet Side.”

Earlier this month, Lenox Hardware Sweet Side began its fourth year in business at 110 N. Main St.

Owning a bakery was something Misha always thought she’d enjoy.

“When (Mark) wanted to buy the hardware store, part of the reason I said OK was I had something I could do,” Misha said pointing in the direction of Sweet Side. “Originally, our plan had been we hired someone to run heating and cooling, Mark was to run (the hardware store) and I was to do Sweet side. It wasn’t very long before that whole thing shifted.”

Changed plans

Things didn’t work out at Curtis Heating and Cooling with the hired help, so Mark went back to running that business.

That left Misha in charge of both Lenox Hardware and Sweet Side. And, with Mark learning how to do solar panels, Misha is managing all three.

“It wasn’t my plan in the beginning, but now I’m happy with it,” she said. “I like diversity.”

Managing three businesses can be hectic at times.

“It’s very crazy for her, but she loves it,” said Taylor Foster, who has worked for Misha at Lenox Hardware Sweet Side since December 2015. “She loves every bit of being in all different places all the time. We all know she’s either a phone call or a text away to make sure we’re all in our right positions.”

Misha’s mother started helping at Sweet Side, keeping that business going while Misha devoted more time to the hardware store, which she said is her biggest investment of the three – both in money and time.

“This is something that has to stay open six days a week,” Misha said about the hardware store. “I have to keep this going. The Sweet Side is open four days, and that is sort of a fun, side thing.”

Misha was quick to point to her employees as a big reason the three businesses continue to run smoothly while she has so much on her plate.

“I always try to stay somewhat organized. It’s never a real thing,” she said with a laugh. “But I couldn’t do it if I didn’t have good people working for me. That’s the biggest thing. Debbie (Sweeney) has been at the hardware store for, I think, 24 years before we bought it. We’re going on our fifth year. Jerry (Henderson) has been here a couple of years. They’re very dependable people. I’ve got good high school kids who work for me. I have good girls at Sweet Side and Chris Draman works for me at heating and cooling. I couldn’t do it if I didn’t have people work for me.”

Lenox Hardware

Mark and Misha purchased the hardware store from Denny and Judy Bunch, who had established the business in Lenox after owning and operating it for 33 years.

With it having already been an established business with loyal customers, taking over Lenox Hardware presented challenges for Misha and Mark.

“They were very big shoes to fill,” Misha said. “Of course, they had worked hard to build what they had. It was a huge learning experience. A lot of times I hear, ‘Well this is what Dennis and Judy did.’ So, you just try to make people happy.”

Both Dennis and Judy stayed on to help Misha and Mark through the transition of ownership. They took Misha and Mark under their wings and taught them how to order the store and how to order from a show in Minneapolis.

Another challenge of running the hardware store is facing misconceptions as a woman in a predominantly male business.

“I think there is a stigma, such as, ‘Maybe she doesn’t really know what she’s doing,’” Misha said. “I don’t think they realize what I’ve learned through the years or what I do learn every day. I would say the people who know me know my strong personality and know I may not know exactly, but I’ll figure it out and get them what they need. I’ll bend over backwards to make them happy.”

Misha is proud to have raised her daughters around the hardware store, where they have seen the hard work she has put in.

“I raise them to be responsible for their actions and to work really hard,” Misha said. “I think my girls may see me work hard and put in long hours, but they also see a woman is capable of doing this and hard work will benefit you in that way. That’s how I want them to be raised.”

Sweet Side

Misha’s work with Lenox Hardware Sweet Side is some of her favorite, as it allows her to be creative and express herself.

She recently started catering with Sweet Side, which has become her favorite part of the business.

Open Tuesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sweet Side offers bakery items for breakfast, a salad bar and full menu for lunch, as well as a daily special. Sweet Side caters for Rotary each week, as well as several other businesses around town.

Sweet Side is also known for ice cream, cupcakes, cookies, rolls and flips. Being able to decorate the cupcakes is one way Misha is able to express her creativity.

“I’ll get a call from someone at the hospital saying, ‘When are you coming next?’ wanting cupcakes,” Misha said. “They’re impressed because they’re big-time things you see on TV. They’re not just something simple you might find at Wal-Mart.”

Foster added: “We have lots going on all the time. We run pretty well like a day-to-day basis, because we never know who is going to order something by the next day. We like to be able to have someone walk through and they need 20 cupcakes today and we’ll have them to them by 3 o’clock this afternoon. We like that quick pace.”

Misha said a lot of the menu items, and particularly items available through the catering, are ideas brewed up in her own head.

For example, on Valentine’s Day, she served stuffed chicken.

“I didn’t really have a plan, but I just whipped it together,” she said. “Right before we opened, I thought, ‘We need a sauce for that,’ so I just came up with something in my head. Over there, they’re always like, ‘Well, I need a recipe.’ I’m like, ‘Well I don’t really have one. A little of this, a little of that. Figure it out.’”

Happy people

Through all three of her businesses, Misha’s main goal is helping people and making them happy.

“She does exactly what she’s supposed to and she’s always working for the customers, making sure they’re happy,” Foster said.

That’s also the biggest reason she loves being a nurse – caring for and making people happy.

“If I could just greet the people and help them, that’s my favorite part in all my jobs,” Misha said. “It’s about bigger things. It’s about having something for the people, especially in a small town. You get to know people. That’s one of the greatest things.”

But at the end of the day, Misha’s biggest priority is making her family happy.

Misha aims to spend as much time as possible with husband Mark, 43, and daughters Emily, 16, Izabelle, 10, and Avalyn, “8 and kind of going on 20,” as Misha put it.

“At the end of the day, the mother has always been the most important thing beyond anything else because I only have so much time with them,” Misha said. “I try my best to do whatever I can to make them a priority. Raising the three girls is the hardest job. It’s the most challenging, but it’s the most rewarding.”