Q&A with Ben’s Soft Pretzels co-founder Elizabeth Miller
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Elizabeth Miller is the mind behind Goshen-based Ben’s Soft Pretzels’ winning recipe. Miller is married to Ben Miller and is also one of the co-founders of the franchised brand.
Miller, a mom of six, juggles running her latest venture, Das Kaffee Haus, with homeschooling her kids and helping out at the Shipshewana Flea Market. Over the past 24 years, Miller, has learned to appreciate the importance of systems in her organizations and enjoys loving God and loving people.
She spoke with Inside INdiana Business about starting Ben’s, watching it grow into a successful business and how she is learning to celebrate her wins.
This article has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Did you grow up dreaming of owning your own business someday?
Growing up I never dreamt of owning my own. I grew up on a farm. I was one of 10 and my mom always stayed home and was a farmer’s wife. At age six I was already milking cows but at 13, I started to work away from home. Looking back, I knew that I never wanted to be a farmer’s wife. But I loved the working together part. And so Ben and I got married. Growing up, his mom had her own business and he was going to take over. So I knew that we would possibly be going into business. But I still could never envision past the present day.
When I was pregnant with my oldest son 25 years ago, I was very sick. I was working in an RV factory and I had to stay home because I had morning sickness. One day I started to feel good I guess, and I got this idea that maybe I could sell sugar cookies because I grew up baking. I would put them on a paper plate and I slid it into a plastic bag, zip tied it and put it out in the store to sell.
I don’t know what it was inside of me except for I guess, God, because I loved it. I would put it out there in the morning, even if it was just 10 plates. I sold them for $2.50 for a dozen cookies and so that would have been $25. At night, I would run out there to see if they sold and I’d be so excited. Then I started to sell more and more. I started taking them to the farmers market. Soon people were coming and asking me to bake for them and at this time I didn’t have electricity, we had white gas and we had this campfire stove where you had to pump. This was in Michigan.
How did Ben’s Pretzels come about?
We moved to Shipshewana and so I was taking my baked goods to the South Bend Farmers Market, and there was a lady that had a pretzel booth beside us. One day she asked if I wanted to buy her pretzel booth. I’m thinking well, I guess maybe we can do more if I do pretzels. I think that I will say yes and we’re coming out here anyways, so yes. And so we went to do the closing, and she said that we don’t get the name or the recipe. I had never had a pretzel before. I didn’t know Auntie Anne’s or Joe Joe’s that are uptown. I didn’t know anyone. But we now had a booth, and I now had to come up with the recipe.
So I went through the cookbooks and just played with what I thought tasted good and I took it to the market and sold it. We would give out samples and people said they loved them and I just know that I believed them. They would say these are so good, and it would just excite me to just see people light up. And today, these many years later, it’s a franchised company. We have over 180 locations.
I never had these big goals. I just always walked and doors opened and I just said yes. I am always a “Yes” girl; that’s why my days are full. I recently heard Tim Tebow speak and he said that we can rest when we die. I just love it, living to the fullest. That’s success to me.
Some people are waiting for things to be handed to them instead of going after it, instead of just taking a step and trusting the next step will come. It doesn’t have to be the right one but it’s still a step and it doesn’t matter. There’s no failure to me, there’s just lessons and we just keep going.
Miller talks about moving to Shipshewana and creating the recipe for Ben’s Pretzels.
Why did you decide to launch a second business?
About five years before birthing this, I was in a coffee shop. I’ve always loved coffee. I was in a coffee shop in South Haven, Michigan and they had some kind of slogan. And I was like I want to do that one day; I want a coffee shop one day. So when the opportunity came up to put a coffee shop in this strip mall, it would have been easy to say no because I kind of forgot what it was like to start up. Kind of like you remember when you had a baby, but you kind of forget. You want another baby but you kind of remember what the pain was like, but you know now the joy that you have now, so it’s kind of worth it. But then when you’re in the middle of labor, you’re like, “I want to quit.”
I just couldn’t say no. Ben sometimes would be like, “Do you really want to do this?” I just knew I was to take it. Yes, it was painful in my first weeks. I had kind of forgotten what it was like to labor but there was no backing down, and I knew that I was equipped for it and when you just can’t do it yourself, you need God. You use what you have, the skills you have and then He gives you new ones. Now I’m just so excited. We have systems. I have great people. We’re going on three years and I just feel like we’re not at baby stage anymore. It’s expanding and I’m excited for where it’s gonna go. I just feel like it’s going places.
How do you come up with your drinks here?
The girls help a lot. My first ones came from Texas Coffee School. We now make a lot of our own syrups. And then if we try something, for example, I was in Texas and I had this brown sugar maple drink, I was inspired to recreate a healthy version when I got home. But everybody on staff creates. We don’t always like it; I don’t like matcha but they do. Then we let the customer say, and if it’s a hot item, we keep it and if not, we just switch it up.
Tell me about the philanthropic work you do?
Just before my birthday, I was in Africa for three weeks on a mission trip. When we were still Amish, I had friends that were on missions, and they had come home and they visited us and she had said that Africa needs us. And so this is maybe 17 years later, we’re going over there. She came back last November and also said that they have a full shipping container of bakery equipment waiting for us whenever we come, to set up a bakery in Africa. We went in April for three weeks and it was a great experience.
I’m not against college education, but I didn’t grow up with that and I didn’t grow up with electricity. I didn’t grow up with all of that. So I could see those people where they’re at and believe that there’s a way for them to change their lives. They don’t have to stay there. So I had so much stirring inside of me coming home from Malawi and then just like four days later, I flew to Paris, to a completely different experience.
With the coffee shop, we’re just getting our foundations. It’s like a newborn baby and we’re crawling now but we’re about to run, so we’re getting ready for a marathon right now. So much is birthing and when I opened the coffee business, God had told me that we were going to go on missions, and I knew when we were over in Malawi that that’s where we’re going and that’s where we’re going to be building.
We want to build a coffee shop over there. We want to help people. If we can equip them with how to provide for themselves, that would be more beneficial. Some of them have really good sewing talents. I gave one lady some leather and she sewed a purse overnight. So I want to make really nice leather purses and bring them back here to sell and of course the proceeds will go to the women in Malawi.
You recently turned 46, what did you do for your birthday?
Oh my gosh, I did something incredible. It was the first time that I ever really celebrated my birthday. Growing up, we never really celebrated and it was nothing bad. My birthday was just never something to be celebrated until last year, something started to stir in me. Even when my husband would have a birthday party for me, I didn’t really enjoy it. I didn’t know why. But last year, I felt like this year I’m going to do something different. I’m going to celebrate. I didn’t even know what I was going to do but in January I was in this coaching class with women from all over the world. And I met this lady, she grew up in Poland but had moved to the U.S. and she said she felt like she was always hiding. I could just relate with her and I was like I want to hear her story. Then she posted on Facebook that she’s doing a retreat on May 5, which was my birthday, in Paris.
So I flew to Paris for my birthday and it changed my life. Because so much happened inside of just aligning with God. This is what he showed me there, that it’s not prideful to believe that you’re worthy of being celebrated and that you’re worthy to be valued and that you’re loved. He showed me that I am here for a purpose, to follow my passion and to further his kingdom.
I just feel like I’m a new person. I feel like I’m able to walk differently. I feel like it has shown me that it starts with me, I can’t wait for people. And that when I change everybody around me changes. It empowered me to just receive His love and to allow that to overflow to everybody that I meet.
-
From left: Isaiah Miller, 21, Lily Miller, 16, Leroy Miller, 24, and his wife, Joanna Miller, Ben and Elizabeth Miller (center) with Katelyn Miller, 7, Ethan Miller, 9, and Caleb Miller, 18 (photo courtesy Elizabeth Miller)
-
Das Kaffee Haus in Shipshewana (photo courtesy Elizabeth Miller)
-
A Ben’s Soft Pretzels shop in Shipshewana (photo courtesy Elizabeth Miller)
-
Miller on her birthday trip in Paris (photo courtesy Elizabeth Miller)
-
Miller and her first grandchild, Elijah (photo courtesy Elizabeth Miller)
-
A cross-section of Ben’s Soft Pretzels (photo courtesy Elizabeth Miller)
It seems your kids are very much involved in the business. Was that intentional? Or did it happen organically?
No, it’s been very intentional. Sometimes, I don’t know why I do the things that I do until God reveals it to me. But I was taking this business coaching class and they asked a question, “Why did you start a business?” and I said to make money. And the instructor said, “You cannot say that. Nobody wants to know that you’re doing business to make money.” The next week, we came back to class, Ben & I, we still didn’t have an answer. Few years later, I read a book, Start With Why.
The truth was, I always wanted to work together with my kids. I wanted them to have a different outcome than I did growing up, so ultimately that’s my why. My oldest son took over my role as general manager at Ben’s. My daughter is 15 but I know she’s gonna run this coffee shop one day. I’m working at the flea market with my last two, Ethan and Caitlin. Ethan is nine and Caitlin is seven. All of my kids have worked at the flea market. They started at that age just to engage with people. They give out samples. They run the register and they also get paid for working. So it’s always been my dream. I love it and I want my grandkids to be part of it, I want it to be passed down.
How have you been able to blend homeschooling with running a successful business?
We’ve done it now for 15 years and it’s tough. At first I tried to bring school home, tried to just duplicate school and it didn’t work at all. I was frustrated. The kids were frustrated. Then I just slowly started to learn that there’s so much more to education than just spending eight hours in books at home. Ben and I are originally Amish so we just have eighth grade education. I don’t even quite have eighth grade education but Ben does. We just decided to go with the basics and then a lot of their education involves working with us. When we travel, they come with us. We’re doing books from nine to 12 and then the rest of the day they just go with us wherever, that’s part of their education.
My oldest son owns two lemonade stands. He runs our Goshen store and oversees all of our other stores. He’s a father, he’s been married for five years now. He owns his own house, all paid off. I’m just proud of my kids. My other two boys, Caleb was 15 and Isaiah was 18, they went and bought a house together and they rent it out. Caleb’s 18 now and he bought another house. We’ve given them a good foundation. If they want to then go on to become doctors or lawyers or something else, then yes, they’re going to go to college. But otherwise, they just need to be good with people, trust God, have faith, work hard, be good with their money and they’ll go places.
What’s your advice to potential business owners out there?
When we got married, we had zero money. Growing up, we had to give all our money to our parents until we were 21. So if we can do this, anybody can. That’s just if they want to. I believe that there’s something about living, not lacking. I’ve learned success doesn’t make you more valuable because you now have this or less valuable because you don’t have it. It doesn’t change you, but you get to live differently as you now have more opportunities. Money is a tool. It’s a tool for us to rule and reign on earth. That’s all it is. It’s seed and it’s made to grow.
I’m so grateful for every person that comes through our doors and helps keep us in business. I love the opportunity to serve people and make divine connections. I don’t ever want to take it for granted because it takes all of us to make it happen. To empower our employees, to serve amazing food. Every pretzel at Ben’s sponsors a meal for a hungry child somewhere in the world. We have so much that we want to do and I know it takes all of us.