Only a month into opening at a new location, Maes Gelateria ran into a problem.

On Jan. 27 a post on Maes Gelateria’s Facebook page reported that the newly opened location on Glenstone and Sunshine had been robbed. Cameron Maes, a Drury junior who opened the gelato shop nearly two years ago, elaborated on the incident and his experience as an entrepreneur and a student.

Maes Gelateria got its start in downtown Springfield, Mo. in the summer of 2016. In Dec. 2017 the gelato shop expanded to the Plaza Shopping Center in the southern part of the city. Not long after the grand opening of the new location the gelato store experienced it’s first challenge.

“They stole the register and our point-of-sales system, which is never fun, but thankfully they did catch the guy,” said Maes.

There were minor inconveniences for staff and prospective customers, but after a weekend off, the Plaza location opened its doors once more.

The expansion prompted Maes to think about the early days of Maes Gelateria. It was once a wild idea, but it soon became reality.

“I started thinking more about what I wanted to do with my life. I knew I wanted to go into business, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do or if I really did like it,” said Maes. “I knew I liked the idea of it,” he said. “I figured I could do internships, and work for someone and do silly tasks, but in my opinion, that doesn’t really teach you a lot. So I decided to start something on my own.”

Once you have the initiative, it seems thing start to fall into place, he continued.

“I spent about a year and a half just kind of working through the steps,” he said. “Next thing I know I’m making a business plan and going to get a bank loan.”

There are so many opportunities when it comes to building a business, but to Maes, gelato was the obvious choice.

“We’ve got Andy’s and regular ice cream stops, but I’ve always loved gelato because in my opinion, it’s always been superior to the rest,” said Maes. “We don’t have one in town and I was like ‘What the heck?’ and I started researching gelato.”

While owning your own business can be fun, it can also be tough to balance work and school. Maes, however, seems to have gotten the hang of it.

“It was hard at first, but now I’m pretty used to it. I wake up, go to school, go to work, and go to sleep. Do it all again the next day,” said Maes.

Maes is currently a day student at Drury University. He started three years ago as an entrepreneurship major, but has since changed his major to finance.

“The thing about entrepreneurship is, you learn about one-tenth of everything you need. It’s supposed to be about how to start a business. They teach you a little bit about everything, but at the end of the day, every business is vastly different.”

Despite a minor set back, what started as an idea, led to a business plan and eventually two brick and mortar stores for one Drury student.