The owner of a catering business and event venue in northwest Iowa is being named the Iowa Small Business Person of the Year by the Iowa district office of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Cathy Bishop opened a restaurant called Aggies in the Sioux City suburb of Sergeant Bluff in 1994, but after a several years, realized she had to make a change — for the better.
“We had such a different menu and everything’s homemade from scratch, and people started asking us to cater for them,” Bishop says, “and so we did. Then, it got to be so much that my kitchen couldn’t handle the restaurant and the catering all at the same time.”
In 2009, Bishop pivoted into catering full time, turned the restaurant into an event venue and immediately began hosting graduations, birthdays, retirements, weddings, funerals and more.
Offering breakfast, lunch and dinner catering weekdays and multiple events on weekends, Bishop has continued adding members to her staff over the past 15 years.
“We have about 10 that come every day,” Bishop says. “I have one that comes in at 4:30 every morning because that’s when she likes to get up, and then we have up to 50 people that we pull from for events, because if you have five parties, you have to have five different teams.”
A 1983 graduate of Texas A&M (where the mascot is the Aggies), Cathy worked for several years as a bank examiner, but her heart’s desire was to become an entrepreneur, which led her to the hospitality industry.
Being named Iowa’s Small Business Person of the Year is a wonderful honor, but she says her mottos and business practices are simple:
“I treat people the way I want to be treated. My dad was an entrepreneur and he taught me to do deals with a handshake and I’ve always done that,” Bishop says. “It’s always good to get involved in your community, supporting other people, helping other people get involved in starting new businesses. Small businesses are all in the same kind of boat and they need each other to help support each other.”
As the Iowa Small Business Person of the Year, Bishop will represent Iowa at National Small Business Week ceremonies in Washington D.C. in April, where she will compete for the National Small Business Person of the Year Award.