What were you doing when you were 18? The answer varies from person to person, but for 18-year-old Erin Polk, she’s an entrepreneur who runs her own coffee shop on Chicago’s South Side.
Erin has loved coffee since she was a child, but last year she decided to turn her passion for coffee into a full-fledged business.
She opened Erin’s Cup in the city’s Morgan Park neighborhood when she was 17, her senior year of high school.
“When I was about 16, I started developing ideas for what I wanted my space to be, and it just kept growing,” she says.
Erin comes from a family of business owners, having grown up watching her mother run a catering company.
“This is all I saw growing up,” she said. “This is all I know.”
Erin credits her mother, Heidi, and her team for helping her realize her dream, including some who provided start-up capital. Her business partner, Kale Hunter, has worked in the coffee industry for more than 20 years.
“Supporting young people is important,” said Erin’s mother, Heidi Polk. “I firmly believe that with the support and love of family, there’s nothing you can’t do.”
“Erin really gives me the freedom to make whatever I want to make… and make my own drinks, which is what’s fun about working with an 18-year-old like me,” Hunter said.
Erin will be attending Georgia State University in the fall and plans to major in Psychology. While she is away at college, her team will handle the majority of the day-to-day operations.
Erin hopes that her story will inspire teens and adults to follow their dreams and put their heart and soul into making them come true.
“I want my story to be a story of hope, a story of belief, a story of if you try, you can succeed,” she said.
Erin’s Cup is located at 1212 W. 111th St. in Morgan Park.
