Kelli Ferrell will make her debut on Real Housewives Of Atlanta on Friday, March 7. She is also the founder of “Nana’s Chicken and Waffles” in McDonough and she will be opening her second location later this year in Sandy Springs. She has been running Nana’s for nearly a decade, and Ferrell stepped into the Business Exchange to tell us more about her entrepreneurial journey.
Why chicken and waffles?
Um, chicken and waffles. Because chicken, I wanted to make sure that when we created and developed the concept that I gave homage to my grandmother, Nana, who makes the best fried chicken. Shout out to Nana. Hey, girl! And then waffles, because I felt like it was a need in the market for that. So basically, I wanted to figure out, how could I take, like, pretty much all of my childhood desserts and turn those things into breakfast concepts? And that’s what I did. So, I created “Nana’s Chicken and Waffles,” where you have an array of delectable waffles.
Were you always a chef or who taught you how to cook?
So, no, I was not always a chef. Funny story is, my degree was in fashion merchandising and design. It had nothing to do with culinary or hospitality, but I was a self-taught chef, and I learned to cook from my mother and my grandmother. And just like any other household you know, you get in the kitchen, you either going to be doing the dishes or helping, and I did both.
What was the hardest part of starting Nana’s?
Um, opening? I mean, literally. Because I didn’t know how to open a restaurant. I always say I went to “YouTube University.” That’s where I went, and that’s how I learned. And it’s like, you project this date, and it’s like, “Okay, I want to open here,” but then, you know, it’s hard to open on that day. You might have some delays, some dilemmas, but I found myself that I had to not think about everything being so perfect, but just kind of figuring it out. And I opened, literally the day after Christmas. I opened, Dec. 26, 2016, and I was probably the craziest person that would even at the time during the holidays to open a restaurant, but I did, and never [looked] back.
Three tips for the business owner who wants to open up their own place of business?
One is making sure that you are praying. Just making sure that God is delivering your footsteps and how He perceives you to be. Because it’s going to be a lot of people that can’t see what He’s giving you. So, you want to make sure that you’re staying connected to Him. I think the second one would be practice makes perfect, right? I think always making sure that you are practicing and constantly doing what it is that you love or what you are attempting to do. And when I say that, I mean, like, for instance, if you’re a chef, make sure that you’re developing recipes constantly. Make sure that you’re always getting content. Make sure that you’re promoting yourself, right? Because, let me just tell you, the friends and family, those are not your promoters. Those are not the people that’s gonna be your No. 1 supporter, no, and they probably won’t even post you. So you have to go and promote yourself. The third one would be believe in yourself. You really gotta believe in yourself, because nobody else is going to believe in you. You gotta put in that work.
