Sometimes the Best Plan Is No Plan

— -- You could call her a “cereal entrepreneur” — a full-time mom and full-time businesswoman who simultaneously recruited customers and dished out Rice Krispies when her two daughters were young.

Betsie Andrews is one of those mega-creative, where-does-she-get-all-that-energy women who manage to raise healthy kids, sustain a loving marriage, operate a business or two, and strike an ideal balance between work, family and other activities.

Ever since Amy and Kathryn Andrews were babies, their mom has taken the ingredients of her life and mixed them into a savory stew. She founded and ran a respected preschool and kindergarten. She sold designer clothing. She opened an elegant tearoom. She started a German-culture program in the schools. And from a business begun in a basement corner she has built a full-fledged fine arts program complete with artists-in-residence and a children’s theater.

A flight attendant and a Radio City Music Hall Rockette before she and her husband, George, were married, Andrews is no dilettante, and she’s not in business just to have “something to do.” But she goes after opportunities that harmonize with her goals and benefit others. If she sees a way to involve friends in her enterprises, and it makes good business sense, she does it. “As long as people are motivated by something outside of self and can respond to ideas that bless others as well as oneself,” Andrews says, “then one is truly about one’s life’s work, which brings peace of mind, joy and satisfaction. … and isn’t that really what people hope money will bring? My house still has its carpet of 23 years, but I feel rich and blessed and buoyant.”

The Art of Business

A Florida native and a graduate of Principia College near St. Louis, Andrews moved with her family to Hutchinson, Kan., more than 20 years ago and promptly opened a dance studio in her home. From the initial seven students, the studio quickly outgrew its basement location and has been moved to larger quarters five times.