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Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Our business started in 2003 because we had a dream to open a coffee shop. I used a business plan I had started in college, dusted it off, and updated it. My parents and husband joined in the journey, and we solicited startup funds through small loans from friends and family. We bought equipment at auction, found a sympathetic building owner who did some renovations before we moved in, and basically “bootstrapped” it.
We are reinventing ourselves now as more than a local coffee shop by expanding our products to include unique coffee and bakery gift boxes that can be purchased on Etsy and through our website. We support the building we are in, which is a 1917 former Savings & Loan building, through a Coworking Center that we created by reducing the space of our coffee shop. COVID-19 forced us to make many of these changes quickly as we looked for any avenue of revenue that we could find. Now, we seek to expand both gift box collections into even more e-commerce channels. We also hope to one day franchise our Coworking Center business model and partner with other coffee shops and small businesses around the country, providing them additional revenue through the coworking model.
Our mission is: Connecting people through expertly crafted coffee, food, and unique gifts. Our values are: Relationships, Sustainability, Community, Integrity, and Creativity.
