It’s still feel surreal that we are now running our own business. Four months ago, I, Bea, Joice and Carlo were just chilling in our favorite coffee shop while dreaming of having our own. You’re first thought would be “How I wish building up a coffee shop would be that easy”. Of course we had a second thought about it, maybe even third, fourth and so on. But we are dedicated and we are now in our second month.
How we started?
First thing first you need capital. We research a lot about building a business, specifically a coffee shop. We came up with an estimated capital. After we all agreed about money and partnership stuffs, our next step is to find a good location. You should study the place, if it’s worth the price rent or nah. Then we looked for furniture, thank God we found a good furniture store in Cavite. We are very hands on to the point that we were the one who painted the whole store. It took us several days to finish the whole store but it was fun actually.
It’s a big help that the four of us came from different fields. Because I am a graphic artist I am in charge in creating the logo, interior design and anything design related. Carlo, who has a culinary degree, is the one who curated our pastas and sandwiches. Bea and Joice who are both in the field of accounts, they took charge of the budgeting and everything math related haha!
We had arguments about everything, from the smallest up to the biggest stuffs. It’s actually good to have conflicting ideas. You know, four heads are better than one.
What are the things we learned?
Making Coffee and Syrup
To be honest, we don’t have any idea about coffee. Though I am a coffee lover I didn’t know so much about coffee. So this is what we did. We went to Coffeeta and talked to the owner, Ms. Grace. We asked for an advice on how to make good coffee. There are many kinds of coffee and we are now using two variations. Our syrups are all our own. Yup, we are the one who make our syrups. It’s actually a trial and error before we were satisfied with the taste of our coffees. As of now we are still studying and researching about coffee.
Cooking
We are not into cooking but we are happy that we learned. We are new to this but our customers seem satisfied.
Be Consistent
We manage everything. We are the one who make coffee, syrup, pasta sauce, everything. We clean the store in the morning, we ready the food and everything. During the store hours we operate the store. We take orders. Make frappes. Make sandwiches. During night we clean the store again, we wash the dishes. We also do the admin and account works. Promotion and all. Just imagine how exhausting our days. We complain sometimes but we are proud, that we can do it. Though our body gave up sometimes. We have mornings that we overslept. We had so many late openings and there are times that we have to close the store because we can’t deliver a smooth operation. We realized that we have to work harder, focus more and pay more attention. Right now we are improving, we refrain over sleeping so we can open on time. We have to discipline ourselves. We are learning.
Value our friendship
Some people said to us that it’s not ideal for friends to be business partners. They say we will have conflicts, misunderstanding, fights and whatnot and we had and I know we will undergo through a lot in the future. But I am confident, we are confident that our friendship is strong enough, it may get stronger. You have to balance, the value of your business and the value of your friendship.
We want to be successful, we want to go places and experience things together. That is how we are. We wish each other fulfillments. We want to be sure that no one will left behind. Maybe that’s the reason why we are so dedicated with our business.
There are times I have doubts and my confident decreases. Sometimes I think, I spent four years studying media and communication in a good university and now I am making sandwiches and french toasts. You know, I can get a corporate job and sit in an air-conditioned office making ad and whatnot. But this is what I want, I want to work on something that I can call mine. It’s part of the process. I have to start from the bottom. You have to work hard, be patient and focus, that’s how life works. I believe and confident that this will be all worth it. There is no going back. There is no giving up.
As of now we are doing great. In a span of two months we are able to pay depts. Pay our bills on time. Have some savings, and we now added table and chairs. We are so overwhelmed by how the people of Indang accept and love Le Blanc. We are forever thankful.
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