When I first started writing the business plan for The Meeting Place on Market in 2002, I was not honest with myself with why I was doing it. I told myself that I wanted to start a coffee shop for two reasons: to provide meaningful work for myself and my family, and to make a profit. However, the reasons went deeper than that.
First, I was yearning for a creative outlet that was all my own. At the time, I was designing software for a technology startup. You would think that the act of creating new software and starting a technology company from the ground up would have been enough of a creative outlet for me. However, I felt constrained by the fact that I wasn't the only one making decisions. The investors made the final call.
Second, I felt a calling inside my heart to make a difference in the community. I majored in business in college because I believed that entrepreneurship offered one of the best avenues for poverty alleviation and community development. After 9/11 in 2001, I felt an urgency to follow that call. I realized that a future was not certain. After much prayer and consultation with others, after my husband and my parents agreed to partner with me on the business plan, we made the leap into launching the coffee house.
The difficult reality is that a retail coffee business is a non-ideal business to handle the weight of all of those expectations. The industry is highly competitive, the overhead high, the margins low. If I had been truly honest about all the goals that were wrapped up into that business plan, I should have been looking for an industry that had the margins to support them.
Would I go back and change what I did? Yes, in terms of being more transparent with myself and my business partners. But no, I would not change the people I have met, the personal growth I've experienced, and the opportunity to transform an empty street corner into a welcoming space. I have learned, though, to be vocal and honest about all my goals. And I encourage you to do the same.
