Carol

I come from a hardworking background, and opening my own coffee shop was always a dream for me and my husband. As a family owned business, we have worked hard to create a welcoming space where people can enjoy food and coffee. With the help of our first Kiva loan, we were able to buy critical equipment and build out our shop in order to start our business off well.

We are happy to report that we are continuing to grow and humbled by the fact that both our office building's landlord and our loyal customers have told us that our shop has become the heart of the building. Everyday we see the small business owners in our building network and make meaningful connections while they wait in line or sit at our little counter to eat lunch. We also have customers coming from other office buildings in the area. Seeing familiar faces return each day motivates us to keep improving and expanding.

It makes us especially proud that we have watched our children grow along with the business. Our daughter graduated from high school and is working with us while continuing her online college studies. We have all worked very hard and still have so many ideas for how we'd like to grow the business. We're bringing in our own coffee beans from our home country of Honduras and roasting them ourselves. We've expanded our catering services and are now offering coffee cart delivery services. Many businesses in the building are using our services for special events in their offices.

An opportunity has come up to expand our shop so we can offer a more comfortable space and seating for our customers.