The First Adventure Pt. 3
Starting a business couldn’t be that difficult, right? (Hahaha) And we should make a lot of money as soon as we open, because Starbucks are always busy! (That’s even funnier!) Business principle 101: Just because a business has volume does not mean that it is producing a profit. Did we know this at the time? Absolutely not! We really didn’t know much of anything, but God is amazing. He was about to take us through a series of events and teach us so much over the next few years.
So, back to the problem of no money. It takes a lot of money to open a coffee shop, and we didn’t have any at all. In fact, we were in the negative with student loans and medical bills from the pregnancy. We prayed, and Adam began to seek counsel with some business men in our church. After meeting with them, the two business men agreed to fund the entire business to start up and be equal partners in the business. One problem was solved. We actually had money to begin the process. Also, this was the beginning of a very strong business mentorship for Adam with one of the partners that has been life changing for him over the years. (This family is now very close friends of ours, and we are still attending church together today.)
Adam then began to seek out more counsel from a friend in Dallas who also had a licensed Starbucks. He helped him to walk through the startup process. To make a very long story short, everything began to fall together. We knew this was God. Right after signing a contract with the hospital, Adam began to get job offers from all over the country for very well-paying jobs, so that was even more confirmation that God had held off the offers before to allow us to have this business idea. We still had no money, because now we were business owners (but the business wasn’t open yet).
Over the next year, we had a lot of changes, and it took a year to get everything open. A year… Many people think these things happen overnight, but the truth is anything meaningful isn’t always easy. Many obstacles and oppositions came at us over that year.
A year after this journey began, we opened the doors of our first licensed Starbucks called “The Perfect Blend” in Good Shepherd Hospital. Many people who know us now, don’t know the struggles and the work that was put into this business. Adam worked from open to close (at the time, it was 6 a.m. until 9 p.m.) every day at the coffee shop to get it established. We had a toddler girl, and we had one car. This is not a sob story by any means, but most people don’t realize that life was not easy during this time for us. Over the next few years, we both learned that a lot more goes into building and owning a business than we realized. We felt like we were being attacked from every angle, and actually ended up experiencing many personal struggles (including our marriage) during these few years. Our 2nd baby was born in the middle of all of this, so life was still happening. And, the business was not doing well. On the outside, it looked successful, but we still weren’t making a profit.
That’s when another defining moment happened in our lives. I was not in this one, but I was very present as I was consistently praying for direction in our lives. We were both ready to quit. Quit everything: Business, Marriage, Life… We were exhausted. Adam called his business mentor early on a Saturday morning, and told him how he felt. This man dropped everything to meet with Adam and walk him through the numbers. Adam walked away from the meeting cautiously convinced that God was going to make this work if he applied the business principles that his mentor showed him. You know what? It did work. It wasn’t a quick turnaround, and it actually took a few years to work. But over the next few years, God worked in our personal lives and our business as we humbled ourselves and sought after Him every step of the way.
The business principles were working, and an entire new business opportunity was presenting itself in the midst of everything. That’s when Perfect Catering was born…
