From escrow to open (and everything in between)
It took over a year for us to officially get our shop, and what a whirlwind it’s been. So much of our story has been about grinding and winning and failing and bouncing back. It was both fun and exhausting charting our path to closing escrow.
Well, we did it! And somehow the keys just magically became ours. (Seriously, I don’t recall how we got them.) We had projected, planned, and made contractors wait for months. And now we could finally create the shop of our dreams.
Confession: as soon as we closed escrow, we didn’t know what to do. Our lender didn’t just drop a lump sum of money into our account. We had to buy equipment through invoices first. So we hurried to process those payments so we could get to work on the shop itself.
And as far as money goes, we probably secured the minimum amount that a business could borrow. We’re being super frugal with every decision we make because one, the ‘rona means a lot of the traffic we were counting on is gone; and two, this is scary! Being scared is normal, right? Here’s what we’re doing with our fear: taking action and raising money (still). Currently, we’re accepting donations. More on that in a later blog.
Meanwhile, we launched our online store! This was huge for us. In the beginning, Jeronica and I didn’t plan on selling beans. We needed to focus on one thing at a time. When our Head of Products joined, he made the good case that we could do this too. So we did. It’s been amazing to see all of the orders coming through. We’ll have to frame our first receipt alongside our first dollar! We’re officially in business.
Shop Nirvana Soul coffee and merchandise now!
You can also make a donation.
When we envision Nirvana Soul (the physical shop), we see light and bright, relaxing and inspiring. The previous shop had incredible bones. The mezzanine itself is a gift. Most of the changes we’re making are to brighten the shop up to reflect our brand.
One big-ish thing we knew we had to do for sure was lower the countertops and create wider spaces so people of all abilities could be more comfortable. With just a few more cosmetic upgrades like paint, plants, furniture, and art, we’ll be just about done.
Done means something entirely different in the age of Covid though. Shipping delays and limited supply is real. If we could magically get all of our materials here today, we’d be open by end of the month. Unfortunately, that’s just not the case.
We would have loved to move fast and open right away. The plan – we might be on plan G at this point – was to open by August. (We literally wrote AUGUST in capital letters in our Instagram bio because we were so confident. It’s now updated to: SUMMER.) And after a quick Google search for “last day of summer 2020”, we’re convinced we can make it happen!
We want Nirvana Soul to be the destination for calm and coffee in San Jose and beyond. The energy behind this whole thing has been incredible. We’re always talking about how grateful we are, and we will never stop.
So, once again, thank you for your support, orders, donations, shares, likes, comments, and patience! This is going to be so good. We hope you can feel it too.
- Be’Anka