Kristin's Kafe

Hello, my name is Kristen Billings. I'm the owner of Kristen's Cafe. We're located in Michawaka, Indiana. We've been open for about seven weeks. We open on October 24th. We're very excited about having our own business. I have always been in this business my whole life. I was born and raised in it and we're just excited to finally, I'm excited, I'm excited to finally own my own restaurant. My husband and I were trying to find a way to invest our money into something in order to make some kind of profit off of our money rather than just sitting in the bank collecting interest. So we got the opportunity to pursue our dreams. We ran across this little cafe and when we found the cafe it already had the equipment in it through one owner and then we signed the lease with the lady that actually owns the building and so we actually kind of got a whole package deal and businesses have been going great. We're meeting new people, new faces every day, regular's every day. We're open from six to two. We serve lunch, Monday through Friday from 11 to two but those that inquire for lunch Saturdays and Sundays we also will give them whatever they want. When I was looking into insurance for the building my insurance company told me about the SBDC. I then went online, filled out a very short survey. They immediately called me back that day. I spoke with a very nice lady. She asked me kind of where I was in developing my business. I answered a few questions. The next thing I know I was scheduled on appointments to meet with a gentleman. There I met him and helped. I kind of gave him all the information that I had. He sorted it out, gave me really good advice as far as getting an attorney to look over my agreement forms on my purchase agreement. He led me in the right direction as far as advertising. Just basically covered me legally. Also I got to meet with another gentleman through the SBDC and helped me show, he showed me how to keep track of all of my sales, my taxes, all of my receipts. Basically they helped me, they taught me how to stay organized and how to ensure that I know I'making a profit and where my business is at. Some of the things that I would recommend to anyone that was interested in starting their own business would definitely look into your resources, preferably your free resources. Look at and see what your community offers. There's a lot of free resources out there that I believe you can take advantage of and not actually have to pay these people that would, when you're in business, everybody wants your money. So looking at it I believe that you should just really be smart about it, really look into it and follow your heart and know that it's going to take a lot of work, a lot of hours and it's a lot of stress but it's all well worth it. The great thing about it is in the mornings when I wake up I don't say, oh I got to go to work in the morning. I'm excited to wake up, come in, make some money, meet new people and run that register tape at the end of the day.