About 18% of Americans know how to drive a manual transmission. Anyone who knows how to drive a stick will tell you the only way to learn is actually drive it yourself. They’ll also tell you…

The car is going to jerk. 

The car is going to grind. 

And it may even cut off on you. 

After a while you’ll get the hang of it. But if you’re not careful and you don’t shift gears smoothly you’ll burn out the clutch. And now you’re stuck. Dead in the water. A fully functional automobile that can’t move.

Well my friend, that’s what it’s like owning and operating an independent food and beverage shop. A small bakery, cafe, juice bar or bistro. Just like driving a stick shift you have to learn by doing but there’s a chance you can ruin it all, burn out and get stuck.

I didn’t know anything about running a juice bar. So I started in my apartment. That wasn’t sustainable but I kept pushing. In 2020 I opened Good Part & Co. My first brick and mortar location. I was lost. Friends and fam helped when they could but it was all on me.  My contractors backout and I had to finish my own build out while developing marketing and operational strategies. (see photo above)

All while working a full-time job for the government.

I invested in consultations when I could afford it. After 2 years, an expansion bidding war, multiple hirings, firings, and extreme exhaustion that put me down for 6 days guess what? 

I was able to shift gears without a hitch. 

I took a lot of bumps and bruises. I lost a lot of money and missed a lot of opportunities. 

But who’s complaining? Not me. I’m still here - happy and fresh as a cold pressed juice from the farmer’s market. 

I landed a first-of-it’s-kind partnership with Johns Hopkins. Participated in one of the largest vegan festivals on the East coast and catered the CIAA basketball tournament twice. Big deal for me since I attended an HBCU.

I may have closed the doors to my plant-based health cafe but I’ve opened the doors to my experience.

I was lucky to find a juice bar consultant online. I was even luckier to have a coffee consultant work around the corner from my juice bar. But that’s not the case for many other food and beverage visionaries. There needs to be more support. So I decided to launch the Café Concierge Agency to support my fellow shop owners.

Nobody knows our pain. From service at the front counter to cleaning the back storage room. From online marketing to staff training. It’s like there’s no off button. But there is when you have the right foundations, systems and operations in place. 

I could’ve given you a play by play on how I started my juice bar and cafe in this' About section' …

But it’s more important to know that everything I have - every tip, tool, doc, app and insight is now available through my easy to access agency. Café Concierge is here to help see your vision through and put you on cruise control before your transmission burns out.