Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Diego Viamontes, founder of ch cafeteria, located in Edmonton, AB, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
We come from a culture where cocoa beans were more precious than gold. With that background, we decided to gift our customers with a taste worth gold in every bite. Our goal is to demystify the concept of 'gourmet chocolate,' so everybody who likes chocolate can access a great quality, tasty and unique treat.
Tell us about yourself
I came to Canada from Mexico to play professional football with the Edmonton Elks. Once here, my wife, Sara, and I built a really good friendship with Nadia and Victor. They used to be chocolatiers at one of the best chocolate shops in Mexico City. It was just a matter of time for us to combine our dream of opening a coffee shop and their dream of opening a chocolate store. So by December 2019, we started working to build this project, to open in October 2020 finally. Since then, the satisfaction of watching our customers enjoy our food and drinks is the fuel that keeps us moving forward on creating new and better things every day.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Opening a business in the middle of the pandemic was a huge challenge, so we had, and still have, to be exceptionally creative to keep the company afloat. That, I think, has been one of our biggest accomplishments.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
One of the hardest things is to learn the difference between working hard and working smart. I realized from my football background that going full speed, super heavy at the gym, and ridiculously long training sessions aren't always the best. You have to know when to push harder, when to slow down and recover and find the right place to achieve your goals. Running a business is similar, in the way of having a good schedule, knowing how to delegate responsibilities, administrating the hours of work you have to put on, and still having recreational time, so you're lucid and bright when you go back to work.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Money isn't everything; if you only think of money, your life will be miserable. If you think about making people's lives better, money will come by itself.
- Never forget to think like a customer. Empathy with your customers will help you improve the areas of your business that sometimes, as an owner, we don't see.
- Find the balance of keeping the essence of your business and be open to change. Sometimes is hard to change things because of a romantic idea about our business, but one has to think with an objective point of view and know when is right to change something about it.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.ch-cafeteria.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jairviamontes
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diego.viamontes/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JairViamontes
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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