Today we’d like to introduce you to Angela Faraci.
Hi Angela, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.To be as cliche as possible, we simply started with an espresso machine and a dream to one day own a coffee shop. It began with selling cold brew coffee out of a yellow pickup truck outside of gas stations, local parks, or even as far as to be literally on a corner of a street. Not long after, we were accepted and began working out of the East Orlando Farmers Market located in Waterford Lakes, with only a small Breville espresso machine, a handful of flavor options for your coffee, coolers for ice, and two tables.
We didn’t even have a tent despite starting our small business during PEAK Florida summer weather. It took weeks of trial and error before we found a flow to our little coffee stand, and before we knew it we were essentially running an outdoor coffee shop. After three months of nonstop working and networking, we were able to acquire – what we like to call – the bean. She is our 10 feet by 8 feet long coffee trailer, where we are now able to travel to customers to serve them our delicious specialty coffee drinks.
Even though we had a truck to now make us mobile, we still had to hustle in order to get the funds for our current espresso machine – which could have only been made possible thanks to our little bean and our regular customers. This machine allows us to steam milk and pull shots of espresso simultaneously, which has made the overall experience for the customer better as the wait time for a coffee is typically less than 2 minutes.
Since upgrading to our little coffee bean, our menu has also had the blessing of growing as we now have more space to curate more delicious beverages than before. Since acquiring our bean, we have been able to book more private events such as bridal parties, office parties, and even baby showers in addition to working alongside local markets in order to stay plugged into the community.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No! And to be honest, I don’t think any part of owning a small business is ever a smooth road. Why do I say this? Well, it’s your business. There’s no corporate or HR person to reach out to when things go wrong – that’s you. This was a difficult realization for two people who have been used to working in the corporate world to come to.
Of course, there are the difficulties of having to acquire permits, permissions to park your trailer in certain zones within the city and not being welcome into certain markets because of competitors such as Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts – however, despite all of these difficulties we never became discouraged. We simply just found new ways or locations to still be able to serve the community our coffee. To this day we still have struggles but we always find a way to make the experience with our customers the best one possible.
I’ve been a healthcare administrator for the last 30 years. I specialize in Environmental Health Services as a project manager. This means I am in constant communication with the public and I have to be extremely detail-oriented in order to ensure the safety of the patients throughout the duration of their stay in one of our facilities.
I am most proud of my ability to make a positive difference in people’s lives, during – what for most – could be the most traumatic time of their lives. Some character traits that set me apart from others include my determination to always produce the best quality results when it comes to my line of work. Whether this means my staying overtime in order to ensure patient rooms are sanitized properly, or working during natural disasters, my priority is always the patient’s needs over my own.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Over the next 5-10 years, I hope to have a brick and mortar. As much as we love the bean, it would be amazing to have her accessible for networking events such as farmers’ markets or private events and to have a home base for our customers to come and visit us. Additionally, we hope to have another bean!
This would help with our current demand of needing to be in two places at once, but only having the resources to attend one. But… baby steps! In such a short amount of time, we were able to acquire our first coffee bean, therefore anything is possible!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.espressomecafe.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/espressome_one/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/espressomeone
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/espresso-me-orlando
Image Credits
Isabella Faraci
