end of year reflection - 2023
The last time I sat down and wrote an end of year reflection was 2021. This reflection serves for both 2022 and 2023.
Portland Cà Phê has seen tremendous growth since we opened our first brick and mortar in April of 2021, to read more about my first year in business please click here.
In 2022, we focused on capitalizing on the momentum of our successful first year and opened Portland Cà Phê’s second location in October of 2022 in Northeast Portland. After your second location, you often hear “when is the next one coming?”.
Racing to meet deadlines, fulfilling responsibilities, and keeping up with the demands of both work and my personal life, I encountered an adversary known as burnout. I could not fathom thinking of expanding anymore and knew if I kept pushing myself it would become unfair to my team and family if I stretched myself even further, so 2023 was the year of cultivating what was already in front of me.
I spent the last year bonding with my staff by promoting and mentoring them, improving and streamlining operations, connecting with the community and taking the time to enjoy life as it is.
Till this day, I can’t believe I have a team of 10 employees with two coffee shop locations…like I’m really a business owner?
Here are some of my favorite moments of 2023.
April of 2023 was a very exciting month! Not only did we celebrate 2 years of opening up shop, but Portland was hosting the Specialty Coffee Association expo and we proudly hosted the second annual Coffee Asian meetup and our first cupping event with one of our farmers from Vietnam.
We met so many amazing people from all over the world, saw a huge representation of Vietnamese coffee vendors at expo and caught up with old & new friends we’ve made throughout the years.
June of 2023 was the first time the entire company was able to spend a day together to bond, learn and refresh skills. It’s not often the entire team gets together, so this was a fun day for all of us! We spent the entire summer doing activities together, whether that was showing up for each other's hobbies/gigs, bowling, trivia night or event competing in other local latte art competitions!
Portland Cà Phê Latte Art Winners!
August of 2023, we hosted our very first latte art throw down and the turnout exceeded our expectations! We were shocked we had a full bracket + waiting list and a house jam packed with spectators and supporters. The Portland coffee community is amazing and everyday I am proud to be a small part of it.
October of 2023, was the month I turned 30. I took two weeks off and headed to Japan but in true business owner fashion…I had to sneak one day of work in. I was invited to speak on a panel by True Portland/Travel Portland, an agency in Japan that promotes tourism in Portland. It was a surreal moment for me because I was speaking about my passion in one of the cities I love the most! Thank you, Tokyo for making my 30th birthday extra special.
Although there comes a lot of difficulties and stress factors with being a business owner, there’s also so many great things about it as well. I’m ultimately doing what makes me happy and this has always been a dream of mine. 2023 was the year of slowing down and not being in a constant state of mind of growth. Now that I am recharged and have a better understanding of how to balance life as a business owner with a team that is more than supporting, I’m ready to bring in the next chapter of Portland Cà Phê 🙂
Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous new year, thank you for rocking with us.
Xx
Kim