Meet Lindsey and Fabian Leite of Wesley Owens Coffee and Cafe in Monument

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsey and Fabian Leite.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Lindsey and Fabian. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My husband and I moved with our two daughters from London, UK, in 2012. We had, for many years, wanted to come and live in the United States, having traveled here and always enjoyed the experience. We purchased an existing coffee shop business with the view to growing and developing it to allow us to live and work here. Prior to moving to the US, we had run a successful IT consultancy where we acted as the outsourced IT function for a number of small and medium businesses in London.

However, when it came time to decide on a business to pursue here in the US, we decided on a coffee shop because of the enjoyment we both got from coffee, food and community. These factors were to be the core principles upon which we developed and grew the store.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It most certainly has not been easy! Aside from the extremely complicated and expensive immigration process, we did not have extensive food service experience and the shock of going from running a small two-person (us), home-based IT business, to running a brick and mortar store with around ten employees was a significant challenge. In addition, we home school our children and juggling all these elements was, at times, a worrying game of diminishing returns. The learning curve was steep and the business was not initially profitable. We watched our savings being gobbled up on a monthly basis for almost two and a half years before we were able to take out even a small drawing.

However, savvy business decisions, tenacity and at times sheer grit, meant we were determined to succeed and so we kept putting one foot in front of the other. Now, seven years later, the business is a thriving hub of community life, offering a place to meet, talk, relax, hold a bible study, or just hang out.

Please tell us about Wesley Owens Coffee and Cafe.
Wesley Owens Coffee and Cafe is what we call a ’boutique’ coffee shop. The food, drinks, unique gift items, and imported British sweets and treats make it a special and fun experience coming in. We carry coffee from CopperFox Coffee Roasters, a Colorado Springs-based, family roaster. The coffee is delicious, expertly roasted, ethically sourced and best of all, ten percent of the proceeds go toward fighting human trafficking. We pay significantly more for our beans than many stores but the peace of mind that the farmers received a fair wage and that the proceeds are used for such a worthy cause ensures we continue to support ethical practices in the coffee industry,

Our food menu, which is nearly all prepared or made from scratch in-store, offers some typical coffee shop items like breakfast sandwiches, burritos and panini, but then there are also the ‘toasts,’ including the BLTA which is prepared with a shop-made bacon jam. Yes, bacon jam. It has a generous glug of our coffee in it too. People regularly ask us to sell it in jars to take home… we are considering that!

There are also the hugely popular Scotch Eggs, a UK snack comprising of a boiled egg, wrapped in sausage meat, coated with a potato chip crumb and baked. This is served with our special house-made sauce. When we started carrying gift items, I decided I wanted a gift and jewelry range that came in at under $20 as I felt that this was the sweet spot for those last-minute gifts for co-workers, school, etc. So we have a great selection of cute items that can easily be added to your coffee order en route to work or an event. This has proven very popular, with unusual and fun items not easily found elsewhere. Later, when we added the ladies’ boutique clothing items, we decided to keep the same philosophy – ladies can update their wardrobe with trendy, fun items under $30.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Our business became a viable going concern when we moved locations to a larger store with a meeting room. Had we known the impact this would have had. We would certainly endeavored to move sooner. As the old adage goes, ‘location, location, location’ is key.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1744 Lake Woodmoor Dr Monument, 80132
• Phone: 719 238 0725
• Email: contact@wesleyowenscoffee.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/wesleyowenscoffee

Image Credit:
Scotch Egg and Chef – Fabian Leite
Coffee with a Cop

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