Black-owned Business Owner ‘Doing Everything In My Power’ To Stay Afloat During Pandemic

Stephanie Thomas is balancing her entrepreneurial dream with the economic downturn created by the coronavirus pandemic.

“I used all my money from my 401(k) and cashed out the equity in my home,” Thomas says. “Everything was my funding, and I designed it…this is my dream.”

Thomas opened Caffe Bella, a coffee shop on the Upper Westside of Atlanta, in 2018. And until the pandemic, the shop thrived with its collection of coffees, pastries, and sandwiches.

“I’ve always been a lover of coffee ever since I was five years old” she recalls. “My grandmother used to sneak and give me a taste.”

In those days, Thomas says she drank Folgers or Seneca, but her love of coffee beckoned her from a corporate job to a Portland, Oregon school where she became a master barista to the coffee farms of Nicaragua where she learned about “seed to cup.”

“It’s not a coffee shop where I’m just serving you a cup of coffee. I educate people on coffee,” she adds.

But, in March as the coronavirus began to spread, she and her 24-year-old son began reducing the shop’s hours until the state issued mandatory closings of restaurants. For a month, the doors of Caffe Bella were closed. And when they reopened, they were “taking orders from the door.”

It seemed all would work out she says until she received a letter last Thursday, days after she made a rent payment according to the plan she and the owners agreed upon.

“That was never a conversation we’d had,” says Thomas. “We’ve conversed constantly since March…however, we were served a letter. At 10:00 o’clock, I received a letter by 12:00 I had started a GoFundMe account.”

Staggering business losses

The pandemic has dealt Black businesses and firms a devastating blow. According to the US Black Chambers of Commerce (USBC), 441,000 Black-owned businesses closed between February and April.

The president of USBC, Ron Busby, says black-owned businesses face “a lack of capital and a lack of access to affordable credit.”

He states, “The average black firm pays twice the rate of capital as a white firm with everything being equal: credit, equity, opportunity, education…and only get 40% of the funding you need.”

During the pandemic, some non-profits are also experiencing funding shortfalls.

Raquel Green and Corinne Sunday step forward from their safe place near the median into the intersection where the Leawood, Kansas traffic idles waiting for the light to change.

“Would you like to donate to Restoration Ministries?” they ask driver after driver. Some drop money into the containers the women hold.

Green explains, “It’s a Christian recovery, men and women who’ve been bound by drugs and alcohol. They can come in and be restored in Christ.”

But, Restoration Ministries, which is a non-profit, is on the verge of closing, making the effort to raise funds an urgent task. As Green and Sunday and several others explain their mission, an awareness of the need especially during a once-in-a-generation health crisis touches hearts and brings forth an unexpected generosity.

“They’re helping more during the pandemic…being more supportive,” Green says.

And in Atlanta Thomas is finding a similar goodwill. Her GoFundMe account in three days is at $13,000 and closing in on the $20,000 goal. A local TV station broadcast her story, and “turnout Sunday was great” she shares.

The deadline of October 24 for the back-rent looms.

“Let it be a lesson to everybody…this is life,” she admits. “You want to be a business owner you have your ups and downs. We weren’t treated any differently, as a special case, because there’s a pandemic, everyone in the business world still has to pay their bills.”

But the business owner who discovered coffee when she was still a child is not ready to give up.

“Caffe Bella will live,” Thomas assures. “We’re trying to stay in the space. And, if the space decides, ‘Your time has ended,’ Caffe Bella will still grow because that is in my heart.”