Meet Kim Bell | Cafe owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kim Bell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kim, how do you think about risk?
Risk is all about assessing, navigating, intuition, vision, setting goals, accomplishing and learning from your mistakes along the way – A good business owner will always be learning, stretching, and growing.  Many beautiful things can transpire, and many hardships can also occur during the process of having and building a business. If you want to make it work, you need to be 100% engaged on how to navigate through many waters and storms, valleys and rivers. Do not allow fear to guide you but hope, dreams and your heart to unfold-always believe your’re going to make it work and go for it. If people want to step on you – don’t allow it – stay in your vision, passion and work towards and stand firm on that – find good people to help you along the way.

I like to conceptualize my experience so I can understand each season. I think of my business as a ship on the sea, there are many seasons, storms, canals, and quiet waters one has to move through – some are strong and relenting others are fast and still others are calm. Therefore you need to know how to keep things moving forward, how to prioritize and never loose sight of what you are doing even though it may change a little. The risk is a great challenge and that’s what makes things exciting, there is always learning and growing happening! Risk is not an issue with me – since in my life I moved and went to about twenty different schools that’s where I learned how to adapt, assess and navigate.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
We are a business with a mission: I wasn’t born to make coffee but really love to serve and a café is one of the best places for that, I also love coffee and cafes! Having compassion and a healthy way to give back is very rewarding. We give to orphans in India, Belize, and a few organizations here in Colorado like Dry Bones – we are partnered with Arapahoe County Anti-Trafficking and Re-fined who also helps with services in the restoration of life. Rescue-Restore-Renew-Rebuild and Reestablish – this is what I love to do. The goal is to have a few safe houses, orphanages, schools or a ranch where kids can heal and get back to their original purpose and design.

What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
From the beginning I prayed and felt led by God to buy this business –I had a very rough three years, with every kind of disaster and hell you can think of (ignorance is bliss). I never gave up on the café or the mission. Now that I can look back I see that there was no foundation and no vision when I purchased it so there was nothing to grab hold of and shape. I should have gone in harder with a focus on the mission and hired a completely new team, I would have avoided the mutinies while still learning the business!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Great questions! I don’t’ get out much since I’m a business owner, hah! I would go to a nice jazz club, go the The Kitchen my favorite restaurant and Perry’s Steak House. I would go up to Estes Park and hit a few good hiking spots – antique shopping and take a drive in the mountains-my most favorite place is the ocean and walking along a beautiful beach, exploring and climbing around the rocks – I had a short stay in Monterey California when I was young and it’s one of my favorite places to be.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I am very happy to say my three grown children helped me out during the planet shutdown. They stepped in and stepped up. It was extremely frightening to see businesses close and now we see that 40% of small businesses did not make it. We all worked very hard and were able to stick it out. I don’t think I would have made it without them and the neighborhood supporting us! The faithful community we are in and our loyal customers who made trips to purchase items to help keep us open when they were also not sure of their own financial outcome. I am very grateful to all those who came by every week and some every day! Today, without the family and the amazing manager and assistant managers and our staff that works very hard every minute we would not be moving forward with-out them! Also, let’s not forget that faith and prayers, angels around us bring comfort-strength-revelation; we never realize how much God is working with us!

Website: www.kunjanicoffee.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kunjanicoffee/