Meet vera bettin | Entrepreneur

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

Hi vera, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
When I had my first child in 2000, I planned on going back to work, I was a senior analyst with Cisco at the time but once he arrived I found it difficult for me to leave him. I really enjoy being his mom full-time but I am the type of woman that always has to have something going on, I have a real business an entrepreneurial spirit. I wanted to do a business that was community friendly, allowed me to be flexible with my schedule and would allow my children to be part of the business without a lot of negativity or inconvenience.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
What sets ChocoLaté Coffee apart from others is the people, as a side effect of opening the coffee shop the surrounding community truly became a community. Before the coffee shop there was no identity for our area and the citizens living in this area, I was one of them. I wanted a place where citizens of the surrounding community can come to a casual place and meet each other or have a home away from home to relax or get some work done on the computer. As a coffee shop in the community we encourage customers to greet one another, meet each other and as a result 20 years later we have several groups of friends the continue to meet at the coffee shop regularly, they did not know each other before meeting and introducing themselves at the shop. It is very satisfying and comforting to see human interaction on such a beautiful level. I’ve had customers come to me to tell me that this coffee shop has changed their life, and primarily the reason I hear this is because the staff that we have, the people that we hire is the secret. What our motto is, we are a friendly and family oriented coffee shop, there’s plenty of shops out there that are too cool for everyone we are just friendly it doesn’t matter if you are 80 or you are a teen, we will treat you with respect, friendliness and we courage our team to make connections and get to know our frequent customers, this has made a huge difference and it’s very gratifying.

August 2022 is our 20th year anniversary since we opened our doors at the Atlanta location, and at one point we did have 3 locations (currently we have 2) a location in Decatur that is coming up on it’s 15th year anniversary in October. As you can imagine there’s a potential for a lot of employee turnover over the years but even with 3 locations and 20 years later we are just barely getting to our 300th employee, so our attrition is minimal, and our employees stick around and really enjoyed working at the coffee shop. Even as they moved on, we keep in touch and we see their spouses and children. We truly are a coffee shop fam.

This is by no means an easy task, one of my passions is to motivate and inspire people, having the opportunity to shape a young person as they enter the workforce, I have a direct influence on their ethical perspective and behavior of their work. I have to admit that very often I see owners of small businesses that want and expect everything of their employees yet they’re not giving much back. We view the work space at ChocoLaté Coffee as a two way street, a win-win situation. If we take care of our employees by treating them right by being fair, proper compensation, providing a great work environment, providing opportunities to grow and develop and continuing education just to name a few, naturally through this guidance employees are going to respond in a positive way by taking pride in their job, acting in good faith, great customer service and just generally happy friendly folks. Coffee is something we can teach anyone to make, it’s not rocket science, although it blows my mind how many coffee shops actually get this wrong, however I can’t teach someone how to be personable and how to be friendly and kind those are qualities we look for in a team member during the interview process and then combined with the work environment we create at the coffee shop, it’s just a winning combination on both the company side and the employee side.

At the core of ChocoLaté Coffee’s success is our beautiful coffee beans. We purchase specialty grade beans that are grown in high altitude regions and we only work with small farmers (we only use a broker for some of our African beans) but specifically to South America and Indonesia we have personal relationships and actually know the owners and have visited some of these farms. This is extremely important to us because a coffee bean that grows in high altitude regions is going to develop and mature at a much slower rate than a coffee that is at low altitude with high heat. Coffee plants in high altitude regions grow on the side of the mountains and temperatures never really get above 60° year around, less bugs equals naturally organic coffee cherries by nature as pesticides are not necessary. These beans are more complex in their flavor profile, yielding a delicious cup of coffee once roasted properly. We are dedicated to roasting weekly and in small batches. A lot of the big shops have moved to monthly or quarterly roasting, in my opinion that’s cutting corners that you shouldn’t cut, and unless you’re a Starbucks you’re NOT going be able to sustain your business, the only way they can get away with it is because the majority of their clientele is NOT going to Starbucks for the coffee taste (let’s be honest here) they are going there for the convenience and the experience and the brand that they’re are marketing to you. We also don’t believe in roasting all coffee dark, for example if you went to a restaurant and ordered a filet mignon well done, you can eat it, but it will never be as tasty as if it was cooked at proper temperature. Coffee is very much like that, we have some dark roasted coffees that can handle the heat, but the majority we roast them at whatever level we feel that will result the most punch of flavor and aroma from the roasted bean.

We’ve had some challenges over the years, for example at our Decatur location several years back Starbucks attempted to try and steal our lease right from under us. They contacted our landlord and asked when our lease was expiring, and they offered the landlord double what we were paying. Now this is probably not a smart choice financially for them but in that area we’ve been a pain in their rear end because we’re very popular and people really love our products so they would love to just have us go away. That was a pretty scary moment for us at ChocoLaté Coffee. I think it’s important to develop good and long-term relationship with all of your vendors, yes managing your cost and price shopping is important but having a relationship with a vendor that is culminated from years and years of experience has a lot of benefit to our business. We really work hard to try to spend money locally and with small businesses like us whenever possible, being responsible and mutually beneficial in the community is what we are about, it’s good Karma. This really came through for us as well during the pandemic, once we started opening back up, there were a lot of shortages of products like cups, lids, bags etc. and because our relationship with our vendors were so strong we are able to secure inventory for the coffee shops. That was a huge help.

As with all businesses the pandemic was a scary time and it was very difficult as the future was uncertain. However I was able to file unemployment on my employees behalf weekly (this was extremely time consuming process and difficult to navigate the unemployment’s dinosaur system) but their benefits were never interrupted. When we re-opened we were able to secure PPP loans and looking back it was hard only because we didn’t know what was next but we did pretty good and we’re continuing to work towards the pre-covid sales numbers. Again I have to give credit to our team, they were patient and waited and when it was time to return back to work, everybody came back and we didn’t have the challenge of retraining a whole new workforce.

When you visit Chocolaté Coffee we give off the vibe of a European coffee shop (I’m from Romania), you’re going to see a lot of fresh baked pastries, a good bit of them are imported from France as they do pastries the best, you’re going to see a lot of friendly faces. Our focus is on the coffee, desserts and pastries. The beans and our coffee speaks for themselves when you stop in I think it would be very difficult to truly enjoy your cup of coffee elsewhere or at home because we make it so good. We also have great non-coffee alternatives, for example we have a chocolate chai that you probably won’t be able to stop thinking about, we call it the adult hot chocolate and it’s truly phenomenal, it’s a must try. Each location will vibe the surrounding community, therefore when you visit our Atlanta location it reflects our community which is rich with families, entrepreneurs and small business owners. Visiting our Decatur location you’ll see more of the college vibe and the richly organic community in that area. I think it’s important for the coffee shop to reflect what the community has to offer, that’s why I always tell real estate agents to have all their meetings at the coffee shops in the community where the buyer is looking for a home, as they will see what that community is truly about, it’s a direct reflection.

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.
Atlant and Decatur has so much to offer, however I’m not a good person to ask this question as I am truly all home body, I’m all about my little 2 mile radius surrounding the coffee shop and I love to cook. I also have 5 children, so between running 2 coffee shops and the kids, there’s not a lot of time. However we have some great little businesses in the area for example Mediterranean grill in Decatur, Hop Shing in Atlanta if you craving some traditional Chinese food its a “hole in the wall” but very tasty. Some of other great choices would be Stone Mountain great for hiking and nature, Lakeland Islands is a wonderful family spot to spend a day and enjoy in the summer or see the Holiday lights in the winter. I would probably add Ponce city market on my stops and the Belt-line has some wonderful trails to offer for biking or walking.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
That is so true where I am today I have a lot to think my mentor and friend of over 27 years now, his name is Matt Field, at the time when I met him he was a direct or what Price Waterhouse and as a result of his guidance my career took off really really fast and my success was multiplied. He currently lives in Peru now I visit him a few times and he has a great life and I’m very thankful for that entrepreneurial spirit and confidence that he instilled in me.

Once I opened the coffee shop there was a customer which I wish I knew their name because they came in about six months after I was open and things were going relatively smoothly but he handed me a book and he said please read this I really think it’ll change your life and I actually did it was a moment that completely change the way I thought of the business the way I wanted to set up the business the way I wanted to run it everything completely changed. This book was the e-myth by Michael Gerber. Send anyone that is starting their own small business I highly encourage them to read this book.

Website: www.mychocolatecoffee.com

Instagram: @mychocolatecoffee

Facebook: chocolate coffee

Image Credits
Joackim Rowland Teresa Martinez Vera Bettin