We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sara Janusik. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sara below.
Sara , thank you so much for joining us today and appreciate you talking about a sensitive topic. It’s unfortunately relevant to so many in the community as layoffs have been on the rise recently, and so we’d appreciate hearing your story and how you overcame being let go?
After getting layed off from a job about 2 years ago, I knew I wanted to take a jump into the small business world. I started my Etsy shop – where I sell t shirts, sweatshirts, tote bags etc – to keep my creativity alive! I worked on this for 6 months before it started running itself! After that, I needed something bigger to keep my creativity going. On a whim, I started Blondie Brews with my mom! A small coffee trailer that was based around lattes with fun toppings. In the past 9 months of owning this, we’ve changed the menu multiple times – which keeps everything intriguing and helps me stay creative. We have since bought a small bus to run out of! We couldn’t be happier with what has come of it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’m a small business owner! It always feels weird to say that! I run my coffee business with my mom/best friend! We’ve worked so hard to build our brand, our following, our community and I truly believe we would be nothing without showing everyone our true selves. We love our coffee. We’re proud of every menu we serve but it’s not really about all of that to us. We want people to come to hang out with us, be our friend, tell us about their day, give them a free treat for their birthday, etc! Our coffee is really something you can’t find many places. We serve every single drink with a topping. This could range from lollipops, cookies, candies, and even bracelets! Our menu changes every month and a half. Completely. We like to keep it fresh and I love creating the menus. Keeps me on my toes!
We’ve grown our community/ following so much over the past 9 months that we are now expanding! We just bought a small converted bus! We are hoping this will help us in so many ways. We’re so excited that everyone else is extremently supportive and proud of this big move we’re making. We plan to get it out on the road within the next week AND debut our new menu!!!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Patience, ability to pivot, and kindness.
Since the beginning, we’ve changed SO many things in such a short amount of time. We’ve had to learn what would work in such a tiny trailer. We’ve had to switch out branding materieals, machines and even cup brands.
We reached out to over 30 locations starting out just trying to find a location that would let us pop-up. We sat in the trailer waiting for people to notice us for weeks before getting the visibility we needed.
We now have the locations that didn’t answer us in the beginning, reaching back out to have us pop-up in their lot.
To be kind, understanding, friendly and welcoming is our brand! We want people to come for the coffee AND us. We want to be friends. Share your moments like we’re family.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
We wouldn’t be anything without collaborations! We rely on them!
In order for us to serve our cofffee, we have to collaborate with a location, office, business, to pop-up at. We don’t sit our business in one spot because we want to travel around Cincinnati and give everyone the chance to come visit without going too far!
We have a lot of people reaching out to us through Instagram and Facebook! Which is the best way to get in contact with us!
We collaborate with EVERYONE but have a special place in our hearts for other small businesses like us!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blondiebrewsco?igsh=MTJzOW9oMTdmdDVxOA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1YR6fhchzJ/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Other: Link tree: https://linktr.ee/blondiebrewsco
Image Credits
John Harper Hallie Abbott
