February 11, 2008
Coffee culture | A chat with Anna Maria Tocci, co-founder of the North Star Music Café in Portland.
A chat with Anna Maria Tocci, co-founder of the North Star Music Café in Portland.
Founded: April 2007
Employees: Two full-time and three part-time
Startup costs: $57,000
Projected revenue, year one: $279,000
Projected revenue, year two: $293,000
Contact: 699-2994
225 Congress St., Portland 04101
www.northstarmusiccafe.com
Tell me about what inspired you to open the café.
I always had a secret vision of having a space and my own business. I love people and I love community. Then in the last couple years, I actually knew Margaret [Lyons], who now owns the Snug, but she owned Acoustic Coffee. And at one point they were looking to sell [Acoustic Coffee] and she said, "Oh, you should buy it!" I thought, "No way," because I thought I'd be a folk singer and travel ˆ [that is] another side of my personality.
But I remember after a few weeks thinking, "You know what? I really could." I didn't want their space [because] I wanted to focus on food, have a café with sandwiches and soups and have big windows and have it be bright and airy. So I went through this New Ventures program through Women, Work and Community.
What was that course like?
Let's see, it was four months [long]. It was the fall of 2006. You're in a class with 20 people. We had someone who wanted to start a jewelry business but was a mortgage broker, so she was able to lend us tons of information about loans. It was a really cool process, and at the end of it you have a business plan.
I met [my business partner,] Kim, through the woman who started as our cook. She said, "You guys both have these really compatible ideas, you should talk." I was a little bit wary about taking on a partnership, because you really have to trust someone. [But] we met and it was super fast after that. We met in November, signed our loan at the end of December. Her strengths are really complementary to mine. She loves doing the accounting and the ordering. She's got a great eye for details.
Tell me what it was like to get startup funding. Did you have to get a loan?
We did. We got it through Coastal Enterprises [Inc.] Their loan officer actually came and gave a presentation at New Ventures, for the class, and so I had known him from that. Then we went and discussed and he read our business plan. From the beginning he's been incredibly supportive.
How do you market the business?
We've pulled back a little bit on marketing just because we've been growing pretty steadily since we opened. And for us, it's a pretty wonderful business model. We [know] a pretty wide community of people, and it just keeps growing because we have a performer who brings in their fans, their fans see [the café] and they say, "Oh, I'll come back for lunch."
I imagine there might be more expenses in this kind of business than people might realize. For example, I've heard about organizations that protect copyrighted songs and fine venues if their musicians play song covers. How do you approach that issue?
We pay SESAC. It's one of the music [licensing organizations]. There's a yearly fee that we pay. It is a big expense, and our idea was, it's worth it to us to have musicians play the music they want to play. All told, I'd say we pay $1,200 to $1,500 a year [to SESAC.]
A lot of the cost, for us, is in the startup. If you're an experienced entrepreneur and you've done it before, you know that, oh, if I want to get a hood system put in [the kitchen], it's going to be a really big chunk of change. But equipment-wise, that was the one thing we under-budgeted.
Do you have any ideas for the future of the business?
We've got tons of plans. Our long-term plan would be to have above us, in the second floor, a community space to do workshops and maybe have a demo kitchen. Because we do pretty innovative cooking with vegetarian as well as gluten-free [food] and baking. I think people in the community would be really interested in having cooking classes. Plus, we could have visiting yoga instructors, massage workshops. That will probably be a while from now.
Interview by Kerry Elson
Founded: April 2007
Employees: Two full-time and three part-time
Startup costs: $57,000
Projected revenue, year one: $279,000
Projected revenue, year two: $293,000
Contact: 699-2994
225 Congress St., Portland 04101
www.northstarmusiccafe.com
Tell me about what inspired you to open the café.
I always had a secret vision of having a space and my own business. I love people and I love community. Then in the last couple years, I actually knew Margaret [Lyons], who now owns the Snug, but she owned Acoustic Coffee. And at one point they were looking to sell [Acoustic Coffee] and she said, "Oh, you should buy it!" I thought, "No way," because I thought I'd be a folk singer and travel ˆ [that is] another side of my personality.
But I remember after a few weeks thinking, "You know what? I really could." I didn't want their space [because] I wanted to focus on food, have a café with sandwiches and soups and have big windows and have it be bright and airy. So I went through this New Ventures program through Women, Work and Community.
What was that course like?
Let's see, it was four months [long]. It was the fall of 2006. You're in a class with 20 people. We had someone who wanted to start a jewelry business but was a mortgage broker, so she was able to lend us tons of information about loans. It was a really cool process, and at the end of it you have a business plan.
I met [my business partner,] Kim, through the woman who started as our cook. She said, "You guys both have these really compatible ideas, you should talk." I was a little bit wary about taking on a partnership, because you really have to trust someone. [But] we met and it was super fast after that. We met in November, signed our loan at the end of December. Her strengths are really complementary to mine. She loves doing the accounting and the ordering. She's got a great eye for details.
Tell me what it was like to get startup funding. Did you have to get a loan?
We did. We got it through Coastal Enterprises [Inc.] Their loan officer actually came and gave a presentation at New Ventures, for the class, and so I had known him from that. Then we went and discussed and he read our business plan. From the beginning he's been incredibly supportive.
How do you market the business?
We've pulled back a little bit on marketing just because we've been growing pretty steadily since we opened. And for us, it's a pretty wonderful business model. We [know] a pretty wide community of people, and it just keeps growing because we have a performer who brings in their fans, their fans see [the café] and they say, "Oh, I'll come back for lunch."
I imagine there might be more expenses in this kind of business than people might realize. For example, I've heard about organizations that protect copyrighted songs and fine venues if their musicians play song covers. How do you approach that issue?
We pay SESAC. It's one of the music [licensing organizations]. There's a yearly fee that we pay. It is a big expense, and our idea was, it's worth it to us to have musicians play the music they want to play. All told, I'd say we pay $1,200 to $1,500 a year [to SESAC.]
A lot of the cost, for us, is in the startup. If you're an experienced entrepreneur and you've done it before, you know that, oh, if I want to get a hood system put in [the kitchen], it's going to be a really big chunk of change. But equipment-wise, that was the one thing we under-budgeted.
Do you have any ideas for the future of the business?
We've got tons of plans. Our long-term plan would be to have above us, in the second floor, a community space to do workshops and maybe have a demo kitchen. Because we do pretty innovative cooking with vegetarian as well as gluten-free [food] and baking. I think people in the community would be really interested in having cooking classes. Plus, we could have visiting yoga instructors, massage workshops. That will probably be a while from now.
Interview by Kerry Elson
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