Fight for your passion – Stephanie Escaño

Even in 2019, Stephanie Escaño already planned to open her own coffee shop. Certain things happened – including Covid-19 – that prevented her from doing this; but the idea to sell coffee persisted. And with around PhP5,000 to PhP7,000.00 in capital (covering the coffee, bottles, labels, and other ingredients and equipment used for the cold brew coffee), she established BREW.optimism.

The business was originally supposed to be called just BREW, “but when you apply for a username on Facebook and Instagram, it is such a common word. So I opted to add .optimism since the idea was to provide optimism in every cup of coffee made,” she said.

Stephanie said she always loved coffee.

Drinking coffee “has been a bonding experience for me and my dad, and it has been my companion through different stages/milestones in my life. Aside from that, I wanted to give Filipinos the opportunity to enjoy a great cup of coffee without paying over PhP120 pesos.”

The lockdown “helped” her, since “most of my weekends are now spent at home, I became more motivated to really get this going and I have more time to really focus on the business.”

Looking back, Stephanie said she sort of knew this was a field she would enter.

“I really love being in the kitchen and being able to make food or baked goods for my family and friends. I took up Hotel and Restaurant Management at St. Scholastica’s College Manila because I knew I wanted to be in the hospitality industry. After graduating, it took me three and a half years before I got the courage to pursue my passion in coffee,” she said.

The venue has done well thus far.

“Currently, we have reached ROI on our initial investment, but we are still putting money into the business to further develop our products,” she said. “Yes, I think the venture is definitely profitable, especially with the Filipinos’ innate love of coffee.”

There remain challenges.

For instance, due to the current situation, “we are not able to tap bigger markets since we cannot venture far (e.g. to join bazaars, have a pop-up stall at events, etc). Right now, we are focusing on providing quality cold brew coffee here in our neighborhood in Las Piñas, though we do get some orders from Manila and Quezon City from time to time that we fulfill by consolidating orders and using courier services.”

Another challenge was sourcing our bottles. “Since we are a small business, we do not have the purchasing power to order thousands of bottles in one go, so we had to resort to purchasing from resellers that could accommodate our orders. More often than not, their prices would change all the time or their stocks would run out immediately so we had to have back-up suppliers,” Stephanie added.

But Stephanie keeps a positive spirit, seeing these challenges as learning opportunities.

And so for people who may want to also open their business, what tips can she give?

“Give yourself time to plan – whether you are making a ‘super detailed, planned to the last item’ type plan or you want to start with a rough idea and slowly get all the pieces together, give yourself time to figure out exactly what you want from your business, and at least try to see what direction you want it to go in (e.g. a part-time job, working whenever you feel like it, moving towards a full-time business),” Stephanie said.

Entrepreneurs should also have “a fighting spirit if you really want your business to succeed. Because in my opinion, you really have to believe in what you sell for others to believe in it, too,” she said. “Which is my second tip – it is both much easier and more difficult to put up a business related to something you are passionate about. Easier in the sense that you can love what you are doing to the point that it sometimes does not feel like work, but also much more difficult when you do not meet the standards you set for yourself or your products, or when you encounter setbacks. But in the end, the pros of working with something you are passionate about outweigh the cons… at least for me. So I am glad that I am lucky enough to pursue a business I believe in.”

Wanna taste the coffees of BREW.optimism? Head to Facebook and Instagram, and shoot them a message to “place your orders and we will do our best to provide you with optimism in a cup.”