Andrea Lai : Taqueria Guaima
Things are going well for Vanessa and her business, and everything is slowly starting to come together. We’re already halfway through the quarter, so my team and I need to make sure that we’re being proactive on completing our next steps.
At the beginning of this quarter, our main challenge was to decide what type of business would fit Vanessa best - whether it be owning her own restaurant space, starting a food truck business, or franchising. Vanessa and our team decided that the best option was to lease out a space from the owner of a dress shop, on the corner of Willow and 1st St. in San Jose -- not far from where Taqueria Guaima, Vanessa’s original business, was. The owner of the dress shop, Laura, will be helping Vanessa’s daughter with her Quinceañera - which is how we found about the space in the first place, and goes to show how powerful connections can be. Laura has offered Vanessa a very good deal and a good amount of space, so we are hopeful that the plan will be successful. Because there is no kitchen or range hood in the shop, Vanessa is planning to have a dessert menu, consisting of pre-prepared food items so no cooking will be involved.
In return for cheap rent, the Center of Employment Training (CET) will be going into the dress shop to replace the flooring, ceiling, and other necessary repairs. CET won’t be able to start construction in the dress shop until late May after all of the other NPI businesses have completed their repairs, so in the meantime, my team and I are looking for kitchen equipment to buy, such as a commercial freezer and sink. My team and I are also planning to contact the art club at SCU to see if they would be interested in helping paint a mural on the walls of Vanessa’s side of the dress shop. We are also planning to teach Vanessa business concepts that she can apply to her new business after the NPI program - such as finance, marketing, and HR.
Overall, a lot of research and planning needs to take place in these next few weeks before CET starts construction. Nonetheless, we are very happy that Vanessa will have a space to call her own and that we are making great progress towards the end goal!