Boon Boona Coffee

My name is Efraim Fasaha. I'm the CEO and founder of Bunbuna Coffee, an exclusively African roastery. Bunbuna Coffee is a roastery that focuses on just African coffees. Africa, Ethiopia specifically, is the origin of coffee. And I felt that that story needed to be told. And all the incredible coffees that come out of Africa here in this space, particularly in our caf, we open it up. Of course we have a cafe and a roastery in here, but we also open it up to pop ups, different events. So it's a community hub. I began this journey in 2011 after a trip to Asmera Erata, where my family is from. And I became inspired. I got connected with SBA in 2011 when I was first formulating my ideas after my trip from Eritrea. And it was really as the guidance as to kind of how I would best go about, you know, starting up this business.

Three years ago, Ephraim came to our school office seeking funds to be able to implement his planned coffee operation. We developed a business plan, which is loan application, and procured the funds from a community development financial institution, Kraft 3. The rest is history.

Covid impacted our business in a really negative way, honestly, and as you know, from a health factor, but also from a small business. We had existed only for one year prior to Covid happening, so we were still in the prove your concept mode. And with COVID I was forced to lay a lot of my team off, which as a first time employer was the toughest decision and toughest experience of mine. And also the question of if I'd even be able to survive. The impact Covid had on us was huge. First, from just a health perspective, the risk, the concerns, and just not knowing what best to do. And then two, within a few days, seeing the impact of, you know, the restrictions coming in and the impact that it had on our business, well, the SBA was successful in helping us because it was the only way we would be able to bring back our team. It was the only way we could weather the storm, both from our rent and any other overhead kind of expenses that we were being, you know, pressed by as a result of the lack of the revenue that was being generated.

Efraim is one of those inspirational entrepreneurs who every business coach is excited to work with and honored to work with, work with. Not only does he take your advice to make his business better, but he worked really hard to keep his employees safe, his community safe throughout the pandemic.

My hope for SBA and Boom Boona that this relationship continues to grow. As they have supported us in the past, we wanted to continue to grow in the future, and that's what we're looking forward to.