The title of this post is a bit over-dramatic. I’m not actually quitting my job, but starting next week there are some significant changes coming. For the past three years I have been working as the Youth Director at the Beijing International Christian Fellowship. I lived in Beijing for three years when I was in high school and it’s been really awesome to come back and pour into the lives of kids that are in the middle of the same type of experiencing. It’s been a rewarding, but challenging job. About 9 months ago Kara and I started to feel like it was time for some sort of change so we told the church that I would be stepping down from my full time position at the church in June. One of the big reasons behind that decision was that I would like to pursue some business opportunities, specifically in relation to coffee. So as of June 1st I will be stepping down into a part-time role at BICF and simultaneously helping to launch the Aizai Cafe.
Our tagline for The Middle Kingdom has always been “Live, Travel and Work in China” but truthfully the “Work” section has been a bit neglected. I hope to change that as I write about my experiences with this small coffee shop and (hopefully) other business opportunities. So let me tell you a bit about the Aizai Cafe and what we’re up to.
During college I worked at several different cafes, and through a sequence of events found myself to be the owner of a two group-head professional grade espresso machine about a year ago. Since then I’ve really upped my pursuit of all things coffee and last fall I met a Chinese woman who was interested in opening up a coffee shop. There are far too many complications and challenges related to forming a foreigner/local partnership so my involvement at the Aizai Cafe is as coffee consultant and co-manager. This sort of arrangement is really not going to be ideal for most people, but for me one of the most exciting aspects of this is the opportunity to be involved with a coffee shop start up right from the beginning and gain a lot of experience, without personally having to invest any capital. Besides me and the primary owner, there is one other partner involved in the cafe. The three of us have been working through a lot of stuff that has to happen before you can open a shop in China, but we are getting really close to being able to open and we’re looking at some sort of soft opening in early June.
It’s a bit scary striking out on the path of independent business person, but I’m excited to see what this next year holds for us. In my next post I’ll talk a bit about what it takes to start a coffee shop here.
I’d love to hear from some of our readers; what do you do in China? Are you an entrepreneur who saw opportunity in China or did you come with an established company?
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Congratulations for your new career! I was wondering about your job at BICF when I saw their job ad for a youth pastor.
So Aizai cafe has opened? I gotta try the place this weekend.
It’s not open yet, but hopefully very soon. We’re getting equipment delivered early next week.
I see. I’ll just check your blog then. Good luck!
Congrats on setting up a biz venture in China ! I’ll definitely visit your cafe while in BJ.
I came to China to get married to a local, and provide home based tuition. I would like to open a coffee shop here in Henan. All the coffee shop here have no idea what is cream I mean proper cream that go with coffee, and not the artificial and, probably, cancerogenious stuff they pass of as cream. The Starbucks in the main city of Zhenzhou hasn’t even got a decent apple pie or a cheesecake, but again some very weird, tiny, colourful pseudo pastries.