Kim Fields Is Learning the Facts of Business With Her Successful Coffee Company

We all know Kim Fields for her decades-long career in acting. But there’s another longtime love in her life, that’s also her business now: coffee. In Episode 10 of the SistersInc. podcast, “Turning Passion Into Profit,” she shares how she turned that love into a full-service coffee roasting and distribution company, Signature Blends by KF.

Fields’ crush on coffee started when she was in elementary school, with the aroma coming from her teacher’s thermos during story time. Eventually it blossomed into a full-blown love affair.

“I enjoyed not only the taste and the aromas. But I really enjoyed the experiences that coffee seemed to always be present in—when you’re getting together talking with your friends, or you’re by yourself starting your day, or trying to get through the end of the day,” Fields says. “Coffee is always there.”

Fields, who had had what she calls a “coffee house experience” in the home she bought in San Fernando Valley while working on Living Single, had long wanted to explore the business of coffee.

“I always knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I wanted to tap into that part of my existence,” she says, but she wasn’t sure what that venture would be.

The market size and potential of coffee made it an attractive opportunity. She remembers thinking, “Oh wait a minute, coffee’s been here. And coffee ain’t going nowhere. And it’s about to grow.”

The bean’s global impact was another upside. “To branch out into really understanding that there are growers all around the world with coffee being farmed, and realizing that you’re helping their economies, there were so many additional layers of “OK, yeah, it’s not just my little pleasure.'”

All of that led Fields to take the plunge three years ago with her own brand. “Truly my passion is now something that I am now being able to profit from, as #coffeebae, as the coffee connoisseur that I am,” she says.

To hear how she transitioned from coffee lover to coffee seller and expanded her line to other beverage-related products, check out Episode 10 of the SistersInc. podcast.

SistersInc. is Black Enterprise’s award-winning podcast for and about women business owners, hosted by Executive Managing Editor Alisa Gumbs. Black women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in America and on every episode, we’ll sit down with one successful CEO to share how she slays the challenges of being a black woman in business.