Many businesses have been struggling to stay afloat during the spread of COVID-19, or novel coronavirus, pandemic trying to adapt to new social distancing measures. Two sisters living in the Bay Area decided to take a leap of faith, fulfilling their dream of opening their own coffee shop in their hometown.
Be’Anka Ashaolu and Jeronica Macey are the co-founders of the Nirvana Soul coffee shop in San Jose, California. The sisters
were happy to open their doors with an eager queue of customers looking to indulge in their coffee. While opening a business during the COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, pandemic, the sisters have taken numerous precautions from temperature checks to ensure all their employees are screened to protect both them and their customer base.“We’ve always said the difference between people who succeed and people who don’t is not giving up,” Ashaolu said to Mercury News. “We’d rather fail spectacularly than not try. We’re just going for it.”
In an area where there aren’t many Black-owned businesses present, the sisters hope their presence can inspire others as they plan to expand their business once the pandemic subsides. “Just hearing that alone was amazing — we want this to feel like home,” she added. “We’ve gotten a ton of messages from people of color saying, ‘This means so much to me that you’re doing this. San Jose just doesn’t have anything like this, I feel so alone here.”