Celebrating Excellent Coffee - Stewart Family Enterprise

Team Subkit -

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Julianne Stewart, Co-Owner of Stewart Family Enterprise, located in Nampa, ID, USA.

What's your business, and who your customers?

After moving from the Cowboys State (WYO) to the Boise, Idaho area back in 2014, our family fell hard for coffee roasted on a Sivetz Fluidized – Bed Air Roaster. We loved the low acidity and smooth flavors that came out in the coffee by way of this roaster. In 2018 when the Coffee Roasting Business (now known as SFE) hit the market, Ryan and I knew that the coffee gods were pushing them toward the highly caffeinated industry, and they haven't slept since!

SFE was created to support the coffee culture in our community and industry. We are a locally owned and operated small business with significant resources to support many coffee and coffee business-related needs across multiple industries. Our passion is helping our customers grow and be successful. We have a variety of solutions to meet our customer's needs. Every day, we stop around 10:00 am to check in with each other, grab a cup of coffee, visit, evaluate, and strategize. We invite you to reach out and come have coffee with us!

Tell us about yourself

Our family stays very active in their small community outside of Boise. Our three boys, Chad (21, Senior at Grand Canyon University), Josh (19, Freshman at Northwest Nazarene University), and Cole (18, Senior at Middleton High School, headed to North Idaho College in the Fall), keep them in the bleachers year-round cheering loud and proud. Ryan enjoys his private pilot's license and tries to encourage our family to help with chores revolving around his other hobbies: beekeeping, maintaining a small fruit/nut tree orchard, grape vineyard, and raising chickens, turkeys, and Scottish Highland Cattle. I am his #1 laborer, and I love every minute of it! There is never a dull moment around the Stewart household.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Our family works hard and plays hard. The skills that we all know from the various businesses we have owned over the last 22 years is pretty amazing! We started our owning a vending machine business, then moved on to owning a Big O Tire Store; next, we owned a snow cone business (mostly the boys) and then car washes, and now SFE/Moxie Java/Cafe 208/Mountain West Coffee Collective.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

COVID, hands down. We purchased SFE, and 18 months later, the pandemic hit. The constant struggles with supply chain, cash flow, employees, and restrictions.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Good employees make all the difference, and we have THE BEST!
  2. Be willing to do all aspects of the job. I go out for deliveries once and week and also scrub toilets.:)
  3. Be ready to change. This one is hard for me! However, the more I embrace it, the better off I am. It's also good to remember that God is in control.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://stewartfamilycompanies.com/
Facebook (Cafe208): https://www.facebook.com/cafe208/
Facebook (Moxie Java): https://www.facebook.com/moxiejava
Facebook (Chinden): https://www.facebook.com/moxiejavachinden/
Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/julie.dodgestewart
Instagram (Cafe208): https://www.instagram.com/cafe208/
Instagram (Moxie Java): https://www.instagram.com/moxiejava/
Instagram (Chinden): https://www.instagram.com/moxiejavachinden/
Instagram (Personal): https://www.instagram.com/wydaho_stewarts/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianne-stewart-3973a6177/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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