Location: Goleta
Established: January 2009
Number of Employees: 15

Specialty coffee in a warm and friendly atmosphere

With three young and active children, Sue and Michael McDonald were accustomed to a fast-paced lifestyle. The McDonalds anticipated that running their own business would give them the opportunity to control their financial future and the flexibility to create their own schedule. Combined with their love of coffee houses, why not start one of their own?

While Sue attended WEV’s Self-Employment Training program, the couple searched for the perfect venue to open their coffee house. Less than a year later, they put their business plan into action and opened Zizzo’s Coffee. The entire McDonald family takes pride in their business, always offering warm smiles and delicious wares to keep their clients coming back to their home away from home. 

What prompted you to go into business for yourself?
We wanted to be in control of our destiny and have always been enamored with the coffee house environment.

What has been your biggest business challenge?  
Cash flow and employee scheduling and retention. Employees can be a challenge because of our proximity to the college; changing class schedules makes scheduling shifts a challenge. Retaining good employees is also difficult given that they’re college students and usually here for a limited time.

What has been your biggest business success?
The overwhelming positive response from the community. We have so many customers rooting for us to be successful; it definitely helps get us through the rough times when it seems that nothing is going right.  

Who is your ideal customer?  
A customer who is looking for a place to experience great coffee and develop a relationship with the staff of Zizzo’s. These are the customers that we see two to five times a week and in a few cases two to five times a day.

What has been the biggest surprise about owning a business?  
How much time and effort it takes to keep it clean and stay on top of things.  

How do you juggle all the pieces of your life (family/work/self/volunteering) to make it all come together?
Not sure that we do. But at the end of the day when we lay our heads on the pillow we surprise ourselves that we made it through another day. We try to involve our children in the business. If we buy the milk, they help open the boxes. They know how to grind coffee, greet customers, and take a drive thru order. They are proud of this place. Now they want us to own K-Mart!

What advice do you offer other women who might want to start their own company?   
The stress of starting a new business can be significantly reduced if you have ample working capital up front. Most of the stress is money related.

How did WEV help you to achieve your goal or dream?
The most significant way the WEV class helped me was that it forced us to put together an extremely detailed business plan. I also benefited from the exposure to the guest speakers (i.e. we hired our CPA due to his involvement with WEV). I enjoyed networking with the other classmates, and still stay in touch with a few people.

Is there something you learned from WEV that you use every day?
WEV drilled into us that we are not alone and that we have the support of WEV and organizations that are associated with WEV. I always strive to maintain a positive attitude.

What does ‘success’ mean to you?
Success is trying your hardest to achieve your goals and looking back and knowing that you gave it your all. This is what I try to teach my kids.

What is the biggest reward you get from your business? What makes it all worthwhile?  
The positive comments from the customers and the daily interactions with our team.

How do you picture you and your business in: one year? Five years? Ten years?
Within five years, I hope that our coffee shop will have won the Best of Santa Barbara award given by the Santa Barbara Independent. In ten years, I can see us having multiple stores around Southern California.

If your business is being affected by the economy right now, how? And what are you doing to deal with this challenge?
I think everybody is dealing with economic challenges. We continue to provide a great cup of coffee and a place where you are greeted with a smiling, caring face. We want to provide a warm and inviting atmosphere, serve great coffee with a smile, and hope that people will think of Zizzo’s as a home away from home.

Photography courtesy of Maria Carreras Photography: www.mariacarrerasphotography.com