Ronda's Rhetoric → 7th Anniversary Issue of Coffee News Dallas hits the stands!

Friday, December 02 2011

According to the U.S Dept. of Commerce, 7 out of 10 new businesses survive at least 2 years - only half at least 5 years. So how has Coffee News of Dallas achieved a 7 year anniversary?

After serving in the Navy as a young man, my father went to work in maintenance at a plastics company. He worked his way up to the assembly line, continued to production, then quality control and engineering then eventually landing into Sales. Early in his career in plastics he had people who selflessly offered themselves as mentors to my Dad. One even told him “one day you will go onto own your own plastics company”. After 5 years in Sales, he was approached with the opportunity to go out on his own, again with people believing in his undying commitment to hard work and customer service. In 1976, he started Gavco Plastics Inc. with 3 plastic injection molding machines and two employees. Today Gavco employs 125 people has 18 molding machines and has the largest presses in Oklahoma. My father is a walking example of living the American Dream.

Growing up, one of my most vivid & fond memories was that we ate dinner together as a family at the dinner table every night at 5:00pm. My mother had the timing down to an art. A child’s perspective is beautifully simple, don’t you think?

After being in corporate America for eight and half years, I learned that a life working for a Fortune 500 was never going to deliver the same childhood memories for my children that I had the pleasure to enjoy. Fortunately, my husband shared the same vision and dream to be a small business owner so with his support, I left corporate America and shortly began bringing Coffee News to the Northeast Dallas area. We kicked off our 4th year by expanding into Uptown and Oak Lawn. In our 5th year we began publishing in Park Cities and later that year in Richardson. Today, 7 years after placing our 1st Coffee News issue in the stands in White Rock Lake & Lakewood areas, we put 7 editions every week on the stands in over 400 restaurants, coffee shops, and local businesses.

Publishing and owning Coffee News has brought me great joy, but not quite in the way I thought owning my own small business would bring. As a small business owner, I began getting involved in the communities that we serve with our editions. My involvement fueled a spark of service in my heart. That spark has turned into a fire of passion to serve God through serving others. And that is what I have found to be my calling in life. Owning Coffee News gives me the flexibility to live that passion daily.

That passion coupled with the strong work ethic that my father taught me by his example of entrepreneurship is the very foundation of why Coffee New is still on the stands today, 7 years later. The friendships we have made with our readers, advertisers, and community partners have me filled with tremendous gratitude. Other businesses owners have served as mentors and encourage and inspire me to continuously build upon that foundation.

Are we the most successful publication in town? Well that all depends on one’s definition of success. If you view success monetarily probably your answer would be no. But I would argue that I run a successful business for these reasons; 1) because we are able to give to our community with our time, 2) we are able to be a small part of promoting new businesses and organizations – we get to be a part of people beginning and living their own dreams, 3) because we are living a life that truly makes me happy – I feel like the luckiest woman in the world, 4) and most importantly that I have the most wonderful gift of being with my children at their school functions, volunteering at their school, and eating dinner together at the table usually around 5:00pm. This is why Coffee News of Dallas celebrates our 7 year anniversary today and me and my family thank you for making Coffee News everyone’s favorite little brown newspaper.