{"id":9502,"date":"2017-12-17T18:00:30","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T01:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/?p=9502"},"modified":"2018-01-03T11:21:18","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T18:21:18","slug":"cedar-crest-woman-brews-up-business-help-nonprofit-lender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/articles\/starting-or-growing-a-business\/cedar-crest-woman-brews-up-business-help-nonprofit-lender\/","title":{"rendered":"Cedar Crest Woman Brews Up Business With Help From Nonprofit Lender"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hannah<\/a>

Hannah Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

By Finance New Mexico<\/p>\n

Hannah Johnson left Cedar Crest, New Mexico, to get a biology degree, and after a stint in shorebird conservation, she returned to start a coffee shop in her hometown in the eastern Sandia Mountain foothills.<\/p>\n

The owner of Cabra Coffee, which opened in spring 2017, started making quality coffee at college. \u201cMy first job working in the industry was when I was going to school at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma. It was just the coffee shop in the school, but we were getting coffee from a cafe in Seattle, and they would come down and train us. That\u2019s where I first learned how to make coffee professionally.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her subsequent conservation work with the piping plover at Massachusetts Audubon, Hannah found that her side job in a coffee shop brought her more joy because it offered social interaction. \u201cI wasn\u2019t working with anybody, \u2026 and I needed a way to make friends. The coffee shop (in Nantucket) was brand new. I realized that I knew more than anybody else there just from working at the coffee shop at my school. So I was put into the manager position, overseeing everything to do with the coffee. And that\u2019s when I really discovered that it was something I liked doing and that I was good at.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cabra<\/a>Once back in New Mexico, Hannah persuaded her father, commercial real estate developer Curtis Johnson, to go into business with her as co-owner of the shop at the family-owned shopping center a stone\u2019s throw from the Ale Republic brewery, owned by her brother, Patrick.<\/p>\n

Hannah needed startup capital. Because hers was a new business, she did not qualify at a traditional bank, but Patrick suggested The Loan Fund, where Matt Loehman, a classmate from Hannah\u2019s Albuquerque high school, worked as director of development and special projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were really easy to work with, very nice,\u201d Hannah said of The Loan Fund. \u201cThe hardest part was just getting the paperwork ready when I was trying to get approved for the loan. But since then they check in with me every once in a while. And they\u2019re as involved as I want them to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since receiving funding in March, Hannah has welcomed The Loan Fund\u2019s advice on various business matters and is receiving assistance with building her website. The business, located at 12216 N. Highway 14, also markets itself on Facebook at https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cuppacabracoffee\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cabra Coffee (the Spanish word for \u201cgoat\u201d honors the Ethiopian goats whose enthusiasm for raw coffee beans reportedly led a goatherd to discover their stimulative effects) employs five people and obtains most of its products from local producers: New Mexico Tea Company provides the green teas, black teas and oolongs; herbal teas are sourced from a small farm in Alameda; the honey, jams and jellies are local. Even the mugs are made by a local potter.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, I\u2019d like to have everything as much as possible be local,\u201d Hannah said.\u00a0 \u201cOne of our syrups right now is a lavender syrup; you can put that in anything. The most common would be a lavender latte and people love it, and that\u2019s just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many fun things you can do with coffee and tea.\u201d The coffee shop also bakes scones, muffins and coffee cake in-house.<\/p>\n

The Loan Fund is a nonprofit community development financial institution (CDFI) that provides affordable loans, training, and business consulting to entrepreneurs, business owners, and nonprofit organizations throughout New Mexico. Founded in 1989, The Loan Fund has provided over $74 million in loans to help create or preserve more than 8,900 jobs statewide. For more information, call 505-243-3196 or visit http:\/\/loanfund.org\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Download 533_Cedar Crest Woman Brews Up Business With Help From Nonprofit Lender<\/a> PDF<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Finance New Mexico Hannah Johnson left Cedar Crest, New Mexico, to get a biology degree, and after a stint in shorebird conservation, she returned to start a coffee shop in her hometown in the eastern Sandia Mountain foothills. The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9502"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9502"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9571,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9502\/revisions\/9571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}