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Saturday, February 7, 2009
"Following his dream, one bean at a time: Entrepreneur unfazed by economy"
Dorian Bolden could hardly envision what he was going to become when he graduated from Duke University.In 2002, the alum was heading to New York to work as a financial adviser for Bank of America. Back then, according to Bolden, “to obtain monetary possessions was the only important thing in [his] life.”
But fast-forward to 2009, and Bolden’s days are filled with roasting and packing his own coffee, meeting with investors and going over marketing materials — all the footwork necessary in pursuit of his big dream. By this spring or summer, 28-year-old Bolden hopes to open Beyú Caffé — pronounced Be- You — a coffeehouse and jazz lounge.
This won’t be easy during a recession in which consumers have locked down spending, banks have tamped down on loans and news of job cuts and store closings crop up every day.
But such is the unpredictable and often inspiring journey of the entrepreneur who moves from
the corporate world into his or her own mission of opening a clothing store, or cleaning business, or grocery store — or, in Bolden’s case, a café, to bring together disparate groups of people in Durham in an appreciation of poetry, music and coffee.
“Believe in God. Be you. Be yourself,” said Bolden, summing up his personal credo.
For a year, Bolden has devoted his full attention to giving birth to Beyú, his brainchild, and it might soon come to fruition.
The son of a single mother who went to Duke University from a minority-majority high school in Atlanta, Bolden has always straddled disparate parts of a community. When he came to Durham, Bolden said it reminded him of what Atlanta used to be and what he loved
about New York.
Durham is home to a variety of people from different backgrounds and experiences, but they often do not interact, he said. Whereas some of his friends would check
out Pinhook, the new bar in downtown, others prefer to listen to jazz at the Hayti Heritage Center.
People often don’t cross color lines, he said, because they don’t know how much they have in common. Bolden hopes Beyú will be a place where people of all races and backgrounds can come together.
“There’s something special here in Durham,” he said. “Why not create a place where people can come and hang out? It’s not about color. It’s about like-minded people.”
According to his business plan, Beyú would provide coffee, espresso and various café fare like sandwiches and crepes. But it would also retail its own roasted coffees, including a signature blend called, fittingly, “Heart & Soul.” At night, it would be a venue for live jazz and poetry readings, with a wine bar and liqueur coffee cocktails.
Bolden has attracted a full slate of investors who say they are inspired by the concept. That’s no easy feat in this economy, when the stock market has wreaked havoc with many people’s savings and injected anxiety into the investment environment.
One of his investors, Wendy Noel, is a firsttime investor who hopes to own a grocery store someday. What attracted her to Beyú, Noel said, was the jazz and poetry element of the concept.
“I think a lot of businesses downtown — not necessarily by choice — tends to attract niche communities,” she said. “I think Beyú is a place that it pretty much asks for people from all different communities within Durham to come there, socialize, gather and discuss.”
The total cost of opening Beyú is estimated to be $500,000. The company is incorporated as a limited liability corporation, with half of the cost to come from private investment, and the other half from bank financing, grants and loans through the city of Durham.
Bolden is personally investing in the venture in addition to making Beyú’s brochures and other marketing materials. When the profits roll in, Bolden said the other investors will be paid first.
It’s an oft-cited figure that 90 percent of restaurants go out of business within the first year. An Ohio State University study recently tried to debunk that myth, reporting that the actual figure for independent restaurants is closer to 26 percent failing in the first year.
But Noel said she is confident Beyú will be successful.
“While it might be hard for Dorian to start up initially, it’s a business that works with a down economy,” she said. “It provides affordable food for people who want to go out but don’t want to spend a lot of money.”
Noel added that she felt comfortable investing with Bolden because of the amount of work he has already put into the business plan and the concept.
“Dorian, he knows his business very well,” she said. “He has a good blend of business savvy
and passion for what he’s doing and passion for downtown Durham.”
