The Side House's successful first year is grounds for celebration says Claypole coffee shop owners
The first year of trading can be hard for new businesses, but the success of their first year has blown away the owners of a Claypole coffee shop.
Friends Kate Sharp and Suzanne Stapleton opened The Side House coffee shop in January 2019, and said they had been overwhelmed by the how well their first year in business had gone.
Suzanne said they were really taken by surprise at just how busy the coffee shop had been.
“We thought it would just be us and a couple of weekend staff, but now we’ve got 12 members of staff and we’re always really busy,” she said.
“It’s been better than we ever thought it would be.”
The Side House is attached to the village hall and used to be the caretaker’s house, but had been used for storage, and so the two women and their families spent a year transforming the building into a cosy coffee shop.
They rent the building from Claypole village hall committee, which they said is an arrangement that suits everyone.
“The committee have been incredibly supportive, and we’ve been able to help them in return by doing catering for some of their events, it’s a win-win situation,” said Kate.
“The whole village has really got behind us. We have lots of regulars including school-run mums and friendship groups, including groups of local children.”
The coffee shop regularly has cyclists dropping in, and once catered for a cyclist who popped in on his way to Newark having cycled all the way from Skegness, and over the summer, a group of 18 cyclists enjoyed drinks in their outdoor seating area.
One of the best parts of the job, they said, was seeing the positive reviews from their customers.
Suzanne said: “Sometimes we read the reviews and they’re really touching, and for people to make the effort to leave a review for us is really nice.”
Kate said part of their success was being in such a close-knit village community.
“We’re really lucky in that we have lots of support from the other businesses and we all feed off each other.
“We buy all our meat from Doncaster’s butchers round the corner, and Shine hairdressers often send their clients who are having their hair done over to us. It’s become a real hub of the community.”
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