Yes, it’s just a coffee shop, but to Chris An, the owner of the Coffee Lab on Evanston’s Noyes Street — minutes away from Northwestern’s campus — the store is actually a key part of his missionary work.
“My goal is not to earn money, but to serve the community,” An said.
Chris An’s background is in ministry work, and he was affiliated with the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary — the graduate theology school of the United Methodist Church that feels like it’s part of Northwestern’s campus, even though it isn’t — before he took over the running of Coffee Lab. The transition to being a business owner came when he wanted to spend more time outside, An said.
It seems to have paid off. Coffee shops usually operate on slim margins of operating income — usually 2.5% of sales, according to chron.com, part of the Houston Chronicle. Despite this, Coffee Lab moved into a bigger space in October 2015, financing the move and difference in rent with a bank loan. That the Coffee Lab is still open on 910 Noyes St. is a sign that things are going well.
But to An, the store isn’t so much a profit-making business as it is a vehicle to keep his philanthropy work going. According to An, 90 percent of the shop’s profits are donated to charity, such as the Rising Hope United Methodist Mission Church in Alexandria, Virginia through his larger company BCBC Coffee Roasters, Inc. BCBC Coffee Roasters currently has an additional coffee shop in Chantilly, VA, run in a similar way to Coffee Lab.
“We’re combining nonprofit and profits,” An said. Nonprofits usually have to look for grants to keep going, but the coffee shop’s profits allow him to fund the philanthropy projects with business revenues, rather than looking for outside donations.
An had never run a business before he took over the Coffee Lab, and he said his first year was particularly terrible, as he struggled to balance between dedicating time to his philanthropy work and keeping the coffee shop business afloat. But he said he dedicates most of his management efforts into focusing on people — the customers, and the staff.
“The staff are the people who meet the customers,” he said. “Good interactions with customers means that they’ll hopefully come back.”
The employment application form on the Coffee Lab’s website asks for answers to questions such as “If you could choose one super hero power, what would it be and why?” and “Tell me 5 ways to use a pencil other than writing.” (My desired superpower: to stop time, because I need more of it in my life.)
An thinks of himself as half-entrepreneur, half-missionary. When he’s acting as an entrepreneur, he’s thinking about business things: How can we make better products? How can we make sure customers are satisfied? How can we expand more in the future. When he’s a missionary, he’s thinking about the staff, the “Coffee Lab family” as he describes it — whether he can and should talk to staff members about their personal issues and what advice and help he can offer.
But his most memorable experience as owner of the Coffee Lab also has to do with staff — specifically, the time when he hired several people from the homeless shelter. He remembers everyone saying that it was a bad idea.
“But I trusted them, trained them, and they kept working for years,” An said.
