Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Enan & Jenn Parezo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Enan & Jenn thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

“Judge your success by the degree that you’re enjoying peace, health, and love.” This quote by H. Jackson Brown, Jr. is one that has helped us take risks while growing our business. The point of owning your own business is to make a living enjoying what you do. Sometimes making a big change is scary because you don’t know what the outcome will be, but taking a risk and making that necessary change usually pays off in the long run.

Taking calculated risks with our own peace, health, and love in mind, allowed us to start our business during a recession, birth our two children during the growth and development stage of our business, change our business model, and finally streamline our business to make it more profitable and enjoyable.

The last and most recent example of us taking a risk with our business is when we decided to move our business out of the storefront we had for the past eleven years and into a private commercial kitchen and exclusively offer our services for private catered dinners and tea parties only. It is extremely niche but meets our needs and fits our clientele perfectly. It took us about a year and a half to plan out our move and get everything in order with all of the changes. We weren’t sure of anything, but now we couldn’t be happier with our decision.

Enan & Jenn , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We started our business, 26 Divine, with little business knowledge and even less financial capital. All we knew was that we made delicious food and failure was not an option. We took a risk and we went for it. We worked really hard, put out great products accompanied with stellar service, and we made an outstanding reputation for ourselves.

We worked in the food and beverage industry for twelve years prior to starting our own business. We wanted to gain as much experience in our craft as possible, so we each worked two jobs to better understand every aspect of the business. During this period of time, we worked in high end luxury hotels including running line service for the restaurants, planning and preparing meals for banquets for large group events, baking desserts and breads and wedding cakes for the bake shop, room service, spa service, front of the house serving and bartending in the restaurants, and tea service. We also worked in independent restaurants, butcher shops, bakeries, and private catering companies to further hone our skills.

We started our business as a storefront bakery, then evolved into a lunch cafe, then added on a tea room. During this time we were involved in our own private catering with in-home events—dinners and tea parties—and wedding cakes as well, which is eventually what we decided to solely focus our skills on.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had a business owner friend once tell me to stop saying sorry. It was the best thing I ever unlearned. Don’t get me wrong, if I make a genuine mistake I will apologize and make it right. But everyone is busy, you don’t need to apologize for being late in responding to someone’s email or phone call, for example. Just thank them for their patience and move on with the conversation.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I moved to Charleston in 2003, and met my future business partner/husband four days after moving to Charleston at the Seabrook Island restaurant in the kitchen. At the time, he was a lead line cook and I was starting out as an intern. We instantly clicked and started our culinary journey from there.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.twentysixdivine.com
• Instagram: @26divine