We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Janice Steffen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Janice below.

Janice, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I aboustly love what I do . I was always told as a child if you love what you do for a living you will never work a day in your life.
I don’t call it work it’s fun and we create lots of new drinks and we keep the client in mind when we do.
Trying to keep calories down and carbs,and something they would enjoy.
I see lots of people on a day to day basis and they enjoy us coming to them as we do enjoy seeing them and asking how their day is going.its like having a huge family reunion every day.
I’m very blessed and grateful for all my clients they are the reason Bluehousecoffeeonthego is still in business here in 2023.

Janice, 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?

My husband got laid off his job in 2013 and he was the bread winner for our family. After early 2014 we recieved his 401 statement and lost 10,000 and we had to find away to take care of our family
So I told him I had an idea to create a mobile Gourmet Coffee truck. My husband said what that. I told him this is how we support our family and pay our life bills
So once we recieved all his 401k we went an bought a new 2013 nissan high top van paid cash and came home and I found someone in Idaho that builds custom coffee trucks. We drove one way left the van went back in 6 weeks to pick it up got the wrap on and opened in August 2014.
And here we are 9 years later
I am from a small town south of Houston called Alvin TX and food trucks weren’t allowed so for 2 years I worked with the City of Alvinto rewrite the city ordinance to have food trucks. I guess you can say I paved the way for other small entrepreneurs to create a food truck and open in our hometown.
I carry on the truck about 60 flavors and 35 are sugar free. We make all our drinks fresh to order and customize to our clients needs. We make frappes iced coffees hot coffee’s smoothies and slushes and organic teas that are made to order as well.
My motto is quality first before quanity,,
I want each and every person that come in contact with my truck to get a low calorie great tasting drink at an affordable price.

I want everyone to know that we make very unique specialty frappes that are fun to make and delicious to drink and we offer a variety of milks for those with special dietary needs. I am a self taught barista and have found a way to keep our calories in our drinks under 400 calories.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My biggest fear was corvid in 2020, I’m a business to business mobile Gourmet Coffee truck that serves local business. When corvid hit I panicked because 90% of my business I serve closed down.
So I had to put my thinking cap on a prayed that everything would work out .
I recieved a call asking if I would come to several neighborhoods and that I most my clients were working from home.
So I took a big leap of faith and survived the pandemic of 2020-2021.
It was my Bluehousecoffeeonthego family as I call my clients that saved my business from having to shut down and I have been so very very grateful for their love in my business and their friendship to our little truck.
In May of 2021 I had gotten really sick and couldn’t breathe for fear of dying and went to several specialist and MA y mri an CT scans to determine what was wrong with me. In July 2021 I was diagnosed with Horners Syndrome which the doctors couldn’t understand why I had it or how I have it after having 2 biopsies it turned out I had thryoid cancer. I was stage one and it was suppose to be an easy surgery. Sept 7 I went in for my surgery and I was on the table 13-1/2 hours and the destruction was horrible. The cancer had spread to my lympnodes 40 were removed 14 were cancerous so the dr took the muscle out of my right side of my neck. My cariod artery,vaga nerve and right vocal cord nerve were severely damaged by my cancer and the tumor was very evasive in july it was a 1.9 cm and surgery my day was 4.7cm.
I was out of the truck for almost 2 month to recover and heal and worrying if I would have a business to go back to.
And all I can say is my Bluehousecoffeeonthego family welcomed us back with open arms.
I’m the luckiest woman in the world with the best clients.
I’m very appreciative and grateful for them allowing us to continue to serve them for almost 9 years in August of this year

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

My husband had been laid off and we used his 401k to purchase the van and pay to have the inside converted into a full fledged coffee shop on wheels.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: Www.facebook.com/Bluehousecoffeeonthego

Image Credits
Janice steffen