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

Alright, Juliana thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love for you to start by sharing your thoughts about the pros and cons of family businesses.

When introducing ourselves to new customers, my mom and I have a comedy routine we default to: I’m the President of the company, she’s just the Secretary…but she’s still my mom. When setting up the company’s financial structure, we made me the President because I’d be handling the administrative tasks. Naturally, we assumed, my mom should then be Vice President. Our banker explained that the VP actually would have no power to make financial decisions or withdrawals, and recommended the title of Secretary instead. People laugh and assume we go through constant power struggles, but actually, we maintain a level playing field. Our disagreements are usually more minute, and our big-picture goals are fairly in sync.

Running a family business, wherein the family is fully on display (my mom and I are at the shop every day, and my dad, husband, daughter, and sister, make frequent appearances) is a project. The key to our success has been what I consider to be a basic but fundamental factor: mutual respect. We respect one another’s strengths, and while we may come to the table with opposing ideas on how to tackle a project or resolve an issue, maintaining an open mind and deriving a solution that works for both types of thinking has been key to our progress. I’m lucky that my mom has more years of wisdom and experience, and an unfathomable amount of empathy to impart on me. And that titles on paper don’t create power struggles between us.

The pitfalls we avoid are not about our structure or our vision, but our day-to-day operations and not letting each other fall off the ledge when we have a bad sales day. Being able to shrug off a bad day or a bad customer is something neither of us had experienced before. We always “took our work home” with us at the end of the day. At the end of a slow day we remind each other that the worst day at Bocaditos is better than the best day at the office jobs we left behind.

A successful family business greatly depends on respect and a shared vision. The paths need to converge, or at least run extremely parallel. These might not be aspects that are shaped out on day one, when you put pen to paper, but they do need to take form early on in order to avoid falling into spirals of anger and resentment. Disagreements need to be resolved quickly before resentment sets in–this doesn’t mean a rushed conversation or hastily given apology, but a meaningful discussion that takes root of the problem. It requires humility but it ensures we’ll continue celebrating holidays (and just regular days!) together.

Would I want my daughter to join us? If it’s the path for her, yes! We’ve tried to instill these ideas and values into our employees. We hope that our business grows enough to move beyond just selling food and working deeply within our community.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a 32-year-old first-generation daughter of Argentine immigrants. I grew up (mostly) in Batavia, Illinois where I still reside, as do my parents, and where our storefront, Bocaditos Cafe, can be found.

Bocaditos Cafe was born out of my mother’s perseverance. She was a teacher who decided to leave teaching behind, after several decades, and had a vision in mind: to have Batavians (and the surrounding community) say to themselves and each other, “you know, I’m just craving empanadas today,”

We spent a year or so scoping out a place because commercial kitchens are sparse in Batavia. We couldn’t find one that fit our needs so we built one. And then we moved to a new location and built another one. We had no prior experience in building a commercial kitchen, or running a business, or running a restaurant. In undergrad I studied Art History, then pursued an MBA, and worked in Marketing and Project Management. But my mom’s dream took hold and so we forged on together. And while I may have held the reins for a while, securing permits and plans, and managing a construction crew (and then another), my mom is the heart and soul of our cafe.

Our cafe is located in the historic Newton House in Downtown Batavia. Our menu features Argentine items that we like to say are from our hearts and home. They are foods I grew up eating (some from 100+ year old recipes!) and that can be found across my parents’ homeland. We are known for our empanadas, but also offer salads, sandwiches and desserts. All our items are handmade using quality ingredients that are sourced locally or imported.

We partner with local brands wherever possible to expand our offerings to include local specialties (like natural sodas, kombuchas, and beer). We partner with women and minority-owned businesses wherever possible. We carry a curated selection of artisan goods made by Argentine artists, and locally-handmade items and gifts.

Our mission was always to start the conversation with an empanada, and see where that takes us. We imbibe our food with as much good energy as possible. We know trying new things can be scary, but we like to remind newcomers that our food is made with familiar ingredients that are being presented in an unfamiliar way. We are more alike than we realize, and finding commonality through food is incredibly powerful.

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

Our first commercial kitchen buildout was funded 70% out of personal investment/savings and the remaining 30% via a bank loan. We actually applied for a loan that would cover the full cost of our construction, and the bank basically laughed in our faces. Nevertheless, we paid off our loan, in full, in about seven months.

We had an incredibly successful first 6 months in business. And then the pandemic hit. We survived the pandemic thanks to a community that rallied around supporting small businesses, and pandemic-relief programs.

We were able to move and fund a new (twice as costly) construction due to a few factors: our profits/savings, pandemic-relief grants, and another bank loan (for the same exact amount as the previous loan. Our 18 months of success did nothing to move that needle).

We remind anyone looking to pursue their dream of owning a small business, or taking on a large project, that we were able to maintain stability and make the decisions we were able to make due to our unique, personal situations. My dad and husband have steady jobs that provided us with healthcare, insurance, and backup when we were pouring all our resources into our business; I remained at my office job for the first 2 years of owning Bocaditos. We had saved and made strategic decisions before launching our business to make sure we wouldn’t be in dire straits in our early days.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Putting ourselves–our faces, names, hearts, homes–on display was a big, frightening, step. It seemed like overnight we went from being community members, to being Community Members. We stepped into a different part of Batavia and began to operate in different circles than we had before.

Throughout, we have tried to lead with authenticity. We knew that exposing ourselves like this would require a level of vulnerability. We knew we’d be open to criticism, but also racial and ethnically-charged comments. We also have never shied from our political stances, and work to make an inclusive environment. We’re open about our personal politics, and our donations to organizations that support human rights, women’s rights, our LGBTQ+ community, BIPOC, and our local progressive politicians.

So again, that may leave us open to attacks. But we try to forge connections where we can, and lower others’ defenses (and disarm defensiveness) where possible. We have realized that some are surprised with our authenticity, but we do know how to be anyone other than our true selves. I was raised that way, and my business partner was key in raising me that way. And we carry this into how we make and sell our food and products. We won’t serve items that are not worthy of consumption and we haven’t cut corners even as rising costs put a dent into our profits. We value our clients more than that–and we have the privilege of financial security that allows us to do so.

As we grow and begin to serve more customers, we want to make sure that they are receiving the same quality of food and service that our early customers did (or better!). Our first customers helped us work out the kinks and they’ve hopefully reaped the rewards of it.

We ask all our customers to review our shop if they enjoyed their experience. So far, we have 5 stars on Google Reviews. I love reading the comments. They frequently mention “the owner,” aka my mom, and how amazing she is, along with how great the food is.

The word of mouth exposure has helped build our reputation as a warm, inviting place where good food and beverage can be found. It’s helped us realize that expensive ad buys were not successful or necessary. Interviews, videos, photos, social media posts, and personal testimonials are what really showcase our brand.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bocaditos.cafe
• Instagram: @bocaditoscafe_ba
• Facebook: facebook.com/bocaditoscafeba

Image Credits
Katie O’Brien Photography
The photos were all taken by me/family members on my cell phone