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

Simone, appreciate you joining us today. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business

So in business there are so many things that go right and go wrong and they definitely have very different impacts on you. I have been cooking for well over 20 years I’ve owned my business for closer to 10 years. I knew I had a vision of what I wanted to do and what I wanted to be able to cook because of the many different places I visited. Being a soft taco who then later gets an education really gives you a different perspective on the business. So when I finally decided to open a restaurant with my best friend and brother needless to say my excitement was through the roof. We had begin the construction on it the blueprints permit and everything that goes into opening a restaurant. We were a month away from opening and my brother was being financier of our dream and of course I was the brand within a month from final construction my brother was murdered by police officers in front of his home. so needless to say this was a major incredibly large setback on the brand the business the restaurant but most of all on me emotionally and mentally. So him being the financier of this undertaking it was crippling because there was no more income to finish the project and after having advertised on our website and to all of our viewers on our different social media video streams it’s just really took the wind out of you. The amounts to open the restaurant are so incredibly large that I could not undertake it myself and I knew if I didn’t have anybody else to assist with it then I will head going to have to give up on my dream. Not necessarily completely give up but I was gonna have to delay it so I could build the income that it would take to do it on my own or until I found someone else who wanted to be a part of it that I could trust him feel comfortably with.. and that is where emotionally that became incredibly difficult because you know your family your best friend somebody you have spent your life with and you know you can trust whole heartedly has now been snatched away from you and you just begin to feel a sense of defeat ant you have to take a step back and figure out how to come out of it. For me I used his memory and his memorial to calm my energy and refocus after going through my grieving process. Now you have to remember I was grieving for my business and the brand and dream we were building but more than anything for the loss of my ear when I needed to vocalize some thing my calm when I felt stressed or weathered my right hand when I needed assistance my everything. It has taken a couple years to fully get back on track I am currently in the process of taking all that has happened every bit of negativity and discouraging to begin small with a food truck instead of a restaurant to grow our brand even bigger by increasing our following and viewers on our social media platforms and focusing on taking more clients so that word amount increases interest in the brand. The fight is OK the struggle is definitely still there, while still fighting through fear, depression, anger, grieving, and so many other things but I know he would want me to push through and so I use his memory and his encouragement from when he was alive to push me to complete the dream and the brand. so I continue to build and push through until I finally successfully achieve what we worked so hard for.

Simone, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi my name is Sy and I am the chef CEO and owner of Endulgence. I am an Air Force veteran who is been in love with cooking since I was the age of six which is when I begin cooking. I started off in the kitchen with my grandmother like most people do and I was taught the traditions of creole cooking and southern cooking per our heritage. This only heightened my love for cooking so much more. As I grew up I knew that I was going to want to Have my own business but I didn’t know how much went into that so I formulated a plant very early life that I was going to go to college and learn business so I knew how to open and operate my own business. So in order to go to college i join the United States Air Force because I didn’t fully understand how financial aid worked and then I could’ve going to school using financial aid. So because of that lack of knowledge I wanted immediately joining the Air Force straight out of high school which turned out to be one of the better choices in my life that I could’ve made. It allowed me to visit different countries that I have an already seen while being an army brat with my mother. It gave me a life education that has helped me since in business. so it has discipline me in the art called fusion. Fusion consists of me combining different cultural or ethnic dishes to create a new amazing flavor taste and emotion. I am a caterer and I provide services such as luncheon weddings, funerals, birthday parties, corporate dinners and lunches, individual celebrations such as anniversaries, a romantic dinner for two, basically any celebration that involves food. We have also sent started a seasoning blend, And I am in the process of completing the first volume. Cookbook In the drunken Puerto Rican chef brand. We also offer cooking lessons as well as a step-by-step video instruction and interactive viewing platform on several different types of social media such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram. When it comes to my clients my job is to help them put their emotions and feelings into the food. So if this is about showing their employees how grateful they are for their service then I will help them do that with the food itself as well as the presentation. I create a questionnaire that gives us a very open understanding and so we can truly personalize it to the individual. My job is to take the weight of the worry of them and make the experience fun and as enjoyable as possible while opening up their pallets to something different new and vibrant. I think was that me a part for most people it’s just my background and the life experiences. I have been told that I am easy to converse with and fun loving understanding energetic and I bring this enthusiasm into every client interaction and function that I have which creates an extremely enjoyable atmosphere and it encourages open hearts and open minds. I am most proud of being a single mother who is educating myself and my children while building a business and a brand. I want my fans followers and future clients to know that I am beyond dedicated and the same emotion dedication and loyalty that I take to being a mother and daughter an aunt a friend a sister I take to being a chef a caterer a business owner your food savant and humble servant. I want you to know how much fun that we have creating beauty together and how I value the relationships that we form because we become a family in food and for me that is amazing. My work is authentic it is on time It is genuine but most of all it is a combination of me and my client and one amazing vision coming to life.

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

I met Damian Lamar Daniels while serving in the military. I was in the Air Force and he was in the army and we served together. We quickly became best friends with no issues whatsoever. It even allowed us to attempt a relationship and pretty quickly we found out that being best friends is what we were meant to be. At that point, no long before that when we first met I would say it was best friends at first sight. Very similar to love at first sight. We were inseparable with one another. This is where our beautiful backstory begins. Once we both were out of the military we decided to move to San Antonio Texas together. You could not tell that we had not been born together he was there for the birth of my kids He is my children’s godfather am I most loyal friend. He encouraged me to really make my business a legal entity. Because I had a business but as you know people tend to start their own businesses but it is just word of mouth sole proprietor they tend to be done under the table. He encouraged me to create the business as an LLC so that it would be legally profitable. Then He explain to me that he had come up with the idea to create our brand the drunken Puerto Rican chef and and begin a social media presence and platform. So that is how our interactive live viewing instructional videos began. And from there Endulgence became known as DBA the drunken Puerto Rican chef.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

When the business first began it was not originally done with capital because I was more so in business for myself without making it a legal entity so all the profits were just mine and I did not have to invest too much money. It was when I made it a legal entity that I needed to create capital however in looking for start up funding the requirements are extremely extensive. Typically they require that you had already been a legal entity meaning paying taxes on your business for at least six months that you have a credit score of over 650 that you’ve had a bank account for at least 3 to 6 months and that you have been making or closing usually a minimum of like five to $10,000. Which if I’m honest it’s not realistic most people begin their business it’s like I did Out of their home and it can take up to two years to grow‘s large amounts of money depending on your field. A lot of people start their own business don’t have an extremely high credit score and they are working towards creating a better credit score but they’re working with minimal options. When I created the actual legal entity I used my small credit cards and I say small because my amount or line of credit were not any larger than maybe $500 on each of them. Are used my paychecks from work because I was still working another job to secure funding for when I had an event. And my mother would step in and give me small loans 500 1000 here and there depending on what the event was so that I could secure the events and create a lasting relationship with a client. My or funding starting up my business was not easy whatsoever and when my brother stepped in is when I actually was able to secure a large amount of funding to really advance the business and go further. Prior to his financial investment I would secure a deposit from my client and use my other resources to complete out the event and then collect my payment from the client at the end. Once I had a large amount of working capital I begin to see a profit and I only secure that with an investor who I could trust no I have history with who loves me and I love them.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.Endulgencerestaurant.com
• Instagram: Www.instagram.com/mytruthsrs
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sy.colemanshelton.1
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/endulgencecater
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQAhNqByAeKhuyO1jrevE8g

Image Credits
The images were done by Alissia Coleman photography