We were lucky to catch up with Toya Jones recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Toya thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
At the age of nine, I became very interested in music. I was interested in how it was composed, arranged and how the words perfectly danced around the rhythm. At that age not only did I develop a love for music, but I developed a love for writing.
I had stacks and stacks of notebooks, sectioned off into piles one stack of notebooks would be labeled “songs”. The next stack would be “poems”. The next stack would be “short stories/movies”.
I was in love with music and writing. As I got older, the love for both grew deeper and deeper. I was a freshman in high school, writing music/songs for us to perform. And by us, I mean all of my cousins and friends.
Fast forward to many many many years later, I can honestly say that I feel as though poetry saved my life. I was in my early 20s when I first heard the poem alone by Maya Angelou and I knew at that moment that I didn’t like poetry but I was in love with it.
I spent my early 20s writing and coffee shop hopping in all of my spare time. I would always search for coffee shops that inspired me to be creative.
At the age of 22, I knew exactly what I wanted to do for a living. I checked out some books at the library on how to write a business plan, and I wrote a business plan for owning and operating a coffee shop and by the time I was thirty, I had opened my very first coffee shop. Even while doing this, I continued to work on my craft, diligently working on poetry that I plan to publish one day but not to jump the gun. In my late twenties, I started to become more involved with the arts community as well as the music scene. I began to reach out to musical acts to invite them to play at different local venues. Before I knew it, I had the title of Event Organizer under my belt. Once I entered the entrepreneur world, it was hard for me to get out of it.
I went on to open a food truck and a total of three more coffee shops. The most recent ones being Morning Brew Coffee Company, which was located in the Taubman Museum of Art – which catered to all of your coffee and food needs.
I leased the space in the museum for five years. In my third year with Morning Brew, I was creating these different venues in my head. As a writer and a creative, I knew what types of places inspired me and I wanted to give our city such a space. I wanted something more. Something that was community driven and focused on creativity through art expression.
I had hosted open mic nights and poetry nights at Morning Brew, however I wanted to dive deeper and create a space that was for the community. That was rich in culture, rich in diversity, rich in freedom of expression without politics. I wanted to create a place where the community could come to sip coffee or tea, and collaborate with other creatives and create. A place where we could hang local art on the walls, sell local merchandise, a place for people to work and play, a place where we could host local art shows, poetry nights, comedy shows, paint nights, deep listening music sessions, family friendly game nights, workshops, mentoring services, hosting and organizing community events, a hub for all things positive. Three years into ownership of Morning Brew Coffee Company, I began to visually create this magical space and in 2021 Verses Listening Lounge & Collaborative Center was born. A hub to sip, collaborate and create.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I got into my industry because of my love for all forms of arts. I wanted to give other creatives a work space that they could call their own. Wanted to work closely with local talented individuals and dive deeper into community. I wanted to create a place where people can come to share their newest poem or their newest piece of artwork in a safe and judge free space. Me being a Black business owner that is also part of the LGBTQ community, I wanted to create a space where the LGBTQ community could feel safe. Everything that I envisioned for Verses, I was able to check off those boxes. We rapidly became a role model and a positive staple for our community. When you hear other businesses coming up after you, stating that they want to be a “Verses” and view us as a prominent place within our city, I know I have accomplished what I wanted to accomplish and that makes my heart smile.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
When I tell people that I built all of my businesses from the ground up with zero financial support, their jaws drop. Unfortunately and fortunately I didn’t come from a wealthy background. I say unfortunately, because I can’t help but think that having the funds to support a business could’ve made things a lot easier for me. I say fortunately, because I learned a lot of life lessons by having to pivot and figure out things on my own without that privilege. It also taught me the value of a dollar. When the economy crashed in 2008, there was this stench of uncertainty, sadness and hopelessness in the air. I remember not knowing how I was going to be able to pay my rent on a $500/mo apartment. So I did the only thing that I knew how to do and that was the hustle. If I had five dollars to my name, I went to the dollar store and bought three things for one dollar each. I resold those three things for three dollars each. That gave me nine dollars with a six dollar profit. I kept doing that until I was able to buy a larger ticket items at local flea market to buy and flip. I mostly searched for music equipment and instruments because music was a passion of mine and I knew a lot about it. The rest as they would say is history and then took out an ad in our local trading post offering painting and pressure washing. I got my first painting job for $800 and from there I opened a property maintenance company. I took on some big named clients. My finances became stable really fast. I then took some of the money that I made from my property maintenance business to purchase a short bus, that I converted into a food truck. With my food truck, I became well-known for the best grilled cheese in the town and won the platinum award for best food truck for the Roanoker Magazine. I ran my Food Truck for 2 years before I was approached with an opportunity to open a coffee shop inside of a $66 million museum. I used some of the money that I had made from the food truck to finance the coffee shop. So yes, when I think about it, having a financial backer would’ve made things a lot easier but having to do it all on my own made me more determined than ever.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Being an entrepreneur for a little over 13 years now, and I was used to doing it all. I wore every hat. I am the face. I am the marketing manager. I am the decision maker. I am the social media manager. I am the graphic designer. I am the cook. I am the barista. I am the cashier. I am the training manager. I am the event organizer. I am the fundraiser. Just two years ago, I had to unlearn trying to be everything in my business. Two years ago, I started with something simple, like turning over all of my social media to a Social Media Marketing Manager (Alexis Amos). Who would create content, daily posts and reply to fans comments. Even though event planning was one of my favorite things to do, I turned that over to her as well, and allowed her to be great and creative in her field. She brainstormed/created events for Verses, set up meetings with potential clients, organized community events, handled emails etc…doing this allowed me to focus on other parts of the organization.
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