We were lucky to catch up with Vicky Shyr recently and have shared our conversation below.

Vicky, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

Covid was very unexpected for us, as a new small business we were mainly focused on getting our name out to the community, we didn’t expect to have such a big challenge so early on!

Luckily, I always imagined the cafe to have a park for family and friends to come spend time with each other and allow their children to be kids. This made the transition much easier for us, as we added covered pavilions and heaters to accommodate our guests while maintain safe social distancing. We also had the support of other local, small businesses who parked their food trucks in our park so we could help each other through the hard times.

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?

At Hey Bear Cafe, I hope to provide a space where people can be themselves.

I want to make a space for everyone at Hey Bear Cafe. I created Hey Bear Cafe with moms like me in mind, wanting to create a place where they could be a mom and a friend. Through Hey Bear Cafe, I also am able to share my Taiwanese upbringing with my two kids, Mia and Milo, and the Knoxville community.

The idea for Hey Bear’s outdoor space, “The Cave,” came from my family trips to Hawaii. The 2-acre space includes a food truck park, a sandbox, a playground, and countless picnic tables. My incredible staff help manage a calendar full of community events, with artist markets, trivia, or kids’ art classes happening on any given day. Hey Bear is a place where small businesses thrive and families and friends can come together.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Definitely connect with your community! Shout outs from other small businesses in the area who wanted to help support us, amazing reviews from our guests, and just word of mouth helped us grow so much on social media!

We also remain active daily, posting new events, our food truck schedule, and sharing fun moments at the cafe with our followers!

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Support your staff and they will support you! We help each other and have compassion and understanding for each other. If one of our staff members is having a hard week, we help to cover their shifts and give them much needed break, and they do the same for us when we need it! I have always been able to depend on my staff, and they know I’ll have their backs, too!

Contact Info:

• Website: Heybearcafe.com
• Instagram: Heybearcafe
• Facebook: Hey Bear Cafe
• Other: TikTok Heybearcafetn

Image Credits
Hey Bear Cafe