A haven for book and coffee lovers
FOR 27-year-old entrepreneur Kristine Simisim-Corral, a new chapter in her life started when she engaged in business and opened a unique coffee shop with a librarylike ambience. Located along the long strips of restaurants in Tomas Morato Avenue in Quezon City, Book and Borders Café serves as an ideal spot for those who want to study, meet, drink and eat, read good books or simply unwind.
Swayed by her mom’s enthusiasm in business and having a degree in Marketing Management at the University of Wales and Master in Business Administration at the University of Newcastle, Ms. SimisimCorral, together with her mom, maintains a remarkable stint within two years of running their business.
“My mom wanted to go into the food and beverage industry. She’s expert at doing commissary production and my forte is marketing, so it’s actually a good partnership,” Ms. Simisim-Corral told
BusinessWorld in an interview. Ms. Simisim-Corral shared that she takes charge in operations, purchasing aspect and social media marketing of the coffee shop, while her mom handles the internal side such as the preparation and development of all their products.
The idea of establishing Book and Borders Café began when they saw the great designs and experienced the good vibes of coffee shops in Europe during a trip. Ms. Simisim-Corral who loves books, together with her mom who wants to hangout in coffee shops, combined their passion and decided to open their café’s first branch in Tomas Morato in 2015.
“It’s very challenging of course, first of all because of the competitors. As you can see in Tomas Morato, in every corner, you can see at least one coffee shop. So, what we have to do is to always be creative in how we communicate to our target market and how we constantly create new menus and new drinks in order to attract people to the café,” Ms. Simisim-Corral said.
Book and Borders Café offers original recipes of cold and hot coffees, smoothies, milk shakes, teas and cakes, as well as freshly prepared rice meals, sandwiches, pasta and salad.
The place has travel-themed interiors and comfy chairs and couches in vibrant colors. It houses more than 600 books of different interests — for children and young adults, romance, general fiction, hobby books, among others — placed in shelves on both sides of the café. The place is also equipped with sockets for laptops and offers free Wi-Fi connection for customers.
When asked about why and how Book and Borders Café has flourished in just a few years since its establishment, Ms. SimisimCorral shared their success secrets. “You have to be patient when it comes to hiring your people; be constantly creative on your products in order to be different from your competitors; and always maintain the quality of your items so that people would come back,” she said.
Book and Borders Café has grown and opened three more branches located at Tuscany, McKinley Hill in Taguig; Eastwood City; and Manhattan Parkview, Araneta Center in Cubao. Ms. Simisim-Corral said that they are looking for possibilities to open more branches outside Metro Manila.
Ms. Simisim- Corral has an advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, “Start small, and then be patient with what you do. Don’t give up even if all the challenges are coming in your way. You should always have to be creative and think about what you can do differently in order to be better than your competitors.”