Women in Business: A sense of identity and belonging

Editor’s note: For our annual Women in Business issue, we invited women in our local business communities to share insights they’ve gained through their work in Western North Carolina. The first three questions were asked prior to Tropical Storm Helene. 

Eva Rodriguez-Cué is the owner of Haywood Famous, a Cuban coffee-centric café she opened earlier this year in West Asheville.

Xpress: What was the path that led you to founding your business?

Rodriguez-Cué: When I was working at my old jobs, I often had a voice in my head asking me, “When you were a little girl, what did you want to do when you grow up?” Sure, I was happy at those old jobs, but I knew I had something I needed to share with my community. When I took the time to think about it, I recalled a long-held dream I had of a nighttime coffee shop and soon got to work. As I developed the idea, I bounced it off of customers at my jobs, people at parties and anyone who would listen, and it seemed the community had a real need for the kind of space I envisioned: a coffee shop named after an inside joke, that provides a calm and unpretentious space for folks to go at night that centers around the exchange of art, music and community.

What’s been the strangest aspect of running a business in Asheville?

A welcome and unexpected thing about doing business in Asheville is the lack of competition between my neighbors and me. We are all here to support each other through those inevitable rough spots and here to cheer on the big wins.

How do you define success, and what should every entrepreneur know before launching a business?

I believe that success is measured by personal perception and experiences. But in my experience, I know I am doing something right in my business when someone expresses a sense of identity and belonging there. I also feel success has been found when a new face becomes a regular.

There are many things you cannot predict in business — that’s why folks love their spreadsheet divination — but one thing I urge any aspiring entrepreneur to do is ask for help when there is something overwhelming them. Entrepreneurship is not a one-size-fits-all vocation, and in the community, we have business owners diverse in background, ages and stages. Adversity in business affects us all, and it takes an open mind and a resilient spirit to tackle those challenges and come out the other side with experiences to share and an even stronger business than you had before.

Follow-up question in the aftermath of Helene: How are you doing, and what is the greatest need for local business owners at this moment? 

Folks always ask me how I do what I do on my own. I tell them I don’t do it on my own and I just love what I do. It’s also worth it to mention I have now memorized the way to the Self Help and Mental Health section of the bookstore and make efforts to throw myself into as much compassionate care of my mental health as I do with running the business; it is no easy task but it is worth it.

When Helene hit, it threw me for a loop; here I was handling more than I ever had before and I can’t live in my house, while also considering I have to add finding basics like water, ice and milks to my daily task list for the home and the shop. It’s a lot, but this time I extended myself outward instead of in and found support all around me. Community is the only way I have gotten through Helene. As business owners, community is the biggest need and the strongest resource we have to get through Post-Helene.