Mango Moka

Kiss + Tell: Kiss Your Excuses Goodbye - I'll Tell You How
by Christina Waschko

It has been nearly a year since I started working with Mango Moka, the one and only fusion coffee / smoothie bar in our area!

 Just like most businesses, Mango Moka started as a dream. As a vision. It took Sukhi, an immigrant from India, nearly 21 years to make his dream come true! Today he is the proud owner of two shops, right next to each other: Mango Moka and MK Farm Market, a one of a kind corner store: In the open fridges you’ll find everything from marinated chicken wings to rattlesnake and kangaroo steak!

It hasn’t been an easy ride for Sukhi or his family! He and his wife worked non-stop. They left their four kids in the care of their grandparents. They ‘fought’ for their customers: The stores are located at a little strip mall on a major road leading into the city! It’s a real pain to get to them if you happen to be in the wrong lane or trying to make a turn coming from the opposite direction!

 Still, next month is their first anniversary and I’m pretty proud to have played a small role in their success. With my help Mango Moka has a presence on Facebook and a pretty good About Page on their website. Over the year I became their ‘trusted consultant’. I shared everything I knew from running my own coffee shop.

It’s such a joy to see them booming and blooming! There was only one aspect Sukhi did not listen to me. He was quite stubborn actually: I advised him not to invest in print media! In my experience the return on investment is too small! And what did he do? He invested thousands and thousands of dollars into print media! He collaborated with a brochure book, printed house to house flyers, paid for advertising space in our local newspaper! He printed out Vouchers, Money - off - Deals and Special House Specials! His return on investment? A meager 1% Wow, this is heavy. That’s a lot of dollars spent on paper!

I wanted to tell him, I told you so- but I didn’t.

We as business owners become successful by making our own mistakes. By experiencing firsthand what it means to invest into …nothing! This is true for most of us, isn’t it? We may hire a consultant or a coach. But at the end of the day it’s up to us to take on the advice or not! And so be it!

If you are entertaining the idea of hiring a consultant and you’re coming up with an excuse like I’m not sure if she/he is worth the money, let me tell you this:

One way or another, you are going to make an investment! You either invest in a person whose advice you are going to follow or in advice you are going to ignore! Or you just do it your way, learn and then hire a consultant…!