It all starts with an idea...
Kia ora! Welcome to my first blog!! Here I sit, looking at a blank piece of paper (ok, it’s a word document – who writes anything down anymore??) wondering what I am going to say! Yep, never done this before, no idea how it’s going to work out or if anybody is actually even interested in reading anything I’ve got to say, but here goes!
One day, back in May or June this year, I can’t even remember the date, I visited a local café after my son won a free smoothie for being ‘man of the match’ in his soccer game. The café gave out vouchers for the winners (which by the way is a fantastic way to promote your business – because we were your a-typical consumers. Not only did we go in for the free smoothie but I ordered a coffee and a cake for myself and one for my son because who just goes into a café and orders a (free) smoothie right?!)
Anyway, I digress. This was the day that I saw it – the afghan biscuit – sitting in the cabinet saying ‘eat me, go on, you know you want to, you haven’t seen me for a long time, just DO IT’. That little devil on my shoulder was too good to resist, besides, I was so excited to see the New Zealand favourite in a local café as I hadn’t seen one in so long, I grabbed one (well, not literally, just asked the lady for one – please). And it was SO delicious but wow, did it bring back some memories! Who would have thought that a small, innocent chocolate biscuit could do that? But it did. And it tasted good. Just like the ones my mum used to make, and just like the ones that I make.
It got me thinking… I want more. If I had this reaction to ONE solitary NZ biscuit, just imagine what other kiwi’s such as myself would think if there was a WHOLE SHOP of NZ goodness to choose from?! And that was the moment that the idea was born – the Kiwi Café.
Well, the name didn’t immediately come to me. But I knew I wanted something that would attract the local New Zealanders, something catchy but simple. Hmm, I had to put my thinking cap on… and it wasn’t until one night a few weeks later that I was driving home from dropping my son at soccer practice (are you sensing a theme here??) that I heard the song come on the radio – “hey I got a little faith in ya, I’ll stick with you kid, that’s the bottom line…” do you know it? You must know it! Yes, it’s Slice of Heaven by the great Dave Dobbyn, aka the name of my new café! “Slice of Heaven”. I loved it. Not only because it was a play on words and linked in perfectly with my ‘sweet treats’ vision, but I loved the song, it is a kiwi classic, and fitted my “catchy but simple” brief. My heart started to race, and when I got home I excitedly told the rest of the family my idea.
Sadly though, it was not to be. The business name was already in use in Australia so I had to think of something else. All was not lost. It was time to get my creative juices flowing, so I sat down with my partner and we did some brain storming. Eventually we came up with the name “Kiwi Café”. It’s catchy, it’s simple and kiwis will immediately associate with it – it can’t be mistaken for anything else, it is what it is, nobody else in the whole of Australia was using it, this was it. Kiwi Café was born.
So, now we have a name, what next??? There’s a lot more to a business than a name, as I was soon to find out!
