These café owners started a shop with credit cards and a $30,000 loan. They say it's worth it to run a business in NYC.

Ilia Penzin and Liliia Penzina telephone their café and art gallery their baby.

"A large baby," Penzina said, laughing. The entrepreneurs' first twelvemonth moving T.O.L.K. successful the Brooklyn vicinity of Bushwick has been defined by the individual sacrifice and precarity of moving a mini business successful 1 of the astir costly cities successful the US. To money the startup costs, they moved successful pinch roommates to prevention connected rent, took a $30,000 indebtedness from family, and went into credit card debt. Still, they stay optimistic and would promote different would-be entrepreneurs to travel their dreams.

"The United States is the champion state to effort a business," Penzin said. "We emotion coffee, we emotion hospitality. We decided to unfastened a café."

For Business Insider's Cost of the City series, the mates elaborate what it took to get disconnected the ground, the day-to-day costs, and why they person yet to move a profit.

Managing the costs of a business successful NYC

Penzin and Penzina, who met successful schoolhouse successful Russia 15 years ago, applied for asylum successful the US aft the commencement of the Russia-Ukraine war. Knowing small English, they worked successful hospitality and cafes to get by, but they desired to build thing for themselves.

With a dream successful mind, they cut individual expenses, including moving from a one-bedroom flat into a $1,150 room successful a three-bedroom apartment. Penzin spent 3 months building the abstraction that would go T.O.L.K. while Penzina worked 3 barista jobs.

Now that they're unfastened for business, Penzin handles management, vendors, budgeting, and banking, while Penzina handles the café and creation gallery's regular operations. The café's achromatic walls are usually covered pinch section artwork, and the remainder of the unfastened abstraction is taken up by a sofa, a fewer information tables, and a canine position pinch h2o and treats.

Nearly a twelvemonth in, the java shop is not making capable to screen its costs. Records provided by the owners show the café generated an mean of astir $5,600 nett income a period from January to June and paid $2,700 successful monthly rent, almost half of the monthly nett sales. After paying rent, food expenses, and further costs, the café was near pinch a rate shortfall of astir $900 a month.

Penzin said the main situation is getting much customers. The café has averaged 24 checks per time astatine astir $8.76 each, totaling astir $212 successful gross income per time — not capable to person the business salary for itself.

To supplement the income, Penzin useful arsenic a handyman, assembling furniture, doing mini renovations, and painting. He uses the aforesaid devices and the 2008 Toyota Highlander he bought for the java shop.

The mates has only taken 3 days disconnected this twelvemonth and put each their power into moving the café, but they see it worthy it.

"It's not making america unhappy. We're conscionable working; it's our occupation to make this business operate," Penzin said. Penzina added, "You are motivated already because you effort to survive. If you don't person money, it's your motivation."

Think, Observe, Listen, Know.

T.O.L.K. stands for: Think, Observe, Listen, Know — reflecting really the mates wants customers to acquisition the space. The sanction besides transcends its English acronym. In Russian, tolk intends "meaning, understanding, and having a consciousness aliases purpose," while successful various Scandinavian languages it refers to an "interpreter," personification meant to construe and understand ideas for others — thing T.O.L.K. strives to do by being a organization space.

"That felt particularly fitting for a abstraction built astir art, coffee, conversation, and community: a spot wherever group tin speech perspectives, observe caller ideas, and find meaning successful what they spot and experience," he said.

The café strives to beryllium a spot wherever beginner artists tin display their activity affordably; T.O.L.K. doesn't return commission. At the aforesaid time, guests who whitethorn not person clip to sojourn galleries tin bask creation connected their regular java runs.

"Everybody has the clip astatine slightest erstwhile a time to spell to immoderate java shop and get coffee," Penzin said. "But they ne'er spell to spot the section arts."

Penzina usually creates a typical drinks paper inspired by the existent creator and accumulation astatine the java shop.

"I effort to find really to harvester java and art," she said. "It's for illustration a liquid type of the personification and a liquid type of their art."

With each the money, energy, and clip the mates has put in, they don't spot quitting aliases burning retired arsenic an option. Their dream is to grow their business and unfastened much spots successful the future, perchance moving upstate aliases to Long Island.

"We decidedly will not springiness up connected our entrepreneur travel — we decidedly will conflict until we succeed."

For them, the costs is worthy it to live successful NYC. They find the business and taste opportunities successful the 5 boroughs unmatched.

"You salary for those opportunities, for convenience, for your dream," he said. Referencing a celebrated Russian building that alludes to the emotion of relief, he emphasized: "When we thrust backmost from different states, and we spot the motion 'New York City,' we consciousness a stone, a rock, autumn from our soul."