A Day in the Life
I wake up excited, happy to start a new week, well-rested after the weekend. But before I’ve even had my first cup of coffee, the phone rings. It’s one of my staff members.
“Ma’am, the barista just tried to kill the chef,” I’m told.
How is one supposed to react? Do you panic or do you laugh because it sounds too absurd to be true? Surprisingly, I chose nonchalance.
Owning a café at 25 isn’t glamorous. Most days are messy, unpredictable and exhausting. You are expected to wear 10 different hats before lunchtime. You solve problems you never saw coming. But then a customer smiles, thanks you for the coffee, tells you they love the space you’ve built and walks out looking happier than they walked in. On days like that, you remember exactly why you keep showing up. And somehow, all the chaos starts to make sense.
The First Year
After spending more than a year running my café, I’ve reached the level of indifference this job quietly trains you for. Not because I don’t care, but because if I reacted dramatically to every crisis, I’d probably have quit months ago. Running a small business has a way of changing your threshold for what counts as an emergency. Thankfully, everyone was physically okay when my barista and chef declared war. But the situation had escalated to the extent that my barista was told not to come anywhere near the café again. The police needed to be informed if he did.
A café without a barista isn’t much of a café, so we shut for a day.
I drove home feeling disappointed, confused and honestly, a little defeated. You spend months trying to build something from scratch and in a matter of minutes it feels like all of it can fall apart because of something completely beyond your control. Nobody tells you that entrepreneurship isn’t just about profits, recipes, or marketing. A great deal hinges on conflict management, crisis control and solving problems you never thought would become part of your job description. The next morning, I unlocked the café expecting another difficult day.
Instead, I received a reminder of why I started this journey in the first place. A regular customer walked up to me and asked, “Why was the café closed yesterday?”
I explained what had happened without going into too much detail.
He replied with a smile, “You should know by now how many people depend on this place.”
That thought has stayed with me.
Things to Remember
When you’re constantly worrying about bills, inventory, salaries, social media, customer reviews and whether enough people will walk through the door, it’s easy to forget that your café has quietly become part of someone else’s routine. For some people, this is the ideal spot to start their mornings. For others, the café is where they work, study, catch up with friends or simply enjoy an hour of peace.
This industry teaches you a valuable lesson: you will lose a lot of people before you find the ones who truly believe in what you’re building. This applies to employees, collaborators and even customers. But when you do find them, they make every difficult day worth it.
I think some of my customers love my café more than I do. They notice the tiny details I overlook. They send me photos of the café when the sunset is extraordinarily pretty. Sometimes, someone messages me saying they’ve gone to their hometown and are already missing the cafe. Some people bring me prasad after visiting a temple. Others stop by without ordering anything, just to say hello. And a few who walked in as complete strangers have become good friends.
Before opening my café, I worked as a political researcher in a fully remote role. I loved the work, but hated how lonely it sometimes felt. I wished I had colleagues I could meet every day instead of just names on a screen. They say the universe always listens. In my case, it really did.
I meet hundreds of people every week now. Each conversation teaches me something new. Some people share career advice, some tell me stories about their lives, others recommend books. And there are some who simply remind me to slow down and enjoy the moment.
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Chhavi Khullar 25, has a Master’s in democracy and comparative politics from University College London. She runs a café in south Delhi.
