The story behind… Sophie’s Coffee

With so many incredible local businesses on the Gold Coast, one begins to wonder: how did they all come to be? In our series, ‘The story behind…’, we chat with local founders and owners about how their business started, their biggest learnings and their tips for other self-starters.

This time, we caught up with Sophie Beth, the founder of Sophie’s Coffee – the cute coffee van that popped up on Kortum Drive just last week.

Where did the idea for your business come from? What was the lightbulb moment?

Opening a cafe has always been a dream for me, so when life brought me from the UK to Australia, I knew I didn’t want to put that dream on pause. If anything, moving somewhere new made me want to go for it even more. A van felt like the perfect place to start, something I could make completely my own and use to build my own little corner of the Gold Coast.

My boyfriend Max also has a past in coffee, and a family who owns coffee shops back home in the UK. He’s also my biggest supporter in everything I do, so he was the obvious partner in crime. We make a really great team, and together, our ideas built Sophie’s from the ground up in a pretty small space of time.

Where did you start?

Facebook marketplace! I actually almost bought another van, but it fell through at the last minute. In that moment, it felt like the end of the world and that nothing else would compare. But after a bit more looking, we came across another van. It was perfect, and ten times better than the one that didn’t work out. We bought it and began what felt like an endless search for somewhere to actually put it.

We knew we wanted a permanent spot, rather than constantly moving around, so we searched extensively across the Gold Coast, contacted businesses, looked at different sites and tried to navigate all the council requirements that come with operating a coffee van.

There were a lot of no’s before we got our yes in Burleigh.

What was the first big obstacle you faced, and how did you overcome it?

Finding a home for Sophie’s was definitely the first big one. We found locations we loved, got excited about them and then hit council restrictions or approval issues. After enough setbacks, I was genuinely starting to feel disheartened and wondering whether we were ever going to find the right place.

Then, almost out of nowhere, we were offered what felt like our dream spot in Burleigh Heads. It was one of those moments that reminded me that sometimes the thing that doesn’t work out is just making room for something better.

I like to think I can get past most challenges. I’ve faced plenty in life and I think I’ve turned out pretty well! I’m very much ‘everything has to be perfect’, whereas Max is my calm ‘chill, no it doesn’t, we got this’ voice.

Whenever I start stressing about the business, he has a way of reminding me to smile through it and enjoy what we’re actually building together.

What’s one thing you know now that you wish you’d known from day one?

That you don’t have to have absolutely everything perfect before you start.

I’m naturally someone who gets very excited about ideas and wants to do everything at once to perfection, but opening Sophie’s has taught me that you can start with something simple, listen to what your customers actually want and build from there.

Some of our best ideas have come after opening and seeing how people interact with the business and the space. We actually found ourselves with far more space than we originally anticipated, including this huge indoor area that’s perfect for workshops, events and bringing people together. It wasn’t part of the original plan at all, but now it’s becoming a huge part of what I see Sophie’s growing into. I love knowing that we can build towards that. It’s also been a nice reminder that sometimes everything ends up exactly where it’s meant to.

Tell us about the moment things started taking off, or when you realised you’d ‘made it’.

We’re still so new that I definitely wouldn’t say I’ve ‘made it’ yet! For me, it’s the little moments that have felt the biggest, seeing someone come back for the second or third time, having a customer bring a friend because they’ve told them about us, or receiving messages from people saying they love what we’re creating.

When you’ve spent so long planning something behind the scenes, it’s quite surreal when suddenly there are real people standing in front of you, drinking your coffee and choosing to come back. Those are the moments where I think, “Wow I’ve done it, this is actually becoming something.”

What does a working day in your life look like?

Early!

A typical day starts with opening the van at 5am, setting everything up and making coffees. Then, in between customers, I’m usually doing about ten other things at once: ordering stock, replying to messages, creating content, contacting local businesses, planning events, doing admin or coming up with another idea that I immediately decide we need to do.

Max is involved in pretty much every part of it too, from making coffees and helping run the day to day side to just bouncing ideas off each other and making them happen. Oh, and he’s also a Canva wizard – I say something I want designed and he’s made it, beautifully, in minutes.

What do you love about the Gold Coast community, especially as a business owner?

The support for local businesses here is incredible. There’s such a strong culture around coffee, fitness, wellness and community on the Gold Coast, particularly around Burleigh, and people seem to genuinely care about knowing and supporting the people behind the businesses they visit.

I’ve also been surprised by how open other small businesses are to collaborating. It doesn’t feel like everyone is competing with each other, I’ve made great friends with other small-business owners already.

So, where to next? What are you working towards?

I started with the dream of opening a café and thought the van would be fun. Now, we’ve ended up with this vision of a whole social community taking part in events and collaborations. We’re working on ideas like flower-arranging workshops, jewellery making, pottery painting, run clubs and fitness events.

We’re also working on stocking products from other local businesses: things like fresh flowers, jewellery and food so that as Sophie’s grows, we can bring other small businesses along with us. I want it to be somewhere you can meet people, try something new and feel part of a little community.

What is one thing you’d tell someone about to start a business on the Gold Coast?

Just start, and don’t let the first “no” convince you that the answer is no. If we’d stopped at the first location that didn’t work out, Sophie’s wouldn’t be sitting in the spot we have now. You can spend forever waiting until everything is perfect, but I’ve learned so much more from actually starting, making mistakes, talking to people and figuring things out as we go.

And reach out to people! Some of our most exciting opportunities so far have come from simply messaging another local business and saying, ‘I love what you do, should we do something together?’

There’s a really lovely community here, and I think if you’re genuinely excited about what you’re building, people feel that.

And finally, DON’T be afraid of being the youngest in the room. You can do amazing things no matter your age or level of experience. It’s all about taking that first scary step. Your ideas are important and deserve to be brought to life.