At 77 Chornovil Avenue in Lviv, widow Viktoriia Trybushna opened a coffee shop called Coffee for Two. The café became the embodiment of the unfulfilled dreams of Viktoriia’s deceased husband, Andrii Muravskyi, who defended the country at the outbreak of a full-scale war.
To open the coffee shop, Victoria changed her profession, took courses and received voucher support from the city. Now she plans to expand the business she and her husband dreamed of.
Viktoriia and her husband dreamed of owning their own coffee shop even before the full-scale invasion. She used to work as an accountant, and her husband made furniture. The idea to open their own coffee shop came to them suddenly.
“Even before the full-scale invasion, I was at a business meeting, and my husband was waiting for me in a coffee shop nearby. Then he said that this is the kind of business you need for your old age. I thought that it looked good from the outside, because as a chief accountant, I understood from the inside how difficult it was. However, my husband said that no, the service sector is for people, it’s about emotions, positive, and we need to think about how we can do this. We just talked about it, and that was it,” says Viktoriia Trybushna.
In the first days of the full-scale war, Viktoriia’s husband and son volunteered for the army. Both were assigned to the 125th Tank Brigade. The plans to open a coffee shop became an incentive for the couple to dream about the future.
“I wanted there to be hope, a spark, a light at the end of the tunnel, that the war would end and we would do something. Our first goal was a long holiday somewhere near the sea, because I am from Kherson, and for me, rest is water, and my husband was very fond of diving. And the second was to start our own business,” says Viktoriia.
Andrii Muravskyi was killed last February while defending Bakhmut. At the time, Victoria knew she had to implement their plans on her own.
“I don’t really know how I decided to do it. It was all just on some kind of adrenaline, because both my physical and psychological conditions were far from the best. But I had this idea, and I also saw an opportunity to raise additional funding, and I started to implement it. I may sound pretentious, but it pulled me out of the bottom I was at.
It was the training at the city council, courses from the Entrepreneurship Support Centre that became my first step towards socialisation, because it was very difficult to accept people, to communicate, to look at people, at the returning military, but I understood that it was safe there, that there were the same veterans.
My son is 21 years old, and he already has the status of a combatant and a veteran. I knew that people there would understand me. It was a good process of socialisation with former military personnel and good training with the staff of the Department of Economics and the Entrepreneurship Support Centre,” says Viktoriia.
After the business training, Victoria applied for a competition to receive voucher support for businesses run by veterans and their families and received UAH 300,000 to develop her own business. With these funds, she was able to reimburse the cost of all the equipment in her coffee shop.
“For me, this is a tangible support. All the specialised equipment in the coffee shop was compensated for through a voucher from the city council. This includes a coffee machine, a coffee grinder, a display case, a freezer, a refrigerator and equipment for alternative coffee. In fact, this is 30% of my total investment. Because I still had repairs, advertising, signage, and utensils to do,” she says.
Victoria’s coffee shop also has an important social mission. With her establishment, she wants to encourage couples to enjoy communication and moments together.
“Andrii and I wanted a coffee shop, and now I want to give people the opportunity to stay together and chat. I have a separate small room in my coffee shop that can become a place for dates and cosy conversations in private. Stay, talk, appreciate, pay attention to each other while you can. I know that every family or couple has some problems or troubles, but appreciate and make time for that coffee for two while you have this opportunity, because not everyone has it anymore,” says Victoria.
Now Victoria works at the coffee shop alone. She studies customer tastes, makes her own coffee and makes a variety of desserts. Despite the complexity of the business, Viktoriia advises everyone who dreams of running their own business to take the plunge, apply for grant support competitions and pursue their dreams.
“I like my job and what I do. Taking into account everything I do, my working day is 20 hours. But I like it, and I enjoy my work. I am very happy when young people come to me, when older people come. Sometimes quite respectable couples come and they leave very grateful, saying how well you are doing, how much we have relaxed,” says Viktoriia.
A map of veteran businesses has also been launched in Lviv. Here you can find businesses founded by veterans and their families. The map was created by employees of the Economic Development Department of the Lviv City Council to support and promote businesses founded by veterans.
Veteran entrepreneurs and their families are invited to fill out the form here to have your business placed on the map.