IMBing Lounge

 – Accessing capital – whether from friends and family, a bank, or other sources – is often one of the earliest and most daunting challenges for entrepreneurs. Where should they go? What documents are required? How do they qualify? What are the right financial numbers? How much funding is truly needed? These questions can stall even the most motivated business owners.

Fortunately, the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) exists to help. Its mission is to support small businesses as they grow by providing no‑cost, high‑quality consulting, business training, and market research. Helping clients secure the funding they need is one of its most critical roles.

For Megan San Juan – founder, owner, and operator of the IMBing Lounge in Palm Coast – the FSBDC proved to be exactly the resource she needed. The IMBing Lounge, just completing its first anniversary, is a community coffee shop offering globally inspired, locally sourced coffee, food, and wine in a warm, welcoming space. “We roast our own coffee here,” San Juan shares proudly. “We serve breakfast sandwiches all day and small plates at night. It’s a place to relax and linger over a really great cup of coffee or glass of wine, in a comfortable seat, where you can stay as long as you like. Nobody is going to rush you here.”

Turning her vision into reality, however, was not simple. “Since I didn’t know where to start with my business, I reached out to the Palm Coast Economic Development Office and they recommended I reach out to Michael Oppenheim of the FSBDC,” she recalls. “Michael and I talked. The very first thing we did was my business plan. And to do my business plan we needed to do the financial projections. I believe that was the best tool that Michael has given me to really look at how to go about the business I wanted to do.”

An FSBDC consultant dedicated to Palm Coast, Oppenheim worked closely with San Juan to build the financial forecast required for her loan application. At the same time, he identified lenders who might be interested in supporting the new venture. “That financial projection is what I used to build my business plan, which we in turn used to submit to all the banks for my small business loan application,” San Juan explains. “We also met multiple times in different venues to discuss different strategies for operating the coffee lounge.”

The partnership made a meaningful difference. “Working with Michael during this journey was very easy,” San Juan affirms. “He was always accommodating of my questions, my challenges, my opinions. It has been a good journey all around. And those financial projections that the FSBDC helped me with were really pivotal documentation that helped me get the loan I needed to make this business start.”

For the FSBDC at UCF, it was mission accomplished: another entrepreneur equipped with the capital, confidence, and clarity needed to launch and grow a thriving small business.

For information about The IMBING Lounge, please visit https://theimbingbrand.com/ .