The IMBing Lounge: Brewing Success in Palm Coast

Community Coffee and Wine Bar Turns to FSBDC at UCF for Business Planning and Capital Access Assistance

July 29, 2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Hal Thayer, Communications Director, FSBDC at UCF, 407.420.4850 or HThayer@ucf.edu

Michael Oppenheim, Area Manager, 386.320.3313 or Michael.Oppenheim@ucf.edu

Orlando, FL – 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/ .

— FSBDC —

About the FSBDC at UCF

Hosted by the University of Central Florida (UCF), and with its main office in the National Entrepreneur Center located at the Fashion Square Mall in Orlando, the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) is part of part of UCF’s Office of the President and the Florida SBDC Network.

The Florida SBDC at UCF provides aspiring and existing small businesses with no-cost consulting, low-cost training, and access to business data and research resources. In addition to its core service offering, the Florida SBDC at UCF also offers specialized services to qualifying companies, including capital access, market growth, government contracting, international trade, business continuation, cybersecurity, disaster planning and recovery, and more. The FSBDC at UCF serves an eight-county area that includes Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Sumter, and Volusia counties and maintains 9 service centers across Central Florida.

In 2025, the FSBDC at UCF served 2,142 entrepreneurs in Central Florida with consulting services, resulting in more than 3,967 jobs impacted; $760.1 million in sales growth; $83.6 million in capital formation; $85.1 million in government contract awards; and 155 new businesses started. For more information, please visit www.sbdcorlando.com .

About the Florida SBDC Network

For 50 years, the Florida SBDC Network, the state’s principal provider of business assistance [Fl. Stat. 288.001], has nourished a statewide partnership between higher education and economic development to provide existing and emerging small and medium-sized business owners with management and knowledge resources that enable overall growth, increased profitability, and economic prosperity for Florida’s economy.

In 2025, the Florida SBDC Network delivered 112,158 hours of consulting to 15,439 small business clients – resulting in business owners securing $534.7 million in capital, $711.5 million in government contracting, impacting 18,334 jobs, increasing sales by over $3.4 billion, and creating 1,111 businesses.

With over 40 offices statewide, the Florida SBDC is funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Department of War, State of Florida and other private and public partners. Full funding disclosure available at www.floridasbdc.org/funding-disclosures/.

The Florida SBDC Network, headquartered at the University of West Florida, is nationally accredited by the Association of SBDCs and is a recipient of the President’s E Award for Export Service. Florida SBDC services are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis. Language assistance services are available for individuals with limited English proficiency. For more information, please visit www.FloridaSBDC.org.

FSBDC at UCF | 3201 E. Colonial Drive | Orlando, FL 32801 | p 407.420.4850 | f 407.420.4862
sbdc@ucf.edu | www.sbdcorlando.com