Shannon Paine, 35, is the co-owner of Epic Estimates and Desert Coffee Company. She is from and lives in Moses Lake. At Epic Estimates Paine is in charge of the administrative back end and works alongside her husband Bobby Paine, who nominated her. They have been running the business for two years. 

 “Working with her daily on that basically – I’m the Wildcat and she’s the conservative and keeps my head on straight, making sure the business is rolling,” said Bobby Paine.

At Desert Coffee Company she is both in the window and organizing permits, events and more. Desert Coffee Company officially opened in April and already has four other employees outside of the owners. One of their priorities was the quality of their coffee. Paine and her co-owner tasted coffee beans and recipes for months before deciding on the final recipes. 

“It was extremely important to us to provide quality drinks and be consistent on what came out of the mobile or the stand,” Paine said. “We wanted consistency and so that’s really kind of what we just try to pride ourselves in and then definitely customer service. I sat behind a desk for 16 years and did not have a lot of interaction with other people outside of my co-workers. I just really enjoy having those conversations with people coming in the morning. They might be headed off to work and I am just trying to hopefully brighten their day a little bit.”

Prior to her two businesses she worked for — for 16 years. Paine is beginning to really enjoy the customer interactions though. Besides the coffee shop they also have a coffee truck that they do events with. They have fundraised money for a girl with cancer, participated in the Spring Festival and they will be at the Ephrata Car Show. 

“When there’s a drink for someone, I’ve seen her just come alive,” said Bobby Paine. “She is one of the best people in the window to help a customer and she always says she’s super extroverted and so I’ve seen her really come out of her shell when she works for the coffee side of it.”