A Troy business owner is celebrating her journey from job loss to job creation. Genika Griffin decided to open a juice bar after being laid off from her job in 2016. It was a scary time for the mother of four.

Almost immediately, Griffin started working on Juice Factory VII and it opened just three months later. Now Griffin is celebrating the opening of her second location on Broadway in Troy. Here’s a sample of our interview with this inspiring entrepreneur.

Q: How did you decide after being laid off to start your own business?

A: “I used to work in corporate at Xerox and then our whole building got shut down. In New York state when they lay off more than 60 percent of the company, they provide what is called a WARN Act. It took me 90 days to get the other location up and running. They send you home for 90 days but you still get your same salary.

It was like a wing and a prayer. I have never done restaurant business at all. It really was like a wing and a prayer and just dedication. A lot of dedication.”

Q: You have four children. Why was starting a business the best choice for your family?

A: “My husband came to me with the idea of opening up a juice bar and I told him, like, ‘you’re kidding right?’ And then he said, ‘no, just open it up.”

We got a Vitamix for home and we started doing a lot of different recipes and working out what we could and what worked, what didn’t work and then what we did was I went to a couple of juice bars, one was actually in Schenectady. They helped me out a lot. I learned how to do juice there. They let me do like an internship. Their name is Lifestyle and it just worked out.”

Q: Was the job loss scary and did you feel like opening a business was a ‘fight or flight’ reaction?

A: “It was. Lots of tears, lots of anxiety. Lots of unsure and uncertain part of it. But when I do something I never do anything half so I just went in like knee deep."

Q: How did you come up with the name?

A: “The VII comes from seven, my lucky number.”

Q: What are your other goals?

A: “Ultimately, this was not my first dream. Room Chronicles was my first dream, which is, I would like to design. Everything in here I picked out. I’m very detail oriented. I knew I’d have to build my resume for something with interior design so this worked. This gave me a platform to start the Room Chronicles. So that’s my ultimate goal.”