It's October...

...the weather is beginning to change. Colors are changing, the crisp air brings a different kind of sweet to my morning cup of coffee. I like this time of year. It reminds me of so many things - my first year in Bozeman, my first CoffeeFest, College football, and Cafe Evoke. It seems like this time of year always brings "crunch time" for us and Cafe Evoke. It is both a time to plan for the future and also recover from the past. I think these two things go hand in hand, really. This year is no different. We are working hard to really reach out to the Bozeman community, to educate them on what we do and how we can work with them at their event. We have changed our prices to try and really get into homes and business in the valley and are following up on any lead that we get. Unfortunately, things are not going as well as we need them to. We did have a few break even months but we are not close to where our financial projections have us. What we have been shooting for are break even months. We do have projections about when Cafe Evoke Catering will break even as a business but that is years away. So, what more can we do? October is both a final push and an introduction. October is one final push here in Bozeman for Cafe Evoke Catering and an introduction to Oklahoma City. You read correctly. We are heading to Oklahoma for some market research - something I probably did not do very well here in Bozeman (for catering anyway) and would probably get an ear full because of it. Here is what we are doing in OKC: Setting Meetings: We want to enter this market running. So, we are contact as many event planners/wedding planners as possible and trying to set up meetings while we are there. These meetings would be a time for us to get to know their businesses and also to introduce Cafe Evoke Catering and what we can provide for their clients. This will be a time to educate the planners so that when events come up, we will be the first thing they think of when it comes to unique and original catering ideas. Events: We are going to book events. We will be in the Oklahoma City area from Thanksgiving to the middle of December. We are going to haul our trailer and set up Evoke at events in the city. So far, we have 4 events booked, 2 pending, and about 30 people to contact. This will not only help us pay for our trip to Oklahoma City, it will help us show people what we can do. That is something we have learned over the past two years - people need to see us to really know us. These things are our big focus right now. Are we giving up to the Bozeman community? No. We have some ideas for this community that I will write about in a few days. We have to begin making some hard decisions. I have always been told about exit planning and this is just part of business. We will give Bozeman all we have for the next month and see where we are and then be smart with our next move. It will be important for us to remember that Oklahoma City may not be the best place and that we may need to look to other cities. It is becoming clear, however, that for a business like ours we need a city not a community with only 30.000 people. ...be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, oklahoma city, bozeman, montana