Coffee Houses or Coffee Chains?

We have talked quite a bit about thinking like your customers and giving them what they want. We have really been trying to integrate these type of ideas into our business planning with Cafe Evoke and we have made it a priority to server our community and our customers. The Entrepreneurial Mind turned me on to a post that was talking about this same thin. Anita Campbell at Small Business Trends offered this post on how independent coffeehouses understand their market. I have shared this feeling for the past year. The great thing about going independent (to drink coffee) is that you have a flexible model and direct contact between owners and customers. There is a friendship created in the idependent setting that is lost in the giants. If you read through the comments that were posted at this site, you will find a great list of things from Valdis Krebs, a social network analysis. He offers the following to remember if you want to start a business with coffee and wifi... For the coffee/wifi entrepreneur... * make the wifi free with purchase * make sure you have plenty of connections/routers[Arabica UC was quickly overloaded when many laptops show up] * have an updated and informative web page * find a good pastry vendor * stay open long hours [6am to midnight?] * make sure you have plenty of outlets for electricity * to rent computers charge reasonable rates... maybe do a special: unlimited coffee&computer over 2/4/6/8 hours for X dollars. * Mix of tables and soft furniture * Invite the bloggers on openeing day Have a great one.. --be bold

A Great Read

The Joy of Coffee Originally uploaded by JasonDuncan. I am just finishing up Corby Kummer's book, The Joy of Coffee. For anyone looking for a book to take them through buying, brewing, and enjoying coffee, this is the book. I have read many books over the last year about coffee, its history, and everything else you might think about, but this is by far the best I have read. The New York Times agrees saying.."Unquestionably the most definitive and engagingly written book on the subject." If you are a coffee lover, which if you are readying this, you most likely are, grab this book! Let me know what you think of it! --be bold

New Logo!

ColorLogo Originally uploaded by JasonDuncan. Well, here is the new logo for Cafe Evoke. We are very excited about them because it feels like we have added a name to our baby! (I mean the business, we have only been married for a year you know..) Head over to the Talk Back Forum or leave me a note on the comment form and let me know what your impressions are of the logo...design, layout, colors, fonts, spelling, etc. EVerything bit of your feedback helps us! Sorry for the lack of posts in the last few days, as I posted a couple of days ago, I'm swamped with writing and presentations. I should be back online fully in the next week. By fair traid and of course.. --be bold

Quote of the Day

"Blend 'B', meanwhile, is a PROUD blend, defiant yet petulant...a blend that grabs you, shakes you by the collar and cries, 'ACCEPT me, damn you, or turn me away - BUT FOR GOD'S SAKE DON'T POLLUTE ME WITH NON-DAIRY CREAMER!'" Tripp Biscuit while coffee tasting.

Carnival of the Capitalists

Another week at the Carnival. This weeks host is The Mobile Technology Weblog.Russell has decided to post this week addition in two parts to check back later in the week I guess... Pour yourself a nice cup and go! --be bold

Havic

I'm in the midst of crazy at this point. At a time when we are trying to talk with the property manager in Bozeman about our hopeful space, we are working on design and construction costs for the place, trying to find a place to live, and trying to sell our home here in Nashville. At the same time, I'm working on two rather large projects for school that will make or break my college career..okay, so I'm not that worried about it they still need to be finished. We got a call from our realitor today saying that he had set up 4 showings for today and they were to start within 10 minutes and last for the next 2 hours. We have two very lovely dogs and those of you who live here in Nashvile know what our great weather is like today. We have to be out of the house for the next two hours but I need to be writing on these projects and studing for tests tonight.. To make this long story short (not that it was very long in the first place), I am focusing right now on the things we have been talking about for the past few weeks. JOY! These things will get done as will others. Life is to short and great to get all worked up about something that doesn't really matter. Again, we need to keep this type of thing in mind while making business plans to. This business is going to be fun! Yes, work will be invovled and yes it will create times like the ones I am in now, but they will go away and new ones will smack us in the face. Smile, life is coming at you! --be bold

Quote of the Day

"No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness."  ~Sheik Abd-al-Kadir

Business Plan update..

The Logos are finished!! I hope to have the finalized copy tonight and I hope to post them on Monday morning and get your feedback! We are very excited to get these finiches and Keven Burr of OcularInc did an amazing job. We are working on the final touches (the staffing plan and capital budget) of the plan and have started the long process of paperwork for out loans. Novemeber is looking like it might be a bit earlier to plan for an opening date but we are still optimistic. We are still talking with the property managers at the space we hope to call home. Things are coming along but we still do not know if it will be availible when we are ready to begin construction. We have been doing some design schemes for Cafe Evoke and I am going to get my wife Jennifer (who is in charge of getting all of that stuff together) to post about how it is coming and give some links to the companies and materials we are using. Things are coming together and we are still excited. I am having to step away from it a bit to finish the rest of my school obligations and get ready for a May graduation (at the moment I am in the middle of two strategic plans (one for Hershey Foods and the other for The Body Shop) which are taking most of my time but we are stil trudging forward. I will keep you in formed. Check back early nexted week for a tasts of the Cafe Evoke logo and taglines! Have a great Easter! PS, we got a great write up about A Thought Over Coffee over here so go check it out! Thanks again guys for your support! --be bold

Quote of the Day

"To succeed you have to believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a reality." ~~Anita Roddick, Founder of The Body Shop

Panic Marketing

We were talking in class yesterday about panic marketing and how many entreprenuers will market market market and when sales turn because of it, somewhat put it on the backburner until there is a huge problem and they have to enter "panic" mode. Here is the way I see it. Image that you are back as a kid playing with balloons, not the kind that will float away and make your voice sound wierd, but the good ol' fashioned "blow them up" kind. It was always a fun game to hit them in the air and while it was in the air, run and hit the other one and try and get back to it before it hits the ground. This is what marketing is like. It has to be a constant game of keeping your ads going and getting your name out there so they don't hit the ground and cause a failure in the business. It seems that many entrepreneurs think of their marketing and advertising as the "hit it and it will never come down" kind of balloon. Well, not only does this type of balloon make your voice sound funny, it also will come down eventually and often when we are not looking. This is what you don't want to happen with your marketing plan. It is not a one time event but an ongoing process. --be bold

More Fun at Work

I have found myself posting quite often about having fun at work. I posted not to long about about Dennis Bakke's Joy at Work and also about an entrepreneur named Charlas Hagood about things to remember when running your business. Both of this men emphasised the fun and joy of working. I was reading the new issue of Inc. Magazine ( I got the one with Richard Branson on the cover) when I came accorss an article about Mike Veeck, a minor league baseball giant that bought six teams for around $2 milion and has built them to a $30 million dollar business. What does he base his company on? His business mantra is FUN IS GOOD. Mike Veeck says that "fun is a basic human need, the oxygen" that has helped him grow his company. He says that he has never been around customers or employees that have been as loyal and hardworking as the ones that are a part of his baseball business. People want to be a part of this business and they love being there each day. I have been focusins alot on fun at work because I think it is important to enjoy life. It seems to fly in the face of old corporate thought but there are to many stores of successful fun. Who says work cannot be fun? If you ask these three men, I think they will have passionate answer for this absurd question. --be bold

FSB Student Showdown

"Many schools are launching business plan contests to give students experience in raising capital. The plans are more than academic exercises. The winners of our second annual business plan contest, the FSB Student Showdown, already had funding or clients, or both. To find the teams, FSB invited winners of universities' internal business plan contests to compete against teams from schools across the nation in an all-star competition. It wasn't easy for our panel of experts to choose the winners from the 58 entries that arrived from 45 schools. They ranged from biomedical companies to a team from the University of North Carolina that wants to sell tacos in India." Like Belmont University, many other schools are doing the entrepreneurship "thing." Student businesses, like the ones introduced at Belmont last year including Reverb Medeia, BLVD Gallery, and more recently Feedback Clothing, get to compete on a wider playing field and against poeple from accorss the country. This seems to be a very cool thing that FSB is doing to provoke entrepreneurial thought.. --be bold

"The Not-So-SImple Life"

I was at the airport in Seattle Washington last week and picked up the new issue of FSB. I found this article about a coffee chain in Petaluma, Calif that bases its model on simplicity. The coffee shop is called Deaf Dog Coffee and "if you want to order a 20-ounce cup of joe there, this is what they call it: the Pretty Big Cup of Coffee. Everything else is either Big or Very Big. Want a pastry? No matter which one you pick, it will cost you the same: $1.75. There are four kinds of smoothies, and each one carries a $3 pricetag. "Every simple move has been carefully calculated," says owner Ron Salisbury, 61, who looks every bit the bank vice president he used to be, except for the four earrings dangling from his left lobe. "You’ve got to find the line between simple and not-so-simple, and there is no easy measurement for that. It’s all in the details." Now, I will agree with Joshua Hyatt, the writer, that there is only one perfectly simple coffee shop and that is one that serves nothing but what I, the customer, wants. What Joshua found out, however, was that it lost its personality and individuality. Everyone was the same! So it appears that you have two choices in the coffee world, the corporate "green giant" muding up our ability to understand what the hell we are ordering (see my ealier post "A Size Matter" for more on this) and shops that are going to make us loose our personality. Check out this aritcle, it is an interesting and fun read. Let me know what you think.. --be bold

Quote of the Day

"If it wasn't for coffee, I'd have no discernible personality at all"  (David Letterman Esquire Interview Fall '94)

Top Ten

The Entrepreneurial Mind posts about Entrepreneur Magazine's Top Ten list of schools with an emphasis in entrepreneurship. Again this year, Belmont University has made the list! I like to hear this because I will be in the first class to graduate from Belmont with an emphasis in Ent. The other great thing that I have found out while reading this article was that Montana State University in Bozeman has also made this list. There are a couple of things that this means.... 1) My wife will be able to graduate from a school that at least ranks close to Belmont for this degree and 2) There is alot of entrepreneurial activity in the Bozeman area. This, again, is right were we plan to open Cafe Evoke. Not only will we be able to serve this community by providing a place to meet people and hear local art but also to give back to up and coming entrepreneurs like those here in Nashville and elsewhere have done for me. This is going to be very important to me and it seems that now I will have a chance to really help out where I can. I don't know what I will be able to tell students but at least I will tell them what I know! Check out the list for others schools! --Be bold

Carnival of the Capitalists

A new week, a new Carnival over at Beyond the Brand. Grab your favorite coffee mug and a latte and head over.. --be bold

Business Plan update..

Today is the day that we sit down with my dad..aka our Financial Planner of Covenant Financial Services, Inc in Oklahoma City..and plan out how we are going to get Evoke off the ground. We need to do this to figure out how much we are going to need to borrow, or how much we can borrow, and figure out what sort of rent we can afford. After we do this, we will begin talking with the owner of the space we found in Bozeman. I will post pictures as soon as we can get some more information back from the owner. The first draft came out better than I thought. There are still a few things that need to be cleaned up a bit including a more detailed staffing plan and a capital budget plan. Labor costs are going to end up being the front runner of our expenses so we are having to take a hard look at what we need, what we can afford, and how we are going to put it to use. Other than that, we are in the downhill run for May and the presentation. I'm exited and ready for it! In the meantime, my parents are in town helping us out with selling the condo and doing the business plan so that will prove to be a nice weekend I'm sure. I will keep you updated! --Be bold

Thoughts on Bootstrapping

Charles Hagood of The Access Group (TAG) spoke today in our Financial Management class about boostrapping. He offered these princples to keep in mind during start-up: *CASH IS KING! (It is important to keep in mind that just because you have high profits, you might not have cash!) *Somtimes less is more and that sometimes more can be an enemy. (Remembering this can make you more flexible, stronger, and resourceful and help you avoid becoming lazy) *Keep priorites in order (Do not compromise ethics or beliefs) *Enjoy the ride! (You are going to spend time there so make it enjoyable! See post about Dennis Bakke's book Joy at Work) *Cut costs not quality *Impress your customers not yourself *If you have $1 left to spend, spend it on marketing *Always look bigger and bader than you really are *Continually assess your organization for waste These things are all ways to make sure you are keeping your cash available and the blood of the company flowing. --be bold

Happy Saint Patricks Day!

Grab your Guinness and have a great one or if you prefer, a nice Irish coffee...both do wonders for your day I assure you!

Coffee Prices.........

Against a background of rising demand, some smaller-than-expected yields and with the record low dollar making imports more expensive, coffee prices are on the rise. They could soar more than 50 percent in the next few months, according to some traders I found this article over at Hotel-Online.com and of course it interested me. People are predicting a price hike in coffee that could reach as high as 50%. Many people say they are going to start drinking regular coffee instead of mochas and lattes just to fight the price. Although some argue saying.."Consumers have been having a good ride," Mr. Goerke said, noting that over the past three to four years, prices have been lower than when he first got into the business 19 years ago. At the Santa Barbara Roasting Co., general manager Brooke Tuason says prices added a couple of dollars per pound recently but that those were the first such increases in the past five to six years. Like everything, it appears that prices will go up for the time being.. We will watch this and see where it goes. --be bold

Quote of the Day

"A glassy mountain range of exposed offices; on a clear day you can look through the windows and see as many as 6,000 coffee breaks at once." Frederic Morton

New Book to Read

I was walking down the hall today after a meeting with Dr. Cornwall when I ran into the director of the Center for Business Ethics at Belmont University Dr. Hollis. He told me of a guy that was going to speack at Belmont today that writes about empowering employees to enjoy working and how he serves the community. This caught my attention. The speaker was Dennis Bakke and was on tour promoting his book Joy at Work. He spoke about how he made "fun" and "joy" cornerstones of his companies and focused on loving people and serving them. He put the ball in their hands and let them make desicions and be happy and excited about coming into work each day. He supports his community and the things he believes in. There is so much praise to this book that it takes about 4 pages inside...people ranging from presidents of the USA to SuperBowl quarterbacks. This is a great book for any person that is managing or starting a company. Go check this guy out! --be bold

All Sorts of Trouble

Well, it has been a bear the last day and a half trying to get on and post. A Thought Over Coffee is not loading on my computer and I think it is time to begin to really explore the options for growth of this site. I have set up a "Tip Jar" over at Amazon.com in which you can leave a buck or two if you like this site and want to support Cafe Evoke. With the money, we will change hosts to a better location and keep the posts coming. So, if you feel like you would like to help, leave a not and a buck over at the tip jar. Thanks for reading and I hope to get the posts rolling ASAP! --be bold (Click here if you would like to help!!...and i promise I will not ask again!)

Quote of the Day

If you'll excuse me a minute, I'm going to have a cup of coffee. - broadcast from Apollo 11's LEM, "Eagle", to Johnson Space Center, Houston July 20, 1969.

To Train or To Educate

Last night we were disussing the differences between training and educating. We defined the terms as followed: *Training=teaching people how to do something (this is a skill, short-term, and an action)... *Education=creating an understading of something (this is a concept, long-term, and a strategy)... Our professor, Norm Johnsen, says that learning creates a change in behavior, attitude, and ideas. I would even venture as far to say values. This was something that was helpful to hear at this point in my own venture planning. People are what make your business run (they are what create the "life blood" or cash of the business) and it is important to understand how to reach your employees. It will be important for Cafe Evoke to not only train employees on how to run the register and machines but to explain what are mission is and equip them with the knowledge of dealing with customers (we like to call them friends) and each other. We also mapped out how employees learned.... 1. When they are ready and willing 2. When they see a need to know 3. That they learn by invovlement and thinking 4. That they learn by participation 5. That they learn through associations and impressions As a manager I will need to be able to meet my employees on their playing field and make sure I can understand who they are as a person and then teach them in that way. --be bold

Update

Back in Nashville we finally are! After a day that started at 4:00am, we returned here at 11.00pm. We feel very good about where Cafe Evoke stands with the community of Bozeman, Montana and we are very excited to get on with the planning. Our next step is revising the business plan and working out the specific financial statements. We hope to know where we stand on the financials in the next two weeks and begin talking with a building owner soon after. i will keep this up to date as we go along. We are also going to start the process of getting an SBA loan and incorporating (As an S-Corp as my friends Phil and Dr. Cornwall both have suggested.) We will also be reserving our name. I will be back online and running after today and get back to the "good stuff"......(ok, I admit, that comes from my personal opinions!) thanks and of course--be bold

Carnival of the Capitalists

This week's carnival is over at RFID. Grap your coffee and head on over..

Report of an Increase in Lending

There was a useful link for those of us that are needing to locate money for our business start-ups over at The Entreprenuerial Mind . Lending by the most important institutional supplier of credit to small firms-commercial banks-increased in 2002-2003, according to a report released today by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)." For those of you who are in the process or are going to be in the process of finding funding, take a second and read this article. It will give you a list of states in ranking order according to their lending activites, etc. Thanks Dr. Cornwall for this insight... --be bold

A view of the Bridger Mountains

BridgerView Originally uploaded by JasonDuncan. This is a view that you can capture outside the site we are hoping to open Cafe Evoke.. --be bold

An Evoking landscape

Clouds Originally uploaded by JasonDuncan. Well, I'm hanging around the house writing and looking at these clouds and moutains around us. It is a beautiful place. We have found the area we plan to grow Cafe Evoke, we have talked with people from all backgrounds about what we are doing, and we have found some perfect places to grow our family. We are very excited about our move and we are confident that we have choosen a great place to open Cafe Evoke. We have been to every coffeeshop in town and really, there are only about 4 different shops. Some of the companies have different locations but none are doing what we have in our vision for Evoke. All we are waiting for now is a report from Dr. Cornwall about our business plan and financials, then we will look for a lease and get pictures up of our space we have found. --be bold

Quote of the Day

"Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and as sweet as love." --Turkish proverb

A Size Matter

I was reading around and found this post from the Roast Mistress about coffee lingo and sizing. She links to this article which gives a humorous yet honest look into coffeehouse terminology. I have to say I have wonderd the same thing about why we call things tall, grande, and venti... --be bold..

Walmart Crazy

I was sitting in line at a Wal-Mart and noticed that you could buy a cup at checkout for a drink to go from the McDonalds that was located inside the Wal-Mart. I was thinking that this is a great way to make a few extra bucks when people are checking out after an exhausting time shopping at Wal-Mart or finding that great customer service they say they have. I then saw that you could not only buy a drink to go, you could order your value meal and pay for it from the Wal-mart checkout and then go pick up your meal at McDonalds. This is crazy. I think I would say that I am entertained by the marketing ployes that both corporations will infect the market with but this seems pretty incredible to me. I don't know if this is fueling our ever lazy and obese America or helping make our lives easier...the jury is still out....at least one thing is clear, Wal-Mart knows how to make our expierence there a truely one stop shop... --be bold

Bozeman Update

Well, here I sit in a coffeehouse in Bozeman with those mixed emotions that I have written about in prior posts. This is a great city and I have enjoyed my stay. I want to post an update with what we have found so far...here we go. We decided that there is to much competition and not enough space on Main Street to host Cafe Evoke. That was a bit dishearting when we saw 3 coffeeshops on Main already but then decided that we want to be where the students are. Every shop in town that we have found so far closes around 10 pm or earlier and we feel that if we can be where the students are...on campus..that we will be able to snag the late night crowds. We found a great spot on campus that used to be an old day care. The space needs lots of help to make it fit our tastes and atmosphere but we think with a little help, it will be great. I hope to post pictures soon. We are talking with the owners tomorrow so I will let you know how that goes. There are quite a few new shops going in around here but after looking at what they are doing, we still feel confident in our model and think that with the right promotions, we will be able to serve this community in a way that are not currently being served. This is where we are right now. I will keep you updated... --be bold

On My Way...

Today, my wife and I are heading to Bozeman, Montana to conduct some more indepth market research. We will continue the personal selling and market saturation that we have attempted to do from here in Nashville. It will be exciting to see if the things people are telling me are widespread truths. We have a list of things to get done while we are there.. 1. Find out where people are 2. Find a space 3. Complete a more in depth competitor analysis 4. Have follow up meetings with the people that we have sent information to 5. Spend time with family 6. Find a house for us to live in... (I must note here that these tasks are not in a certain order) I will keep you posted on the market reserach and how this guerilla marketing is going.

Quote of the Day

"To drink is human, to drink coffee is divine!" --Unknown

Submerge media

smlogo Originally uploaded by JasonDuncan. These are the guys that will be designing our website in the future. Go check them out. The do audio, video and web design. The guys are great and easy to work with... ~~be bold

"Customer Evangelists"

"So what is a customer evangelist, you ask? Here is how Jackie describes it: When customers are truly thrilled about their experience with your product or service, they can become outspoken "evangelists" for your company." Anita orver at Small Business Trends posts about an article about customer evangelists. This is what we are Cafe Evoke are all about. We want to create such a place that people do not want to leave. I think this is a great article and a great site browse around. It talks all about knowing your customers, satisfying your customers, and thinking like your customers. For that matter, it is called Church of the Customer.com. Go check it out.. ~~be bold

Quote of the Day

"Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after. --Anne Morrow Lindberg" I am going to talk a bit about this "Quote of the Day." With Cafe Evoke, we hope to be a place where conversation is sparked between each a every person that walks through the door. We hope it is the "...where everybody knows your name..." type of place and a place where people have a hard time putting their expirence aside... come.sit.talk our motto and dream... ~bo bold

Business Plan update..

Sorry for the lack of posts today. Here is the update.... I spent some time getting my business cards, or at least the ones I will use until I move and find the location of Cafe Evoke (street address, phone, etc) and they look great! Kevin Burr of Ocular Ink did a great job! I hope to have some of the logo's up in the near future. I also finished the draft of the business plan. It is a nice feeling to know that the major push is over! I am very happy with it and it feels like these dreams are becoming a reality. I am heading to Bozeman to meet with some people and look for a home for Evoke and also for my wife and two dogs. We are very excited about our trip and getting the buzz going even more. I will keep you updated as we find out more info from Bozeman! --be bold

Zig Ziglar in Nashville

Last night in my retaling class, a guest speaker reminded us of a Zig Ziglar conference to be held at the GEC here in Nashville, TN on April 26th. This should be a great time to get useful insight into management and leadership. " This event has been confirmed please call 1800-431-8306 to reserve your tickets! You will not want to miss this opportunity to hear Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, Jerry Lewis, Peyton Manning, Rudolf Giuliani, Krish Dhanam and many more! Go check it out... --be bold

McDonald's Anyone??

"McDonald's is testing premium-quality coffee in select markets across the U.S. and we're giving customers an opportunity to say what they think," said Bill Whitman, spokesman for McDonald's in Oak Brook, Ill. "We haven't set a date for a national rollout. We continue to learn from the tests, and results so far have been positive." I found this story while looking through Specialty-Coffee.com. I will have to say that I feel foolish for not thinking that the Mac himself would not try and gain some market share on high quality coffee products. I haven't stepped foot into one of these places in months after watching the infamous documentary, SuperSize Me. (if you haven't watched it, maybe you should). I can see it now......SCAA Conference in 2008..sponsored by McDonald's! Go read the rest of the article and see for yourself... --be bold