Fair Trade at the Grocery Store

My mom came back from the grocery store yesterday with some fresh Fair Trade coffee for us to drink while we are here. I was very excited of course to see this and made a cup right away. I then saw a Fair Trade handout that appeared to come with the coffee. I asked her where she got it and she said she got it from the store when she bought the coffee. I was very impressed as grocery stores typically get the cold nod when it comes to fresh coffee. The handout was from TransFair USA and had a list of 5 ways that I can help change the world. The list is as follows: 1. Buy only Fair Trade Certified coffee. 2. Ask for Fair Trade coffee at your local cafe and grocery store (how about the challenge?) 3. Make sure that your local workplace or place of worship serves Fair Trade Certified coffee at coffee hour and other events. 4. Encourage your community organization or church to purchase Fair Trade products for fundraiser and organizational gifts. 5. Write a Letter to the Editor about your concern for coffee farmers and your commitment to seeing more Fair Trade coffee in supermarkets and local cafes. The other side of this handout talks about what Fair Trade is all about. I am very impressed that she got this from a grocery store (well done Crescent Market in Oklahoma City). If we can get all grocery stores to pass out this information, it will put a large dent in the population that does not know about Fair Trade and its benefits to the people who produce this important product. The tag line on this handout: Proof your coffee was grown responsibly ...be bold

Our latest travel debacle

So, you have probably read that we have not had the best of luck since we moved to Bozeman with our air travel. We have had canceled flights -- twice -- and many other delays. I thought this trip was going to be different because we actually arrived early with no long lay-overs or delays! It was great! We were waiting for our bags and they never came out. We then heard a voice over the loud speaker say "Jennifer Duncan, please come to the baggage claim office." We headed over there to be told that Delta was sorry but some of the bags were not loaded on the plane and both of ours were still in Salt Lake. She told us that they would be in town at 11:30 am and that they would be out for delivery at 2:30. We are to call a number if we do not receive them by 5:00 pm. Great. So, we are not 3-3 in travel mix-ups and problems. Maybe we should just stay in Bozeman from now on! ...be bold

Vacation

Jenni and I are heading to Oklahoma for a weekend of family, conversation, and football (my Sooners are playing on Thursday evening and then -- I will be forced to watch TX beat up on USC) I am excited for this break from a 4 week straight stretch of non-stop work. I feel pretty good about how I handled the work load and everything else I love to do. I think this was a good tool in learning what it will feel like to own a cafe that will be opened 18 hours a day. I will be back and posting on January 2nd. We will get into our game plans, status on the buildings are working on, and over all progress. This will, of course, be accompanied with small business news and word from the coffee industry. Have a great New Year and I will see you back in January. ...be bold

Reading List

I just finished Effective and Essential Marketing for the Specialty Coffee Retailer by Bruce Milletto of Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup (you can purchase this book here) last week. This is a great read for all coffee shops, bars, drive thru's, and kiosks. He talks about everything from print media, to the internet, to working with employees, to the layout of your cafe -- all of which are important aspects of your marketing plan. He gives great tips to increase your bottom line and advice that will keep you from running into dead ends with your coffee house. This book will be on that I keep close by and will use it again and again while looking for new avenues to get the word out about Cafe Evoke. I have now started on a book by Kenneth Davids called Espresso: Ultimate Coffee..Second edition. (You can buy this book here as well.) From the first chapter, this book is proving to be a great read. From the back of the book: The popularity of espresso, coffee at its purest and most intense, has grown exponentially in tea past decade. In this revised edition of his book on ultimate coffee, Kenneth Davids provides a lucid, engaging examination of espresso's lore, legend, and culture. A finalist for the James Beard Award upon its original publication, Espresso is the perfect introduction to the world of specialty coffee. I have been picking up as much as I can from books about coffee and this is going to be a nice addition to the books I have read so far. I have a few others that are on my immediate list of must reads that I will talk about as I get closer to the end of this one. If you are looking for information about the specialty coffee industry or just want a handle on this passionate drink, pick up these books. You will be happy you did. ...be bold

The Nun Bun Tragedy

A friend of mine from Nashville forward me this story about the Nun Bun being stolen from my friends at Bongo Java. "My gut feeling is that it's destroyed," said Bob Bernstein, the owner of Bongo Java coffee shop, where the bun had been on display for nearly 10 years. "Someone took it, destroyed it and it's the last we'll hear of it." Someone broke into the Belmont Boulevard coffeehouse yesterday morning, apparently with the sole purpose of stealing the pious pastry. Bills and loose change in charity-donation containers near the bun's glass display case were untouched, Bernstein said. "They went right for the bun," he said. "What the heck they are going to do with it, I can't imagine. It's sure not something anyone would eat. I hope they do eat it. It will teach them a lesson." Bongo Java made major news with the findings of a bun that looked just like Mother Teresa (so the name states). This cinnamon bun was a local legend in Nashville and will be missed by many people. I have many times ordered my Fair Trade coffee and looked at the nun bun accompanied with a letter from Mother Teresa (or her lawyers I guess) about not making money using her name or image. Metro's police report on the theft estimated the buns value at $25. It said the Mother Theresa Cinnamon Bun was the only item taken. As stolen goods, the bun was classified in property category No. 77, for other. Bongo Java was closed yesterday for Christmas and was due to be closed today, but Bernstein said he will open the shop so people can come to discuss the bun, or, perhaps, provide information they might have about who stole it. "It's weird," Bernstein said. "You laugh about it a little bit, but it's an empty feeling. It's like the end of an era." I guess we all move on. ...be bold

My Christmas Coffee

My wonderful wife got me a new Bodum French press for Christmas and I put it to work right away as you can see. Maybe I should use it for the challenge while in Oklahoma for the holidays! Today will be a relaxing time for us as I prepare for my final two days at work (taking the place of our manager as he vacations for a week). It will be tough but it will sure feel nice to walk out of there on Wednesday knowing I will not have to be back until January. I hope this weekend is the same for you and that you have a great one. Pull up a chair and enjoy the conversations that today brings.

Have a Great Holiday!

I just wanted to tell everyone to have a great holiday and enjoy that cup of coffee with friends and family. Normal blogging will begin in January when I return from some time away. I will be posting on a off with light hearted post (no business over the holiday). Have a great one! Oh yes, remember the freezing temps? Well, it has been in the mid to upper 40's here lately..crazy weather. ...be bold

Possible Locations

We had our final "initial" meeting tonight with building owners in the northeast side of town. We have now made contact with all three locations we see as possibilities for Cafe Evoke. One of the buildings is part of the Bozeman Mill district. These buildings are not yet built but will be going up starting in March. You can see pictures of what these buildings will look like here. We are working one of the corner spaces. We really like the idea of this space at it will be in central location for this area upon completion with deep sidewalks, warehouse interior design, and nice landscaping. The plans for this area look great and in 5 or so years, this will be a Bozeman hotspot. The draw back? It will be at least 12 months before we can begin. Our second opportunity is a building that will eventually meet up with the area above. The owners are very interested in art and sustainable building design and we are very excited about it. The building was an old factory for Coke and has lots of character -- see below. This building is great on the inside and will have lots of potential for atmosphere and flow. The square footage is about 1500-1800 square feet which is perfect and there will be basement space (with an old lift) that we can use for storage and possibly a video room in the future. The third building is on the corner of this new area and probably has the most traffic at this point in the game. It is a very large space but has the possibility of a split. There are garage doors and space for an outdoor patio which would be incredible. I hope to have pictures of it tomorrow or the next day. All three locations have great opportunity for us and we are excited to begin looking at how each space will fit our model and also what type of lease each owner is looking for. We are, again, pushing forward and thing the knowledge of our past deals is putting us in the drivers seat for the first time since we began this adventure. I will keep you informed. ...be bold

CaffeineFinder GPS

Coffee and Caffeine Blog posts today about a new service called Caffeine Finder. Caffeine Finder GPS is the first mobile application which leads you to your next cup of joe. Caffeine Finder GPS points you to the closest restaurant or café for a great cup of coffee. Find every major café or restaurant across the country from over 45,000 locations. Once you find where you want to go, ask Coffee Finder GPS for a map, a review, and the address, all right from your phone or PDA. And if you use Nextel, you can take advantage of the automatic GPS location functions built right into the phone. We have been trying to put our own cafe finder together and I hope to begin really work on it in January. Ours will feature independent cafes and show pictures, menu samples, events, locations, and contact information. The goal of this is to bring together all independent cafe owners and customers so we can all feel at home even when we are away from our houses. I think this is a cool service even if it is only available for Blackberri's. Maybe someday our database can help the rest of us!

Coffee for your Health

I have written before about how coffee is not only a great drink because of the taste and the passion that goes into producing the great drink, but that it is also good for your health. I was directed to this article at US News and World Report today that talks about this very thing. very passing week brings news for latte lovers, and the latest on coffee is the best buzz yet. It turns out that a cup of joe--or a carafe--may chase away the blues; turn you into a better athlete; and protect against diabetes, Parkinson's disease, gallstones, and some cancers. Last week's headline: Researchers at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases found that a two-cup-a-day habit can dramatically cut the risk of chronic liver disease in those at greatest risk. "If its benefits continue to mount, coffee may come to be viewed as a health food," says Lona Sandon, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. This is good news to me as I drink quite a bit of the stuff myself. I am under the thoughts that one or two cups a day is probably not horrible as long as you get some water to go along with it. I have cut back a bit to one cup a day for a few weeks to "clean" myself out some but I like reading things that say it might not be so bad for you. The health benefits of coffee are not so thoroughly proven yet that anyone is suggesting actually upping your intake. Nor is anyone saying coffee is entirely benign. Pregnant women are still advised to abstain, since there's a concern that more than a couple of cups a day may trigger a miscarriage. Too much caffeine can upset some stomachs, exacerbate heartburn, and make people too jittery--or sleepless. But "if you're already drinking five or six cups a day, I'd be hard pressed to come up with a reason you should cut back," says Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health and a leading investigator of coffee. (If you load them with whipped cream and sugar, however, you invite an expanded waistline and other health problems.) Nice little study and I look forward to hearing more about this. While I am reading about this, I think I will have another coffee -- fair trade of course. ...be bold

Update...

We had a great meeting today with an owner of a possible home for Cafe Evoke. The space has great potential and I really like the ideas the owner has for it. It is in the up and coming part of town that will, in several years, be one of the centers for the art world in Bozeman. The traffic is almost exclusively residential at this point but I feel that it is the place for us. I finished our "about us" letter today and I think it is a great start to what I am calling our "press kit" to hand to potential landlords and also vendors. I got to use our brand new letterhead that came in the mail on Monday and I am very excited about that as well. Things are moving forward and I really want to focus and make this happen sooner than later. I am getting very worn at my current job and I hope to be spending more time on Cafe Evoke and less time on the phones with unrealistic last minute internet shoppers. We are heading out tomorrow afternoon to take pictures of the buildings that we are looking at -- at least ones that are built -- and I will post them in the next day or so along with descriptions and pros and cons for each. I am still working on a re-write of our business plan and hope to make some significant progress over Christmas and have it available to the landlords when we get back. It is important to remember, however, that this is just the latest written and organized copy. These revision will be going on for as long as Cafe Evoke has customer to serve. ..be bold

Archives back up!

I wanted to let everyone know that the archives are back up thanks to my friend Chip from Submerge Media. This will allow you to look around a bit at the past 12 months of this journey. If there are any other problems, please let me know and we will get it all taken care of. Thank you again for reading and I will get back to normal posting at the end of this week. ...be bold

Off Topic...

It is again reaching to the double digit sub zero temperatures here in Bozeman and once again the pipes to the kitchen sink have frozen. The problem is that they are freezing in the walls near the foundation and there is not much that can be done to unfreeze them. This leaves us with a smelly mess in our kitchen and kills our ability to eat at home and keep things clean. This is the second time this has happened and we have been without the kitchen sink for about 1 week out of this month (not all days in a row but just in total). The landlord says it is because we have a link in our faucet (it drips a small amount every 10 seconds or so.) I do not think that is the case as the freezing point is so far down in the wall but he is the contractor so he probably knows. He will be out today to fix the faucet but who knows how long it will take to thaw out. We are taking the evening off of work for Cafe Evoke and celebrating my mother-in-law's birthday. Tomorrow we will begin again with a meeting with a building owner. This is a great space and I am going to try and get pictures posted to show what we are looking at. It looks like the other meetings will be pushed back until after the holiday season but that will give us some time to get another, more updated, copy of our business plan out and ready to go. I am about to begin my 17th straight day at work and I am holding up pretty nicely. I hope this is some indication of how I will perform with Cafe Evoke in full swing. Have a great Monday and I will have better content coming later this week. ...be bold. PS. I am working on all of the archives right now. For some reason, the new site is not picking them up as they are on the server. I will get those up ASAP. Thank you for your patience.

???

From The Entrepreneurial Mind... So let's recap. The IRS code, which is now over 60,000 pages long and growing every day, is so complex that it costs small business owners thousands of dollars per employee to try and comply. And even though it is so complex that even experts within the IRS cannot give consistent answers to tax questions, we are now paying more taxes to help the IRS increase their enforcement to collect these taxes. And because it is so complex, they had to make rules to assure that rich people could no longer use these rules (created in large part by the IRS and its supporters in the tax industry) to not pay taxes. But now those same rules are really increasing the tax obligation of millions of middle class taxpayers who are just trying to take simple and common legal deductions, such as really high state income taxes and deductions for dependents. And we elected a President and Congress from a party that talks about cutting and simplifying taxes, but when given the opportunity to finally fix this crazy mess, they pass a "simplification" bill that will actually increase the complexity of the system. Say what? I do not write much on taxes, legals, etc (at least not yet) and I am thinking I may not be ready to do so. It seems that the government is going to try and take control of all things good -- including small business -- and that they will do everything they can to make it seem that they are doing something good...make sense? We have touched a few times on legal stuff and there will be a few things that we come up in the next few weeks (as Conversations, Inc - the corporation under which Cafe Evoke resides, enters tax time, etc) but for now, it seems we have much more to worry about. I am trying to learn as much as possible about how to deal with taxes, the government, and the legals. I do not really think I can learn anywhere near what it will take to run this business from books or the net but I will do my best and learn quickly as I go. ~~be bold

Archives

I just realized that my archives have not been switched over to the new address yet [blog.cafeevoke.com]. I am working to get this fixed. I really apologize for this. I will let you know when they are back up and running. Thanks for being patient with me. ~~be bold

The Cost of Time

It has not been easy to keep you up to date in the world of Cafe Evoke the past several days. As many of you probably know, I am working for Zearth.com Corporation, an online dealer of home and personal comfort items. We are experiencing our best year since the birth of the company six or so years ago and things have been crazy. Not only have I been working hard to find a home for Cafe Evoke and assuring our vendors that we have not forgotten about them, I have been putting in 50 hour weeks and have not had a day off in 14 days. All of this will pay off, however, as I am gaining valuable knowledge about how run a company and manage employees. I am working hard to put my wife and I in good shape for the Christmas Season and will take a few days off to travel to Oklahoma after Christmas to spend some time with my family. It has been a great end of the year for us and we are excited to enter 2006 with renewed spirit and a drive to open our doors. We have heard back from all of the building owners in the Areas we have our eyes on and I really think we will work something out and find a home for Evoke. Although we have been set back, these are exciting times. I feel that the set-backs have done nothing but make us stronger and I feel now, more than ever, that we have a great model, a firm ethical foundation, and an extended "board of advisors" to help us along the way. I will have information about one of the more exciting buildings on Tuesday and I hope I have good things to write about. Things might be a bit slow at A Thought Over Coffee for a week or so more but then it will be back to normal. Take this time to catch up, if you are new, and we will push on in a week or so. ~~be bold

Operation Million Cup

It was brought to my attention that a coffee company, Boca Java, has started a campaign to donate 1,000,000 cups of coffee to our troops by December 31, 2005. This is a great thing and they need help! They have come a long way since the challenged themselves in July. They have donated more than 340,000 cups so far. “We’re extremely proud of the sacrifice our troops make every day. Our goal with Operation Million Cup is to give back in a small way and show our support for the hard work of those men and women in the armed forces,” said Bruce Frcek, founder and president of Boca Java. “Operation Million Cup was a method that we could partner with customers to allow them the opportunity to give back as well. We think it’s critical at this time of the year to demonstrate our support. The interesting thing is that we’re now getting scores of emails from family members and the troops themselves asking for coffee to be sent. We’re looking forward to a strong year-end push to reach our goal.” Here is how it works: For every bag of coffee a person donates, Boca Java matches the donation by sending an equivalent bag of coffee. In addition, Boca Java provides the coffee for donation at a discounted price of $4 per 8 oz. bag. An 8 oz. bag is equivalent to 32 cups of coffee. With the match by Boca Java, a $4 donation by a customer is equivalent to over 60 cups of coffee Go to their website today and click on Operation Million Cup to help them reach their goal. You can also read letters photosee phots from Iraq and our troops at their website. Go take a look. If you need coffee anyway, order from them and they will match your purchase. ~~be bold (Boca Java uses only hand picked specialty-grade Arabica beans from the richest coffee producing regions of the world. Then, through an innovative combination of science and artistry, Boca Java’s Master Roaster produces gourmet beans that have reached their full roasting potential. For more info, see BocaJava.com.

Update...

We have been trying to find a building in the north east side of Bozeman and we have come across some interesting and promising locations. This week will be spent getting paperwork in order and putting together packets about Cafe Evoke that will describe what we are about and what we are looking for. We have met with a developer that is building two new buildings and the new Bozeman Mill District and have reservation on a space there. We also are talking with a building owner that has a brand new building on the corner of this new development and we hope to meet with her before Christmas. I just, today, got off the phone with another building owner and have set up a meeting for next week that we hope could be the place. All of this has been without the help of the leasing agents we are about to sign on with. I have worked out a deal with them to exclude any and all deals I find by myself from our agreement which will be handy when working out lease terms as the building owners will not have to pay a realtor anything. We are doing our leg work and I am proud that we have continued to push on in an ethical, persistent and consistent fashion. The idea here is to work one or two deals this time and try to prevent a situation like similiar to the last two leases we have worked on. ~~be bold

Feeds and RSS

I have had a few people tell me that my feeds and RSS links were not working. It seems that they were still connected to the old blog site and not the new one {blog.cafeevoke.com}. I believe that I have changed all the links and they are now working properly. I sincerely apologize for these kinks as we move everything over. Thank you again and please let me know if you see anything else that needs to be changed. ~~be bold

Tug of War

I have been sampling many different coffees and teas over the past several weeks and have been tossing different thoughts in my head. As we thought we had a lease signed and a location secured, we had many roasters send us samples. We are getting to the end of the beans we were sent. There are a couple of things that are important to us when selecting a roaster: 1. Quality beans and blends 2. Fair Trade Certified 3. Selection (Single Origins, blends, etc) 4. The business relationship 5. Materials available for training I have made many notes and have narrowed it down quite a bit but I am having a problem with making a final decision. Quality is very important to us at Cafe Evoke. We do not want to "settle" for a bean that is not the best. Here is my problem: Do I pick beans that are not quite as good just to get the Fair Trade Seal? There are a few blends (espresso blends for example) that I like hands and feet above the rest. The problem -- they do not carry the Fair Trade certification -- yet. This roaster is moving towards that certification but the farm in which they get their beans has yet to go through the long, expensive, and tedious process. I want to make sure that we do support the farmers and countries from which the beans come from and also server the best coffee and espresso to our customers. It is going to be a hard decision but I think we will work it out in the fashion of "best of both worlds." I feel strong about getting the best and having the money go back to the farmers so I will work on finding the right beans. We do not have to make a decision today and it will be important to take our time in picking our coffee. ~~be bold

Quote of the Day

I believe entrepreneurship is a way of looking at the world. Entrepreneurs can exist in any profession. The only criteria is that they (we) are determined to carve our own life path. To ask the right questions, not figure out the right answers. ~Ben Casnocha of Ben Cosnocha: The Blog.

Capital Budget

As with many of the sections of our most recent written plan, the capital budget is a work in progress. This is the section that I have spent the most time mulling over on paper. This will continue to change -- cutting costs here, adding them over there -- until the day we get out of Cafe Evoke. I feel very good about our capital budget and feel that we have done a nice job to get us rolling. Some reason I am proud are: 1. Bought a hand full of equipment used which saved us a several thousand dollars. 2. Doing the building -- minus electrical work and plumbing -- by ourselves. 3. Went to the trade show and got great deals on even more equipment saving us, again, several thousand dollars. 4. Creating our own unique furniture out of used, wood top, tables. All of these things really put us in good shape. I am still working through this budget each and every day as it is going to change based on our location. The staffing plan, as I mentioned before, is also weighing in on this budget. This is a working outline of what's to come. We will use this for goal setting and as a benchmark. It will keep changing and it will be important to keep at it after we open the door so we do not get lost in our expenses, etc. ~~be bold

Marketing Plan

In the last draft of our business plan, we spent a lot of time talking what programs we will be using to get people in the door and how we would get our word out. This time we are adding some features to this section, including: 1. Floor layout and design 2. Training -- for both employees and customers 3. In-depth advertising ideas 4. Publicity we have received 5. Menus 6. Signage I think that with these additions, we will really have a nice plan of attack and something to look back on as we move into the different phases of business. It will give us time lines and milestones to work towards and get us on the right foot to success. This part of the plan will change rapidly as we grow (not that the others will not) so we will really need to keep current and adjust as the market twists and turns. Marketing is a never ending responsibility and we will have to work even harder at it when we get the doors opened. I think the tendency is for people to slow down once they have actually opened but it is really the time when you have to work harder. I like what Bruce Milletto (Bellissimo Coffee) says about it... But once the doors are open, you are only half way up the hill. You can't coast. Climbing a hill, if you coast you'll soon go backwards. If you pedal twice as hard as you did during your pre-opening fervor, you will succeed in your new business reality -- keeping your doors open and your profits flowing." Again, these are plans that will be changing, daily, monthly, yearly and so on. We need to keep on the ball and not let it lack behind no matter what our success is. We are not going to stop even if we have reached higher profits that we could possible image. ~~be bold

New Location!

I wanted to let everyone know that A Thought Over Coffee has moved to a new address. This address is now blog.cafeevoke.com. Thank you for your continued support and I hope this move fixes many of the problems I have been having in the past. ~~be bold

Staffing Plan

The Entrepreneurial Mind offers this post today about staffing plans. This has been a continued battle for us at Cafe Evoke as this is going to be our biggest monthly expense. We are always updating what we think we can afford and trying to work out what we think is an accurate start-up budget. This post offers these tips: 1. Keep Staffing Forecasts Current 2. Base Staffing Plans on Milestones, not on Time 3. Measure Your Employment Triggers 4. Never Just Hire Warm Bodies 5. Keep Current on Wages and Salaries 6. Keep Pricing Current with Increases in Labor Costs 7. Don't Forget to "Close the Bank Door" There are nice explanations for each of these points. This is an area that can really get you if you do not plan and budget. We are also really working at creating a training program -- or, probably better fitting, a learning program -- for our employees. As education is a high priority at Cafe Evoke (where coffee comes from, preparation, taste, etc), teaching our employees will be very valuable. It is always cheaper to retain employees than to higher new ones and we are going to keep working as we go along. As I was reminding by the wise voice that speaks over my should, "business planning is a process, not an event." This is just one aspect of our business plan and a very important one to keep going over as we move on. ~~be bold

US News and World Report

A Thought Over Coffee was featured in the Small Business Watch section in this weeks version of US News and World Report (now on news stands). I am excited for this chance to help others and I hope any new readers of A Thought Over Coffee will share their thoughts with me as I am greatly appreciative of any and all help I can get. Pull up a chair..coffee's on me! ~~be bold

Another Young Coffeeshop Owner

I found this post the other day at Coffee and Caffeine blog about a 19 year old girl who just bought a coffee house. While her peers are busy fine-tuning their taste buds for specialty coffees and lattes, 19-year-old Kaely Roe of Severndale bought more than a cupful - she just purchased her first coffee shop. I like reading stories like this and I'm glad that she did not back down from the challenge of owning and operating her own coffee bar. A love of coffee wasn't the only reason for the purchase. Ms. Roe has formed strong ties in the community and has many repeat customers. "It is the people, all my customers I have seen every single day for three and a half years. I hate it when they move away, or switch job schedules." "Our customers are excited. They recognize that it is a little more local, they can be part of it now. I have an established clientele." Community and local is what it is all about. The passion of serving the community -- and some luck and good business practice -- will keep this venture alive for her. ~~be bold (story via The Capital)

Business Plan 2.0

The business plan we came to Bozeman with was not really the first run. This plan went through months of revisions and drafts and came out very nice (in my opinion). As we have done much of the planning already and are just working on securing the location, I feel that the time is right to begin re-writing the business plan to match what we have learned and changed in the past several months. We will not only be working on changing the sections of our plan to reflect a new location, a bit of a change in target market, a new menu, etc, we will also be working on a new Competitive Analysis. We will use the grid style format and really think out what the others in this town are doing and how we can compete. We will also have a more in depth marketing section to reflect more about what we are doing to set the stage for our arrival and talk more about the programs I have written about on this blog. This will be an undertaking as the first draft took me a year to complete. We will use the same style and format so the content change should not take as long (although this is an ever changing document!). I will be posting over the next several days about each of the sections, what we are changing them to, and how we will use them to help make Cafe Evoke a success. ~~be bold

Writing Stuff Off

I was reading over at Business Opportunities Weblog tonight and found this post about writing off your start-up costs. Our financial planner (who also is our backer) have been talking in the past several days about what things we can do to help ease the pain of spending all this money and not being ready to open. This post gives these 5 tips: 1. Track your startup costs. Begin at the beginning. 2. Track your organizational costs. 3. Take an upfront deduction if you qualify. 4. Depreciate your initial equipment and furniture, too. 5. Get a tax benefit for merchandise you first bought for yourself. 6. Have lots of startup costs? Put off what you can. We have done pretty well when comparing our past with this list. We have done a great job tracking our organization costs through Quicken for Mac and have done what I quality as, a great job with budgets and planning. We have also learned about the last thing on this list: Putting things off. There were many things we had to cut very quickly from our purchasing when we found out the lease was off. It is hard to tell vendors that, again, you are not ready to buy from them because it makes you feel that they will not take you seriously in the future. I feel strongly about being opened and honest with them however so we have made this tough decision. I have made of list of things that can be written off as business expenses and we will file them with our taxes at the end of the year. I feel good about where we stand despite being out quite a bit of money at this point. We will open and use what we have paid for so it will all work out in the end. ~~be bold

On The Auction Block

I was reading in the October/November issue of Barista Magazine and found an article about Ethiopian coffee and an internet auction. All 26 lots of top-grade washed and unwashed coffee on offer from Ethiopian coffee cooperatives were sold above their reserve price of $1.50 "Because of your support, the...auction generated more than $187,000 for Ethiopian cooperative coffe at an average price of $3.22 per pound," Boot [eCafe Foundation] said. I think this is great as this region is one of the best coffee growing regions in the world and needs all the help they can get. Way to go on the auction. Move over all ye chains and let the coops work the way they are supposed to! ~~be bold

A Break Down

I wanted to extend my apologies to anyone who tried to access this site this afternoon as Blogger seemed to be down. We are working on moving this to a different server so this does not happen again. I will keep everyone updated on this move. I again apologize for the down time. ~~be bold

Update...

We have reached the point where we need an insiders eye on the market. We have begun talks with two of the realtors we have been working with (they work as a team whish is great as it adds another set of eyes!) to sign on formally. They have offered to really dig in for us and begin to turn over rocks in the north east side of town. We have one other meeting that should happen in the next day or so that could put us in a new building that is going up in March. This is really where we want to be and if we can make a deal, we will get something in writing. The draw back here, as I think I have mentioned before, is that it will be almost a year before opening. We have narrowed down our search and think this area is the best place for us. Now we just need to find the building! You know what they (whoever that is): Location Location Location. One step at a time for us... ~~be bold

Starbuck's Challenge Update

The Starbucks Challenge 3.0 has begun and everyone needs to join in!. They are also trying to get everyone to sign a letter they have drafted to send to Starbucks about this policy they so highly talk about. I have posted the request I received so all can take part. Dear Friends and Challengers: As you know, we've been trying to get Starbucks to live up to its promise to French-press a cup of fair trade coffee for anyone who asks for it. Starbucks proudly touts this policy -- but hasn't followed through on it. And while the mermaid's admitted it could do better, it hasn't done anything to actually start doing better. So we need your help: Demand an answer from Starbucks! All you have to do is sign on to a letter we've drafted, asking Starbucks to get back to us about our questions. Our main question: How and when will Starbucks start doing what it already claims it does? The letter's here: I hope you sign on, and encourage others to do the same. In fact, there's a prize for the person who mobilizes the most people to sign on! Email the link to your friends, and ask them to sign -- and to mention that they found out about the letter from you. Thanks in advance :) Hope to hear from you soon :) Siel Green LA Girls ~~be bold

Feedback!

Well, the first run of our new look is up! I am still working out some kinks and making it feel right but I wanted your help! Please write to me and let me know.. 1. What you think so far 2. What you really like 3. What you would change 4. What is not on this site that you would like to see. Thank you for your help and I look forward to hearing what your thoughts are. ~~be bold (PS: We are also now selling ads on the left tool bar!! The money made with these ads will go to running this blog and to Cafe Evoke's publicity. For more info, send me an email)

Subscriptions

I have received word from several people that they have signed up for the Cafe Evoke updates through the sign up field on the sidebar. It appears there are some major problems with the code for the update list and I have taken it off the site for now. I will recode this and get it back up shortly. If you are interested in joining this mailing list in which occasional updates will be sent in regards with big news with Evoke, email a request with you name and email address to us and we will make sure you get these emails. Thank you again for your support. ~~be bold

Update...

We are meeting with the leasing agents (yes, two of them) we have been working with over the past few weeks to try and see what our options are and if we would be better off signing a deal with them to help us find a home for Cafe Evoke. The problem we are having here in Bozeman is that there are many locations that never even see a for lease sign because they are picked out so quickly. Being with an agent will give us an inside track on these buildings. We are also meeting with a developer and leasing agent early next week to look at a deal in a brand new development that is going up in the are of town that will be known as the Bozeman Mill District. This is going to be a great part of town and I think it would be a great home for us. This would put us back almost a full year however in opening, as I talked about yesterday, but would be worth it for the perfect location. Things are still moving for us but we are being honest with ourselves and taking it one step at a time. We have had to many leases fall through and we want the next one to be a success! ~~be bold

A New Look

A Thought Over Coffee is nearly a year old and we are making some changes! I am in the process of re-designing this blog which will hopefully allow us to use more features, etc. We are also going to move this blog to www.athoughtovercoffee.com which will be nice. Thank you for the great support over the past 11 months and I hope this blog continues to grow as we move forward with Cafe Evoke. I hope these changes go live in about a week so check back and let me know what you think. ~~be bold

Vendor Relations

As it seems right now, we are months away from opening Cafe Evoke. This could take up to 12 months or, as I am hoping, could be less time. We are excited to be working these new building options but any of the options we are looking at now are just a long way off. Because of this, I have to decide how to handle the vendors we have been talking to and also the equipment we have purchased. Some of this equipment is in storage at our kitchen designers and some is ready to be shipped to us. As we have paid for most of it, I need to collect it and probably pay rent on a storage unit someone in town. Here is where I am trying to make some decision. We have many vendors who have sent us samples and we have decided to use at Evoke. We talked with most of these vendors at CoffeeFEST a few months ago when we thought we had a lease which is why we have requested so many samples. Now, I have to figure out the best way to tell them we are a long way off from opening without burning any bridges we have built with them. This is one of the hardest times we have gone through with Cafe Evoke so far as we have to tell people we are going to open but it could be another year. We have been telling people we are weeks away for so long that it hurts to now admit the delay. What do we do in the meantime? I would say we now have a chance to really plan this out but after 2 years of planning, we are ready to move to the next step! We are still working hard to get a lease signed. This will probably take shape as a written reserve letter that says we will move in and sign the lease when the space is available. Until then, we will begin contacting vendors and try and explain the situation. As my friend Joshua (Progress Coffee) always tells me, "..just keep rockin on..". ~~be bold