You have to keep writing..

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days. I have been working on a written plan for Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering for the past week and am in the final stages. Once this is done, I will be able to keep posts coming. This plan has been put on the back burner so many times that I finally decided it needed to get done -- now! This plan includes a history of our business so far and where we are headed. My goal is to update this plan every quarter. This is intended for our use so it is not yet in formal condition. In the case where a banker or some other investor would need to see it, we would need to re-write it in an appropriate form. Remember, it is more important to have the information written down and available than it is to have something in a shiny folder with nice headings. ..be bold

Progress

I found this on cnn.com this morning. It is good to see that someone is finally working on this issue. NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Billionaire Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson Thursday committed an estimated $3 billion over the next 10 years, or all of the profits from his airline and rail businesses, to combating global warming. "We are very pleased today to be making a commitment to invest 100 percent of all future proceeds to the Virgin Group from our transportation interest, both our trains and airline businesses, into tackling global warming," Branson told a news conference at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York. Watch the annoucement. Virgin Group chairman and billionaire Richard Branson "We have to wean ourselves off our dependence on coal and fossil fuels. Our generation has the knowledge, it has the financial resources and as importantly it has the will power to do so." Most international experts say emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars, are the primary cause of a 1.1 degree Fahrenheit rise in temperatures over the past century. A dwindling group of scientists says that the dominant cause of warming is a natural variation in the climate system, or a gradual rise in the sun's energy output. "We must not be the generation responsible for irreversibly damaging the environment. We must hand it over to our children in as near pristine condition as we were lent it from our parents," Branson said. Branson's announcement comes one day after the Bush administration said it was committing $3 billion to climate technology research and development. Climate experts and members of Congress criticized the administration's plan as long-delayed and inadequate.

Growth -- What does it all really mean?

We are already in the process of figure out how to manage growth. Yes, we have only been catering since May. It is not to early to get the plans drawn out. These plans will allow us to see where we are going and where we have been. The idea is to have this plan(s) in place before we need it so this growth does not catch us by surprise. I have been working on a growth plan that includes a review of the past 5 months -- including what we have spent and made -- and what we will need in the future. I have talked about our future needs assessment project before. This is only an expanded version. The idea is to find out: 1. What we will need in the future (equipment, employees, product, etc) 2. What will cause us to need these things (turning away work, consistent events, etc) 3. What these things will cost and how we will pay for them I have gone through our products and taken our material cost in one graph (in most cases, cost per oz) and in another plotted our cost of each drink (a combination of materials) and what we sell them for. The idea is to get a handle on these costs so that we really understand where the money from each event is going and how to forecast for future growth. I am about half way through this plan and hope to have it completed by Friday evening and off to our financial planner for review. We will then make edits as needed. I really want to keep this document alive -- making changes and revisiting it often. I was reading Dr. Cornwall's site today and found that he was writing about growth as well. He takes ten steps for growth (provided by StartupNation) and goes into a list of challenges that each of these steps takes you through. As I said, we are not yet needed three full crews to cover Bozeman and surrounding areas but we are hoping it will come to that. We do not need an office yet -- yet. We do not need a fleet of trailers and vehicles to pull them -- yet. All of these things need to be planned for, however. In the mean time, we have to make sure to tend to the business as it stands. Nothing is worse for a business than to work so hard on future growth that you forget to water the seedling. ..be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, bozeman, montana, coffee, tea, espresso, business planning, budgeting

The Coffee and Tea Festival (#11)

Hello and welcome to the 11th edition of the Coffee and Tea Festival. This edition of the festival is a bit short but still some great posts. Here they are... My Bubble Life presents Stomach-Friendly Coffee posted at My Bubble Life, saying, "After writing an article a few months ago about the new gentle coffees, I set out on a mission to find one of these products to try. Finally, after a month of looking, there is was right there on the shelf between the Starbucks and Maxwell House at the local Tom Thumb. It was Folgers Simply Smooth. I've been drinking this coffee for the last month out of my Starbucks mug and have really enjoyed it." Joe Kissell presents Raku posted at Interesting Thing of the Day, saying, "For a traditional Japanese tea ritual, not just any sort of tea cup will do. You want one made by hand using a method from the 16th century that infuses your tea bowl with Zen sensibilities." Arizona-Coffee presents a great post called The Coffee Lifeline. "The Coffee Lifeline Project is partnered with Freeplay Foundation, who’s philosophy states that information, education and communication are the keys to social or economic progress. It is the first program to utilize self-powered radio technology to serve coffee growers’ needs." Mark H. Delfs presents How Was "Starbucks" Named? posted at How Products Were Named It did come from Moby-Dick but it took some thinking from the group. That concludes this week's short but sweet edition of the Coffee and Tea Festival. Thank you very much to all that sent in their posts. I am not posting this festival until I get a few posts that I feel are an asset. With business, I am a bit behind in my blog reading and have not had the time to look for posts myself. If you find anything that should be included, please pass them along! As always, you can submit your posts with this fantastic little form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page. ..be bold Tagged: coffee and tea festival, blog carnival, espresso, coffee, tea

An email from yesterday...

I went to check my email yesterday that catches everything from this blog -- comments, questions, etc. I found the below email from a person working with Folgers on some new "gourmet" blends of coffee.. Dear Jason, I'm writing to you from Bridge Worldwide, a relationship marketing agency that's working with the makers of Folgers(R) to promote the launch of their new Gourmet Selections(TM) coffees. Get Free Gourmet Coffee! We would love to send you free samples of new gourmet-inspired, deliciously aromatic coffees. Why? Because we recognize that others value your opinions, and that you take the time to share your insights. What's the catch? There is none. All we ask is that you post an honest review on your blog. Of course, we hope that you like the product, but we're most interested in your opinion. And we would appreciate a link to your review after you have posted it online. Be Among the First to Try Folgers Gourmet Selections! Reply to this email with your mailing address, and we'll send your free samples in four to six weeks. In the meantime, you can check out [their website] to learn more. We look forward to sending you Folgers Gourmet Selections. Give it a try and even share a cup or two with friends and family. Then please post your review, and let us--and coffee lovers everywhere--know what you think. I went ahead and replied saying to send me some coffee -- why not, they did want an honest review. I am sure it will be pre ground which is a bit of a bummer because I already know it will be a bit stale. I guess it would not make since to send whole bean as, I do not think anyway, Folgers comes in wholebean. Maybe a suggestion for the future? I wish that this coffee was organic or certified in some way (Fair Trade, Bird Friendly, etc). I think it would be great to see these companies get into this type of coffee. What holds these companies back? I understand that it is a bit more expensive but only a few cents. While I have been reading about Fair Trade and trying to get involved in the past 12 months or so, I feel like a child when it comes to really knowing the "ins and outs" of the process. I need books. Know of any? A review will be posted on the stuff they are sending when I get done trying them. Look for it. ..be bold ***UPDATE*** It was brought to my attention today, thanks to the BirdBarista, that some (not sure of percentage however) of Folgers coffee comes from Vietnam, where 89% of the area's crop is low quality robusta. BirdBarista wrote a nice post about all of this just the other day on the blog Coffee and Conservation, one of my favorites. Tagged: espresso, coffee, bozeman, montana, folgers, gourmet selections, cafe evoke, coffee catering

Our First Ad

I sent in our very first ad yesterday to Montana Bride and we are excited to see it run this November. I think this is going to prove to be a good spot for us to be and should prepare us for a busy wedding season. We have had so many people tell us while at events how great of an idea we have and that they wish we were around when they were getting married so getting into a publication that has international exposure will be great. I tried to post the ad on this blog but found that the file was not converting correctly. I will see if I can get a new version and put it up sometime next week. I hope we have more opportunity to advertise in a print medium but I am being pretty conservative when it comes to that. I have not quite decided if the newspaper or any of the magazines in town suite our needs so I am holding off and waiting to find out how people respond to the ad that is coming out in a few months. I am learning that you really have to be picky when it comes to spending this kind of money on advertising. We are doing as many events as possible that pay us to advertise (like the Parade of Homes that we have been doing the past weekend which will continue this coming weekend). It is important to get your name in front of potential customers so we need to make sure that every publication we decide to go with really gets into their hands. ..be bold Tagged: advertising, promotion, coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana, cafe evoke, coffee catering

Can we turn it away?

We have had a great start to September and I am excited about our position in this market. We are setting ourselves up to have a great rest of the month if we keep going in this direction. I had a call today from a potential customer with a great opportunity for us and Cafe Evoke *Coffee* Catering. As we talked about the details -- which include a possibility of another large event in March -- I began to realize that the date we were talking about is not good for us. This event is the same weekend as CoffeeFEST -- a large trade show that we will be attending in Seattle. Can we afford to turn this event down? Do I try to hire a team to run this event? Do I cancel my trip to Seattle? This is the first of this type of decision I have to make and I am not really sure what the best decision is. As of now, I am trying to secure the event and I think the best thing for us to do is to hire a team to run our equipment so that we do not lose the opportunity for the event in March. It is hard to say no to work when you are trying to get started. At the same time, these trade shows are very important as they give us insight into what is going on in the industry and what new things are coming to the market. It is also a chance for us to meet with old friends and learn more about our business. I know there will be more and more of this type of thing that we will have to deal with so here we go... ..be bold Tagged: advertising, promotion, coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana, cafe evoke, coffee catering

Be Prepared

We were hired to set up in one of the Parade of Homes houses this past weekend and next weekend. This is a huge event for us because not only are we serving a cash bar from 10:00am until 6:00pm, we are also going to get our name and information in front of 6,000 people. I am using this as advertising and have been very happy with our sales since the beginning of the event. How many times do you get paid to advertise? Not often. We have had the biggest week since we "opened" and I am loving it. The problem is being prepared for such a large event. We were at the Grey Fox Gallery in Downtown Bozeman on Friday night and had our best evening there as well. The problem? We ran through supplies faster than I thought we would. So, there I stood on Friday night with no milk left, no 12oz cold cups left, and a few other things. We had to be at the Parade of Homes at 8:30 with is a few hours before CostCo opens for the day so I was feeling overwhelmed. Once we got the equipment set up, I began to feel better and soon enough, was not worrying anymore. There are a few things I learned from this week however: 1. Prepare in advance 2. Be confident in your business 3. Don't worry about the small stuff We had designed a way to keep track of "inventory needs (dairy products, etc)" and I have decided that I will be prepared for every other event that we do. The first weekend went great and we had our biggest cash sales deposit that we have ever had. We are at that point where we have to push harder in our marketing and advertising efforts to really saturate this market and educate people on what coffee catering is all about. ..be bold Tagged: coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana, cafe evoke, coffee catering, parade of homes

Missing the Grind

Ok, I guess I should say that this post is probably better fit for the coffee community that reads this blog. Last night I was missing the grind -- big time. I was trying out some espresso that we had not used in a few months (yes, it was fresh and sent to me yesterday). I went through my normal routine of checking the grind by eye and touch, then timing a few shots, tasking them, and making adjustments. They were extracting at about 28 seconds and looked like "cooked spaghetti" so I was happy. As the night went on, however, the grind began to pull very inconsistently. I have gotten pretty good at keeping my tamp consistent but the shot came faster and faster each time so I made it a bit finer. I kept making it finer until finally I got it back to the 30 second mark. Then, it was not extracting fast enough so I began to make it coarser to keep the shot consistent. This went on all night. I was at the grind adjustment almost every shot. What's the deal? Was I just having an off night? Was it the espresso I was using? The change in temperature in the room? My machine? The smoke we have in Bozeman? Whatever it was, I hope this is not going to turn into the normal thing. We have a busy weekend ahead of us so I will keep you updated on the problems. ..be bold Tagged: espresso, coffee, bozeman, montana, grind, espresso shot, cafe evoke, coffee catering

QuickBooks Like Mad

Well, for the past 2 days now, I have been entering past bills and invoices into our new version of QuickBooks. While I am hating every bit of it so far, I know in the long run I will really like it. I have already been looking at reports through the program and have found them to be very useful -- expenses per vendor, outstanding invoices, etc. Once this is complete, it will allow us to budget for future growth and current financial situations. It will also allow us to patch up any holes we have in our "wallet" and to be sure we are wisely spending each cent that we have. This has been my major project and I want to have it completed by the end of the week. I am about half way there so it should not be a huge problem. ...be bold Tagged: QuickBooks, education, bozeman, montana, accounting, management, cafe evoke, coffee catering

Some Pictures...

Here are some of the pictures our great friend and photographer, Erik Petersen, took for us. Enjoy and have a great Labor Day.

Bozeman Mill District -- Freight Building

Some of you have requested pictures of the space I talked about yesterday. As this space is only a few steel piles at this point, I hope the pictures to the left works. We really like the idea of this new development but are keeping a close eye on what they are doing with the current community there. Since we started looking at a location in this part of town, we have been trying our best to blend in with the community and really listen to their concerns and questions while planning Cafe Evoke. The space I have been talking is located on the bottom from and on the corner (in the blue part of the building -- I believe). There are a few other businesses that had reservations for other spaces and they happen to be friends of ours which will be really nice. I think the other business will really add to our atmosphere and will carry on the art and passion that we possess for coffee and tea. As I said yesterday, we are not sure anymore when they will begin looking for tenants and writing up contracts. I really hope it is be later in the year but we just have to wait. I will keep you updated.. ...be bold Tagged: coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana, cafe evoke, coffee catering, Bozeman Mill District

A Coffee House Update...

Way back at the beginning of the year, we were talking to a guy about a new area of town that will be called The Bozeman Mill District. This is a place that they envision as being a second Main Street with restaurants, a theater, nice shopping, and urban living -- along with parks and green space. This new district is going to be located in the northeast part of Bozeman. He explained at the time that they hoped to have the commercial space ready to go for tenants to begin build out tasks in February/March of 2007. Because we need to find out what the situation is with the space and if that is still a real timeline, I emailed him about it. We are really trying to secure this spot and make it ours so that we can try to work the deal when they are ready. He replied to my email saying he thought they would be ready this year but now they are not sure and that he was sorry he did not have any real answers. I am assuming -- and maybe I should write back just to be sure -- that he means the building is going to begin in the next month or so but that it could be January/February before they begin looking at tenant leasing. That is fine but it probably means that it will be summer or later in 2007 before anything is possible in that space. My other fear is that they are having problems securing all the legal documents they need to continue or that they are having problems getting their PUD through the City. At this point, that is the only space we have our eyes on. We are continuing to keep an eye on the market but nothing has presented itself that we feel is right for Cafe Evoke. In the meantime, we will continue to go after Cafe Evoke *Coffee* Catering and keep building that business. September is looking great and should prove to be our biggest month so far. I will keep you in the loop. ...be bold Tagged: coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana, cafe evoke, coffee catering, Bozeman Mill District