What have we been doing?

Ah, I'm glad you asked. We have been busy with Cafe Evoke Catering for the past month and things have gone really well. We decided to take Q1 (January through April) to work on marketing and industry placement. We are coming up on our 1 year anniversary (I know, can you believe we started catering last April?) and it will be important to either see great progress or have a "plan B." That is what Q1 is all about for us. Goals We are at the end of January in this process and I could not be happier with the results so far.I set a goal for $5,000.00 in events booked this quarter and we are on our way. To date, we have about $1,700.00 booked with another $1,000.00 or so in the final process. How We Got Here As I said before, January has been a busy one for Cafe Evoke Catering. This month has been all about weddings, bridal showers, and other types of events of this category. (February will begin our push into the corporate world in Bozeman.) We participated in two great events - A Bridal Affaire and Ever After - that put us in front of hundreds of brides and their families. Bozeman has many people come to get married from all across the US and even abroad so these events were a great way for us to meet as many of those as possible. At both of these events, we sponsored a drawing for a free event of no more than 20 quests. At this event, we plan to use our "small set up" that I can do by my self -- keeping payroll down. The idea behind this was to drive our word of mouth marketing and to get names, contact information, and wedding dates from as many people as possible so that we can send follow ups. We received 125 entrants across both events and picked two winners -- one from each show. Our first print ad came out at the beginning of the month in Montana Bride. I have not had anyone state that as their referral yet so we will see. I have learned alot since putting that ad in the book, however, and know what I will do differently next time. The Plan We still have quite a bit to do to get caught up with the month. Here is what is on my "to-do" list: 1. Finish handwritten "thank you's" to all people who entered our drawings at the bridal shows. 2. Layout buget for the rest of Q1 3. Design marketing campaign for corporate Bozeman 4. Set up new Syrup vendor 5. Get office cleaned and all invoices/customer files/etc organized and put away. Again, we are on a roll here and want to keep at it. April will come soon but we are still on track with our "plan A" (more to come on other plans later). ..be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana

Happy Birthday

Well, I started writing this blog way back on January 28th, 2005. AS you well know, it is now January 30th, 2007 and this blog is now officially past the two year mark. I cannot believe that it has been going this long. I was thinking about how I got started in all of this and a few people came to mind. Dr. Cornwall gave me the idea of writing a blog and -- as it all boils down -- was the one that introduced me to the blog world. You can either thank him or hate him for getting me involved (but I hope you thank him!). Anita Campbell and Dane Carlson kept me going with thoughts about business and how to live inside that professional world. I have met many great friends -- Siel, Chris, Tomas, Lloyd, Matt -- and many others. We have chronicled several lease attempts with Cafe Evoke, we have gone through good times and bad times (well, maybe not "bad" but certainly difficult), and I have learned a lot from it all. There is more to come! The catering business is beginning to take off and I am happy with our placement in this market. Are we "there" yet? No. This will still be a process that I hope to share with you starting this week. I hope everyone continues to comment on this blog and that the network I have started will continue to help me through the process of running Cafe Evoke Catering. My journey will be on the table. If you need any type of advice, take some. If you have some, leave some. Happy Birthday A Thought Over Coffee! ..be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana

I have a question for you...

So, I have noticed that when using Internet Explorer, this blog is always centered. Not only are all of the sidebars justified center, so are all of the posts. Does this happen to anyone else? Let me know if you are expirencing this with Internet Explore. I use FireFox for the most part (or Safari) and it looks great on those browsers. Also, if you know how I can fix this, I would be excited. This did not start happening until Blogger rolled out their all new version from Beta. Interesting. Thanks for your help. ...be bold PS. Monday should start the normal posts coming. Hang in there!

The Coffee and Tea Festival (#19)

OK OK, I know this is very late. But you know what they say, "better late than never" when it comes to the Coffee and Tea Festival. We had a few submissions for this week (or month I guess at this point) -- thank you. I am still looking for coffee/tea place reviews so send them. Until I get a few, I will keep pushing that edition back. Also, most of the post I received through the great little form I always talk about were spam. Yes, I am getting spam in every way possible. Anyway, I see no reason to not move forward with the festival so here we go.. Gillian Polack presents Food History » Blog Archive » Mrs Eaton and tea posted at Gillian Polack. "Some comments on tea by a nineteenth century writer and some comments on her comments by me." Sylvia White presents Tea without Milk! Is our Daily Cuppa Under Threat? posted at Healthoma.com - Cancer and Health Related Discussions Our next article is along the same lines. What is your take on this? Laura Young presents English Tea, Hold the Milk Please posted at The Dragon Slayer's Guide to Life. Purva Mewar presents Antioxidants Found in Tea Are A Must For Healthy Skin posted at Healthoma.com - Cancer and Health Related Discussions. Here is our first "review" at the festival.. mimi presents A Krups of Coffee posted at Become's Pocket Change. Well, that will do it for this weeks edition. Thanks to everyone who submitted and please keep the posts coming. The more we get, the more we can all get to know each other and these great industries. If you find anything that should be included, please pass them along! As always, you can submit your posts with this fantastic little form or click on the ad on the left side-bar of this blog. It would be great to have a Coffee and Tea Festival about coffee shops and tea rooms. Do you have a favorite? Write a post about it and include a picture and get it to me for the next edition. I will keep bringing this up and hopefully we will have something going before long. 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

Quick -- Take a breath!

Wow, I was looking at the post I wrote yesterday and realized my upkeep on this blog is worthless! My apologies. Here is what has been going on... 1. We were in Africa for those that did not know and got back (after a long wait due to weather) last Monday. What a great trip that was. 2. As soon as we got home, we picked up the keys to a new place that we are moving into. While the house is excellent, the moving is less than that. We are almost done luckily and will be able to sit and enjoy the new place. All is moved but my office and our garage which we will do this coming weekend. 3. Cafe Evoke Catering. I will have much more on this as soon as I get things in order and get my office moved over to our new house. We participated in two bridal shows that went much better than expected. We have had many calls and emails regarding our service and I am thrilled. Because of the above list, it may continue to be a bit slow over here. So, hand in there with me while I get follow up letters out to the 75 people who we talked to at these shows and get moved. Thanks for your patience. ..be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana

Back in Bozeman and ready for more..

Well, I hope everyone had a great holiday season and is back in the saddle ready for another year. We had a great trip to Africa (although our travels were not comfortable on the way home -- that is another post for another day) but are glad to finally be back in Bozeman. Here is a of things to come for this week: 1. The Coffee and Tea Festival 2. Thoughts about our travels 3. Business update 4. Thoughts on origins of coffee 5. The new plan for A Thought Over Coffee I have a desk full of paper work, bills, receipts, etc and we are in the process of moving, again, which will make it a bit tough to post this week and next. I will begin posting again as soon as I can so keep coming back. Have a great week. PS. I need a mouse pad. Does anyone know of a fairly traded or even organic (?) version? Let me know! ..be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana