The History of Cafe Evoke (Part 5)

This is a multi-part series discussing the history of Cafe Evoke -- from the time I started this blog to today. The posts are rather long which is why I am breaking them up into several parts. I hope these posts have given you some background for our company and this blog. I am trying to space them out a bit so that it does not get "dry" and hard to follow. This is Part 5 of a multi part series we are calling The History of Cafe Evoke. You can find other editions here: 1, 2, 3, and 4. Remember, these are quick highlights from the past 4 years. There are many more great posts in the archives if you ever get bored. Also, if you have questions about what we were thinking, doing or hoping for or over anything I have mentioned, please leave a comment and we will answer everything you ask! So, at this point. Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering is on the map and pulling espresso. We had lots of problems getting business insurance for our company which took up quite a bit of time. We finally got that taken care of by our great new friends at State Farm Insurance. The rest of June consisted of marketing, farmers markets, and business planning. Things got pretty slow for Cafe Evoke (the coffee house) through the summer. By September, we were only watching one commercial space and that was a pretty long shot at that point. Cafe Evoke Catering was moving along and we spent some time creating a formal written plan focusing on the catering operation alone. The new catering plan was completed the first part of October, 2006 and we felt that the foundation was set for that aspect of our business. I then began getting emails from big coffee companies asking that I try out their new coffee lines and post a review. I did several of them over the course of the next few months. November threw us a curve ball. We had to deal with the rough Bozeman winter and how that interacts with coffee equipment in a trailer. Let me tell you - cold wins. Our equipment froze in our trailer for the first time and we knew we had to do something to solve our problem. That started what ended up being a years worth of headache with the equipment company and service crew. We did end up getting it all fixed up and found a great place to pull it indoors each day to keep it clean, dry and at room temperature. We also had a chance in November to get the trailer decked out in Cafe Evoke Catering attire and by the end of December, we were planning our booth for two upcoming bridal fairs. Things were moving for Cafe Evoke Catering by the end of 2006 but the coffee house somewhat took a back seat as we worked to market and plan and nurture this niched catering operation. ...be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, tea, oklahoma, oklahoma city The Global Exchange Fair Trade Store is your Online Source for Socially Conscious Gifts

The History of Cafe Evoke (Part 4)

This is a multi-part series discussing the history of Cafe Evoke -- from the time I started this blog to today. The posts are rather long which is why I am breaking them up into several parts. Let's get back to it on this windy Oklahoma Thursday. This is Part 4 of a multi part series we are calling The History of Cafe Evoke. You can find other editions here: 1, 2 and 3. Remember, these are quick highlights from the past 4 years. There are many more great posts in the archives if you ever get bored. Also, if you have questions about what we were thinking, doing or hoping for or over anything I have mentioned, please leave a comment and we will answer everything you ask! Let's back up a bit. Many of you are now familiar with Cafe Evoke Catering - Oklahoma's premier specialty coffee catering company. Well, the idea was planted in march of 2006 for Evoke Catering to be Montana's premier specialty coffee catering company. There were many reasons to start the catering operation but I think the main reason was because we feel that what is more specialty in coffee service than setting up a full blown shop in someones living room? We had to begin changing a few things on our website and with our logos to reflect Cafe Evoke Catering. We also had to begin getting paper work in order with the city and state and learn what it means to be a caterer. This was tough because coffee caterers (at the time) were very new and unprecedented for many health departments. As you know, these guys do not like change, new stuff or having to figure out how you fit in to an already confusing tangle of rules and regulations. By the end of March, we released our logos for the catering company. Simple, clean, and to the point. Purchasing equipment and conducing research for the cafe began to run hand in hand. For the first time, we were beginning to feel like stuff was happening. We had to learn how to juggle getting our cafe started while at the same time launching our new business - Cafe Evoke Catering. The Catering operation began to take the upper hand with a long list of to-do's that had to be completed. By the end of April, things were really moving! We had the trailer and our cart and things felt good. While we knew we had a long way to go, having equipment in hand seemed to make everything feel real - finally. The beginning of May brought about the final details - the nitty gritty stuff for Cafe Evoke Catering. We had a TON to do - pricing and event details, equipment installation and prep for our first event on May 22nd, 2006. By the end of May, Cafe Evoke Catering was running smoothly and we were happy with the progress we had made. ...be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, tea, oklahoma, oklahoma city The Global Exchange Fair Trade Store is your Online Source for Socially Conscious Gifts

The History of Cafe Evoke (Part 2)

This is a multi-part series discussing the history of Cafe Evoke -- from the time I started this blog to today. The posts are rather long which is why I am breaking them up into several parts. Let's continue with the history of Cafe Evoke. You can find Part 1 here. During the month of October, we began getting ready for our future by talking with the SBA about funding. We had (and still have for that matter) private financing that will work for the start-up period but thought it would be good to give the SBA a go. It ended up not being any better than what the bank was offering as far as rates and terms. We got our S-corp organized as Conversations, Inc. doing business as Cafe Evoke which was an exciting step. We now had a "real" business name. This was about the time that we begin to run into some turbulence with the lease and our newest future home. What made this even worse was the fact that my wife and I were trying to get this all worked out before heading to Portland and Seattle -- a two week trip for some coffee education. I was excited about the trip but knew it would be difficult closing the lease deal from a hotel room. The day before we hit the road for Portland, the lease was agreed upon and was on its way to Oklahoma City to be signed by our financial backer who would overnight it to us in Portland to sign and get back to the leasing agents. It was a great day and a great start to our 2 week vacation. One the 25th of October, we signed the lease! After 10 long months of planning and sweating, we were going to go back to Bozeman with a location in hand. It was a great feeling. We did not have time to sit around and enjoy it however. We had deals to make on equipment and furniture and also needed to start getting the floor plans finalized and the build-out planned. We planned to make as many deals as we could at the trade show and wanted to have it all going by the first of November when we would be heading back to Bozeman. The first 3 days (1, 2, 3) of November might have been the toughest we have faced so far in our journey towards our dreams. The lease fell through and we were put up against the problem of budgets and finding a new location. By the 15th, the lease had officially been broken. The company tried to say it was because we changed our menu but really it was for Starbucks. Go figure.. On November 22nd, we began looking for new locations. By the end of November, we had a nice little surprise in the publicity column. We were featured in US News and World Report. That was a bit of a pick me up to the end of my toughest month since I began planning the business months before. We still had some tough decisions that needed to be made but I knew that with patience, we would get to our goal. ..be bold Tagged: Cafe Evoke, coffee catering, bozeman, montana, coffee, tea, espresso

The History of Cafe Evoke (Part 1)

This is a multi-part series discussing the history of Cafe Evoke -- from the time I started this blog to today. The posts are rather long which is why I am breaking them up into several parts. Many of you joined me back in January of 2005 as I set out to document our journey and planning of Cafe Evoke -- an art and coffee house. Over the course of a year and seven months, we have had our ups, downs, and turnarounds but have come out stronger each time with more information and experience which help us make better decisions the next time around. I want to give a history of Cafe Evoke with this post. From the very beginning to today -- what we have gone through and what we have in front of us. I hope this helps those of you who are new readers to A Thought Over Coffee. Here we go... This blog began on January 28th, 2005 in Nashville TN. I was a student of entrepreneurship at Belmont University. This was 4 months from the end of school and the time that I began to first put thought -- dreams really -- to paper. I as anxious and excited all at the same time. My professor kept telling us that this was our chance to fail on paper before starting our businesses. I did not want to fail. By February 10th, 2005, we had our mission statement. This was a big step for us as we finally had something to write about. Yes, it took a few weeks to get that down and I think we are in need of a revision of sorts but that is a different post for a different day. On Thursday, March 3rd, 2005, I turned in the rough draft of the business plan and headed to Bozeman for our first market research trip. The idea here was to get more information to help us revise our plans when we returned. We received the first draft back on March 18th, 2005 in better shape than I could have thought. I turned in my final business plan on April 18th, 2005 and presented it on 25th. It went great. I graduated on May 14th, 2005 and prepared myself for the big move to Bozeman. From here on out, I knew everything would be "for real." We had our first meeting with a building owner on May 27th, 2005. This was a space that we had our eye on from Nashville -- right on campus and what we thought might be a great location. This meeting was promising and got us off on the right foot in seemed. After several months of ups and downs, we had to move on and cleared all of our boards in the office in early August of 2005 to regroup and prepare to find a new location. On August 19th, we found a new possible location that we really thought would work for us. We took a lot of the things we learned from the first attempt to lease a space into this one and felt we had a nice position on the negotiations. By September 28th, we had signed the agreed upon terms and the agents were drawing up all the legal documents needed for both parties to make it official. This was exciting for us as we finally had a location -- or so it seemed. ..be bold Tagged: Cafe Evoke, coffee catering, bozeman, montana, coffee, tea, espresso