Venezia Blend

Good Morning, Coffee Drinkers,

What’s in your cup this morning?  I am enjoying a cup of Venezia.  The bright citrus notes, clean finish, and full body are what is in my cup this morning.  Venezia pairs nicely with ham, eggs, and orange juice.  It will also pair well with a favorite cream cheese/chocolate dessert that I will prepare for my husband’s birthday today.

This past week has been a roller coaster of thoughts and views from each of you.  It truly is a sign of our economy.  I have chatted with a customer who was very busy for the last 2 days because a competitor had closed her doors; a start-up who is excited about new opportunities; and another customer who is doing well once the customers walk through the door and needs help with increasing customer traffic.

Here are a few ideas for you to consider:

1.        Look for the opportunities in front of you.  Are you in a working district where deliveries to offices are realistic; near a college to offer extended hours during finals week; if you have considerable foot traffic, have an employee standing outside with free samples of a favorite blended drink or drip coffee; offer samples of drip coffee while customers wait for their specialty drink (this can be changed to pastries or whatever product you want to increase sales); how about a “recession special” during your slower hours; promote your facility (if you have a café) to groups in your community; and create a “coffee klatch” or “coffee club” (everyone wants to be a part of something).

2.       Branding and creating an atmosphere of your own is important.  Whether have the support of a franchise or are an independent, you are at an advantage to create your own image unique to your community.  Are you in a ranching community, downtown city, suburb, college town, or tourist area?  Find your nitch and get creative.  My first shop was in Columbus, MT and I soon learned I needed to add lunches in the small ranch town.  Soup has become a more popular trend; in fact we have a local soup café that offers several soups and a couple sandwiches.  This little shop is busy every day during the lunch hour.  They offer a “buy one get one” special from 4:00 – 5:00 pm each day to increase sales during their slower time.  Soup was a hit for me, and can work for a café as well as a drive thru kiosk.  If you have a couple good recipes, you can always have the “crockpot on”.  Panini sandwiches are also a great trend if you limit your offerings to 1 or 2 to keep your inventory low.

3.       Training is very important to improve quality and prevent waste.  Some of you have equipment to prevent this already.  If not, train your staff on proper dosing for espresso and milk portions to prevent waste.  We are planning to get our training center completed and will let you know when it is ready for classes.

4.       Get excited about your opportunities and the fact that you are in control of your “job” and not someone else.  Yes, we work hard as self-employed entrepreneurs, but it is a great satisfaction when customers are happy with the drinks and service you provide.  I learned a tip a long time ago about saying positive things to our employees to keep them motivated, and this works for our customers as well.  People do business with people they like.

Let’s all make lemonade and look for the opportunities before us.  Do you have any marketing ideas you would like to share?

Have a great week!

Peggy Sue Ennenga