Hello Coffee Lovers!
Two months ago I wrote: Why We Don’t Offer Brewed Coffee.
After having multiple discussions with people, I realized I forgot a few points.
Any schlub could go out and buy a cheap single cup coffee machine and a giant box of terrible coffee pods and sell it for $3. This fulfills the need to sell coffee and creates income. I won’t do it for 2 reasons: Quality and Reputation
Quality
We at JenEric Coffee pride ourselves on the quality of our beans, roast, and flavours. If you don’t like our coffee, it’s because of personal taste and not a deficiency in our quality. When I go to an event I expect that either the venue is selling crap coffee, or there is no coffee. When there is a coffee vendor I expect that they take a modicum of pride in what they do and have decent coffee. (Of course school and community events don’t count in this.)
If we do something, I want to do it right and legally, with all required permits and inspections.
Reputation
When you sell something you, as a small business, are judged on that. So if you have one thing that is of excellent quality and another that is horrible, you’ll be judged on the latter. You can’t, in the long run, rely on first time buyers. You need to make sure that your clients want more of what you’re selling. At this point, JenEric Coffee sells more to repeat clients than new ones, and that’s a wonderful thing. Passionate, dedicated fans are the backbone to a successful business.
If we started doing things in half-measures and didn’t take pride in our quality, we’d start losing those people.
I hope this helps clear up and add to my previous post.
Thank you for reading and for loving our coffee!
Éric