One Man's Journey in The Coffee Industry and Life

Before we move on with this blog. I wanted to share the above video with you. I am a huge fan of Steve Jobs and he had many memorable speeches. This one in the video above is just simply the truth! I loved the coffee business, even though it had its challenges as you are currently reading! I love what I do now, consulting & helping people achieve their goals, through my knowledge and learned experiences is tremendously fulfilling! I also write and perform music, which I absolutely love. So before I go on with my blog, really just stop and reflect about this message in this video. You know, it takes an extreme amount of courage to do what you love! I mean think about it? Are you right now doing what you really love to do? Life is short enough, you have to follow your heart. Peace to all. Joe Leary Principal at Joe Leary Consulting Lead Singer and songwriter for Joe Leary & The Barnshaker's Look me up through my profile at Linkedin or check out our music fan page o

So I finally had a small amount of working capital. working capital that by the way, the bank can't touch! Thank God, right! Because believe it or not, as much as we were struggling and as much as that money would have majorly helped(i know majorly is just made up, but still a cool word), anything that I got regarding assistance in cash, they were going to take. So that was another great learning experience, negotiating with a bank who wants whatever it can get, to sign off on a loan that they have no power of. You want to talk about negotiations? Like they say in NY, "forget about it". What a learning experience. Again, one that has served me very well in my consulting business. I got a bank that was approximately $3 million dollars underwater, to agree to let me do whatI may with the money! Hey if that isn't a resounding, "we kinda believe in you", I don't know what is! Let's just say, I felt good! The plan was finally working and, it was reall

So I have bought this company. It is severely in financial trouble and every time I turn around it seems like another crisis is happening. The stress level was off the charts. Just keeping my head above water was a monumental struggle. Whether it was severe cash flow shortages, putting out fires with long time customers because of course, the competition is telling them, we are basically closing the doors tomorrow, having major equipment breaking down with no hidden box of money around to fix it, you name it, it happened. all the while the bank is sucking the life out of the business, upping their choke hold and getting more and more complicated with their demands. It was a terrible time, because I had no leverage! Leverage is such an overlooked part of business, if you don't have the necessary resources to get some, well you are pretty much as they say, "shit out of luck". There were so many times back then that I just didn't even want to go into work. It was awfu

So here i am in 1997 with a ship that was sinking, taking on water faster than the titanic and now I was the skipper! I owned the freakin boat. It was a scary time, yet it was the jack as well. I knew I could save it, somehow I did, but I had to get the thing to float first. I now owned a company, a well known brand that was started by 3 guys who used to work for a company called LaTouraine in July of 1928! I felt like I had a responsibility in some strange way to keep the brand and company alive. Well looking back on it now, I had to be out of my mind! We owed the bank $3.2 million dollars, we owed our suppliers another $2 million plus but I knew in my heart we would survive. During those days, those long never ending days, I'd sit in my office and try to think of ways to get out from under this huge, suffocating amount of debt we were in. We immediately started implementing realistic projections based on cash flow, sales, trends, opportunities etc... It barely worked, I mean