One Man's Journey in The Coffee Industry and Life

Happy Holidays Everyone!! Happy Thanksgiving To the American Crowd! I have been blogging for quite awhile. I hope you know that the content I publish is something I take great pride in. I do promote my services from time to time, and I hope you all understand, that's how I make a living. I also hope you know by now, I don't promote anything on this blog to try(i.e. banners/adverts) that I haven't tried myself and have enjoyed! So, pretty much from Day 1, I have been endorsing Cafe Britt! I have known them for a long time, and they are committed to quality! So this post is all about their Black Friday Promotion Banner you will hopefully see in this blog, but I am sure you will see it on the top right hand corner! They are giving out some GREAT discounts on products, that in my mind, should be twice the price!! Check them out, it is really worth it! Or buy something for the coffee lover in your family! They won't be disappointed!

Hello All of You Passionate Micro -Roasters! A few posts ago I wrote that I would shed some light on how the niche market you are in can be grown and your profitability will increase. The one big hurdle I have faced working in this niche of the industry is the fine line between art & business performance! What I mean by that is, clearly, if you are a micro roaster you are passionate about what you do, most I have worked with and met feel it is more of an art than a business. The problem with the art analogy is, most famous artists don't ever make money until after they're dead! So I hate to break it to you but you need to grow your business and more importantly you need to make a living doing it! Preferably a very comfortable living. So let's look at the limitations, shall we? Obviously the first thing is if you're a micro-roaster you have a limited amount of roasting and packaging capacity! I have worked with several and most pack their product by hand wit

Hi Everyone, My last post was basically a simple method to quickly value a business that you are considering buying. I think there was a little too much tongue and cheek in that post, and especially a lack of properly educating people on the terms I was using! Sometimes I assume too much. I got a lot of people asking me to explain things in more detail. Hey, I am glad to do it. That's one of the reasons I'm here. Also, look for my upcoming podcasts on iTunes. I believe the 1st one will be live next Tuesday. I'll keep you posted. OK. So, what is EBITDA? When you look at a company's financial records there are 2 main things. 1) The all important Balance Sheet. Now here is a tip for some of you who are not as financially knowledgeable as others. RULE #1 All the value on the Balance Sheet is on the Left side of the ledger! That is where you should focus at first. One more tip, NEVER EVER buy a business with a stock transaction!! Always buy their Assets. The reas

hi everyone,  I didn't feel like hitting the cap button on the Hi! So Hi! So how do you value a business? How do you buy a business? How do you know how much its worth and not to overpay? Heavy subject. Easy subject! When you go to buy a business the steps are simple; 1 you sign a non disclosure agreement(no one wants to know the business is for sale!) 2 You do your due diligence, unless you were like me and be a complete nut and just buy it! I read somewhere were David ? bought Victoria's Secrets off of a guy guy for $1 million dollars! Sight unseen? Wow that took guts. I guess the guy he bought the company from, jumped off the Golden Gate bridge about 5 years after he bought it! Business can be very unforgiving. So how do you value a company really quickly? It is very simple. you can do it like Warren Buffet and base it all on cash flow! He has a pretty good track record. ha. or you can base it on a multiple of Ebitda(pronounced ebit-tah -dah)! That is simply

The Coffee industry really hasn't changed very much technically as opposed to many other types of businesses. The same processes that have been used for 50 -60 years are still being used today by many of the countries top coffee manufacturer's. Oh sure, the roasting technology has gotten better, and the equipment for handling and moving the green coffee and finished product around a fully operational plant have improved. But overall the process is still the process. You pick the green coffee according to the grade you want. You receive samples of the lot you want to purchase, you roast up the beans in a small lab roaster,  you cup the coffee to make sure it has the characteristics you are looking for. You want to check for consistencies, defects, make sure there is no ferment,within your spec of moisture levels, the screen size is relatively consistent and then you approve the coffee. Now we always bought coffee 250-300 bags at a time, by origin. So at any given time we wo

Hi Everyone, Back to some basic business blogs. I was asked an interesting question the other day. Do you think you have to be super creative to be a successful entrepreneur? I told him I'd get back to him because I was in the middle of creating a life changing product in my living room! Hey, you have to find the humor or you're sunk, right? But really, it did get me to think. I started thinking how that applied to me as an owner of several businesses. It actually is a fascinating exercise. Having thought about this for a few days, the short and simple answer is, well I'll get to that in just one second.. First though in my experience, there are different definitions of creativity. I believe as a person who has been working for myself now, for over 18 years, it is almost second nature. I mean think about it? When you are an owner/entrepreneur, you are faced daily with situations & problems that require quick decisions on the fly! If you can't adjust, you wi