Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/50871
COME ON IN: Consumers tend to be worn out after the holidays, so cafés can draw customers in by offering them a space to recharge. and contact the nascent business. "I'll just say, 'Hey, I noticed you have a ribbon cutting at your salon this Friday. Have you thought about coffee for 50 people? We have a chamber discount and can deliver,'" she says. " Most haven't even thought of that and will book us for $60 or $70." Stoney Creek's Minor, meanwhile, notes that the slow months at the front end of the year are when many businesses reassess their vendors just as he does. There's no better time to polish your wholesale coffee, tea or pastry proposal and set up meetings with potential new clients. "No one is looking in November and December because they're so busy," he says. "Now is the time." DO YOUR DANG TAXES! Yes, procrastination often feels like a force best not reckoned with, but using the winter doldrums to fulfill your IRS obligations makes business sense on several levels. First of all, the process forces you to categorize all your expenses, a key step in under- standing what you spent and how you can reduce costs in each area. "You can look and see, for example, that your costs of goods sold is making up 45 percent of your total business costs," says Minor. "Is that reasonable, or is there something you can do to change that? It's budgeting on the back end." Another advantage to knocking your taxes off early in the year: If a growth opportunity presents itself in, say, late-March, and you want to move quickly to get a loan from the bank, your finan- cials will already be in order. Finally, having business taxes completed means you'll be able to move on and get your personal taxes done soon thereafter. That can mean an earlier refund check and one less thing to worry about when business picks back up in the spring. "I've seen people wait until October to finally do them," says Minor. "They extend and extend." RE-SOLIDIFY YOUR ROLE It's common to hear about shop owners whose responsibilities shift as their own businesses evolve. Minor points out that in the last year he has handed over much responsibility for the retail side of the business and taken a bigger role in growing wholesale. When things are slow in the winter, however, an owner can get back to his or her coffee roots. Silk Espresso's McMahon says she works Saturday shifts during the slow season, both to cut back in payroll and to reacquaint herself with the weekend flow. "It makes you work harder, but if you're a small business owner, you aren't in it to be lazy," she says. At the Empress Tea Room in Tampa, fewer customers each day just means that owner Nauman can up her focus on what she views as the central component of her business: giving individual atten- tion to everyone who walks through the door. "The service indus- try is a personality thing," she says. "People want to be appreciated. They want to be loved. People talk about us and say they feel like they're part of the family. That's why they keep coming." freshcup.com January 2012 47