Hi all

[Danno]

Hi everyone, long time coffeeforum follower from southwest Wisconsin and finally registered. As I'm nearing retirement age, my wife and I decided a while back that starting a small coffee roasting business in our area would be a great way to: have some fun, serve our community, learn, and who knows, maybe even make a little money. Been home roasting for quite a while but recently, we took the plunge and purchased a small 1k gas roaster. It should be arriving any day. This will be a home based business and as neither of us has any prior business experience, I'm sure we will from time to time, be relying on the knowledge of the more experienced forum members here for guidance. We have a lot to do: finish shop, set up roaster, learn how to roast on it, get beans, bags, labels, logo, website, customers, etc. etc. (minor details, right?) But hey, it's exciting, fun, and we're in no hurry.
So that's my story. Gonna end this post and go post my first of many questions. Lookin forward to talkin with you folks. Later, Danno

 

[topher]

Congrats Dano! Have you thought of selling at a farmers market? Websites are great but you have to have traffic to your site...unless you want to shell out a lot of money to a marketing company you might want to have other avenues for revenue. What brand roaster did you go with? If you need any direction or connections on bags, beans or anything else let us know. There are loads of people here with loads of experience. Good luck and look forward to hearing about your adventure!

 

[Danno]

Thanks for the welcome. Yes, we are definitely planning to sell at some of our local farmers markets. There are around six of them that are on different days of the week. We are hoping to have all of our permits by May when the first markets start. The only problem is that two or three of them are run by the county and one of their rules is that everything you sell must be grown or produced 100% on your farm, so we'll have to do some checking on that. I know what you mean about getting traffic to a website. I've ran a website to help raise awareness about world hunger and poverty for a couple of years now and it gets pretty frustrating sometimes. We do also plan to try and get our coffee in some local gift shops and some of the smaller grocery stores. We're not looking to get too big. As far as our roaster goes, we looked at U.S., SF, and Toper, then since we're only a couple of hours away, we drove up to Minneapolis and checked out the North Coffee at Mill City Roasters. I was impressed by the build quality as well as the included features. We got to see it in action and we really liked what we saw. The two main points that sold us were the value (what you get for the price, and the close proximity of service and support. I do have several questions on bags and labels but will save them for another thread. We should be set on beans as we are centrally located between Café Imports (Mnpls, Mn.) and Royal (Madison, Wi.) Thanks for listening, I'm off to work Later.

 

[topher]

Here is my email... [email protected] if you need any thing hit me up.

 

[Danno]

Thanks Topher, I'll do that.

 

[peterjschmidt]

Danno,

I'm in Milwaukee, if you ever get to this side of the state, stop in. I was at Mill City Roasters in June too, more on a social visit to meet Steve and some other Twin Cities buddies; they have a good thing going there. And I've been buying from Cafe Imports and Royal for some time. Depending on your volume, you may want to choose one and build a strong relationship with one of them first, rather than be a two-bag-Billy and find that they don't want to deal with a small volume. Also, both will want to know that they are dealing with an actual roasting business before they give you the time of day.

Another consideration is the size of your roaster. A buddy in British Colombia was planning on a 1K from Mill City, and after I suggested he think about a 2K he realized it's not that much more to buy or operate. There's nothing you can do on a 1K that you can't do on a 2K, but there is a big 'something' you can do on a 2K that you can't on a 1K; save time.

 

[smalltowngirl13]

Welcome aboard, congrats and good luck on the endeavor!

 

[Danno]

Thanks, we usually make to Milwaukee for a Brewers game or two every year, so we'll just take you up on that. Good advice on sticking with one importer since my volume will be pretty low to start. I was thinking of going with Cafe Imports. I've heard some good things about them, and got a good feel for them when I called and talked to a sales rep. Since you've got experience with both, do you have any preference or reason for choosing one over the other?
We went round and round on roaster size, and have actually already bought the 1k. In fact, it's supposed to be delivered today, so, too late now. Not gonna have any regrets, just gonna go with it and have fun. I think it'll be fine. It will be a nice little roaster to learn on, and when, or if, we outgrow it, we'll have a sweet little batch/sample roaster.

 

[Danno]

Hey thanks stg. Lookin' forward to it! Btw, we live just outside of West Salem, Wi. pop. 5258. Love bein' able to go just about anywhere and run into someone you know.

 

[StarCoffee]

Hi everyone, long time coffeeforum follower from southwest Wisconsin and finally registered. As I'm nearing retirement age, my wife and I decided a while back that starting a small coffee roasting business in our area would be a great way to: have some fun, serve our community, learn, and who knows, maybe even make a little money. Been home roasting for quite a while but recently, we took the plunge and purchased a small 1k gas roaster. It should be arriving any day. This will be a home based business and as neither of us has any prior business experience, I'm sure we will from time to time, be relying on the knowledge of the more experienced forum members here for guidance. We have a lot to do: finish shop, set up roaster, learn how to roast on it, get beans, bags, labels, logo, website, customers, etc. etc. (minor details, right?) But hey, it's exciting, fun, and we're in no hurry.
So that's my story. Gonna end this post and go post my first of many questions. Lookin forward to talkin with you folks. Later, Danno

Hi Danno! It's nice to hear from you. Just curious, what 1k gas roaster did you get? Sounds like it costs a bomb...All the best with the business! Welcome to the forums

 

[Danno]

Hi SC, Thanks for the welcome. We went with the North Coffee 1k roaster. We live a couple of hours from Mill City Roasters in Mpls, Mn., so took a trip up there and checked it out. It's a sweet little roaster. Full featured and well(over)built, for quite a bit less than others we checked into. Very happy with it so far. Thanks again! Dan