The growth of a nano-roaster: new digs, new roaster, and an oversized ad campaign!

[poison]

Reposted here with PinkRose permission:

I'm a really, really tiny roaster in Los Angeles. I've been roasting for around 10 years now, 2 apprenticing with a master roaster, then 8 on my own. Over those 8 years I've roasted over 20k pounds, 2lbs at a time, on a BBQ roaster in my backyard. I've developed a small, but fierce, following. This year big things are happening, from buying a new, pro roaster, to moving on to a real commercial space, to a big ad campaign that just hit the internet yesterday. You can read more here:

http://www.coffeeforums.com/forum/coffee-roasters/11332-bbq-sf6.html

The ad campaign is interesting: my wife happens to know someone working on the team at a prestigious ad agency. He told us some time ago that he was working on a campaign for a large corporation, in which they were going to feature 4 small businesses. Seeing as he was on the design tam, he put our name in the hat as one of the potential featured businesses, and to make it short, we were chosen! We did a photo shoot, but missed the video shoot due to me losing my voice the day before, and generaly being sick. Anyway, they redesigned our packaging, from this:

To what you see in the ad campaign:

The corporation is Avery Dennison, they make all kinds of things, from car wraps, to the little plastic thing you bite when you bite tags off clothes, to what we are starting to use in the pic above, labels we can print ourselves. The ad agency did the redesign, and it's all using Avery labels to make it happen. Pretty sweet, and a significant upgrade from my hand-stamped bags and hand-written origin and date. Oh, yes, that's my wife holding the bag.

Here are some more banner ads:

They were all over www.inc.com yesterday, but here's the main page:

http://www.avery.com/avery/en_us/Pr...tartUpLanding-300x250_flash_westcoastroasters

So, back to the roaster. One of the reasons I bought it was because I wanted to be able to capitalize on this campaign. I hope it brings more business than the roaster can handle! :twisted: We're only a day in, but traffic on my site is already up.

Fingers crossed!

 

[PinkRose]

Hi Poison,

Thanks for the re-post.

It's always great when our members share their triumphs along with their challenges.

Rose

 

[HRC]

Very awesome and fortunate. Congrats.

 

[poison]

Thanks, both of you.

“It wasn't an excuse. It was a fact. He'd had to make his way alone, and no one—not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses — ever makes it alone.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success

I've been doing this, against all reason, for 8 years, while working 60-72 hours a week at my day job (you know, the one that pays the bills), trying to get my black belt in judo (just received it last month, despite everything in life conspiring against it), and spending as much time with my family as I can (never enough). And the more I do it, the more that quote means to me. Even if it's the bank loan officer looking you in the eye, and making a gut judgement to sign off on a business loan, because he believes you are capable, it's help. Help can come from many places, even if it's a random ad campaign that fell into our laps.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

Good luck... I wish you to best

 

[fcarga]

Congratulations on persevering!

 

[poison]

Awesome, thank you. Today I should get the tracking number for my roaster!