Each one of our shops tell many stories. The story of our own arrival as owners, the story of the coffee and the efforts it has taken to get to a finished product, the story of our community and customers and the parts they play in shaping their world and shop itself. A coffee shop is at once a reflection …
Coffee shop owners, do you ever feel as though the entire world is on your shoulders and that one mistake will send the whole business crashing down? The pressures and expectations that cafe operators face drive many to pursue unrealistic standards…
Being a manager in a coffee shop may be one of the most difficult jobs in the cafe. Not only do you bear the responsibility of the daily operations, you also have the expectations from the owners as well as your barista team. Most managers are barely making is through. Much of the stress experienced can be avoided when we …
One of the most critical parts of leadership in a cafe is how you invest in developing those you lead. Depending on how it is done, evaluating and assessing performance can either inspire and encourage, or it can deflate and discourage. Today on…
Learning to roast and hone one’s skill in the craft is a difficult task. Add to that the pursuit of competition and leading an entire department of a to U.S. coffee business and you have yourself one very talented coffee professional. Today I am…
Too many times we confuse giving feedback with lecturing our staff which easily shuts down the person we were intending to communicate with. Feedback is critical to your culture but, As past guest and friend of the show,Tom Henschel has said,…
Developing the wholesale arm of your coffee roasting company boils down to the value can you offer your potential customers. Beyond the coffee itself, your wholesale customer needs assistance in their own coffee journey and your company,…
Welcome to another episode in the live from Coffee Fest interview series! This is a series of 4 conversations with presenters on the show floor at Coffee Fest NYC. The topics range from how to connect with community, running a successful mobile…
How many times have we fallen prey to assumptions about one another in the cafe that end up creating needless strife and hold back progress at maybe the most critical point in the supply chain? Answer, too many times to count. We create these…
Being technically skilled as a leader is a small part of what makes one effective. The larger part of cafe effective leadership has to do with emotional skill and how we either create or destroy relationship in the daily life of our coffee businesses. The impact of our over-focus on technical skill leads to many cultural issues that eventually show …
