Creating a coffee bar and working in retail all boils down to practicing hospitality. We want to practice this on behalf of our guests and our staff but without taking a critical look at how and who we welcome in, we are not really showing hospitality. We need to look at our thoughts, behaviors, and actions critically in order to …
Today we are talking about scaling and transitions with the founder of Indie Coffee Roasters, Alec Tod! Founded in 2013 with a home roaster on his back patio, the business has undergone several stages of change and growth over the years to get them to where they are today in their new retail / roasting facility serving the people of …
Sometimes we can overestimate how bad the customer is and in the process make ourselves out to be so very righteous. It is a reality in every bar I have seen that we are blind to the double standard for what we accept from the customer vs what we…
How well do you know your business? I’m not talking about the numbers and the stuff that is accessible through the POS or spreadsheets. I am talking about the life of the business and the people and cultures that make it up. The incredible number of intangibles that create the life of an organization. A lot of us assume we …
We tend to have a mindset toward systems that breeds a lack of clarity, break downs in communication, and generally an unpleasant and even toxic environment in the work place. Today we are going to chat about viewing systems as a primary form of…
Coffee is more than just a drink. It can also be a vehicle for change. Ending teen homelessness through coffee is the vision of today’s guests, Brian Washington and Averett Barksdale. Established in 2019, Rugid Grind is a for-profit coffee provider that, as of now, acts as the sole supporter and funder of The Oneighty Project, a nonprofit dedicated …
Bringing a new employee onto the bar is often a hasty effort. Unfortunately, when we do this, we end up paying for it in the long run. Today we chat about the sink or swim mentality of on-boarding and what managers need to practice in order to…
As goes the culture, so goes the company. This is just a fact. All of us want to be able to say that our employee cultures are strong, vibrant, and dedicated to the vision we have set for the company. Unfortunately though, it aint that easy. Today we are addressing this with what I believe may be the most …
There are many qualities that contribute to being a solid professional in the coffee shop. Today we are going to focus on two particular qualities that are very critical to get right in the beginning and can set you up for success in the future….
We all know that training is one of the most critical skills to master in the professional coffee world. Entire careers are made or broken by the influence of a great or a terrible training experience. It stands to reason then that we would go out of our way to find the best examples of training done right …
