Core 7
The Core 7 are seven areas that we have found to be the biggest operational hurdles for growing coffee roasters to get over.
We believe, that if you master The Core 7, your roaster won’t be following the pack, you’ll be leading it in your market.
-
Sales - some think it's a dirty word but no matter what you think about it, your coffee roaster needs it to survive. In our experience, most roasters don't have an established sales process. This results in unpredictable sales, prospecting, partner care, and growth.
-
That super special micro lot that blows your mind (and is also $17 a lbs.) likely isn’t the thing that offers stability to your coffee roaster.
Roasters need to diversify their offerings and provide additional items to their lineup that are not coffee in order to stay competitive.
-
You’ve probably said or heard a roaster / owner say something like, “If we grow $x.xx in sales…if we open 3 more cafes…if we release more coffees like…we’ll become profitable.”
This is a fallacy of scale.
Scale has the potential to increase your buying power & decrease your cost. Scale doesn’t mean that you’ll wake up & be profitable as a result. Profitability is a practice not a goal.
Like kinetic energy, if you are profitable today you’ll likely continue to be profitable tomorrow and the converse is also true.
-
How should I buy green coffee?
When should I buy green?
How much green should I buy?
Where should I buy from?
All of these are great questions, and the answers are just as unique as you are. The how, what, when and why behind your green buying should all have good answers and we’re here to help you think through this and develop a sustainable process for your green coffee buying practices.
-
The things that got you here today will not be what gets you to where you’d like to go.
Your roastery operations will need to evolve, improve and be iterated on.
-
Your people are what allow you to do the work you do. They are the backbone, the heartbeat, and the movement of your business. How you care for them, hire them, train them, coach them and lead them shouldn’t be an afterthought. You should be putting forethought into your people practices.
-
If wholesale is a core element of your business, it should be something that you spend time working to develop, care for, and improve your wholesale partnerships.