Barista Exchange
Jon Mitchell
Male
Conway, AR
United States
Profile Information:
- What is your position in the coffee industry?
- home barista
- Where are you located? ( City and Country )
- Conway United States
- How many years have you been in the industry?
- 0
- If you are a barista or shop, are you interested in a barista exchange with another coffee shop/barista?
- maybe
- Tell us more about your coffee shop or barista skills.
- I just completed the business and barista training at Bellissimo's American Barista & Coffee School. My barista skills would be considered beginner level. I'm interested in opening a coffee bar here in my hometown of Conway, Arkansas.
- What cities or countries are you interested in traveling to?
- Italy, Australia, ...... anywhere and everywhere really.
- About Me:
- I'm a 31 year old father (of 1 little boy) and husband. I've been in the IT field for almost 10 years now and am looking for something to be passionate about. I'm looking for a career that I can really enjoy and something to satisfy my entrepreneurial desire.
- About My Company:
- My vision for my company is a comfortable-cool, downtown Portland meets college town Arkansas. I want a place that screams quality and knowledgeable specialty coffee. The name will be Zeteo -Coffee Bistro. Zeteo is a greek word that means: to seek i.e. require, demand, to crave, demand something from someone .
The name really describes my search and craving for a career that I can enjoy and be passionate about and it also stands for what I feel my potential customers are searching for, which is a refined specialty coffee establishment that is cool to hang out at. - What is your favorite thing about the coffee industry?
- The sense of community and the culmination of the arts that seem to come together in a coffee shop.
- Website:
- http://www.twitter.com/zeteocoffee
Kim Collins
The demographics of the town are interesting...We are located across the street from a private Baptist University with a student population of around 5K. The city/county itself has about 300K people with only 97K of those living within the city limits. Much of the population tends to reside outside the actual city limits, commute into the city to work and school, which skews the numbers on median household income in the area and other key numbers that help you determine the viability of a location.
We captured the students immediately and have begun to reach out to the non-student population through newspaper articles, food reviews, and a morning catering offering for businesses. We did some fun stuff through finals last semester if you're looking for ideas there too.
Apr 2, 2009
Laurie Criger
Unfortunately, we are NOT in the black yet. Maybe we would have been close to it if the economy hadn't gone south, but I really don't expect to be there until closer to the 5 year mark. I will say, even though I still feel it's the best thing I could do, it has been way more stressful than I could of imagined. I see it slightly picking up now, but it has a long ways to go before I can breath a little easier.
One thing that has really helped it through these first years is that we have provided a music venue that was not offered anywhere else. We invite local bands mostly to play on Friday and Saturday nights. They are paid by tips and a percentage of the sales while they're playing. This encourages them to invite their friends and promote themselves.
I think the only other question I haven't answered is the annual sales. I will estimate it at about $175,000 to $200,000.
Your other email asked about equipment left at my location. It was a walk in cooler that was really handy, until it went out last year and I found out that the repair was going to be $1500 +. I've yet to get it fixed. We use our other refrigerators instead.
Apr 2, 2009
Laurie Criger
Apr 2, 2009