@@ForgeValleyRoasters Hey i wrote a bunch of questions and topics I'd love for you to discuss in upcomming videos! If any questions are too revealing, repetitive or for any other reason, feel free to skip them, also you could just use these topics as ideas for videos. I liked your idea of doing a video on startup costs and an end-of-year reflection as you suggested! How do you market your coffee and reach new customers? Is it mostly through farmers markets like in your first video? Do you have any partnerships or collaborations with cafes, restaurants, or other businesses? I saw on your website that you want to sell wholesale, and I remember you selling tea at the farmers market. What software or tools do you use to run your business more efficiently? How do you develop new coffee blends or roasts, and when do you decide to add them to your lineup? Has starting your RUclips channel (or other social media) helped you reach new customers? How do you differentiate yourself from other coffee roasters? For example, I see you offer free shipping to nearby customers, which is smart! Are there other ways you stand out? In my area (Stockholm), no roaster sells 1kg bags of coffee (that i know of at least) most only sell less than 250g bags. Why do you think that is? Is it to encourage more frequent purchases or to ensure freshness? What is your favorite roast that you sell, and how do you like your coffee prepared? Espresso, filter, or another method? What trends in the coffee industry do you think are overhyped? Are there any emerging trends you’re particularly excited about?
@@justwater9763 these are all fantastic questions!!! I'll take each of them and put them into my notes for next video topics! I think I could probably do a whole video just answering these but actually you asked a lot of questions that are often asked at the markets too so I think a lot of people share your curiosity on these topics. At the very least I'll answer one of those here as it's an easy one. The 1kg bag idea serves 2 purposes. First is that our wholesale cafe custotmers tend to order boxes of 6 x 1kg and I understand that's quite common too. Secondly, from our own retail business everyone wins because customer gets '4 for the price of 3' (i.e. it's 25% cheaper to buy 1kg than 4 x 250g) and we save 75% on the packaging and labour cost so much better margin for us! Bonus 3rd reason is we have one wholesale customer who sells the coffee free weight to save packaging and they order 1kg bags to do that!
@@justwater9763 for better or worse I am going to follow the path of radical transparency because I believe that the more people who get into this the better it is for the industry and I hope to one day offer classes on this stuff too!
@@ForgeValleyRoasters it makes sense why you do it with both less labor, less packaging and wholesale but it’s just annoying for me that nobody in my area seems to do the same lol
Very insightful thanks for sharing. Would be keen to hear how you grew your customer base and tapped into other revenue streams. I've been going for a year in Hong kong as a side business to my main job, mainly selling to customers and from markets /word mouth in community. Looking to get some tips on that if you can 🙏 Cheers from Jim @thelotroastery
Heya Jim I feel that pain, I'm still working my day job too and have to fit everything into evenings or weekends! We found that selling to shops was easiest first because the margins are healthier and it's lower volume as you figure out how to supply wholesale. We recently started doing cafe's too but had to work hard to find a lower cost but great tasting specialty coffee that would suit. Not sure on your local pricing but we found that the 'typical' wholesale cafe price is about £18 per kg but we managed to find an SCA 85 brazillian that could get us under that wholesale price to customers and that's proven a winner (and some have actually upgraded to a more expensive coffee since starting with that Brazil!). Does that help?
@ForgeValleyRoasters yes it does help thank you. I'll need to brush up on my sales patter to focus on getting into venues. I also used to by from redber and Rave to get my green in the start when i was starting out on the Ikawa home.....now i get my green by using Pebble from Taiwan. I see you use falcon which I hear is popular as well. I like your branding...I tend to use Instagram and WhatsApp to share my menu out.....how do you get your message out there?
@@jimschofield968 gotta be face to face I think. If I look back at all our biggest orders and deals they've 100% come from a face to face interaction. Good 'ol knocking on doors, giving samples and introducing myself as the roaster. I think it's been especially impactful near us as it's quite a 'local' community that's well connected with eachother. Takes time too, some people took 3 or 4 months before they ordered with us for the first time!
@@ForgeValleyRoasters cheers for the tip and I'll certainly be more proactive on this angle from here on and sign up for more markets. Good luck for the upcoming season.
Ty for these videos! So much interesting information that don’t really exist that much online!
You are very welcome! I felt the same way which is what inspired me to start posting. What else would you like to learn about?
@@ForgeValleyRoasters Hey i wrote a bunch of questions and topics I'd love for you to discuss in upcomming videos! If any questions are too revealing, repetitive or for any other reason, feel free to skip them, also you could just use these topics as ideas for videos. I liked your idea of doing a video on startup costs and an end-of-year reflection as you suggested! How do you market your coffee and reach new customers? Is it mostly through farmers markets like in your first video? Do you have any partnerships or collaborations with cafes, restaurants, or other businesses? I saw on your website that you want to sell wholesale, and I remember you selling tea at the farmers market. What software or tools do you use to run your business more efficiently? How do you develop new coffee blends or roasts, and when do you decide to add them to your lineup? Has starting your RUclips channel (or other social media) helped you reach new customers? How do you differentiate yourself from other coffee roasters? For example, I see you offer free shipping to nearby customers, which is smart! Are there other ways you stand out? In my area (Stockholm), no roaster sells 1kg bags of coffee (that i know of at least) most only sell less than 250g bags. Why do you think that is? Is it to encourage more frequent purchases or to ensure freshness? What is your favorite roast that you sell, and how do you like your coffee prepared? Espresso, filter, or another method? What trends in the coffee industry do you think are overhyped? Are there any emerging trends you’re particularly excited about?
@@justwater9763 these are all fantastic questions!!! I'll take each of them and put them into my notes for next video topics! I think I could probably do a whole video just answering these but actually you asked a lot of questions that are often asked at the markets too so I think a lot of people share your curiosity on these topics. At the very least I'll answer one of those here as it's an easy one. The 1kg bag idea serves 2 purposes. First is that our wholesale cafe custotmers tend to order boxes of 6 x 1kg and I understand that's quite common too. Secondly, from our own retail business everyone wins because customer gets '4 for the price of 3' (i.e. it's 25% cheaper to buy 1kg than 4 x 250g) and we save 75% on the packaging and labour cost so much better margin for us! Bonus 3rd reason is we have one wholesale customer who sells the coffee free weight to save packaging and they order 1kg bags to do that!
@@justwater9763 for better or worse I am going to follow the path of radical transparency because I believe that the more people who get into this the better it is for the industry and I hope to one day offer classes on this stuff too!
@@ForgeValleyRoasters it makes sense why you do it with both less labor, less packaging and wholesale but it’s just annoying for me that nobody in my area seems to do the same lol
Very insightful thanks for sharing. Would be keen to hear how you grew your customer base and tapped into other revenue streams. I've been going for a year in Hong kong as a side business to my main job, mainly selling to customers and from markets /word mouth in community. Looking to get some tips on that if you can 🙏 Cheers from Jim
@thelotroastery
Heya Jim I feel that pain, I'm still working my day job too and have to fit everything into evenings or weekends! We found that selling to shops was easiest first because the margins are healthier and it's lower volume as you figure out how to supply wholesale. We recently started doing cafe's too but had to work hard to find a lower cost but great tasting specialty coffee that would suit. Not sure on your local pricing but we found that the 'typical' wholesale cafe price is about £18 per kg but we managed to find an SCA 85 brazillian that could get us under that wholesale price to customers and that's proven a winner (and some have actually upgraded to a more expensive coffee since starting with that Brazil!). Does that help?
@ForgeValleyRoasters yes it does help thank you. I'll need to brush up on my sales patter to focus on getting into venues. I also used to by from redber and Rave to get my green in the start when i was starting out on the Ikawa home.....now i get my green by using Pebble from Taiwan. I see you use falcon which I hear is popular as well. I like your branding...I tend to use Instagram and WhatsApp to share my menu out.....how do you get your message out there?
@@jimschofield968 gotta be face to face I think. If I look back at all our biggest orders and deals they've 100% come from a face to face interaction. Good 'ol knocking on doors, giving samples and introducing myself as the roaster. I think it's been especially impactful near us as it's quite a 'local' community that's well connected with eachother. Takes time too, some people took 3 or 4 months before they ordered with us for the first time!
@@ForgeValleyRoasters cheers for the tip and I'll certainly be more proactive on this angle from here on and sign up for more markets. Good luck for the upcoming season.