Invest, but do so wisely

I wanted to write on this topic for a while due to the constant struggle of balance. Very often we are afraid to spend money we don’t necessarily have, on something we do not necessarily know will bring results. In the end, this is what the American Dream is all about, are you willing to take a risk which should be calculated in some form, or will you just bury your talents and settle for a paycheck to get by on. There are many ways to invest, but I want to focus on the most basic concept first, which is investing in yourself trusting you will gain a return.

To begin I have shared in previous blogs my modest investments to buy key pieces of equipment to get the foundations of my business in place. In addition I have bought lots of small items from 1-5 lb bags of beans which I roasted and shared with others for feed back, to recently purchasing larger amounts when it was optimal for a reasonable price to protect my profit margin. In addition I have bought small pieces of equipment like Turkish coffee pots, French Presses, Ethiopian Jebenas, Vietnamese filters and other brewing methods as I found good pricing on them. This is needed if I hope to serve a larger audience. I am reminded of this importance, to have what you need to serve a base you hope to have. It’s a tough balance, but something I learned early in my pizza career to do. Very often we would have a limited amount of phone lines, to where customers often got a busy sound during peak hours. For years the company would be reluctant to add phone lines. Finally when I came along I began to encourage this, and as we doubled our lines, customers began trusting we were interested in taking their orders. Previously they just went somewhere else. Online ordering has obviously revolutionized this problem, but too often change is slow, and it’s why so many companies struggle to get by, rather than adapt to the needs of the business and grow. Proper investing is the key. Maximize results on a tight budget.

I share this, because it’s such a basic concept that is foreign to the over educated, it’s basic supply and demand. Take the order, serve the order in a timely manner with quality, repeat. This concept alone will yield results. It was a simple concept that was forever cemented in me when I was watching a season of The Apprentice. It was the college grads vs the high school grads. The college grads were doing all types of silly things in front of the Burger King they were promoting, they lost the competition to the high school grads who simply had 4 people at the counter to take the orders of the customers walking in the door from a busy NYC street. This is pretty much how most of the season went. For me personally, it forever solidified my business approach. Many thought I had some magical ability to turn stores around, which out of 33 that I managed, 31 were successfully turned around. Every time however I always emphasized, I did nothing special, I just did the basics and I did them well. I gave the product that was advertised in the picture, anything less is false advertising. I worked hard to get it in a timely manner, usually 30 minutes to the door, something most delivery business’ struggle to do. I made sure my product was always fresh, thanks to proper ordering and handling of my product, something a majority of restaurants do not do, even though they boast that they do.

My most recent place of employment for example has wondered why their sales have declined by 50% over the past couple of years. They blame the owner who was foolish, yet not a day goes by we aren’t using some kind of expired product or providing some kind of poor service. Eventually people will go elsewhere, and 50% of them have. This is another area we can invest. If we are willing to invest a little bit of time in managing our business, we will in the long run ensure things don’t go off the rails.

Some small examples I see is we do not invest in training our expectations, so quickly an employee just does it the way he thinks it should be instead of understanding why something should be one to a certain standard. For example in my case coffee. One might just take my coffee grind it up and let it sit around for several weeks. If I don’t communicate to that person the importance of keeping it whole bean to ensure a fresh flavor, and investing in a grinder to enjoy it fresh everyday, they might make my product poorly and then think I have a bad product. If however I communicate that once a bean is roasted, it’s freshness peaks at 30 days, but once ground it begins to lose freshness every 15 minutes. If they understand air, and sunlight also hurt the beans maximum potential they would become more conscious of how they handle my product. This is important if they are going to make the investment in a craft coffee that I produce, which will usually be more expensive than something stale in your grocery store.

Think about this in all aspects of your life, and think about yourself and how you would want to be treated. Instead of just being told do it, because that’s the way it is, appreciate the reasons behind why. In doing so you will have a great appreciation for how and why it was invented or made. This concept is a reason I have learned to love the American Dream. As I learned more about why or what it is from those who came from other countries. They invested everything they have into coming here to chase that dream of liberty and freedom, in the pursuit of happiness, through owning their own business. Through the foundation of basic rules and laws they made their ways to participating in a system that gave them the best potential in life, saving and investing in themselves.

My inventory which brings me joy as the second half arrived today on the eve of The Annunciation. This is approximately 30 different countries and 400 lbs. of beans. For a home based business I’m amazed at how far I’ve come from 1 year ago, when all I had was a 50 lb bag that was a gift from Vietnam and some sample packs. Now I have a diverse portfolio which is a rarity from my experience so far.