Market your reputation

One thing I’ve learned in life is your word is your bond, and your reputation is everything, so either live up to it or be a hypocrite no one trusts. When I was younger, I tried to do this, but failed often due to my attitude that everyone around me had to change, but I was fine. Reality is the only one I could ever change is myself, and my success and reputation would attract others to try what I was encouraging.

This is actually a pretty basic business concept. When my employees would make a bad looking pizza, I would tell them this is not acceptable, because it is not the image we advertise. We are misleading people if there’s a pretty pizza on the coupon page, but not in the box being delivered. This is life in a nut shell, if I’m asking people to do something or try something like my coffee or my Catholic faith, I need to make sure I’m delivering the best in what I produce and share, with constant improvement in mind. This is capitalism, faith and competition at it’s finest. Always striving to be better, will bring about better results instead of mediocrity. We don’t want to lower the bar, but instead like our athletes, hold ourselves to a high standard in hopes of achieving greatness, and winning in some respect.

This brings me to marketing your business and reputation. When I was younger, many were dumbfounded by my success in these failing franchises. There was one in particular where 75% of their 40+ stores were failing, but the success of the few carried the company and the people at the top were content, while most made barely enough to pay the bills. Kind of like our country. The other 75% regularly made excuses with their superiors for failures until I took over the store and just followed the basics, knowing there was potential. Miraculously in 3-6 months these stores were producing, numbers were up and employees making more money prior to my arrival. This was usually after lots of doubt that I would be there past a month, and that I could do it. 

I wasn’t a genius though, I did some simple things that led to success. The first 3 months I would retrain and hire new crew.  I would build confidence in the possibility good operations, making orders and delivering them to expectations of good product, with good people and service would lead to big success. Then as customers began to trust us, after years of bad service, sales miraculously rose, because they had faith in their experience. We said we would be there in 30 minutes and we were (90 % of the time), we showed up in proper uniform (presentation), we made a hot fresh pizza. This was a big deal by the way, because at that time Domino’s had an inferior product, their own eventual admission in 2010. In addition I am never afraid to give something away for free, trusting I can make a new friend/customer in the mix from that sample experience.

This was a reality though, I had to be even better since I didn’t have the privilege of a good product and these were the ways to rebuild trust. The next 6 months I began building a wave of marketing and around the 6 month mark I would light up the area with my presence and for the next 6 months we rode the wave of momentum. By the year mark they moved me to the next project. On and on for nearly 20 years combined, building others businesses, with no real long term investment return, until I decided to start my own business.

After 10 years of roaming the Catholic Church and visiting anywhere from 500-1000 churches, where people trusted me, through volunteering and buying things for others. Despite my poverty and lack of resources others saw this character value and invested in me. They saw I was authentic, and in that reputation, they welcomed me into their homes, businesses, families, and countries. I then saw a need to share this love with others, and so I developed a brand, that I hope will stay authentic, that continues to let me spend time with people, while producing a unique product. This is the reputation I now brand in my business, and it’s on my tent “Unique Coffee Experience”. I have only been in business since May 2020, but I have success because I have expressed my concept in basic and sometimes creative ways. I then deliver on that promise. People build trust in me and share that experience with others, whether it’s my coffee or my faith, it’s authentic, something we rarely find now days, which helps me to stand out from the rest of the competition and factory style franchises.

It’s all about reputation, people are supporting my business because I roast fresh from 40 countries, instead of serving someone else’s coffee that’s a blend from whatever 3 big discount bags they have. Everything I make is usually right in front of the customer in 12 cultural traditions, so they know it’s sanitary, fresh, and authentic. Then I always offer good conversation, that is uplifting and educating whether it’s the history of coffee or the church, no question is off limits, which has people leaving with an even better taste in their mouth. This is life as a whole, through a business perspective however.

A pretty standard outdoor set up out of the back of my car. First with Uber I built a reputation with one of the highest ratings in NJ with a 4.98 at my peak, which was unheard of by all my Jersey Shore customers. Now my car offers a different 5 star unique experience.