Three lessons In setting up my first coffee business – video tutorials

About 10 years ago, I packed up from Europe and headed to Cape Town, South Africa to set up a cafe, one of my dreams. There are many lessons I learnt on that journey but here I wanted to share with you in a short video the 3 lessons I learnt, which can be applicable for all you aspiring entrepreneurs.

Lessons in coffee business
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Launching my coffee career

I just wanted to let you know that in the spirit of following my passion I’ve decided to take the step to launch my coffee career.

I’ll be offering services as a coffeepreneur ( I love this word) and will offer;

  • Advice on how to set up a quality focused coffee business
  • Advice on coffee shop operation including a competency based Human Resources management plan.
  • Advice on how to find your niche based on your personality and goals
  • Participating in events to speak about the coffee chain and economics ( I studied economics, have an MBA and want to help coffee farmers get access to more fair markets)

It’s March 2020 and my burning desire for many years has been to work one way or another with coffee.

Please Share this news with anyone that wants to get into the #coffeebusiness and talk coffee (for a fee as advised by my wife 😊). We only have one life and I encourage you to #liveafulfillinglife

Follow me on Instagram for daily tips.

Am I a Coffee Expert?

I can’t believe it’s already the last day on January already and that I haven’t blogged in 2020. In any case, I haven’t been wasting my time as, I’ve been learning a lot about how to monetise my passion, COFFEE following my current undertaking of a course by the famous Jay Shetty’s “Passion to Paycheck”. One of the first questions asked was “what would you love to learn for 500 hours?” – that didn’t take much time for me to answer – more about coffee – roasting, growing, and helping coffee farmers to make a better living from it. The second exercise was on taking a personality test, which concluded that I was a Guide – in summary someone that loves learning and wants to enlighten others. Well, I have always wanted to talk and teach people about coffee, making sure that they make it properly and learn a lot about the beautiful bean – hence my blog since 2007.

However, the lesson that got me thinking was embedded in the concept of the 10,000 hour rule, which I think Bill Gates talks about a lot. In summary, the rule says that to be considered a professional or expert in anything, you need to invest at least 10,000 hours in it.

This inspired me to calculate roughly how many hours I have invested in coffee and hence, the picture above, which I shared on Instagram yesterday.

So, am I a coffee expert?

If we use passion and dedication thus far, then many would say YES. In fact, I was thinking about the variable of PASSION. Can we measure it in hours or with some kind of formula ? A task for any mathematician or formulae loving person reading this.

I ask, because whilst I might be able to say I invested 2-3 hours per post on this blog, sometimes it takes hours before I start typing – like today. I’ve been thinking about this post since morning and that’s why if you were watching me as I type, you would notice that I’m not even taking a break, my writing is just flowing, because I’ve already spent time thinking and conceptualising this post – does that sound heavy ? Grab a coffee and relax.

 

So, you may ask what else do I know about coffee ? Perhaps I should have added this above, so here goes.

I spend at least 30 minutes a day making cappuccino in the morning, coffee on a V60 after lunch and coffee on an aeropress after dinner. I have been doing this for several years, but let’s say at least 7. What does that add up to?

30 minutes a day for 345 days a year (I’ve omitted about 20 days for when I travel even though my aero press always comes with me) + 7 years = 72,450 minutes, which in hours is 1,208 approx

Add that to when I only used to spend about 15 minutes making cappuccino between 2006 and 2010 (5 years) and we get

another 432 hours.

So, I guess my grand total so far would be……. 7,670 HOURS.

3,000 to go ????

So am I coffee expert?

I think I can handle myself and I plan on launching my coffee consulting business very soon. My wife has been encouraging me and as they say behind every coffee man (or is it great man, but I don’t want to go there…) is a woman. So watch the space and follow me on instagram for tips.

BEFORE, I go, I encourage you to try this exercise for anything that you are passionate about, as it is essential that you invest in your passion before you quit your job or want to start something on the side before giving it 100% of your time.

 

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