Bean-Lover Grinds Way To $4,000/Month Family Coffee Business

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

Mmm, guess what I'm doing right now? Right now as I record this episode, I'm drinking a cup of coffee from my local coffee shop, Love Joy Bakers in Portland, Oregon. They're not a sponsor, although I wish they were, because I go there every day. I started drinking coffee when I was a teenager. It's been a consistent part of my life ever since.

These days, tea and chai and kombucha and other beverages have been experiencing a bit of a renaissance, but I really don't think coffee is going anywhere. In fact, if anything, I've noticed as I've traveled the world that specialty coffee and premium roasting has expanded rather than contracted. Welcome to Side Hustle School, my name is Chris Guillebeau, and if you too love coffee, well you might enjoy this episode of a $4,000 a month family coffee business. And yes, it is a side hustle. So even if something is wrong with you and you don't love coffee, you still might learn something from this episode.

Here is a quick message on behalf of our sponsor, and then I'll tell you all about it. Doug Balinte loves coffee. The joy of a freshly brewed cup first thing in the morning is something he'd never want to go without. While most people are happy just drinking coffee, Doug's interest goes much deeper. He loves exploring its history, learning about new blends, and studying the whole process of bean to cup.

A few years ago, his passion for coffee led to roasting his own beans. At first it was just a fun hobby, something to help him understand the process a little more and keep busy in his spare time. Far from being a grind, roasting coffee was something Doug loved to do. He began sharing his knowledge through Facebook, where he'd post pictures of roasts he was particularly proud of. With his skills rapidly brewing and gaining steam, word began to spread.

Doug makes some of the best coffee around, read a typical comment. It wasn't long before friends and family in other parts of the country began asking if they could buy some of his highly regarded beans. Before this, Doug had been selling some of those excess beans to people in his neighborhood. Once he saw there was more demand for his product, an idea began to brew. Far from procrastinating, Doug got straight to procaffeinating, and he decided to turn his little passion project into an additional income source.

He sold his first interstate batches from those initial queries on Facebook and put the money towards the purchase of a propane-powered commercial coffee roaster. This allowed him to increase his output ten-fold. It was also the boiling point in his side hustle adventure. He saw what roasting beans might look like at scale. As the kettle heated up, Doug and his wife decided to get their five young kids involved.

They saw it as a way to teach the kids about business in a practical sense, and they figured at the very least it could be a nice bonding experience. They called it Valente Family Coffee. To get a logo, they logged on to 99designs. This is a website that allows anyone to host a competition for graphic designers. You submit a brief, and designers from all over the world send in their work with hopes of being selected and awarded the prize, usually a few hundred dollars.

With a logo ready, Doug drew on his technical background to build a website, which he got up and running in a weekend. The family packed and shipped orders the very next day and made $500 in sales their first week. For several months, they ran the business this way, drawing on the popularity of the beans across their social network. But soon after, Doug's eight-year-old son came up with an idea for a new distribution channel. He said, "Why don't we roast coffee at the farmer's market?" he said.

And Doug loved the idea. They'd set up an actual roasting station at the market. Customers could watch the process live and be educated on the product. The hope was that if people saw the process, it could lead to increased sales and build a direct bond with customers. The only downside was that this stage of the business required additional capital, a premium roast, if you will.

They had the difficult task of essentially relocating the entire manufacturing part of their business one day each week. On top of that, their local farmer's market required a six-month commitment. In the end, they decided to create a custom-built trailer specific for the market. It allowed them to easily move the entire operation and set up a live roasting station. The cost was $10,000, no small beans, but the good news is that it was largely paid for out of funds already generated by coffee sales.

With the trailer built and their market stall locked in, it was time for the Valentes to go out and espresso themselves, show their local community what they had to offer, make new friends, and hopefully make some money too. So how did it go? Well, the first day was amazing. They made $1 million. Oh, wait.

That's the wrong story. Actually, the first day did not go so well at all. They made a few crucial errors. Error number one, they had no samples. Customers couldn't try any of the beans to determine which ones they liked.

Error number two, no grinder. Lots of people wanted pre-ground beans, but all they had to offer was whole beans. And error number three, they had too many different choices. The paradox of choice kicked in and many customers, feeling overwhelmed, decided to buy nothing instead. Womp, womp.

But it was nothing to get Depresso over, and there's certainly no reason to cry over spilt milk. All these problems had solutions, and over the next three or four appearances, they ironed out the kinks. Customers were happy, and Team Valente was selling around $400 worth of coffee at each market, much of it to repeat customers who returned to the stall week after week to grab more of those delicious beans. The six-month commitment to the farmer's market flew by quickly. All the while, Doug and the family collected feedback from customers.

They talked to everyone that came by, figured out which roast people liked best and why. They've used this feedback to refine the product around what they know is working. With that knowledge in hand, they weren't bitter at all when the farmer's market closed for the winter. Customers who bought at the market simply transitioned to the website. And that brings us to today, where Valente Family Coffee is showing no signs of slowing down.

Across their farmer's market stall and website, they currently earn $4,000 a month. They are clearly in the black, not just with the coffee, but also the money, you know, in the black. Doug still has his day job, but also has big plans for this family business. With the profits generated so far, the Valentes are looking for a brick and mortar location to start their own cafe, a place where they can connect with the local community and make more connections selling the coffee they love. Words cannot espresso how good it feels.

Here is a fun fact we got from Doug and also a sign when you know you have supreme loyalty in your business. Doug said one time a neighbor came and knocked on our door at 8 a.m. one Sunday morning, desperate that his wife had used the last of the coffee he had been given a few days before. You don't understand, he said, I cannot live without your coffee. The neighbor gave him 20 bucks for a pound of coffee with the understanding that he would not frantically knock on the door at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning unless it was a true actual

emergency. So as I said, you've got some true customer loyalty. There are some some supreme desperation even for your product when people are that committed to it. And I'm pretty committed to coffee, too, but I have not had a chance yet to try the Valente family coffee blends. So hopefully at some point I will get that chance.

Last but not least, just a little reminder that something like coffee and industry like coffee is enormous. And there are many, many, many different people and companies making coffee. So it's not like this guy Doug had an idea nobody ever had before. Hey, maybe I'm going to roast my own coffee and sell it. Like lots of people have had that idea.

And that's fine because there are a lot of people who drink coffee. So I just mentioned that because I continue to hear from people all the time who worry that their idea is taken. They're looking for the most unique idea in the world, something no one has ever done before. And my response is always, well, nice work if you can get it. But at the same time, there's probably lots of different things you could think of that just because somebody else has done it doesn't mean there's not a place for you as well.

I will leave you with that today. Don't forget inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. There is something out there for you to even if you love your job, never think of yourself as an entrepreneur. There is a project like this waiting for you if you'd like to check out the show notes and learn more about everything I mentioned today. Just come to sidehustleschool.com/549.

This has been episode 549 be back again tomorrow and I hope you'll join me. This is Chris Guillebeau for side hustle school.