Could you repeat that? HAHA

Kandi here after a loooong break from the blog. Haven’t had enough time to pay attention to this.

Had to post something though after a phone conversation I just had. The photos depict my first and then final emotions. :-)

Having your own business sure does stay interesting. I’ll try to explain as briefly as possible without giving away the identities……

Did a follow up call to a business that has a few things going on, all farm to table type food related.
Months ago, Dave gave one of the family members samples of our coffee along with the wholesale info to take back to the rest for potentially offering it at their “cafe”.

Here’s the conversation summary…..
After identifying myself to the “Boss” and explaining the above story to him,  I was given a lesson in what makes good coffee. They need a water filtration system and good water is essential (I agree with that). But, did you know that roasting the coffee is the LAST on the list of what makes good coffee?
The answer to my question as to whether they had even tried our coffee yet….
"We drink lots of coffee here, so I’m sure it was gone within the week. Hey, _______blank for the name__,  did you try that coffee that you brought back from the installation place?” Heard from the background _________’s answer: “Oh yea, thanks”.  Relayed back to me that ______ said thanks for the coffee. I ended the call by saying that I think the best route is to figure that “We won’t call you, you can call us if or when you’re ready and interested. Thank you for your time.”

and then for the photos above …..


Reminds me of another call months ago. Waited for 2 years after an owner said he wanted our coffee in their high end store. Finally after several managers,  they finally ordered and it was only dark roasted coffee  (even after I mentioned that he might want to have a few medium or light roasts for other tastes).
Fast forward a couple of weeks later, and knowing the coffee was sold……
The manager said he wouldn’t order again because a couple of customers complained. Wait for the punch line.  The customers said that the coffee was roasted too dark.

Refer to the photos again…..
A friend, Michelle G, said I should’ve “Bitch Slapped him”.  LMAO

God I love this business! Definitely keeps you on your toes as they say! Certainly need to have a sense of humor or you’d go nuts. Or maybe I am nuts!??  :-)

( I’m sure anyone that has their own small business can relate to these stories. )

Gotta go. Have e-mails to reply to:

•  a large order from two farm owners near Penn State that found us while they were in Brazil at the farm where we get our beans
• reply to TX from 2 ladies whose business has grown that they’re on Great American Country channel. Tried our coffee and sent us feedback “Your coffee is awesome!!! Thank you so much for sending samples. We’ll definitely be in touch”….etc

At least someone loves us.  XXOO

Must remember this when things get difficult.

Found this post  from: Living off the Grid facebook page-  https://www.facebook.com/holdingearth

I loved this quote! 

It made me reflect, looking back through a couple decades.

 I thought I would share it along with my reflections. 

I thought about having a coffee roasting business …

Due to divorce, I left Nantucket with a baby, two large dogs and a 17 foot U-Haul towing an old Land Rover behind. With the help of my family, we moved back home to Ligonier arriving May 1, 1994. May Day! I remember thinking how significant it was. May Day meaning new beginnings OR May Day!! as the international distress signal. I think in our case, it was a little bit of both. 

In any case, I had hoped that this change of events would also bring along new, positive changes as time wore on. One thought I had was to start a coffee roasting business. A friend on Nantucket had done so and it piqued my interest. His was in a warehouse though. I had my own ideas of how to do this. At the time there was a building for sale in Ligonier that I always loved and  it was perfect for a  cafe & roastery. I knew what I wanted,  even down to the details of the furniture, ambiance etc. This was a time when there were no such businesses in Ligonier or the surrounding area. Now cafes in town are like antique stores used to be. (There are approximately nine to ten now. Not sure because some do not last long.) In any case, the idea didn’t work out for many reasons all those years ago.

Fast forward to the spring of 2010. Poor Dave agreed to the “bean brain idea” & in June, we brought our roaster home to PA and began the adventure/business. No cafe and roastery in the building I wanted (or any building for that matter) yet. However, we have a small building for the roaster, the business is growing and 3 1/2 yrs old now. Things are going the right way, just not fast enough for our taste. I think I must remember this quote. 
Kandi

New Client!!

Just roasted beans for a new client, Wild Purveyors in Lawrenceville!! Go check the store out! 

Wish they were closer to us. They were spotlighted in November’s episode of Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods show. 

Thank you Wild Purveyors! 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wild-Purveyors/261165283179?fref=ts

Rubbing salt in the wound….

Trying to fight with the computer making edits and just googled our name. Here is the first 

search result….    

HugeDomains.com - OldLinnruncoffeebeanroastery.com is for Sale ...

oldlinnruncoffeebeanroastery.com/‎

Click here to buy OldLinnruncoffeebeanroastery.com for $1,795. Create a blog, promote your business, or build a site for your personal use. Your web address is  …

$1,795???? Really? Guess we should feel impressed that it’s worth that much. haha

FACEBOOK SHOP BUTTON

Just finished getting the Shop on facebook.  

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Old-Linn-Run-Coffee-Bean-Roastery/105002949554694

Hoping it works okay. Should be able to click on the Shop button, refer to above image, and click on 2 choices:                            fresh roasted beans or bath and beauty products.

Then just read the info, scroll down to click on the choices,        (go back to store if want to switch from beans to scrubs etc).              Shipping is calculated + Paypal payments set up 

This was built due to a newer customer, Steve C., from Pittsburgh’s advice to do so. He knew of others that would be interested in purchasing from elsewhere, However, they needed an easier way to do so rather than the phone call/e-mail choices. This option allows for Paypal payments. 

It took me over a month to set this up, being the chicken about making mistakes that may not be able to be undone. This has been a trial and error experience. Please bear with me if there are issues at first. I will probably have to tweak this a bit. There’s no option for pick up/no shipping cost, for instance. Still have to figure that out with the site I’m using. 

Any feedback will be appreciated!! Kandi

What’s New for 2014 and Looking Back

Like everyone, we’ve been busy. Now that things have calmed down, there’s more time to attempt to grow the business. Have a ton of ideas, but not always the time and/or $ to see them come to fruition.

Hoping 2014 will be more productive & FUN too!
Wish List:

• We have some more potential businesses in the works to carry our coffee (and one or two that just didn’t “resonate” with us, a term our friend Granny Earth says now and then. LOL) 
• We’re trying to get the kinks worked out to offer OLR CUPS to be compatible with the Keurig.
• Want to add to the items we offer  
• Commercial Kitchen of some type necessary to do some of those ideas we have
• Get the Latte Friends membership started
• and and and...….. 

Looking back through the year there have been some positive changes.

• We’re almost done with the roastery building, but not sure what to do with a home based business license. lol
• Expanded our setup at Ligonier Country Market by adding a second tent. We wanted to make it less crowded for our Market friends and us.
• Added some new clients:

Planet Goodness LLC in N. Vandergrift has added our coffee to their store.
https://www.facebook.com/PlanetGoodnessllc?ref=ts&fref=ts

 Latrobe Art Center’s Neighborhood Cafe has been brewing and retailing our coffee for months now.
https://www.facebook.com/LACNeighborhoodCafe?fref=ts

Giant Eagle in Ligonier has our shelf of coffee in the Bakery Section, as of November.

• Have 2 customers receiving a “coffee selection of the month” for a year as gifts
• Some customers set up an ongoing schedule to ship to them
• Our coffee traveled to Scotland again, Nantucket, Alaska + it’s regular trip to Florida every month or so
• Painted my first card with coffee to accompany gifts from a friend/customer to another friend/customer. Been wanting to try my hand at that for a looong time. It was a simple design but turned out okay I think. Cathy, Jen + Buddha  acted like they liked it at least. lol
• I know I’m forgetting things but… this is good for now. 

To all, we wish you a Healthy, Happy and Prosperous New Year!

* http://grannyearth.com/

NEED FEEDBACK!!!

Need feedback PLEASE! Considering offering “OLR-Cups” for single serve Keurig compatible brewing. Pre-orders and ??? Still in the figuring it out stage. Want to know if there’s interest because it will be time intensive +. Would really appreciate responses. We know that the cost to purchase is a factor too. Any thoughts??  (Not affiliated with Keurig)