JavaStack

     When I picture my business, I see it built around teaching people how to make great coffee through hands-on classes. At the same time, I plan to run a traditional café so customers can see we genuinely know how to make high-quality drinks. After all, if the coffee we serve isn’t high quality, why would anyone trust us to teach them? In that sense, the coffee we sell acts like advertising for our classes, showing customers what they can learn.      To boost sales, especially during the holiday season, I want to offer coffee-making packages. These could include beginner kits like maybe a simple pour over setup or entry-level espresso machine along with more advanced bundles for those who want to refine their brewing skills. Each package would come with a coupon or voucher for our classes, encouraging people to deepen their knowledge and return for more experiences. This not only expands our product range but also strengthens our reputation as a go to spo...

     When analyzing who and what my three competitors to my business would be, Starbucks is the first that comes to mind.  They are possibly the most recognizable coffee chain in the world, and they have locations globally.  There are at least 4 within a 10 minute drive of my house.  They offer convenience and consistency, which is hard to beat.  People like what they like, and if they know what they enjoy from starbucks, they can get it from any location with minimal variation.  They also have great branding and promotions, which adds another element of how they are tough to compete with.  Although they lack speciality roasts, minimal personal touch, and no learning element.      The 2nd that I thought of is Nespresso.  They offer easy to use coffee machines that lets their users make espresso at home with low effort.  Their product is impressive, and is a simple to use machine and capsule system that offers a decent...

I enjoyed in Eric’s presentation that he talked about his successes and failures.  He started with talking about how he got his start in running a business with his time at the non-profit theater, before buying his own theater.  He mentioned that a lot of what he had learned had translated over well, and even though he had the experience, it still did not work out.  He admitted that it was in part due to it being harder to sell people on plays as opposed to movies, but there was still a lot that he had learned from the experience. I also thought it was interesting that he was selling/advertising a book that he had not even written yet.  By creating a site for the book and a waiting list he was able to gauge interest in running small non-profits before writing a book about his experiences.  I also liked that his presentation showed that entrepreneurship can be for small niches.  His book may not have mass audience appeal, but it still sells very well, espec...