I've blogged previously about why I wanted to roast but in all fairness, I probably haven't done it justice or really let you all into the main reasons why I'm doing what I am doing. I want to give you an insight into how I started Electro Coffee, the struggles, choices and fun I've had along the way. The main reason for this is just to give some real clarity about who Electro Coffee is and what I want it to stand for. So if you're interested I'll be posting content regularly and giving you some insight into how I started.
When I was talking to a friend of mine about blogs he said last time you did this you were blogging but you weren't too sure what you were blogging about. Why don't you just tell people how you got here?
That hit home, it really did. Why would I write about how I got here but then start to think geez, I'm standing here with a fully functioning coffee roasting business. With coffee that people ACTUALLY like and that people ACTUALLY buy. You hear a lot about people saying things like "I'm not that good or there are other people better than me so why should I...". I'm telling you now STOP! Stop saying things like that and give it a go. I did but it took a LONG LONG TIME... I procrastinate you see so any tiny barrier and I'm brakes full on.
So what did I do once I knew I wanted to roast... well got myself a roaster!
But not any old roaster, oh no. I bought what in hindsight now wasn't the greatest decision but it felt like it was at the time... I bought myself an IKAWA Home Roaster. This Ikawa home roaster is pretty much the fire & forget method. You buy the green beans from them you load the app on your phone, pair with the roaster, find the roast recipe for the beans you bought and hit start. 10 mins or so later you've got roasted coffee. Nothing to it. Green coffee goes in, roasted brown goodness comes out. Now I'm nearly £1000 in the hole for a roaster that you don't learn on, but it gives me the buzz and drive to go further. I then start the countless hours of research for an actual proper larger scale coffee roaster. 7 - 8 Months of procrastinating, research and whatnot I chose the Aillio Bullet. This roaster is a piece of art and can roast 1kg at a time compared to the countertop 60g or 0.060kg the Ikawa delivered. Ah-ha there's a catch... it's nearly 2.5 times the price.... they also don't sell it in the UK which means it's from the EU... which means import duty... which means £400 for postage pretty much on top of the cost of the roaster. So now I'm committed, ordered, waiting, praying, checking, looking and it arrives. What have I done? Oh my, I've done something big here. I've got the beating heart of a business right here in front of me in the kitchen and I'm like holy moly. I've got work to do. So it was time to crack on and start learning. Which I did. YouTube videos, forums, books, articles, training sessions all to get my theory knowledge up there where I start to not feel a fraud. That bits important, you have to trust your gut, you have to have confidence in yourself and make sure you commit to what you want.
In each blog, I'll try and sum up a few key lessons so that maybe you too can benefit from what I've been through.
- Figure out the 1 thing you need so you can do the thing you love.
- There'll be a 100 other things that will make it better but what's the one thing you need so you can at least start doing the thing that you love.
- Remind yourself that research is one thing procrastination and stalling is another.
- It gets to a point whereby you start finding reasons not to do the thing you love and I can say in all honesty I was there, I was finding things to not do this, but I had good people around me that pushed me and supported me to move past that
- Be brave
- That moment where your cursor is hovering over that buy now button and you've abandoned the page more than once. If it honestly gives you access to do the things you love or removes things that attack or detracts from the thing you love, do it. you'll feel guilt, but then that passes and you're gonna say... man I wish I did that earlier.
As with all these types of "This is how I did it" blogs you take from it what you want, be responsible, you know your situation better than me and it's not a blueprint to starting a business. This is a commentary on how I started electro coffee.
It would be great to think that you would share this with your friends, family and network and I hope you come back for the next one. If you don't that's ok but it would be good if you could. Think of it as your way of giving us a tip ;)
The next blog will be talking about roast houses, suppliers, rabbit holes and focus on what matters.
Thanks for reading.
Chris @ Electro Coffee