Original post 11/4/2019, updated 12/2/2025
"Never drink black coffee at lunch; it will keep you awake all afternoon." - Jilly Cooper
Where was I? Right working a steady, well paying job that I hated, planning a wedding, searching for our first home, raising our babies Burton & Kona; our dogs, they were our babies before we had babies. Let me not forget, figuring out a business to start while drinking lots of coffee.
Let me get right to it; I hated my job, life was crazy and I wanted a change. The time for thinking and brainstorming was raging on for far too long. It was time to fish or cut bait. So, we pulled in a buddy who we had been sharing ideas with and we just did it. We planned a day to get down to the city offices and get all our paperwork filed. We walked away with a business license, sellers permit, a fictitious business name, and as a registered, legitimate business. It was on, no turning back now. Now for the obscene amount of coffee consumption
We didn't really know what we were doing but we did it anyway. Full free form dive into the ultra deep end. All three of us were working full time jobs. That meant everything for our new venture was done before and after work, so we needed lots of coffee. I stayed up late and woke up early, filling all the empty spaces with whatever needed to be done to get this business off the ground.
Everything outside of the office seemed to start with coffee. We had a Starbucks, pardon me, I just threw up in my mouth a bit, where I scheduled everything. I met my partners, clients, customers, service providers, athletes, you name it, and I met them at the corner coffee shop. And, I had a cup of coffee each time. If I was at meeting number five for the day, I drank my fifth cup of coffee for the day. If not more because I did make coffee at home as well. It was my fuel and fuel was fully leaded. My regular was an iced quad shot espresso. Yes, I got a lot done.
However, no matter how many tasks I completed, more appeared on the to do list every time I crossed one off. They were like gremlins in a swimming pool. It was a crash course in business. We had to learn everything inside and out because we could not afford to outsource too much. Remember, this is in early 2001 when “there’s an app for that” was not a thing yet. So we drank coffee and taught ourselves what we needed to learn.
You may recall that this business didn't last. We never made it out of the red and as you know, black is where it's at, for business and coffee! Therefore, I had to scale my coffee drinking habit back a bit, at least the coffee shop drinks. In the end, this business crashed hard but there were plenty of lessons, good memories, and better friends created from the experience. Many of which ignited around a cup of coffee.
Come back and share a final cup with me while you read the last part of this series.
Talk Soon,
Kevin
@coldfire_kev
@coldfire.coffee
@coldfire_hotsauce
kevin@coldfirecoffee.com
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