What kind of business do you run? When did you start it and where is
it based?
I run a coffee shop based out of Trucksville Pennsylvania. It online
only, selling my own brand of coffee, The Coffee Guy, plus 250+ other
varieties of coffee, snack bars and chocolate.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.
I started selling individual KCups back in 2015 on Ebay. I started with
40 flavors. People bought ONE Kcup at a time, and mixed and match to
make up their own variety pack. When I saw how popular that was, I
started adding more and more flavors. Now I am up to 250 flavors, at
least, and expanded to bagged coffee, my own brand coffee, snack bars
and chocolate. All mix-and-match make your own variety pack type of deal.
What are the best and worst parts of running your business?
The best part of running the business is getting a nice sized order,
seeing what flavors of coffee my customers choose. The worst part is
when someone orders just 2 or 3 kcups. Since I barely make anything the
way it is (I do this more for fun than profit) an order of 2 or 3 kcups
I actually lose money.
Does your business generate enough money to support you?
I wish. Maybe someday it will, but I have an extremely long way to go
for that as I stated in the other answer – I barely make anything, even
on larger orders
What would you say is the hardest part about running a business?
Getting the word out there about the business. With the little profit I
make, it’s difficult to pay someone to do search engine submission. I
wouldn’t make a single penny if that were the case, so it’s all word of
mouth and my social media give-aways to let people know I am out there
What tools do you use to run your business?
I have an extremely massive spreadsheet. I keep track of orders, of
course, and customers – how many times they ordered, how many kcups they
purchased in total, how much coffee rewards they have, when the last
time they purchased, the exact number of KCups sold to date, how many
Kcups per month compared to the last month for reference, and so much more
Do you have a Unique Selling Point?
The unique thing about me is selling Kcups the way I do. Instead of
buying a whole box of 24 KCups, all one flavor, why not pick 24
different flavors for just a little more? Never get bored of the flavor,
can always choose the ones YOU want.
To learn more about Bryan please visit his website at TheCoffeeGuy.shop