The coffee adventure has come to an end. At least for now. I've learned a lot from it. From the get-go I promised myself and my family that in order for it to keep going it would have to be self-sustaining. And it was! Until it wasn't.
The first blow came with one of the waves of ups and downs. Ups and downs are to be expected. However, this down came with people no longer ordering online. Everyone expected me to have it in hand, at a moment's notice. Not exactly realistic. Especially for a product that was roasted fresh on order.
A lot of, "I'll order some" turned into never happened. It wasn't until I announced closing up shop that people suddenly wanted to order again. Too little, too late.
The knockout punch really came in the form of tariffs. Or at least that was the excuse used by most of my roasters. They drove the price up for small batch orders like mine exponentially. In order to remain profitable, I would have had to: 1) have raised my prices to a level I wouldn't even pay for coffee, 2) stopped offering free shipping, and 3) no longer included taxes in the pricing which would drive up the final cost even more.
So, while I do miss selling coffee and meeting people. I'm out of the business for now. Will I go back, if things line up properly? Maybe. But for now, the bear is in hibernation.
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