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Chamber blog |
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Jul
25th |
 |
Java! Java! Coffee Company Named Business of the QuarterSue VanRuff |
Java!
Java! Coffee Company Is Business of the Quarter
Congratulations to Brett and Brenda Habenicht
and Java! Java! Coffee Company for being chosen the Chamber's Business of the
Quarter for the second quarter of 2011.
As a Business of the Quarter award recipient, Java! Java! is eligible
for the Chamber's Business of the Year Award to be presented in February at the
annual President's Dinner and Auction.
Congratulations to Cedar Grove Composting and Aflac, Danny Shin for
their ranking in this quarter's nominations.
There is an added bonus for the recipients of
this year's quarterly award recipients (Allstate, The Jenson Agency and Java!
Java!) and last year's Business of the Year award recipients (Claffey's
Painting and The Loft Salon & Spa):
These businesses have been nominated by the Chamber for the King County
Executive's Small Business Awards. County Executive Dow Constantine instituted
this new small business award program in an effort to celebrate the importance
and the accomplishments of small businesses which are leading the way in the
nation's economic recovery.
The award process provides the perfect
opportunity for business owners to examine and review goals, objectives,
customer service standards, innovative practices, to showcase accomplishments
and tell their story. More often than
not, business owners do not have the time to actually document such
things. At last year's President's
Dinner, keynote speaker Lisa Voso, emphasized the importance of business owners
telling their story and making it available to customers by posting it on the
business's website. Every entrepreneur
has a story to tell - not only when the business was started, but why, what was
the motivating factor, what were the initial challenges, how has the business
model responded to change, what were the personal sacrifices, and who were the
employees that contributed to its success (or not . . . .). The story helps build a more personal
relationship between the business and the customer, too.
As the recipient of the Business of the
Quarter Award, I asked Brett to write down the story of Java! Java! Company. It will start here and you can read the rest
of it next week or online at our website: www.maplevalleychamber.org or www.blackdiamondchamber.org. (What Brett doesn't mention is he worked for
Bill & I at Wilderness Chevron way back in the early 1980's . . .but that's
part of our story . . .).
Now here's Brett:
"21
years is a long time. 21 years in the
coffee business seems like an eternity!
Lately, I've been looking back on what I think were big moments in our
business. Not sure how many of you know
the whole story, so hang on.
I
was just out of the military and newly married.
Brenda and I were getting by okay mostly on her paycheck. She had a good job at Barbee Mill where she
exported lumber and did all kinds of other things as well. I was selling real estate because I really
didn't have the skill set to do anything else.This was
1989 and someone told us that we should open a little coffee kiosk where they
worked at the old Pay n Pak Mall in Kent.
Heck, sounded good to me.
Starbucks was starting to make some inroads and there were a few other
coffee shops in the Seattle area that seemed to be doing alright.
Back
then, the coffee business looked nothing like it does today. There were lots of carts and no drive-thru's
and it was a brand new concept. We
thought about it some and decided that we'd give it a shot. Not having any money at all was the biggest
issue we faced going into the venture.
Through a friend, we found a private lender that would loan us the
$15,000.00 it was going to take to buy the cart and equipment and items we
needed to get going. We signed a deal
with Pay n Pak and opened for business within a month or two. I never knew I wanted to run my own business
until the day we opened
that store. It was pretty exciting. For a week or so. Then the luster wore off and the customer
count started to drop and pretty soon, it was obvious that there just wasn't
enough traffic to make it worthwhile financially. So we started running specials and
advertising to neighboring businesses and even expanded the menu. That seemed to do the trick and within a few
months, we were profitable. It was
small, but it was headed in the right direction.
We were excited about our little
business and hopeful for the future. Unlike most, we didn't think that the
specialty coffee business was a "fad". With companies like Starbucks
and Peets leading the way, we were pretty sure we could do something with
this. All of that optimism was put to
the test one day when the VP of real estate for Pay n Pak, who was a regular
customer, came down to get his coffee.
As he approached us, we could tell that something was wrong. His words struck like a hammer when he
informed us that the mighty Pay n Pak was bankrupt and would be shutting the
doors for good in just a couple of months.
Everyone would be losing their job and by
default, so would we. Strike one."
(to be continued)
Added on 07/25/2011
Filed Under
Business,
Chamber Announcements by Chamber blog
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