Built For This

For many, January is a time of reflection on the accomplishments from the past year and to look ahead to what’s in store in the next 12 months. January 2025 brings a meaningful milestone for me, as I have now reached the one-year mark in the CEO role at Scooter’s Coffee.?I look back on 2024 with a feeling of introspection at what our franchisees, employees, and baristas faced, navigated and accomplished together. We confronted enormous economic and industry challenges and pivoted our strategy to focus on healthier business metrics and healthy growth. I am thankful for the collective determination to succeed at building our brand, this business and impacting communities across our 850+ store locations nationwide. But the most important thing I learned last year??Scooter’s Coffee is Built For This. We are built for this moment.? ?

Why I feel confident we are built for this moment is captured in four words:? Trust, Certainty, Wisdom and Fear.??

Trust is a cornerstone in building and maintaining culture. I am proud of this team taking past learnings and applying new knowledge to optimize outcomes to cast a wider net for future success. I am thankful for franchisees trusting us to help them build their dream of business ownership.?

Certainty can be a barrier to success. In my role, I know I don’t have all the answers. As leaders, it’s not our job to know all the answers. Being certain closes our minds to possibilities. Rather, our job is to be willing to learn how to find the solutions. This is done by letting go of closely held certainties to become more curious. Questions enlightened our curiosity, so we asked more questions of our franchisees, employees and customers to better guide us last year. Humility broke the tide against certainty that otherwise could have washed out the path to our 2024 goals.??

Wisdom. As a company, we took a thoughtful and careful look at our long-term decision-making processes and the implications of those decisions. Better, we adapted to data driving those decisions that empowered our baristas, store managers, and our franchisees to create an amazing experience for each life we touch, especially with our drive-thru customers.?

Fear. By actively listening and leading with grace, we faced our fears. Undoubtedly, we faced ones we could not control like economic, competitive and financial fears. The charge was to believe in our store model in a different way. I am grateful for our accomplishments last year and what can be found in our collective results.?

My challenge to our company leaders and employees once again this year is to realize we don’t have to build this company like everyone else. We can and should be unique. A quick inventory of our franchisees reveals why this is true: Some franchisees chose to put their specific mark on their new buildings this year by literally signing the wood frame during construction, symbolic of the dream they have for their business, much in the way they dream about home ownership for their families. Others didn’t flinch in the face of weather disasters. They stepped in with heart in their community to give back, to help others despite their current situation. This is who we are, and this is who our franchisees are.?

How we choose to navigate through difficult times will pave our success for the future at Scooter’s Coffee. But we are Built For This. It is our resiliency to change, our willingness to disrupt ourselves and our ability to unite and pull in a new direction that energizes me.?

I learned a tremendous amount in my initial year as CEO – with more still to learn. I am incredibly grateful for all those who put on our red aprons every day. The list of thanks is extensive- from the baristas, store managers and franchise owners, to our employees, all the way through to our co-founders Don and Linda Eckles. Thank you for this first year.??

A business built to last takes people who are built to last.?

At Scooter’s Coffee, we are Built For This.?