What a cup of coffee can teach you about building your business!

You can cancel me for this but I like what I like.

I love rewatching shows and movies I have already seen. A lot.

I mean, you can always get me with reruns of Hell’s Kitchen or Star Wars.

It’s cool to see something that is already meaningful speak to you in a new way.

I ran across one of those shows this week: Undercover Boss.

It’s one of those shows that you just gotta watch to see what happens when a business owner works their own business.

Some of those scenes are hilarious and some of them are all kinds of cringe for various reasons.

But it always feels real.

The best episodes are the ones where the boss learns things about their business from their employees they did not know before which makes the business better.

I was watching this when it was new (2013!) and one of those episodes just stayed with me. It was the episode when the then-President and co-founder of Dutch Bros Coffee, Travis Boersma, spent time working alongside of his employees in El Salvador harvesting and roasting coffee and then serving customers at two franchise locations.

In today’s world, coffee is serious business. It’s personal.

It’s everywhere.

And it’s incredibly competitive.

What Mr. Boersma found out is that it’s more than offering something that is popular or desirable; it’s staying aware of what can best help your business to grow and more importantly, to last.

No one begins their business and puts in the work to run it for just a few weeks or months.

You, as a business owner, need to stay on top of what attracts and will keep on attracting new and established customers to you.

That’s why I love Undercover Boss. These folks did not wait for a report from someone. They got in there on the line and worked the business that had made them successful.

This is the thing about success: there is always more that can be achieved.

And there is always more to be learned.

You just need to keep learning what people are asking for so you can meet that need.

At the Gilbert, Arizona location, Mr. Boersma showed up for work, put on a crew member t-shirt, and got his first assignment for the day.

He was put on the best job he could have done to learn what his customers really wanted from his business: he was made a runner.

The runner goes to the cars in line and takes their order, running back to the kitchen to pass the order along so when the car got to the window to pay, they would not have to wait for their order.

The runner was a position that the assistant general manager at this location came up with to help fill orders faster and with greater accuracy.

The runner position so impressed Mr. Boersma, he made it a regular position within the chain. If you look around now, several other businesses and chains with drive-up ordering also employ this practice.

When he went to the Nampa, Idaho location, he was schooled on the importance of good customer interaction. You get to see a conversation he has with a customer who is waiting at the order window and Mr. Boersma ends up talking about himself mostly.

The general manager pulls him aside and tells him that the customer experience is their #1 priority and when speaking to the customers to make sure he remembers that “it’s about the customer, not himself.”

That is the very kind of reminder that will help keep your business shiny to your audience and those looking for what you offer.

All it takes is you taking some time to look around at what your competition is offering and what is currently being asked for within your niche.

This kind of information can help you create specific, targeted messaging that can connect with your ideal customers.

It also tells you what sort of customer experience people expect of you by learning what matters to them most.

That’s what is going to make your business stand out in your niche and shine to keep on getting the attention that grows your audience.

Shiny things are always going to get our attention.

That’s simple and vital work you can do to help get you to your next level of business.

That’s part of what I do; I love looking for trends and changes within the coaching and consulting niche.

It’s always on my radar.

It helps me write what I do for you.

I get it: that can sound boring. Really boring.

It’s also true that the boring stuff helps to build your business. Every successful and lasting business does well at the boring stuff.

If you don’t want to do the boring stuff (research, copywriting, social media) by yourself, DM me and let’s talk to find out what I can do for you.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Laura “Your Undercover Copywriter” Scott

#smallbusiness #entrepreneurship #SMB #businessowner #startup #coachingsuccess #leadershipcoach #careercoaching #lifecoach #mindsetmastery