Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Armando Gonzalez, Vice-President of Las Fincas Coffee Inc., located in Dorval, Quebec, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Las Fincas is a specialty coffee roaster around the corner. We imagine a coffee industry that proposes unique coffees, traceability, respect, and relationships. Our products include all those elements with innovative packaging that retains freshness and transparently tells the story of the people involved in its production. We cater to anyone looking to have a great coffee tasting experience by offering high-quality coffee, freshly roasted and delivered with outstanding quality service.
Tell us about yourself
In the late '90s, when I was 23 years old, I opened a coffee shop on the West Island of Montreal looking to serve the best-brewed cup of coffee. At that time, there were not many coffee alternatives available, and coffee always tasted burnt to me. I thought I could do better. I decided to close my coffee shop and invest myself in learning everything about coffee roasting. I started to roast coffee in popcorn poppers in my parent's garage. About a year later, in one of my father's business trips, he found me a used 10kg coffee roasting machine abandoned in the jungles of Mexico. Since then, I have become a passionate espresso drinker and an experienced coffee professional with the continuous quest to find the best and most unique coffee tasting experience. Today, I have more than 20 years of coffee roasting experience. Before the term direct trading was coined, I have sourced and negotiated pricing personally with farms in Mexico that directly exported imported and roasted coffee beans. My need to keep learning everything about coffee keeps feeding my undying need to keep pushing the limits of coffee roasting techniques. "Unparalleled coffee is the result of excellent raw beans submitted to a controlled heat source fueled by passion and technical experience."
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
I don't think I have yet reached the biggest accomplishment as a business owner. I live by the philosophy that you have to constantly set small milestones, which is the sum of all, will help you achieve a bigger goal. Perhaps what I do value very much is the amount of knowledge that I have been fortunate to collect while running my business. Important concepts, like technically understanding the different chemical and physical changes that occur to coffee when roasting and learning how the production processes of green coffee influence the final result of a roasted coffee. I have managed to learn how to listen to others very well in order to comprehend what's needed of me in order to generate an appropriate response. I have been able to develop analytical skills that permit me to create the most appropriate negotiation platforms where every party positively involved benefits. I have also come to the understanding that when you are involved with a coffee business, you are part of an industry that, in the end, gives people happiness and that makes you happy. I believe that so far, my latest accomplishment has the capacity to reach coffee farmers abroad directly and be able to use all these skills to negotiate with them a pricing level that affords them an appropriate living standard.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
In my line of business, learning about my product is very costly. Coffee after water is the most drank beverage in the world. It has existed for hundreds of years, and in some cases, it is part of cultural habits. Competition is gigantic and ferocious. Your best way of learning is the empirical school. This means you have to fail and fail and fail and fail until you find your own way of making all the sophisticated processes work for you. The comment I constantly got when I started was: "Why coffee, son? Everyone is doing it. You have no chance!" But 20 years later, I am still here trying and learning and, more recently, providing advice to other people in the industry. I think that enduring in this industry is the hardest thing. There are new competitors every day, new processes, new coffees, new brewing methods. How do you stay afloat? So the most difficult thing to do in this business is to keep current, stay cool, and keep pushing forward.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Tip one, analyze your position constantly. Be ready to adapt and always have plans B and C in place.
Tip Two, keep learning and inform yourself about the trends in your industry. Aim to lead and don't waste time trying to follow. You'll never catch up. Don't be a piece on the chessboard aim to be the chessboard.
Tip Three, Always prioritize helping others before helping yourself. This will always pay off, and people around you will always offer you their respect and attention. When you are honest, hardworking, and generous, life has a natural rule to give you what you need when you need it.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
The last thing I'd like to share is that if you decide to start your own business, know that it will require the best of you. You will drain at times. You will also fail and, at times, even suffer to reach your business goals. Keep climbing, always keep the hope alive, because at the end, once you have passed the point of no return, it will always be easier to head towards the goals. Always make sure that your business makes you happy and satisfied.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://lasfincas.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LasFincasCoffeeHandcrafters/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lasfincas1/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lasfincas
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/armando-gonzalez-2174b23b/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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