Coffee Business Success in a Turbulent Economy is the new ultimate guidebook to help your coffee business survive and thrive in today’s turbulent economy. Ed Arvidson, a 35-year foodservice veteran and specialty coffee industry consultant, wrote the manual.

The 325-page book contains concise strategies for positioning your business so that it is perceived as one that sells valued necessities, as opposed to affordable luxuries. It provides proven methods for reducing costs, while increasing sales through low cost marketing activities. It provides insights on how to create a strategy and administer the activities necessary to move your business forward, and includes a ready to use 120-day action plan. This book provides the business “roadmap” you don’t have time to create, the ideas you’re too worn out to dream up, and that all-important action plan that you never quite finish.

According to Arvidson, after implementing the procedures outlined in this manual, coffee business owners can expect to see a significant increase in bottom line financial performance. The methods for evaluating business performance, controlling waste and theft, and developing a plan and the means to move your business forward, he says, have been understood and applied by successful restaurant companies for decades. Now you can apply these same principles to your coffee business.

“I highly recommend every retailer purchase a copy of this book and benefit from Ed's 18 years of experience as a consultant in the specialty coffee industry and his vast food-service management experience prior to that,” says Bruce Milletto, President, Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup. “Operation’s management is a subject near and dear to Ed’s heart, and there is probably no one more qualified in our industry to help the coffee retailer achieve maximum profitability in these tough economic times.”

The manual also contains information about how to determine if your business is salvageable, or whether it might be time to actually expand your business-empire, and important considerations related to both buying and selling businesses.

Multiple mathematical computations and notes are supplied to graphically illustrate the potential income that might be slipping away from your business each month. Their intent is to validate the net gains and savings discussed in an example and to get the reader to think about how every action they take affects their bottom line. The coffee business, like any foodservice business, is a business of pennies. Watch the pennies, says Arvidson, and the dollars seem to take care of themselves.

Ed Arvidson’s years of experience running successful coffee operations and restaurants and working within the corporate restaurant industry provide him with the background and expertise necessary to understand the challenges store owners face. The reader can benefit immensely by applying the business principles Ed learned while working in large corporate chain restaurants.

Ed warns the reader that there is no “silver bullet,” one area of the business that can be addressed resulting in significant financial improvements. Fixing a broken business, or moving a profitable one to the next level, will require planning, hard work, and the willingness to move out of your comfort zone. It will require multitasking, administration, and tenacity. To those who are willing to strive hard to succeed, this manual provides the essential information.