What a difference a year makes

I don’t know where the last year has gone. It’s almost 12 months since I officially launched The Garden Roastery and sold my first bag of coffee. To be honest, like a lot of these things, it kind of happened by accident. Having found a true passion in coffee, I trained as an SCA coffee roaster at The London School of Coffee and started to roast on a second hand industrial roasting machine in my garage.

When I got to the point of not being able to drink as much as I had roasted, I started to give away bags of roast coffee to friends and family. Boy, were they kind, always great feedback but I worried when they said that they wouldn’t take any more coffee from me - was it really that bad?? No, they said they really enjoyed the coffee but didn’t feel comfortable taking any more for free, they would like to buy some! I thought they were crazy. So the business was born. My first official sale was when one off my friends posted an envelope through my door with a £5 note in it. The message on the envelope said that my friend’s colleague had liked the coffee so much, he had sold them the bag and now he wanted to use the cash to buy some more. I might frame that envelope, it made me smile so much.

If you believe in something, take the first step, otherwise you will never know ...

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So things have moved on. Having been evicted from the garage (apparently they are meant for cars ..), the wonderful Roastery was built and I’ve not looked back. I’ve learnt new skills, designed and built my website, created products, launched my on-line store, and with the help of a designer friend created the Garden Roastery identity.

What many of my customers don’t realise is that I have a day job. I have a busy role in a engineering company, with a fabulous team and daily positive challenges which I love, but roasting and my coffee business are truly my passion. I found a hobby later in life and now it’s taken on a life of its own. From day 1, with a £5 note in an envelope, to a growing client base, both local and further a field. I am truly humbled to have my speciality roast coffee recommended by my customers to their friends, and I regularly receive new enquiries and orders. From one off gift purchases, to over one third of my business from repeat customers, I love what I do. I get so much pleasure from chatting to customers and understanding what type of coffee they like to drink. Importantly I also get to support local people and charities which is close to my heart.

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The biggest lesson that I have learnt from all of this is the importance to go with your gut. Life is short, don’t get hung up on ‘what-ifs’ and ‘maybes’. If you believe in something take the first step, otherwise you will never know.

Check out the awesome Roastery build video on The Garden Roastery Facebook page. Follow my progress and coffee updates on Facebook and Instagram @thegardenroastery

Love Lisa, Roaster by passion x