Being a Business in this Economy
When we (Ben and Sam) started Flying Crow Coffee back in 2018 we hoped it would lead to a business model of inclusion, ethical products, and would turn into a source of income for our family. In the past 2 years, especially since March 2020, we have come to the humbling conclusion any financially sustainable business model
would come with a lot of hardship. Over 4 years in neither of us are pulling a paycheck and we are drowning in operation expenses. We are not ready to give up, but there has to be some profit coming in to sustain us or I (Ben) am working as a volunteer in my own business, still putting money out of our pockets into keeping the Crow afloat. Even when the cafe was open only our employees pulled paychecks and the business has never generated a profit,
even when our sales figures were ahead of projections. To sum things up, this really sucks, but if we are to try to keep it going, doing what we are passionate about, and keep the super fresh coffees roasted in tiny batches going our prices need to increase substantially. If you were to do the research you would see that similar companies to ours are charging the same price or more for 12oz packages and ours are a full pound. So, we have some big decisions to make. In the short-term we are going to reduce some of our operating expenses, as a result we will be ending our subscription plans in the coming weeks, we have to pay for that service. Also, we will be raising our prices to be competitive
with other small batch roasted FTO coffees, specialty coffee has gotten more expensive and we can no longer just eat the increase. We have been crunching the number and the average cost
per pound for similar products in our region is $24 per pound. Yep, that is expensive, and we understand if that brings our prices too high for some. We will start offering 1/2 pound packages on the website in simple packaging (again a lower expense to us), and possibly even have a similar option for 1 pound packages in the future. At the end of the day I (Ben) really want to keep roasting coffee, doing something i love and sharing my passion for excellent coffees with all of you. I have been burning out due to the huge
expense we have been accumulating and the lack of any reward, outside of dopamine and the altruistic enrichment from serving people in a way I can be proud of. We sincerely hope you can and want to stick with us, and I can guarantee there will be some
new, big positives in the future from Flying Crow Coffee.
A Huge thank you to everyone for weathering the storm with us all these years.
,Ben, Sam, and the fam.