We were lucky to catch up with Lawrence Johnson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Lawrence, thanks for joining us today. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your business and how did you resolve those issues?
One of the most unexpected problems I have had to face as a coffee roaster has been the price of green coffee (raw coffee before it is roasted) nearly doubling in price due to inflation. Of course, coffee is a commodity. But, I did not anticipate the price of coffee getting so expensive. This affects my profit margins as a coffee roaster and I cannot just hike the prices up for my wholesale customers or individual coffee customers! Basically, we are just playing the waiting game and hoping that coffee comes down in price! We are not large enough of a roastery to invest thousands of dollars into raw coffee so we are having to do what we can!
Lawrence, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Hi, friends! Lawrence here. Just wanted to tell my story and how I got into specialty coffee roasting. Hope you all enjoy!
My love for specialty coffee began in 2014 while I was in the US Army and deployed down in Honduras. Some incredible coffee comes out of the Western region of Honduras on the border with Guatemala and El Salvador. I spent quite some time in a region called Copan, Honduras. I toured several coffee farms and got to experience some incredible farm to cup coffees. I have never forgotten this experience I had in Copan.
I got out of the military in 2015 and moved back to Atlanta, Ga. soon thereafter. I would frequent a few specialty coffee shops throughout the city and realized that Atlanta has such an incredible coffee scene. There was a core group of coffee roasters that had such a loyal following and I began to love some of these roasters and their connections to fair trade in the coffee world. I wanted to get into the coffee roasting industry after seeing the love these roasters had for the industry. In July of 2020 I decided I wanted to get into roasting and actually establish a business. We acquired the space here in Decatur, Ga. in September of 2020 and started roasting our own origins and blends in October, 2020.
We’ve enjoyed the journey so far and we are looking forward to the future!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I think a huge risk I took as a small business owner was starting the coffee roastery and investing in the equipment during the COVID pandemic in 2020. It took a lot of resilience to keep the business afloat and many nights were spent worried about how to scale and grow the business into a sustainable venture. We are doing well today and having a lot of fun with the process!
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
Terminus Coffee was 100% bootstrapped. I used my own funds from my other business to fund the coffee roastery and acquire the equipment, the roasting studio, etc. I believe that using one business to fund another is a great way to get started with a venture while minimizing risk.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.terminuscoffeeatl.com
- Instagram: @terminuscoffeeatl
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/terminuscoffeeatl