Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Matt Zechman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Matt, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?
To start, I’ll say that owning a business was never a dream of mine. As my home roasting took off and I began getting orders from friends and family who tried it, the thought of creating a business was impractical. After some thought, I decided to just play it safe by thinking of a name, establishing an LLC, and getting a food license. That said, I was purely doing what jumped out at me as necessary, and unfortunately, financial responsibility and planning were not on that list. I’m a first responder, trained to react on a moments notice, where although planning can be done, every situation is different. I began buying what felt right in the moment, sold in stores that were easy to get into, and worst of all, stacked up credit card debt without any idea on how it would get paid off. As I go on my second year of doing my business full-time and am outgrowing the instant reward phase, I see how much damage control that’s needed to bounce back from my previous habits, and the forward thinking needed to be smart with money and only buy what will truly affect my day-to-day operations. Had I thought this through and considered a fixed-interest loan or expanded in other ways, that would have given me the returns necessary to invest more in the future and not play catch up on high-interest credit card payments. Be five steps ahead, give a day (at least) to sit on expensive purchases, and learn to know when its time to act vs a time to think.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
From the age of 17 in 2016, I got fixed on coffee after frequent trips to Dunkin while working on an ambulance. My impression of coffee at the time was something flavorful, sweet, and close to 60 grams of sugar per drink. I slowly began to feel sick of the sweetness and excess additives, plus realized how much of my $10.75/hr paycheck was being spent on coffee, so I made an effort to brew it at home. As a young, high-energy teen with aspirations to join the military, I got hooked on the Black Rifle Coffee Company brand. A Chemex, AeroPress, a cheap ceramic burr hand grinder, and James Hoffmann YouTube videos got my interest peaked. After joining the PA Army National Guard, my passion for coffee took off while deployed to Afghanistan in 2019-2020. I was “the coffee guy” that every unit has. As I’m sure my friends were tired of me towards the end, all I talked about was coffee. How to brew it, where it comes from, how origins change flavors, socioeconomic factors; literally anything that I could learn, I did. I got home from overseas, bought a house, and purchased a “welcome home” present for myself, a Bezzera Matrix MN and Niche Zero espresso setup. At the time, roasting was not an interest, but after a month of climbing further down the rabbit hole, I was roasting in a small half-pound hot air roaster for fun. Months after, my best friend and I were driving 12 hours to Alabama for a 3.5 pound drum roaster from Facebook Marketplace.
The business began out of fun, out of passion, and in a way, out of pure demand from those around me. Remaining close-knit to the community I grew up in was always a vision in mind, but it didn’t really hit me until this past year. A year and a half after starting the business legally, I expanded into a commercial space inside a public safety store/gun store and switched to pursue the business full-time. Within a few months after that, we opened a coffee shop in the front part of the gun store. This was not on my agenda at all, and to be honest, I didn’t feel ready. The counters are small, our first few months were terribly slow, and we are in a building that does not openly scream “we have a coffee shop in here”. The coffee was fantastic, although one thing made us stand out; our customer service.
To say that I’m grateful and lucky to have my employees would be an understatement. Although a bubbly personality wasn’t a requirement to work for me at first, it quickly became evident that we weren’t just your ordinary coffee shop; we were the place you leave with a smile on your face. Coffee is comforting in so many ways, but having a welcoming, compassionate barista brew it for you as if you knew each other for years is an experience that is now our standard. As an extrovert who deeply cares about others, it became clear to me that this isn’t just what the coffee shop should stand for, it’s what the business should stand for. With an endless list of plans for the future, our compassion, understanding, and ability to use coffee to make others feel good is at the core of it all. We don’t care who you voted for or what you believe in, you deserve to know that we care for you and are glad that you’re a customer of ours. To accompany that, we specialize in fundraising, donations, and supporting local non-profit organizations.
This all started by accident and at times, made me wonder if I had what it takes to build this business to what it is now. I can confidently and proudly say that with the help of friends, family, and my amazing employees, Cleona Coffee Roasters is becoming a household brand in our area, known for our high quality coffee, and especially known for our fun, compassionate, and skilled customer service.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
Reading was not something that I particularly enjoyed doing, despite my best efforts to try several times to form it as a habit. The two that flipped a switch in my brain to stop, think, plan, restructure, and value my time is: Five Steps Ahead by Patrick Bet-David, and Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell. Through these, I realized that to make it to the next level, I needed to pull my hands out of every moving piece of my business, put the right people where they should be, and use my time to be a real entrepreneur and leader.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I grew up being kind and respectful, eventually taking roles in my life to serve others and be there during times of emergency. Leading into business, I was fantastic at selling the product, being the guy making it, and knowing the ins and outs of everything there is to know about coffee. I was not, however, skilled at knowing when to say no. “Do good, be good” was often a thought, but unfortunately, my understanding of doing good and being a pushover were synonymous.
There were several times when I was approached about advertising or donating that I realistically should not have done or spend the money towards, but I did it because I couldn’t say no. I had an online wholesale customer owe me over $1,500 in invoices because, despite my best efforts to reach out, I should have had the intuition and backbone to request payment up front. I had a data analysts/sales manager that came to me looking “to help” and offered services in return for a pay rate far higher than any of my other employees got, and to my trustworthiness, I let him have free reign with hours, assuming it would pay off in the long run. I had no transparency, I was blind to what was happening, but even when I began to feel uneasy about it (financially and mentally), I didn’t have the courage to speak up for myself and business to request transparency. I subsequently cut his hours until he was commission-only, which led to little to no work being done. Had I spoke up and took action sooner rather than be sweet talked into believing him, I would have saved thousands of dollars and could have deployed strategies on my own rather than relying on someone else.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cleonacoffeeroasters.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/cleonacoffeeroasters
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/cleonacoffeeroasters
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/matthew-zechman965241336
Image Credits
Durand Digital