We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rocio Salazar a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Rocio , thanks for joining us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.
First clients were family and friends. We sold by Facebook to other friends outside the state. We were knocking doors
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Andres Camargo and his wife Rocío Salazar are the faces behind of Unlocked Coffee Roasters, we started Unlocked Coffeein 2018 in the International Coffee Day in Greenville, South Carolina.
Born and raised in Colombia- South America, coffee is part of our cultural heritage, and of course, we are adding it to their coffee.
“Our goal is to bring the best flavor and aroma of each coffee bean, giving our customers a real connection to the farmers and the origin of the coffee they are drinking. Our roastery and coffee shop are focused on specialty coffee; distributing coffee as a wholesaler and retail store. We were both born and raised in Colombia, that is why coffee is running in our veins”.After Andres finished his studies in Business Administration, he knew his goal was to open his own business, and that is where the hunt for a business idea came to mind.
“The seek was for something that connected Colombia to us. Coffee is one of the biggest cultural elements in our country. Also we wanted our business to be meaningful and make an impact. With daily thoughts, and a confirmation from God we decided that coffee was the avenue we wanted to follow.
We started reading about the business, industry and my husband decided while he was still working as a commercial insurance agent, to take education and courses about roasting in Greenville. We took almost a year to build the business plan, while roasting and making a sales structure for the business.
After we started roasting Rosie, who’s background is in marketing started building a website and this made it way easier to spread the word of what we were doing.
After we got the online platform it was easier to make sales started happening. When we opened the brick and mortar shop, we were excited, however, Covid hit and we got very sad and frustrated to see how your “open” business had to remain shut.
We finally were able to open, and the journey during Covid, took us to appreciate every person that came into the shop, making customer service, quality our top priorities in every interaction.
As for coffee roasting, we have been carefully sourcing our beans, ensuring we are making business with importers, or farmers, having a guarantee that we are giving them a better well living.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
There are many factors that help your reputation, I think customer service has been the difference in our business. We treat people like we want to be treated. Many coffee shops, the person taking your order seems to be annoyed by you being there. We hire people who have the right attitude and energy to know that we are there, for them!
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
Be yourself and let them step in your shoulders so they can shine too.
Contact Info:
- Website: unlockedcoffee.com
- Instagram: @unlockedcoffeeroasters
- Facebook: facebook.com/unlockedcoffeeroasters
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unlockedcoffee
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEEq4bTdyNphLB7t0WEWpfQ
Image Credits
unlocked coffee roasters