I am so excited to share this months Small Business Series because it is a business I have fallen in love with: Hoboken Coffee Roasters. Trey & Mallory have an AMAZING story (seriously, amazing-- involving selling cars to buy equipment and biking back to OK from OR-- go read it!), and hearing about their journey and sacrifice to start their company is what made me fall in love with Hoboken in the first place. But then I actually went in and fell head over heels with the shop itself and the fantastic product that they produce. Ryan had the pleasure of taking home a bag of roasted coffee and said it is the best he has ever had (for those of you who know me, I'm not a coffee drinker-- but they have a mean hot chocolate...mmmm...I'm dreaming of it now...). I'm telling you guys, take a trip to Guthrie for the Hoboken experience and say hi to Trey and Mallory. The day that I ran up there for pics Mallory was unfortunately feeling under the weather so Trey was flying solo, but graciously allowed us to take pictures anyway. But check out the interview below from both of them, it is really wonderful how they worked together and inspired each other to make the shop happen.
Name: Trey & Mallory Woods
Business Name: Hoboken Coffee Roasters
Website: www.hobokencoffeeroasters.com
Favorite Dessert: chocolate chip cookies (T) Ice Cream w/ sprinkles (M)
Favorite Artist/Album: Wilco/Sky Blue Sky (T) Josh Ritter/Animal Years (M)
When did you start your business? December 2012
What inspired you to start it? Mallory’s dream to really, seriously, do it, was what inspired me. (T) I loved coffee and I loved being with Trey. (M)
What would you say was your biggest challenge to overcome? The timing - It was five years from conception to opening. We passed on several opportunities to partner with people or open before we knew we were ready both financially and with the craft of coffee. Then, if felt like it was never going to happen. We just kept trusting our time was coming.
Who/what was your biggest encouragement and why? We really encouraged each other along the way. We laugh about how when one of us is bummed and feeling like it’s never going to work, the other is feeling great and positive about everything and then we switch roles every few months. We’re a pretty good team.
What is your favorite part of your business? It’s great to get to do something like serve people coffee everyday. Serving someone a drink is very rewarding because of all the work that went into pulling off that great coffee. It takes a lot of decision making, planning, and timeliness to run a coffee company. Passing a drink across the bar is the end result of a lot of steps and it’s a really cool thing. Also, coffee is slow in the afternoons so we get to take afternoon naps - they’re pretty awesome too.
If you had advice to anyone who might be starting a business like yours? Go for it! You don’t need brand new equipment and the busiest intersection to make it happen. We’re in an old garage behind an ugly metal car wash bay and only grumpy people complain about not be able to find us (they’re not into our thing anyway). It takes time but if you commit and sacrifice, you’ll surprise yourself. (T)
Anything else about your small business that you’re passionate about? I really love creating an atmosphere that is charming and let’s people escape for a few moments a day. (M)
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Thanks so much Trey and Mallory for being part of the series, it is so sweet to read your answers and see how your love for each other has filtered into your love for your product and shop.