dominico wrote:As far as making money is concerned, I definitely haven't made money, but I do things here and there to help offset the cost of my hobby which also help deepen my knowledge of it, such as flipping some vintage lever machines and building various home roasters.

If I do wind up turning this hobby into an income stream, it will probably be in an unconventional way.

Quote from earlier in thread added by moderator.

drgary wrote:Janet has asked me sometimes if I'm ever going to turn this hobby into a money earner. She has come to know and enjoy that we've made many friends because of my coffee hobby. They're all over this country and around the world.

Yes, indeed! We've bonded with many people on both sides of the counter over the years. I've provided some help, guidance, tools and bits to many of the cafe owners and baristas we've visited, including helping one of our local favorites rebuild his motorcycle. My wife and I have met many great people visiting cafes around the world, e.g. I posted several weeks ago about having Steve Darwin (Darwin's in Cambridge, MA) come over, introduce himself to us and have a great conversation in which I gained even more appreciation for how difficult it is to run a truly top notch place (which Darwin's definitely is). And the patrons of great coffee shops are almost uniformly a cut above ordinary, so we make new friends almost every time we go to one.

Sadly, most small businesses fail within a few years - so turning a hobby into a business doesn't work out well for more than half who try. We've given a lot of thought to opening a very small cafe in the little village business district a few blocks from the condo we'll be living in when our house is sold and I retire fully (we accepted a bid last week, but the husband of the couple flaked and never returned the signed agreement - most likely because he decided they couldn't afford it, but he could have at least let us know). We had a great coffee shop in the neighborhood, but the owner tried to grow too big too fast, opened another location despite insufficient working capital plus a marginal work ethic, and lost both. So we know the demand is there. But a fool and his money......

There are many ways to turn a few bucks, e.g. sell stock photos. If you take them in the great coffee regions of the world, you can deduct the travel costs up to your revenue from the effort. A formal business is a tough one, but cottage efforts abound. Find cool old cups and vessels to sell - they're in every junk or thrift shop in the world, and a few are real jewels - you just have to look through a bunch of junk to find them. Make a beautiful coffee table photo book about the social nature of coffee shops. Go around the country / world visiting coffee shops and ask if you can buy their logo'ed cups / dishes / glasses / napkins etc. I've bought stuff right off the table, and we have a nice little collection that reminds us of our travels. I got a fantastic little tablecloth from a tiny cafe in Buenos Aires last year - we stopped for a shot and a snack, and I bought it off the table along with 2 cloth napkins.

Doing stuff like this on a grander scale would make a fine little "business" that I may well pursue in retirement.

Moderator's Note: This seemed like a worthwhile topic in its own right, so I split it off from Coffee Industry - Unique in its Generosity to Each Other . drgary

drgary wrote:Also off topic but worth saying, so I'll shortly split this off to its own thread in the Knockbox forum.

Janet has asked me sometimes if I'm ever going to turn this hobby into a money earner. She has come to know and enjoy that we've made many friends because of my coffee hobby. They're all over this country and around the world.

Who else is having this experience? Tell us your stories!

Yes, wives have an impact. I was attending an SCAA show in Boston as a consumer many years ago, when I told my wife about a new espresso machine that Jim Schulman was encouraging me to buy. She said "fine, but from now on you should pay for all your coffee toys with coffee income." I thought that was very reasonable and got a "coffeelaw" email address the same day.

Coffeeshrink, then? I don't think any of you would talk to me anymore!

DrGary, what about coffeemarketing? It seems you've given me good advice down those lines in the past.

drgary wrote:Coffeeshrink, then? I don't think any of you would talk to me anymore!

But you could help all those people whose beans stopped roasting a few minutes short of a crack.....

See what happens when your friends show up?

Bodka David has a good idea there, but he's done so well because he politely listened to my advice and did what he was going to do anyway!

Dr. David is losing his marbles! (But he also has a point .... For all the kumbaya of coffee friendships I was thinking coffeeluv, but that would have the wrong connotations. Talk about a spam generator ...)

Marshall, see what you got going?

I'm going to have to put on my propeller beanie and cogitate this one for awhile.

Okay. I've registered coffeewriting.net. When the Wall Street Journal sent a photographer to our house, Janet asked me, "Where is this coffee hobby going anyway?"

drgary wrote:Dr. David is losing his marbles!

There you go, dude! And from some of the posts on this forum, I'm clearly not alone. Looks like job security to me....

drgary wrote:Okay. I've registered coffeewriting.net. When the Wall Street Journal sent a photographer to our house, Janet asked me, "Where is this coffee hobby going anyway?"

Whoa! Has the Journal published something yet? If so could you (re)supply the link please?

Wall Street Journal: Coffee Mavens' Perfect Roast Starts at Home

The slide show includes an image at this link, where I'm accompanied by Alan Adler and Dustin Demers.

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/imag ... 145735.jpg