THE FINISHED TRUCK ARRIVES
The truck arrived on schedule at the beginning of August. We had once thought we would fly out to California and drive it back ourselves, stopping, of course, to visit family and friends along the route. But we clearly hadn't bargained on all the preparatory stuff that had to be done by phone and at the computer to get the business up and going. Then, too, there was the thought of driving it all the way across the southern tier from California to Florida in the heat of August...at 8 mpg! When we got a good quote to have it delivered here by trailer, it was an option we couldn't ignore.
We did, of course, fly out to Camarillo to take official delivery of the completed truck at the home base of Seattle Coffee Trucks. Bruce Kosmala had done a wonderful job building our truck and he personally walked Don through the operation of all the systems. The truck is not so altogether different than a cruising boat, and Don being Don (and a veteran cruiser) was already coming up with things to add to make it even better. (Poor Bruce, I don't think he'll ever again build a truck for a cruising sailor.) But how cool it was to play with all the equipment -- the espresso machine, the brewer, the blenders and the shaved ice machine -- and know this time it was actually our truck!
ARTWORK
Once the truck was in our driveway, the big push was to get the artwork finished, printed and put on. After some initial stumbles in finding an artist whose vision gibed with ours, we were directed by a friend to www.logotournament.com. This is an online competition for graphic artists from around the world to compete in designing you a logo for you business. You give them some guidance, and they take it and run with it. We got over a hundred entries from all over the world! We ended up with two artists we couldn't decide between, but fortunately their two designs were very compatible.
Our primary artist ended up being young Andrew Lenzini of San Diego. Still in high school, Andrew made us his summer job, not only coming up with a logo we liked, but turning it into artwork for the truck wrap as well as designing our website www.cafe-getaway.com. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have found him. The other artist was Elysia McKay of Calgary, Alberta whose design better suited stand-alone applications such as the doors of the truck and stationery. We were able to negotiate a deal to get both designs.
THE WRAP
The next step was to find a company to produce and apply the wrap. The truck builder, of course, had a company Eyedentity Graphics that he customarily dealt with in California, but we felt we would prefer to have a relationship with someone close by, in case of future damage or changes. To make a long story short, we found Blackjack Wraps of New Port Richey. Our choice to go local has been a good one, since through them and their association with the West Pasco County Chamber of Commerce (Pasco County begins just a few miles north of us) we have gotten several good business leads.
GETTING OFFICIAL
Meanwhile, we did all the stuff required to get Cafe Getaway, LLC official. We got our Tarpon business license, had an inspection by the Florida Department of Agriculture for our statewide health inspection and went to State Sales Tax Class, among other things.
SCHEDULING OUR FIRST EVENTS
Also meanwhile, of course, we had to be trying to get ourselves into some events. We were somewhat worried that local events might be hard to get into, and this is certainly true for many where participating vendors get a lock on their product niche year after year or where the event contracts out the food vending to a umbrella management company, often a national one, where there is little room local vendors to squeeze in.
We got our first break from Netti of the Crafts & Artisans' Society. Netti organizes small crafts fairs all around our home area, and she has been very generous with start-up advice and information. She booked our debut event for Labor Day right here in Tarpon Springs, practically walking distance from home, and it could hardly have been a better spot to get started.
PRACTICE
However we weren't quite so bold as to show up for a public event without a little practice first. Sure, we'd made ourselves and our neighbors something from the truck most every day, but it's not the same as dealing with a line of people wanting an espresso, a smoothie or a snowcone all at the same time. So we planned a practice event two weeks before Labor Day right in the driveway. We invited everyone we knew -- friends, family, friends of family, neighbors, biker buddies and the ladies of my Jazzercise class -- to come by for a mock sales event where we would take orders, use the register, and fully produce as many items from the menu as possible.
And, God Bless them, they came. Despite a day of constant rain, nearly everybody we'd invited came by to order espresso, lattes, frozen frappes and smoothies, all while huddling out of the rain in our garage! Many people had two or three things! How fun it was to make everybody all that yummy stuff! The hardest part for us old yachties was working the cash register!
IN BUSINESS
The Tarpon show was equally a hit, and by golly the weather was gorgeous. Three really beautiful days! All three of us (Don's daughter Tiffany is an integral part of the team, with by far the most relevant experience!) worked all three days. We had our nice little uniform look (lime green shirts and brown aprons, with hats and visors embroidered by our Harley buddy Mike Reiker and custom Cafe Getaway buttons made by my womenandcruising.com ally Kathy Parsons), our giant menus from Staples, and a pastry case full of baked stuff from Lenny's (a famous Clearwater restaurant, known for its pastry baskets and owned by friends of Tiffany's). Once again many friends made the effort to come by and support us, but we also had lots of new customers to satisfy for the first time. I think that no matter what events we reach out to in the future, we will always have a soft spot for the craftspeople and vendors we got to know that weekend! (Below: John & Teresa of Holy Smokes Hot Dogs and Bruce of Penguin Italian Ices.)
Since Labor Day we have managed an interesting roster of different events in different places, from a Bluesapalooza music festival in Spring Hill to a Bikefest in New Port Richey to the YMCA soccer league in Clearwater. We've done well enough and had fun, even though most of our colleagues are bemoaning reduced attendance everywhere which they attribute, of course, to the slow economy but also to the persistent summer heat (90s!) We can't argue with that. We are sure looking forward to cooler weather and the arrival of the snowbirds! We're ready for them NOW!
Most importantly, the truck itself is definitely getting the good reception we believed it would (as the builder promised). Already we have people coming to us to invite us into their events, and weekends until the first of the year are filling fast.
KEEP UP WITH CAFE GETAWAY
If you'd like to keep up with what we're up to with Cafe Getaway, become a Facebook fan of our Cafe Getaway page at (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cafe-Getaway/120820656050?ref=nf.) Here I can more easily post a list of upcoming events you might like to attend as well as photo albums from events we've recently done.
For more info about our business, us and our menu, check out our great website www.cafe-getaway.com.
