More Doesn’t Mean Growth
I recently found myself in a conversation with a coffee shop owner. He knew I was a business consultant, so he wanted to ask me a few questions and get some feedback on the inner workings of his business. However, what he didn't know during the first half of this conversation is that I also own a coffee company. The relevance of this detail will become apparent shortly.
In short, this business owner is trying to grow revenue, which, in turn, should increase profit. His solution? More product offerings. Specifically, more food options and more specialty drink options. In his mind, more options = more sales. Here's the lay of the land. After adding new drinks, they now have 26 specialty drink options. Not only that, but these 26 specialty drinks come in three different sizes......and each can be served hot or cold. If you do the math, that means their specialty drink menu has 156 different variations! This doesn't even include their non-specialty drinks.
Since he asked my opinion, I shared it. Growth doesn't happen from doing more, but by pursuing excellence. Doing more, but not being excellent, is a great way to drive yourself crazy while standing still. Excellence, on the other hand, is a great way to scale. Or, contextual to his world, excellent drink quality, excellent culture, excellent processes, excellent consistency, excellent workflow, and excellent hospitality.
This man couldn't have disagreed more with my principle, adding that while my ideas might work in other industries, it doesn't apply to coffee. That's when I shared about my coffee company, Northern Vessel. I explained that we carry six specialty drinks. All come in just one size, and three of them are served hot or cold. Therefore, in total, we have just 9 specialty drink variations (compared to his 156). On top of that, we only serve one food item: donuts from a local donut shop.
"Well, that idea sounds good in theory, but how do you plan to scale that? We're serving 150-200 cups per day and think we can grow it to 300. Offering only six specialties and not giving people size options won't cut it. How many cups are you at?"
"500-700 per day."
"..........."
The truth is, I used to believe the same myths as this man. When we launched our brick-and-mortar shop just over three years ago, we had several more drink options and many different food options. As we increased our focus on excellence, we grew. As we simplified our offerings, we grew. As we thought less about growth and more about getting better, we ironically grew. Excellence always wins.
I know all this coffee talk probably isn't relevant to your life. HOWEVER, this is a universal principle. Excellence is the best way to grow, always. Even when every ounce of our being says that more options and more offerings are the answer, it's not. Everything comes back to excellence....period.
I'm not saying Northern Vessel is excellent or I'm excellent. Rather, Northern Vessel is trying to be more excellent today than it was yesterday....and the same goes for myself. I don't know where we land on the overall excellence spectrum, but hopefully it's a perpetual up-and-to-the-right trajectory. No matter the industry or discipline, it's a winning formula.
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