BusinessLife Spotlight: Amy Angelo of Oceana Coffee

This week the spotlight is on Amy Angelo, a BusinessLife client and co-owner of local coffee shop Oceana Coffee. Oceana brews specialty coffee, which is roasted in small batches to retain its natural fruit notes while remaining smooth and flavorful. Amy started the business in 2009 with her husband Scott Angelo, and by the end of 2016, they had won many awards including the Small business of the year 2016, Xcelerate Wellington 2016, and Golden Bean 2016.

This article will discuss how the husband and wife duo fell into the coffee business, what they have learned along the way, and how they are growing by exploring different avenues for expansion.

How Oceana Coffee got started

Amy Angelo grew up in Jupiter, Florida, and studied at the University of Florida. After college she moved back to Palm Beach County where she met her husband, Scott Angelo. The two started working on private yachts. While working in Australia, Amy and Scotty became extremely fond of fresh roasted coffee. When they moved back to the States, they were haunted by the delicious coffee back in Australia but could not find any comparable coffee locally.

Amy and Scotty began roasting their own coffee with a popcorn popper they bought on eBay and configured themselves, and soon their friends and family could not stop praising how delicious their coffee was. They purchased a roaster in 2009, and their business started to evolve slowly. In 2011, they opened the first Oceana Coffee.

Amy and Scotty have won many awards for their coffee and now run two successful shops. They have a serious goal for their business for the next ten years: to be in the Top 10 roasters in the nation.

Building and managing a coffee roaster and shop

Unhappy with the coffee available locally, Amy and Scotty started studying the coffee beans themselves. They started having a look at their operations, and studying the effort that goes into serving the perfect cup of coffee every time. Everything is researched thoroughly, and only the finest coffee with Organic, Fair Trade, and Rainforest Alliance certification is sourced for Oceana.

Running a coffee shop requires managing a lot of people and building a great team. The staff is trained to serve happily while meeting customer’s expectations. To manage a growing business and facilitate expansion, Amy & Scotty put systems in place for everything so the business runs smoothly throughout the year. Everything is recorded and documented so there is no ambiguity and the data is used for forecasting their budget and sales each term.

Whether a business sells products or services, there are questions to consider regarding employees, training, and growth. In the case of Oceana Coffee, questions may be:

• How many team members should each shop ideally have?
• What training can be given to employees to further increase their skills?
• How can we institute a system that will reward employees, to facilitate talent acquisition and retention?
• Is there a healthy organizational culture, and do employees feel valued?
• Is there a proper welcoming message for customers?

The challenges of running a brick-and-mortar store

Running a coffee business does come with its share of difficulties. There is a lot of trial and error involved in the learning process. For example, Amy and Scotty tried several approaches to a loyalty program before settling on their current system, but ultimately it has successfully increased their revenue.

As a business owner, you can choose to look for opportunities that increase revenue and improve the efficiency of systems. This means constantly re-evaluating processes to see where you can save money or increase margins.

Another component is marketing. How do you attract people to your store? Amy has found that networking and strategic partnerships both market their products and grow brand awareness. Networking allows Amy and Scotty to meet new people and find new opportunities for collaboration. Further, by aligning with charities and organizations as sponsors, Amy has found brand equity and community support.

Evaluating opportunities for growth

For Oceana Coffee, growth is expansion of current and new stores. When it comes to expansion, owners Amy and Scotty have substantial research to do.

The first step is to identify opportunities and use experience and expertise to figure out who falls in your business’ key demographic. With that, the second step is to find areas dense with that target demographic, and identify locations for a store. Then, deciding whether the locations have a good floor plan for your business, and how much investment needs to go into a space to get it ready.

The physical location of your business can make or break it. For Oceana Coffee, this means finding a spot that is not only in the right area and has the right layout, but is also in the direction of morning traffic flow so customers can stop by conveniently.

Out-of-the-box thinking

Running a profitable business requires constant growth and expansion. Amy is always on the lookout for opportunities, such as individuals seeking to open a coffee shop from the ground up, or existing store owners who want to scale the coffee shop model and franchise.

For Amy and Scotty, forming partnerships with others in their industry as roasters or providers will help the business expand and bring in more profit.

Oceana moving forward

Oceana Coffee is a brick-and-mortar business growing from the ground up. They adapt to market conditions, evaluate opportunities, and are always looking to grow their business.

Amy and Scotty have faced challenges to bring their customers in and keep them coming back, yet in today’s world where brick-and-mortar businesses are struggling to make profits, Oceana Coffee has done well and has high aspirations for its future.

To have a conversation with Amy or Scotty, or just for a great cup of coffee, come into Oceana Coffee in Tequesta, Florida.