Today we’d like to introduce you to Todd and Pamela Reddeman.
Todd and Pamela, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My wife and I have always had an interest in specialty coffee and opening a coffeehouse. Early in our marriage, we entertained the idea while pursuing our individual careers. She was a graphic designer, and I was a teacher. We moved to Atlanta, where we both did what our college educations trained us for, and had a little girl. During this time, we continued to toy with our coffee house dream, searching for locations, creating a business plan, and we even worked at Starbucks part-time to get some hands-on experience.
While doing this, I kind of stumbled into a job with a local coffee roaster in Gainesville. It was there where I really learned everything there was to know about specialty coffee. In addition, it was a real education into entrepreneurship. They sold coffee online (new at the time), and worked on developing sales routes with local and national chain grocery stores, independent coffeehouses, and office coffee. They were only about six people when I started and over 35 when I left. Throughout my job there, I expanded my coffee education into equipment and marketing.
It was during my tenure there that I had an idea about bringing the coffeehouse experience to people’s offices, special event facilities and homes. I toyed around in my garage with equipment and how I thought this concept would all work. Meanwhile, my wife made some marketing materials, and after I felt comfortable with what we had, I went out to networking events and chamber of commerce meetings to snag myself a client. Within a few weeks, I did. From there, I modified the system through trial and error (often costly mistakes lol), and it all kind of came together. I continued to work at the coffee roaster and did this part-time. During this period, we thought we found a good location for a coffeehouse and put a lot of time into putting that all together. After we thought we were ready, I quit the coffee roaster. Unfortunately, that deal fell through and there I was with only my new business to fall back on.
Fortunately, Mocha My Day continued to grow. I was doing that full time now, and I met a gentleman at an event (his daughter was a client) who had a space for a coffeehouse at Georgia Tech. We did that for a little over a year, and then I got busier and busier with Mocha My Day and had to let that go.
Since then, we have been blessed to work with many Fortune 500 companies, local businesses, special event facilities and planners, private events, churches, schools, movie and TV productions, and more. My wife and I work together and do everything to keep the business humming along. We had several employees until recently. Unfortunately, we had to furlough them through this difficult time.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No. Things have not. We survived 9/11, and the 2008-2009 recession. I remember doing an event the day after 9/11, and there was a TV there. Everyone pretty much ignored me and what was going on and watched the TV. During the big financial crisis of 2008-2009, I watched our business disappear into not much within days. Clients who were regulars literally went out of business. It was pretty scary! However, we gradually and rather quickly recovered from that.
Right now, the Coronavirus would be considered our biggest struggle. We have no events scheduled at all for the next two months. Everything has been cancelled. We can’t sell take out like restaurants, or anything like that. Any other thing we might think of to pull in some revenue will not be enough. However, we are blessed to have some money that we can pay bills with for the next two months. We have applied for the EIDL through the Cares Act, but have not heard anything yet. Despite the news, the reality is that these programs aren’t fully implemented yet.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Mocha My Day makes the world a little more fun! We specialize in bringing the coffeehouse experience to you! Handcrafted specialty mochas, lattes, espresso, hot chocolate and more, created especially for you, inside, outside, wherever you want to have fun! Since we are not a truck or cart, we can go anywhere.
We are known for our wonderful customer service, professionalism, ability to handle large groups in a timely and consistent manner, and our cool menus.
Our experience truly sets us apart. We have been in business for more than 20 years, and we have a high rate of repeat customers. We work with our clients to provide them what they need–or be realistic if it’s not possible! And, I am most proud of how our employees take their training, retain it, and provide our services without management being present. Very impressive.
What were you like growing up?
I was the bad boy who sat in the back row, or skipped class (sometimes!). I loved music and writing. I was smart enough to pass (just barely). I was also smart enough not to get caught. Also, I loved to work and make money (interesting dichotomy).
I “woke up” after high school, and got a degree in special education. I really liked it!
My wife was the complete opposite of me. She had really good grades in high school, and worked in the library. She was a great college student, editor of the college newspaper, and worked for the law school.
Pricing:
- We price our service by group size, with rates starting around $245 for unlimited drinks for two hours.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1081 Colony Drive
Alpharetta, GA 30009 - Website: www.mochamyday.com
- Phone: 770-664-1634
- Email: todd@Mochamyday.com
- Instagram: Just type in Mocha My Day when there.
- Facebook: Just type in Mocha My Day when there.
- Twitter: mochamyday1
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