About the Author
Ed Arvidson
Ed Arvidson is the president and founder of E&C Consulting, a company dedicated to providing high-quality consulting services to those in the Specialty Coffee Business. Over his 15 year consulting career, Ed has worked with literally hundreds of clients helping them plan and open their coffee businesses. He is also a master at troubleshooting and often consults for existing retailers who are struggling. Teaching is one of his strong suits and Ed has personally directed employee training and store opening at nearly 100 coffee businesses.
Prior to starting his own company, Ed was co founder and senior consultant for the Bellissimo Coffee info group. He also created and taught the business curriculum at the American Barista & Coffee School, from its inception through July of 2009. Ed was the co-creator of many of Bellissimo’s core educational products. These include: "Espresso 101 DVD", "Everything But Coffee DVD", "Espresso 501 DVD", "Customer Service DVD", "Bean Business Basics" (a 700 page business start up manual), and the book, "Opening a Specialty Coffee Drive Thru". In 2008, Ed released Coffee Drive Thru Plans, offering architectural construction plans for 3 different coffee drive-thru buildings.
Ed writes frequently for coffee periodicals, and holds the distinction of having conducted more educational seminars at "Coffee Fest" trade shows, than any other industry speaker. Because he speaks to operational and profitability issues that so often challenge coffee retailers, he is an industry favorite.
Before he focused exclusively on coffee industry consulting, Ed was the owner and manager of three retail coffee operations, as well as his own successful award-winning restaurant.
Prior to striking out on his own, he spent fifteen years building experience in the corporate restaurant industry. Over his corporate career, he held positions as: general manager, corporate management trainer, corporate food and beverage manager, and corporate store troubleshooter. In one instance, he took a store that was loosing $7,000 a month and returned it to profitability after only 120 days!
Even earlier, during his teens and early twenties, Ed gained valuable experience working at essential "in the trenches" posts. These positions, which ranged across all facets of food service, included among others, dishwasher, bus boy, cook, waiter, and bar tender. From this wealth of experience, having started as a dishwasher and worked his way to CEO, Ed understands every aspect of the business. This background gives him a unique perspective that allows him to quickly identify problems and execute solutions.
"Coffee Business Success in a Turbulent Economy" brings all of Ed's experience in consulting, managing, and, attaining profitability, fully to bear. In particular, his success during past recessions, and his time spent as a corporate store troubleshooter, provide insights that you’ll find invaluable. This manual shares Ed’s knowledge of this economic crisis along with thoughtful strategies that can make can your business indispensable to your customers. In essence, you get Ed’s thirty years of expertise and experience without all the hard work. In these tough times, "Coffee Business Success in a Turbulent Economy" is the definitive manual that can make the difference in your business survival.