Episode #3: Ryan Bembnister - The Goat Coffee House

Show Notes:

Introduction:

Was The Goat a business you started from the ground up?

• The goat is ground up but purchased previous coffee house location

• Gutted the previous business to make their own

What prompted takeover of previous business

• Ryan and his wife owned couple franchises in Eau Claire from uncle; A&W and TCBY

• Didn’t really care for the franchises

• Looking at real estate magazine and saw a coffee shop and his wife said no

• Next day they called realtor and a week later were buying the coffee house

What were first differences noticed off the bat between franchise and small business

• Freedom

• As a franchise you are kind of stuck: products, pricing, marketing

• Owned two companies located in the same store but were owned by larger separate companies so was difficult to fight between the two

• In small business can do what ever you want whenever you want

• Just need basic knowledge and put the time and energy in

• The liberty to not pay anyone else for anything

• Franchises aren’t cheap cause you have to pay percentage of sales or orders

• Were able to make it their own and not live by other’s rules

• Could interact with the community how they wanted and be themselves

Why Eau Claire

• Ryan born in EC; wife from new auburn and went to UWEC

• Uncle owned couple franchises in EC

• Coffee house seemed meant to be

How has community support been?

• Awesome

• COVID showed the support

• Before the shutdown lots of customers came and were buying gift cards and stuff for support

• When opened back up, like floodgates from the university students

The Goat impacting the community

• Place to study and place to go

• Lots of retired people and older professionals for meetings

• Set up for that specifically

• Limits craziness for guests to feel comfortable

• Comfortable atmosphere

• No advertising done; only through donation and community service, word of mouth

What was it like in the transition period?

• Scary 1-3 years

• Like 80% of business fail in the first 5 years

• Both weren’t educated in business, but Ryan went straight to the workforce, got first hand business knowledge

• Crazy working hours in the beginning

• Took many odds and ends jobs to get money

• Lots of support from family’s

• Thought they would succeed because two blocks from UWEC

• Focused on bringing in UWEC students then the rest of the population

• Every year there’s always new roadblocks

• New learning experience

How did they differentiate from other coffee shops?

• Coffee shops weren’t as big 17 years ago

• Good location and got lucky with that

• Everybody has their own niche

• Competitors don’t matter; just focus on making goat better

• Put personality into the store to make feel more comfortable

• Called cheers of water street because they know everybody’s name and their drink when they walk in

• Don’t think of customers as $2 coffee

• Not fake but still pleasant

Artist of the month and charities

• Started at least for 10-12 years

• Art seemed the logical thing to do

• For artis of the month you can put up whatever you want

• Artist gets full profit; The Goat doesn’t want that cause it’s the artist’s

• Don’t take percentage of profit

• Do art differently

• Lost a lot of artists due to covid

• Currently working with the EC library art

• Doing stuff with Bolton refuge house right now

• Giving proceeds from certain drinks

• Donation box

• Don’t say don’t to donations

What was the impact of COVID?

• First time was mandatory so easy decision

• COVID was pretty serious and aired on the side of safety

• Took advantage of the shutdown to remodel the shop

• Planned to open back up safely later than other shops and took care of employees as much as they could

• Adjusted with the times

• Close touches with covid

• Buy from local business to support them

Changes will impact the future of The Goat for “normal”

• The students are all out there

• Make all feel safe with vaccines and such

• Will come out in full force to support small business

• Going back to same places but as baby steps

• Anything will be a good thing to get the community back out

The Goat’s second location

• Not easy in this family

• Marshfield clinic wanted a second place of the goat

• Was set up like a coffee shop so just needed to put their stuff in

• Just a year-to-year thing with Marshfield

• Great with connections

• Bring good personality there to create great place

• Were established and were lucky to know somebody

Do they plan on opening a third location?

• Did have a third location

• Four years ago, clinic in Chippewa contacted to do same thing as Marshfield

• Little different in terms of guest

• Signed one year lease there

• Was a break-even store

• Lot of negatives, tucked back, not a lot of traffic,

• Just made it harder for Ryan and wife for personal time

• Other areas suffered because of stretched thin

• Two is enough

Where do you see yourself in five years?

• Doing the same thing as today

• Don’t really have a plan

• Don’t see them doing anything else

• Getting better at what they do

• Little grayer but just as happy

Major headlines in EC

• Put more focus on Water St

• Less on downtown but love the rejuvenated downtown

• Water St needs more focus again

• There were parades down Water St; it was awesome

• Want vibrant on Water St

• Community events

What would you go back and tell 2021 Eau Claire from 5 years in the future?

• Be patient through this time and put a lot of focus into the small business

• Need the focus on the city and take care of itself

• EC has great energy but utilize it in the city

• Would like EC to be the best city it can be