
The Eau Claire Muse
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