How I Started A Coffee Business That Supports Everyday Heroes

Heather Ingram everyday heroes

Heather Ingram

Co-Founder
Courageous Blend Coffee

Team Size

3

Revenue

Not Disclosed

Location

Colorado, US

STart Date

Oct 2019

My female entrepreneur today is Heather Ingram, the founder of Courageous Blend Coffee.  Courageous Blend Coffee is a coffee business from Colorado that supports everyday heroes.

Heather and her family members are fulfilling a noble mission of expressing gratitude to the local heroes for their service. These heroes are teachers, firefighters, police officers, EMTs, nurses and all others who are performing a job that is mentally and physically hard by giving their time and talents to serve our community.  

Heather is one of the phenomenal women entrepreneurs we have around who makes a difference in the lives of others. I hope her story will motivate you.

INTRODUCTION

PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF AND THE BUSINESS YOU STARTED.

My name is Heather Ingram. I am a Realtor at Perry & Co in Colorado. Before that, I was a small business owner of a dance studio. I was a single mother of four and running the studio as well.  This taught me time management and how to multi-task at the highest level. 

Once my children started getting older I decided to get my real estate license. This gave me the flexibility I needed to get them to all of their activities and do something I would enjoy as much as the studio. I closed the studio and started working in the back office for a new real estate company. This allowed me to learn the in’s and out’s of our business. This is something most new agents do not learn when they first become a Realtor and it gave me the ability to move quickly and fast once I earned my license.  

After a few years of building my business, I wanted to move to a smaller company one that felt more like family.  This is where I am now at Perry & Co. It is smaller and is definitely a supportive family. This is where my idea for the coffee company started. 

I went to my broker and explained my frustration with programs to help first responders and those on the front lines. We came up with my own program to support and give back. This then became more! I went to my husband and gave him my idea to start a coffee company that also gave back and highlighted a new hero every couple of months. The hero would choose where our donation would go for the time they are our Hero! We will donate in their honor! This gives them the ability to help as well!  

WHAT DOES YOUR TYPICAL DAY LOOK LIKE AND HOW DO YOU STAY PRODUCTIVE?

A typical day is setting up a list for the day the night before of all items to complete. I am always trying to make connections and get the word out about our company. Going to events, social media presence and going to networking events.  We also include our children. They go to events with us and really enjoy helping, meeting people and being a part of something that helps our everyday heroes! 

coffee supports everyday heroes

THE JOURNEY SO FAR

PLEASE DESCRIBE THE PROCESS OF LAUNCHING YOUR BUSINESS.

Courageous Blend Coffee is a family-owned company that was created to support the heroes that do everyday jobs that most of us cannot do. These heroes are teachers, firefighters, police officers, EMTs, nurses and all military veterans and active duty! These people go out every day and perform jobs that are hard mentally and physically but they still show up and give 110%! 

To us this is incredible and we wanted to give back to show our appreciation. We also felt like there is very little recognition for these careers. That’s how we started with our HERO AWARD! 

We ask our coffee community to nominate a hero and tell us their story. Once the hero is chosen he or she is highlighted on our page, social media and any events we go to. That hero receives gifts from us and they choose what charity we donate to for that month. We as a company donate 2.00 per bag to the heroes cause. The month is all about them and shining light on the incredible job they are doing! From our family to yours THANK YOU! for supporting our coffee and all the everyday HEROES! 

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT AND YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE SINCE YOU STARTED YOUR BUSINESS?

Biggest Achievement: Our biggest achievement so far was our first organic order and being apart of other podcast interviews. 

Biggest Challenge: Our challenge is continuing to get the word out and always coming up with new ideas and moving forward.

everyday heroes

WHAT STRATEGY DID YOU USE TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? AND HOW?

Right now we are just trying to grow our social media presence and continue to go to events to meet people and new heroes.

WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS?

We are doing well for our time frame. Our ultimate goal is to open a coffee shop and really highlight our everyday heroes so people will know them and appreciate what they do!

RECOMMENDATIONS & FINAL THOUGHTS

PLEASE RECOMMEND ANY RESOURCES AND TOOLS THAT YOU USE TO RUN YOUR BUSINESS.

We love Squarespace for the website and we like to add ourselves to as many social media entrepreneur groups as possible.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE BUSINESS BOOKS, PODCASTS OR BLOGS?

My favorite podcasts are Women with a Vision (Tam Luc) and Mompreneur BFF (Queena Tahi)

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHER WOMEN WHO WANT TO START THEIR OWN BUSINESS?

 

Start with the understanding that the business does not grow overnight and always celebrate the small wins!!

Violeta Semenova

Violeta Semenova
Founder
theBizLadies

Welcome to the Biz Ladies interview series!

If you’re new to these series, I interview women entrepreneurs on how they started their business, what was the idea behind it, how they got where they are, the struggles, the reality and more.

By sharing their stories, we want to inspire other women to get started.

If you are interested to share your own story on the Biz Ladies LET ME KNOW!

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