There is a local junior football club near me that various parents have asked if I could turn up and serve coffee (because they are stuck for 3 hours in a freezing field and can’t leave their kiddywinks to get one.
I did enquire with the club but they weren’t interested because one of the members brought a stall and thermos flasks to sell coffee for everyone - I didn’t want to tread on toes so backed off.
Now I find out a the woman has left and the club contacted a local independant estate agent to sponsor a coffee van instead,
All good - but the estate agent hadn’t heard of me and googled a bloke from Dartford and signed him up to do the coffees.
Thing is I know the bloke is a bit of a chancer as I was called in to replace him when another local sports group were let down (this happens all the time in the coffee van world, someone makes an agreement and breaks it when they get an offer of more lucrative work / bigger crowds.
My question is should I email the estate agent saying;
" Hi - looks like I am too late to provide coffees for your sponsorship but should your current supplier not live up to your expectations I would be delighted to supply for you in the future"
Then list my benefits - I’m local, 5 minutes (not 1 hour ) away, your potential customers are already my customers, I serve 70% of the local schools , most of the sports clubs and I’m a frequent sight around the area - I can work with you in the future and even advertise your business on the van which will be seen all around the locality by your customers and at most of the local events…
Do you think that would be too pushy / arsey - would that encourage them to start a dialog???
The thing is it won’t be a lot of trade but it fits in with me working in this community and I’d be serving a lot of mates anyway so it would be fun ---- and to be honest my nose was put out of joint a bit by having this Dartford Cowboy come into my patch, somewhere I had my eye on.
Yep I know I should have been a bit more proactive in the first place but it happened so quickly…:crying:
Can’t see it doing any harm, but rather than email, why not try the personal touch & pop in to the shop with a couple of coffees?
Of course this will mean having to interact with estate agents, so best make sure your shower at home has an ample supply of hot water & carbolic soap ready…
Absolutely do it! There’s nothing wrong with being assertive about what you know you’re good at. Sounds like you’d be a better fit professionally anyway.
On a side note it’s nice to find another coffee nut on here
They may call you if: a) he drops them in it. b) has a big clashing event on one week and they need a stand in. c) the agent need another coffee trailer for another site. d) after his tender has expired and they realise they really don’t want to deal with him again.
Thing is I only want to work locally - and their are hundreds of opportunities within a 5 mile radius (plus word of mouth seems to work great - mostly).
Sooo I have avoided Google since it costs a bleedin fortune and I hate the bastards.
This estate agent just googled “coffee van” and their name popped up… my loss I suppose!
May also have missed you as your domain http://caferacer.org.uk/ just goes to a GoDaddy holding page… Might want to sort that one out. Even if it’s only a single page with title, photo and contact details.
Definitely worth popping your head in, if the other guy does let them down then they’ll be glad to have someone on standby (especially as you know the customers already so would be disinclined to let anybody down).
There’s an estate agent near tooting bec station that put a coffee shop in the front of their office - maybe you could get your lot to clear a few desks away and let you park inside their window on cold days
Also, just realised that I hadn’t liked your facebook page like I thought I had ages ago, so have a thumbs up from me
As everyone else has said do it, go in person and talk to them.
You don’t come across as a dodgy geezer, more someone trustworthy they could do business with.
I think you should. Firstly, the tone of your letter/email is very polite and secondly I don’t see why you shouldn’t present yourself as a potential candidate having been asked to help them out by one of the parents already.
You never know, the other guy might bail out again and you get yourself a permanent gig. Extra money and exposure always helps so I’d say go ahead and make yourself known.
