Ghost Town Coffee Roasters
After 11 years of roasting beans for wholesale, Bozeman locals Chad Kimm and Clarissa Englehart worked with Prospera Business Network to open a 5,000-square-foot café and roasting facility, Ghost Town Coffee Roasters, on Bridger Center Drive in Bozeman. The goal: to roast sustainably sourced beans and offer barista training for both employees and community members.
The expansion to a new location means that Ghost Town will continue wholesale distributions; however, they want their new emphasis to center on preparing the perfect cup of joe. "When it comes down to it, it’s the person behind the product and the machine that ultimately needs to have the knowledge to prepare the perfect cup of coffee," explains Kimm and "That's something we've wanted to do since day one."
The husband and wife team worked with Prospera to find the right lender to finance the expansion, fine-tune their business plan, and evaluate potential café locations. In taking the steps towards realizing their dream, no one helped them find ways to accomplish their plan until they worked with Prospera, "They [Prospera] were fantastic in finding ways to help us achieve the goals that we were looking at," said Kimm, Englehart added that Prospera was always present with them when they were working together and that staff at Prospera did everything to get them the tools that they needed.
In the long run, Kimm and Englehart believe that working with Prospera and understanding the resources of the organization has given them a sense of security as they navigate the ups and downs of running a successful business. Their advice to other entrepreneurs: