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Well I invested quite a bit of money up front in order to build the roaster and then buy coffee and bags and other sundries. So I have yet to have paid myself for the work I have done. Presently all the funds that I am making are going right back into the business up until the time that I have made that original amount of money I input. At that point the profits will actually start flowing my way.

The coffee will always be the largest expense when doing this. I am presently buying coffee two weeks in advance, but once I have built up more funds in my account from profits I will start buying 50# bags of the coffee. Presently buying between 10-25lb bags depending on how much I have sold of that coffee previously.

I am also presently working on my bean cooling system, which is presently the limiting factor in my drums capacity. Moderately large beans mean I can only roast 2.5 lbs at a time or else over flow my cooling system. This week I plan to build a second system of the same type (collander,bucket, vaccum) This way I will be able to do the full 5-6 lbs that my drum will handle for any bean size, not just the small ones. That should cut off a good two hours maybe more from roast time.

The bags I am using are one way valve zipper bags, which are more expensive than the brown paper bags, but they keep the coffee fresher which has in turn brought people back.

As far as how much I have made "profits" for each week. Selling 40 lbs. I have made above cost but not including time about $150. If I were to use less expensive coffees than I presently am I could bump that up by double possibly a bit more. Cheap low grade coffee though is not going to keep people coming back to me, they can get that anywhere in town.

I sell pounds and half pounds about equally. I have to package them prior to the market, unless I want to buy a scale that is well over $400. I may do that for next year though. The coffee definitely doesn't sell itself by any means. Samples seem to sell about 5-10 lbs a week so far. What moves it better than anything else is my passion for coffee (and a talent for selling). People come up and ask me about the coffee and I tell them everything I can about the flavors that I get out of that coffee. I also have sold a good deal of coffee by providing teaching about proper grinding and brewing technique.

Just to give an idea about return customers. The last four weeks I have sold half of my coffee to people that came back previously (a good memory for faces is a big help, even moreso if you remember names, names keep people coming back again and again). Others have called or emailed me during the week to have me roast when they couldn't get to the market. I am now selling about five pounds minimum outside of the market. 50 lbs is what I am defining as my maximum for the present.

After this semester of school is done I will be done with my degree and working as a nurse at which point my time will be much freer. Once that is up I plan to bump up the roasting to 100 lbs a week. I have a friend who is starting up a shop and will be running my coffee so that should easily give me another 30 or 40 a week.

Well I know I didn't answer all of your questions but I will try to next post. I have to get back to my studies. Human anatomy won't learn itself. Or at least that's what the professor says. Judging from how many people fail these classes she may be right.