On this episode of "America's Favorite Mom and Pop Shops," the married couple behind a coffee and leather goods shop in Idaho explain how following their passions led them to success.
How do you build a business that stands out but welcomes people in? How do you make money without doing things just for the money? These are the kinds of questions we're hoping to answer with Entrepreneur's new series America's Favorite Mom and Pop ShopsTM, where we teamed up with Walmart Business to visit community-minded entrepreneurs across the country to learn what it takes to build meaningful businesses that last.
For this episode, we went to Caldwell, Idaho, where Krista and Heath Albers left their old life behind to build a business their way. It's called Bond and Bevel, and it is a coffee shop and also a leather shop where everything is handmade and nothing is compromised, even if it costs them money.
How do you build a business that stands out but welcomes people in? How do you make money without doing things just for the money? These are the kinds of questions we're hoping to answer with Entrepreneur's new series America's Favorite Mom and Pop ShopsTM, where we teamed up with Walmart Business to visit community-minded entrepreneurs across the country to learn what it takes to build meaningful businesses that last.
For this episode, we went to Caldwell, Idaho, where Krista and Heath Albers left their old life behind to build a business their way. It's called Bond and Bevel, and it is a coffee shop and also a leather shop where everything is handmade and nothing is compromised, even if it costs them money.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - If you wanna run a great business,
00:05 then you need to learn from the greats.
00:07 And they're all around you.
00:09 They're the mom and pop shops in every local community.
00:13 The barber shops, the coffee shops,
00:15 the bookstores and the diners.
00:17 These aren't just small businesses,
00:19 these are master classes in community building,
00:21 in customer service, in innovative marketing.
00:24 My name is Jason Pfeiffer,
00:25 I'm the editor in chief of Entrepreneur Magazine,
00:27 and with Walmart Business, we are meeting
00:30 these entrepreneurs to learn what it takes
00:32 to build meaningful businesses that last.
00:34 So join me as we travel the country,
00:37 learning from America's favorite mom and pop shops.
00:40 (upbeat music)
00:57 How do you build a business that stands out,
00:59 but welcomes people in?
01:01 How do you make money without doing things
01:03 just for the money?
01:05 To answer those questions, I've come to Caldwell, Idaho,
01:08 where Krista and Heath Albers left their old life behind
01:11 to build a business their way.
01:13 It's called Bond and Bevel.
01:15 It's a coffee shop and also a leather shop,
01:18 where everything is handmade and nothing is compromised,
01:21 even if it costs them money.
01:23 So how do they do it?
01:24 To find out, it's time to get off of this ice
01:26 and drink something hot.
01:28 Let's go.
01:29 (upbeat music)
01:32 - My name is Krista, this is my husband Heath.
01:35 We are the founders of Bond and Bevel
01:37 here in Caldwell, Idaho.
01:38 Bond and Bevel came from the desire
01:42 to want something different.
01:44 Really just wanting to not have a boss,
01:48 wanting to pave our own way,
01:50 wanting to control our own future, really.
01:53 - I think it's always been in my blood
01:56 to create and be an entrepreneur
01:58 and make something unique and different.
02:00 This company wouldn't be what it is without her
02:03 and her personality.
02:04 I'm good at making things, but she's good at people.
02:06 And so we're a good match in that.
02:09 So I make the things and she sells it.
02:11 - Entrepreneurs create things people never knew they needed
02:15 and I never knew I needed a coffee and leather shop.
02:18 - Right, yeah.
02:19 - Heath, you made all this yourself
02:20 'cause this is incredible.
02:21 This is an old bank?
02:22 - It was an old bank, it was a blank slate.
02:24 It was actually pretty trashed
02:25 and we came in and changed it all.
02:27 Yeah, we're really proud of it.
02:28 - All right, before I get into this, I need some coffee.
02:31 I ordered the most Brooklyn thing ever.
02:32 Let's see if you do it in Idaho.
02:34 Decaf oat milk latte.
02:36 - We can do it. - All right.
02:38 I know that just a few years ago,
02:40 you guys didn't know anything about coffee or leather.
02:43 How are we in a coffee and leather place?
02:44 - That's right.
02:45 Well, beginning of COVID, when everything shut down,
02:50 Heath was a home builder, custom home builder,
02:52 and it just slowed down for two, three weeks.
02:55 No one left their house.
02:56 And so Heath got really bored
02:58 and he doesn't do bored well at all.
03:00 - Okay, that's a good quality.
03:01 - Yeah, absolutely.
03:03 And so he got some leather, got some leather tools,
03:07 jumped onto YouTube,
03:09 learned how to sew two pieces of leather together,
03:12 and sure enough, we have Bond & Bevel.
03:14 - So wait, you learned all of this online?
03:16 - I did, learned how to do a lot of things online.
03:19 - What does that mean?
03:20 What else did you learn? - Learned how to build.
03:20 Learned how to do leather.
03:22 We actually learned how to do coffee
03:23 two weeks before we opened this thing.
03:24 - Two weeks? - Yeah.
03:25 - That's right.
03:26 (laughing)
03:27 - Okay, I have to taste test this.
03:29 That's good online coffee.
03:31 - That's right, best in Treasure Valley.
03:33 - I have to learn more about how you guys did all this.
03:35 Let's sit down.
03:36 - Sounds good.
03:37 (upbeat music)
03:40 - This is a really unique business,
03:41 but uniqueness is a balance.
03:43 There's good and there's bad.
03:44 And Heath, I know you came out of the construction industry
03:47 and you had something that you were telling yourself
03:50 over and over again,
03:51 that you wanted to do very differently
03:53 than all your past work.
03:54 - Yeah, and I think the construction industry,
03:56 you're always chasing the next job.
03:58 What we did differently here is a phrase
04:00 that we often use is don't chase the dollar.
04:02 So chasing the dollar just means you're always going
04:04 after the next project or the next thing you can sell
04:08 rather than having a passion in what you're doing.
04:10 And there's a balance in that,
04:12 but to chase the dollar on everything you're doing
04:15 means that you're losing the heart and soul of it.
04:18 And we don't wanna do that, yeah.
04:19 - So let's look at an example
04:21 of what it means not to chase the dollar.
04:22 I know that this was your first hit product.
04:26 It's very, very sweet.
04:28 - Beautiful. - We love it.
04:29 - It's a--
04:30 - It's a journey tote.
04:32 - It's a, okay, I hear tote.
04:35 I hear purse.
04:36 But either way, why in a space that was supposed to be
04:40 for rugged men is a journey tote purse
04:43 the first hit product?
04:44 - Right, so our first market that we had the ears
04:49 and eyes of was social media, Facebook, Instagram.
04:53 And we made one, designed one.
04:55 It was all the rage.
04:56 So this poor man made a lot of what he called purses.
05:01 And I kept saying, "They're totes, they're journey totes."
05:04 And he just finally said, he's like,
05:06 "I don't wanna be a purse maker."
05:08 - Yeah, and there it is.
05:10 You could have had a successful totes purse company,
05:13 but you didn't want that.
05:14 - Right, right.
05:15 - So what do you do?
05:16 - Find your value system and then stick with it.
05:19 And one of our value system was,
05:21 I wanna make what I like so there's a passion in it.
05:23 'Cause you can tell passion.
05:25 And others will either like it or they won't.
05:27 - But how do you find the balance between these two things?
05:29 Because somebody who says,
05:33 "You know, I'm just gonna do what I like
05:35 and forget everybody who doesn't like it."
05:38 Is also sometimes a person who goes out of business.
05:41 - Exactly.
05:42 - Well, sometimes there's a marketing aspect
05:43 where you have to, in boldness, take the step.
05:47 And when a gentleman comes in and says,
05:49 "Oh, I only do light roast."
05:51 We make his drink for him,
05:54 one guy in particular comes to mind.
05:55 And we made him a Dopio,
05:57 which is just two ounces of espresso.
05:59 And we gifted it to him.
06:01 We're like, "Hey, you can have it."
06:03 - Just try it.
06:03 - Yeah, just try it.
06:04 And he tried it and he was pleasantly surprised.
06:07 And he comes in, what, two, three times a week
06:09 for a year and a half.
06:10 So you have this boldness, right, in your product.
06:14 And you just decide people are going to like it.
06:18 They just haven't tried it yet.
06:20 - Tell me about the leather.
06:21 - Yeah, so we try to source everything we can.
06:24 United States made leather and tanneries.
06:27 All the hardware we try to get out of the United States.
06:29 But they're my designs and my craftsmanship.
06:32 - And you do that right here in the store?
06:34 - We do it all here in the store, yeah.
06:35 - Where is that?
06:36 - Yeah, in the vault.
06:37 - Oh, it's in the vault?
06:38 - Yeah.
06:39 - Oh, can I see it?
06:39 - Absolutely.
06:40 - Oh, all right, let's do it.
06:41 [upbeat music]
06:42 All right, so this was an old bank vault.
06:45 - It was, until we converted it into this little workroom.
06:48 - So you traded gold for leather?
06:50 - I did, and hopefully we trade it back to gold.
06:52 - I like it.
06:53 Yeah, yeah, I look real natural in this.
06:55 - Yeah, it looks good.
06:56 - Yeah, this is what I wear when I do my leather work.
06:57 - That's right.
06:58 - So this is awesome, but also surprisingly small.
07:03 You make everything out there in here?
07:05 - Yeah, and this is what makes it so unique.
07:06 People get to see us working in here, or me, actually.
07:09 But it's definitely a difficult process
07:12 to put out a lot of inventory.
07:14 So really, there's me and another helper that works in here,
07:17 and that's all we got.
07:18 - Almost.
07:21 - Almost.
07:22 - Almost.
07:23 - A couple more hits.
07:24 - Come on, baby.
07:24 - There you go.
07:25 - Oh yeah.
07:26 - Okay, we got it.
07:27 - One, two, three.
07:28 [grunts]
07:29 - Got it.
07:29 - Come on.
07:30 - Keep going, keep going.
07:31 - Oh!
07:32 - You did it.
07:33 [upbeat music]
07:34 Oh, one more, one more.
07:34 - Oh, one more, one more.
07:35 - You did it.
07:36 - Yes!
07:37 - That's it.
07:38 - All right, that was great.
07:39 - Nice job.
07:39 - And just for consideration,
07:40 I feel like I'm gonna retire from leather work
07:42 and hang up my apron and just leave this to you.
07:44 - You're a natural.
07:45 - I appreciate that.
07:46 - Great.
07:47 [upbeat music]
07:48 - Pretty cool, right?
07:49 - Super cool.
07:50 I cannot believe that you learned how to do all of that
07:53 by watching videos online.
07:54 That's ridiculous.
07:55 - Yeah, yeah.
07:56 - All right, so one of the most powerful stories
07:59 that a business can tell is the story of the owners.
08:02 And in this case, the person making things is right here,
08:06 which is really incredible.
08:09 But I know that as people wanna talk to the maker
08:12 of the products,
08:12 the maker doesn't always have time to make the products.
08:16 How do you balance that?
08:18 - Yeah, we're finding that as a challenge
08:19 'cause you're unique and you've created
08:21 a neat atmosphere here where people can see the family
08:24 and the people making it, but how do you scale it?
08:27 And how do you get where you can have home life
08:29 and work life separate?
08:30 And a marriage that doesn't talk about business
08:33 on a date night.
08:34 And those kinds of things are always gonna be a challenge
08:37 when you create something this unique,
08:39 where I'm in a vault making leather.
08:42 People love it.
08:43 They love it, but you have to separate it out
08:45 at some point and grow.
08:46 - Talk to me about how you stock this place
08:48 for all the things that aren't, you know,
08:50 your friends making artisanal crafts.
08:52 - Yeah.
08:53 So we have just the basics of a coffee shop.
08:55 We use the local stores here to source a lot of our products
08:59 and we have to do that multiple times a week.
09:01 It's nice to have,
09:02 but it's not feasible to continue in that.
09:04 So we have to figure out how to find those suppliers
09:06 that can scale with us and a process that makes sense too.
09:10 - I know you guys have made a lot of decisions
09:12 to keep quality high on things like the milk that you use,
09:15 even though it's more expensive,
09:17 which means that you're earning less.
09:19 Why are you making that decision?
09:21 - Well, we have to make a decision
09:23 on what is priority for our business.
09:24 And then, but you always have to fight those same things
09:27 like margins and cashflow, just like any business.
09:29 And we know that.
09:30 And so we've tried other products
09:32 and done blind taste testing, and we just can taste it.
09:36 We can see it.
09:37 - It's the little things that add up.
09:39 And when you put it all in the same four walls,
09:42 it becomes an experience and you feel the emotion.
09:47 - We want to present a product that we're proud of.
09:48 - Right.
09:49 - And again, I think you can go out of business doing that,
09:51 trying to be too unique or this is what I like,
09:53 take it or leave it.
09:55 We're trying to find that balance.
09:56 - You guys make uniqueness look easy
09:58 and we want to make it a little easier for you.
10:01 Before we wrap up our conversation,
10:03 Walmart Business has a surprise for you.
10:05 They're setting you up with a six month
10:07 Walmart Business Plus membership.
10:09 So that's free shipping and limited time offers
10:11 on products for business owners
10:13 and 2% rewards on purchases over $250.
10:17 And you're getting a thousand dollar gift card
10:20 to spend on whatever you need at business.walmart.com.
10:24 - Wow, thanks.
10:25 - That's awesome.
10:26 Thanks Walmart Business.
10:27 That's a lot of milk.
10:28 (upbeat music)
10:31 (upbeat music)
10:35 - I keep thinking about what Heath said,
10:37 don't chase the money.
10:39 That's great advice, whether you're a mom and pop shop
10:42 or a national chain, because the thing is
10:44 that when you create something truly special,
10:46 the money starts chasing you.
10:48 (upbeat music)
10:51 (upbeat music)
10:53 (upbeat music)
10:56 (dramatic music)