THE DAILY PERC: “…“Business Plan Pro gave me … the ability to take the cerebral ideas … and see it all come together.”

Don’t be fooled into thinking that the drive-thru café on your way to work is a small business; it is anything but small to an owner and budding entrepreneur like Bart Fisher.

It is 5:15 a.m. on Monday morning. Bart arrives at The Daily Perc in Rock Hill, Missouri and preps the espresso machine for the morning rush. He has already purchased two papers for customers, cleared the snow from the drive-thru lanes, stocked all the necessary paper products, and received the day’s shipment of dairy products, bagels, muffins, and cream cheese. For the next ten hours he sells coffee, espressos, cappuccinos, sodas, cookies, smoothies, and the concept of The Daily Perc to each customer that drives through his store. After closing at 4 p.m., he spends the next two hours balancing the books, contacting vendors, and cleaning the café before heading into a meeting with the city planner. Bart Fisher knows the meaning of multi-tasking. Early in 2002, Bart launched the drive-thru coffee retail store called The Daily Perc. He didn’t stop there. Since then, Bart has spun off four other businesses under The Daily Perc name and has three more planned for launch within the year.To add to his list of accomplishments, The Daily Perc business plan won a prize of $1,000 in Palo Alto Software’s annual Business Plan Competition in June of 2001. He had been introduced to Business Plan Pro®, business planning software, while at college and remembered it when it came time to write the business plan for The Daily Perc.

Bart Fisher, owner of The Daily Perc, at the first retail location.

“Business Plan Pro gave me an immediate structure to fill in my thoughts. The best part was the ability to take the cerebral ideas and plug them into an already set pattern and see it all come together.”

Bart began writing the business plan for The Daily Perc in mid 1998. The Daily Perc’s first retail outlet is in Rock Hill, Missouri. A second retail facility, The Daily Perc of Brentwood, should be open for retail business in early May of 2003. A third location, The Daily Perc of Creve Coeur, is slated to open later in 2003.

The Daily Perc concept was born while Bart was doing a lot of driving in Colorado and Nebraska. In some of the larger towns he came across, he discovered a little know secret to Midwesterners—that many drive-thru cafés serve excellent coffee. He believed the concept would work in his home state of Missouri. He was thrilled that he could drive up, stay in his car, and be served excellent coffee at a reasonable price. He was sure that fellow Midwesterners would also appreciate the service.

As the CEO of the entire group of companies, Bart works full time at the Rock Hill retail facility, making sure all processes are followed and keeping track of the day-to-day operations of the café. On his “off days,” Bart attends meetings with city planners, financial institutions, vendors, and equipment customers as well as taking part in a daily routine of checks and balances on the future growth of the company compared to the current situation.

Bart is looking to boost the economy of the Midwest as he grows the business. As of February 2003, the company had five employees and he anticipates tripling this number before the year’s end. “The long-term goal is to have many locations throughout the Midwest,” says Bart. He plans on having a franchise agreement in place and begin marketing it before the end of 2003. “I spent over 18 months researching coffee-based franchises before opening The Daily Perc and found none to fit my vision.” With this in mind, he has structured his company for growth. A holding company owns all of The Daily Perc entities, a separate company oversees the marketing and technology needs of the retail stores, and another company is responsible for the sales and maintenance of the equipment that the company is licensed to distribute.

“Because all of the corporate stores and the franchise stores will be offering the same basic product lines, it makes financial sense to place all retail orders through one distribution company and enjoy the economies of scale. Not only that, but you then are able to better control quality and shipment times if you are not relying on multiple vendors to distribute to multiple locations throughout the Midwest.”

Before launching The Daily Perc, Bart started Netcom Services as a division of NetCom, Inc., a high speed cable installation company and construction firm, and worked on a number of technology-based projects throughout the Midwest. “This was my true first ‘business’ with financial meetings, goals, sales, and etc.” It was while at Netcom, Inc. that Bart traveled around the country and was inspired to start his own gourmet coffee store.

When asked whether the company has been profitable yet, Bart is pleased to mention that The Daily Perc of Rock Hill broke even for four of the six months in the last half of 2002.

You can read more about the Daily Perc at www.thedailyperc.com and check out his business plan within Business Plan Pro.

To find out more about Palo Alto Software’s annual Business Plan Competition and your chance to win $25,000, go to www.paloalto.com/competition.

Posted on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007 at 1:26 pm within Success stories. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.