Straight from The Horse’s Mouth

Laura St. John I'll have to get back to telling the stories of our West Coast Coffee Tour in a few weeks. There's just too much news to share right now.

This is a story of why Buffalo is positioned for awesome economic success and how coffee shops and the Internet make the world a very small place. Last spring a guy and his wife walked in, took a look around and said "Wow, this is so cool!" We started a lively conversation that morning which continues to this day. I'd say a real friendship sprang from our mutual passion for independent coffee shops. David Cooley is a self employed world wide web entrepreneur who makes money even while he sleeps. One of his favorite past times is traveling around East Texas finding interesting shops (and businesses of all kinds) and reviewing them on one of his web sites; www.netexasinfo. com. (Click there and look for their review of THM!)

He took an immediate liking to Buffalo and told us that we should be bursting with business given our location (in relation to Highway 79 and I-45) and the appeal of our small town culture. One of his passions is teaching individuals how to use the Internet to attract customers. His understands of the power of social media, a tool not yet widely used by businesses in our area. You see, thousands of travelers are driving by, every day, surfing the web on their smart phones. This is how Glenn and I found our 58 coffee shops to visit on our epic espresso vacation!

If your business is listed on line, they will see you. Example: open a Google search, type in "coffee shop" or "bookstore" and THM immediately pops up giving basic information and a link to our web site. It doesn't matter if your company is a brick and mortar location, a home business or service, a church, or youth organization, the Internet is an easy-to-use medium to get your word out and drive traffic.

David loves coffee shops. He made the drive several times over the next few weeks just to get our iced coffee and to see how we were doing. We introduced him to a lot of people including David Parker of Gypsyhead. (This is one example of how coffee shops connect the world.) After chatting a while they realized they knew each other 20 years ago in Corpus Christy when both were involved in the music industry there. Cooley and his brother have attended a couple of our Open Mic Nights, sitting in on the drum set and playing guitar with the gang. Shops like THM bring people together, virtually and in person.

Mr. Cooley met with Reitha Hollum, the president of our Chamber of Commerce. He offered to bring his seminar to town and the Chamber voted to pay for it, making it free to the public. THIS is an awesome thing!

On Saturday, September 11th, at 9:00am, David Cooley will begin teaching anyone who is even remotely interested in promoting their business (or future business), for free. There will be no sales pitch, he has no product to push. It will be a morning of information and revelation about how easy it is to reach the tens of thousands of potential customers who drive by Buffalo every day. Do you have a business that could use this? Come find out. Have you always dreamed of opening your own shop? NOW is the time. Get in on this fabulous opportunity to learn the magic of the Internet and social media. It works for us at THM. It'll light a fire under you, I promise. See you at Stewart Memorial United Methodist Church (in the Gathering Room) from 9-12 on Saturday. If you can't make it, send someone in your stead, a teenager perhaps... they get this stuff! If you have questions, get it straight from The Horse's Mouth, 903-322-2180. We are here to help create community both in Buffalo and on-line.