JumpinGoat Coffee in Helen, Georgia, Tweets Its Way to the Top!

*Picture and article courtesy PRWeb

From PRWeb:

Last Christmas Forrest Graves received an unexpected gift from his employer – two weeks’ notice. When life hands you a lemon, you can choose to make lemonade – Graves chose to make coffee instead.

After the initial shock, Graves and his wife Debbie, parents of two daughters, decided to fulfill their lifelong dream of opening a coffee roasting business in the small north Georgia town of Helen.  The couple had $600 in savings to get them started.

From that fragile beginning, Graves has built a multi-national business, selling a wide variety of coffee, roasted to order.

This Christmas, Graves and his company, JumpinGoat Coffee Roasters, were singled out by CNN as an examples of how an enterprising entrepreneur can succeed even in the worst recession in 50 years.

With businesses all over the country falling by the wayside and even coffee giants like Starbucks closing stores and laying off employees, how has JumpinGoat succeeded?

“Technology has been my friend,” says Graves. “We've had great success in terms of how technology has benefited our coffee business, namely Twitter, Facebook, and blogging.”

An on-line guest book at JumpinGoat’s retail outlet in Helen, Ga., enables Graves to tie back to his customers and maintain contact through Twitter and Facebook.  JumpinGoat has almost 3,000 followers on Twitter, 400+ Friends & Fans on Facebook, and several thousand on Linkedin.  Graves also has a blog on JumpinGoats website that he uses to educate his customers about coffee.

By using social media, Graves has created relationships with his customers, which keeps them coming back.

And of course, there is the gourmet coffee itself.  Graves and his wife spent years searching for the perfect cup of coffee before they realize that to find it, they would have to roast the beans themselves.  JumpinGoat features a wide-variety of 100% Arabica beans, including decaf and flavored varieties of coffee.

JumpinGoat has been a success story all around. The Graves now have a successful business and can always find the perfect cup of coffee.