The Coffee Break JA alumnus Chris Francis shares his success story
Recognizing Success Honouring the 37th Class of Companions
ACHIEVE M AY 2 0 15
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF CANADA
THE COFFEE BREAK
JA ALUMNUS CHRIS FRANCIS CARVES HIS OWN OPPORTUNITIES IN WINDING PATH TO SUCCESS Francis grew up in Stratford, just outside Charlottetown. As a teenager, he aspired to be a lawyer, architect or teacher. “Business wasn’t something I thought about,” he says. Then he got involved with Junior Achievement.
As a young entrepreneur, Chris Francis understands that opportunity is always brewing. In school, life and business, he has embraced the experiences that have shaped a burgeoning business success story. At 24, Francis is co-owner of Receiver Coffee Company, a café on Victoria Row in downtown Charlottetown, PEI. Since it opened in 2014, it has generated a buzz for its friendly atmosphere, delicious local fare, and focus on social responsibility. How did Francis end up here? As his life to date has shown, you can’t always chart a path as a straight line. Yet he understands the importance of being open enough to learn from his experiences, and savvy enough to see where those twist and turns can lead. Do that, he’ll tell you, and you can excel.
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JA doesn’t just teach business skills but the pillars of success in any endeavour, says Betty Ferguson, President and CEO, Junior Achievement of PEI. Lessons in things like marketing and HR are of course invaluable, she says, but so is the chance to hone a range of qualities that workplaces value. With those lessons, JA students can fill a toolbox they can draw on in any setting. “What JA instills,” says Ferguson, “are lifelong opportunities.”
“I saw challenges as something to be excited about, not something to be afraid of.” For Francis, JA provided an opportunity to develop his confidence. He was shy back then, but became inspired by his fellow students and JA advisors who were full of enthusiasm. “They were very positive, and the creative energy was flowing,” says Francis. “I learned I was capable of coming up with ideas. It was eye-opening.” Through JA projects, Francis gained valuable business experience and abilities such as thinking on the fly and problem solving. With his newfound self-confidence, he was able to shed his nerves and play guitar in a JA singing telegram
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venture, and run for student council president. “I saw challenges as something to be excited about, not something to be afraid of,” he says. That faith in yourself and can-do attitude are essential ingredients in pursuing any objective. In high school, Francis didn’t have clear career goals yet. But some important seeds were planted.
Finding His Passion
Ferguson notes that whether describing triumphs or obstacles, JA volunteers offer a valuable reminder. “They share best practices and their journeys, and how they set themselves apart,” she says. What do students absorb? “That there are lots of paths to success.”
“If you really want to do something, if you have that passion, you owe it to yourself to pursue it or you’ll have regrets.” That has been true for Francis. He attended the University of PEI, to study his first passion psychology, but he had another burning desire: music. He left school after a year to play bass, write, tour and record with rock bands North Lakes and Wildcat. Francis didn’t know if he’d make it. Yet he’s certain of one thing: “If I hadn’t done that, I know for a fact I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now.” ...continued on page 36
Celebrating a lifetime of achievement.
Congratulations to the 2015 Canadian Business Hall of Fame inductees and to Junior Achievement for its outstanding work. ACHIEVE | Page 35
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Music gave Francis learning opportunities that would serve him well in business. Working with bandmates, he learned more about the power of collaboration. He also realized you have to follow your dreams and give them everything you have. “If you really want to do something, if you have that passion, you owe it to yourself to pursue it or you’ll have regrets,” he says. His bands may not have achieved mass success, but Francis became more comfortable with the idea of taking risks to realize his dreams. He also started to develop another interest from travelling to shows.
“You can’t see opportunities if you don’t know what you’re looking for.” “You woke up in a place you didn’t know. The first thing I would do is get coffee. It didn’t matter what town, I always found something interesting about coffee shops. You have people from every walk of life, and it’s where they all interact. It was an interesting dynamic, to see the community build up around coffee. I felt a strong connection.” After 18 months pursuing music, Francis returned to university. He did another semester before realizing that he wasn’t ready to start a career in psychology. So he put his studies on hold again. Now what? In business, sometimes you catch a break, other times you make your own. Francis found work helping to open a café, doing drywalling and painting to get the space ready. He ended up joining the team and eventually became the manager. One regular customer, Amer Abualsoud, became a friend. While Francis had an ever growing affinity for the coffee world, Abualsoud had business experience, running a restaurant and a print company. The two decided to
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become partners and open their own coffee shop and roaster. Receiver has an espresso bar, sells specialty coffees (high-grade, transparently-sourced), and offers breakfasts and baked goods (locallyproduced). They roast their own coffee, and sell to other shops and restaurants. Why call the café Receiver? To Francis, a telephone receiver signified connections and the notion of bringing people together. That’s its function. But in this case there are more personal meanings. His father worked for the phone company, and it always seemed more like a family than a job. Francis and his father also used to take apart old phones, a treasured memory. “He taught me diligence, to always work hard at what you’re doing and don’t rush,” says Francis. “Those are things I apply in business all the time.”
Putting JA’s Lessons Into Action
Francis finds himself reaching back to his JA lessons. Would he be running a café without those experiences? Maybe, but not quite the same way, he says.
“They were very positive, and the creative energy was flowing. I learned I was capable of coming up with my own ideas. It was eyeopening.” For instance, he credits JA with reinforcing the importance of adjusting to different circumstances. “Some people have a business plan, but the second there’s deviation they panic. You need flexibility when things change.” When the current space for Receiver came up, Francis was already operating in another location. He knew the new spot would
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be better for growth, and scrambled to pull the necessary resources together. He says JA also taught him to maintain momentum. “With JA, our group was go, go, go. It’s easier to jump over a hurdle when you’re running than when you’re standing still.” When he was just starting to make coffee, he could have taken much more time to experiment with different roasts. Instead, he decided to focus on pursuing wholesale customers while he was learning, so as to maximize potential opportunities. Opportunities are always around, he says, and one of hardest thing in business is separating the genuine potential from the flashes in the pan. “You have to learn to do market and risk analysis. You also can’t just think something to death,” says Francis. “I always have a vision – a one-week, one-month, six-month, one-year and two-year plan. It’s a way to put down ideas, so as you grow and shift it’s not by the seat of your pants. You can’t see opportunities if you don’t know what you’re looking for.”
Paying it Forward
Francis feels a responsibility to provide opportunities to the 15 people on his payroll, by building a stable business and setting goals they
can work towards. He sees Receiver as more than just a retailer of coffee and beans: “I’m trying to create a hub in the community.” He envisions a place where people meet to plan their own opportunities. Receiver has been used for film shoots, and as a space for arts groups to perform. “The coffee shop is a great place to build relationships,” says Francis. That includes supporting relationships with suppliers. Francis wants to celebrate PEI vendors, and has thought of starting a small market with one supplier, selling only local goods. He also plans on visiting Kenya this year to find a grower he can work with, learn more about the farming process, and perhaps develop ways to support the farmers apart from just buying coffee. While Francis is a newcomer in business, Ferguson senses from his journeys that he constantly looks to create and learn from opportunities. “He’s so passionate, you can see it in his eyes and hear it as he speaks,” she says. “I said to him, you know, the road to life is always under construction. Just stay between the lines, and use the skills that were put in front of you, like what we deliver with JA. All those pillars are life skills.”
“He’s so passionate about what he does, you can see it in his eyes and hear it as he speaks.”
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