Scrapbook

Bartolome M. Latonio

Starbucks Small Business Ventures

History

Starbucks started as small business coffee shop operating in busy Seattle tourist area called Pikes Place Market. The three unknown pioneer of Starbucks wanted to share their passion for brewed coffee and tea. During their first year in the business, they experimented with all sorts of coffee blend until they came up with their own flavor. Their business became an instant success using the word of mouth selling brewed coffee cup by cup. Their success as a small business owner inspired them to open another store to target a wider market. By the early 1980’s, Starbucks expanded to four new stores in Seattle area. Since then, they became the largest company in the world. This coffee company grew from four Starbucks store to having currently 16,635 stores globally including 11,068 in the United States, 1000 stores in Canada, and more than 800 in Japan (Salomon 271). From small business to corporation, Starbucks amazing expansion was attributed by their commitment to high quality products and passion for educating customers to appreciate the qualities of fine coffees.

Fulfillment

Last year, they embarked on another ventures to help educate and finance small business owners to boost the unemployment. They teamed up with Philadelphia based non-profit organization called Opportunity Finance Network to help solve the unemployment rate. Its sole purpose is to establish a program called Create Jobs for USA to encourage small business owners to hire workers within their community. To expand their mission, Starbucks used 7,000 locations throughout the country to collect donations from its customers, employees, and concerned citizens to build a fund drive for business lending. All funds that are collected will be transferred to selected organizations so they can use the money to provide loans to small business entrepreneurs who may not qualify for traditional bank loans.

Key Driver

The reason for...