Tevin, Trévon, and Travis Sailor. (Courtesy photo)
With so much physical and emotional pain, economic harm, not to mention all the social disruption caused by COVID-19, 2020 was one of the most challenging and depressing years in American history.
Yet, Trévon Sailor, who in 2018 started sailorsbrewcoffee.com, an online coffee shop offering exotic blends of deliciously invigorating cups of pleasantly fragrant joe from Nigeria, Colombia and Jamaica, still grossed $65,000 last year, Sailor recently told Pasadena Now.
A resident of Pasadena, the 29-year-old former Army Ranger, who served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, started the business with his brothers, Travis Sailor, 23, and Tevin Sailor, 21, in November 2018.
The idea was to keep the business in the family. He said he wanted it to be something that he and his brothers could pass down to their children and other family members. Plus, Trévon said he feels he and his brothers and sisters have grown closer to one another because of their ties to the new enterprise.
Sailor said he’s recently developed a free app available at the Apple Store that sends out motivational quotes and videos. Saying the result will be “a physical and mental pick-me-up” for customers, Sailor recently told the Los Angeles Business Journal that he’s also planning to release a quarterly rotation of new coffees with which to savor the positive messaging.
“Life,” Sailor recently philosophized for VoyageLA.com., “can be compared to the ocean, beautiful skylines with pleasant breezes but also stormy dark clouds with rough seas. Life is about riding the waves while staying true to your path despite what is currently in front of you. …Thus, our brand has a nautical theme with motivation for life, served in a bag of coffee beans. Today, we primarily sell our products through our website, www.sailorsbrewcoffee.com.”
Sailor also said he’s currently working on opening an actual physical coffee shop in the Altadena area on his path to achievement.
“In the past, when we’ve had popups, (customers) would ask for sugar, creamer, and we’d tell them ‘just to try the product first,’ just so they can taste it. And then, by all means, if they need to doctor it up however they see fit, go ahead,” he said of some of the various churches and shops where he set up a temporary coffee stand shortly after developing his brand.
“Today,” he told the Business Journal, “I have yet to come across anyone that has tried it and didn’t like it even as a stand-alone.”
Numerous people “have told me they never drink black coffee, and they were able to actually stomach it and actually taste it, and, again, appreciate the coffee for being what it is,” he said.
Sailor said there are not really any secrets to his success, but if there was one word that sums up how he and his brothers have come so far so quickly it is “persistence.”
But, just as important, is “understanding the brand, marketing, word of mouth, and doing the best we can for the customers we’ve had over the past few years.”
For more on Sailor’s new business, visit www.sailorsbrewcoffee.com.
