Exclusive Q&A with John Puckett, Founder of Caribou Coffee, Co-Owner of Punch Pizza

John Puckett and his wife founded Caribou Coffee in 1992. Nearly 10 years later, John partnered with a Minneapolis-area pizzeria, Punch Pizza, and is co-owner of the popular chain.

In the video above, John discusses the start of Caribou and getting involved with Punch Pizza, staying true to a vision, and the importance of saying no. John also gives his tips for small business success in the short Q&A below.

If you had $500 left in your monthly budget at the end of the month, how would you spend it?
I would invest in the culture of the business. 

If you had one piece of advice for small business owners, what would it be?
Be an expert and passionate in your area of business.

What’s the advantage that a small business has over a larger business?
A smaller business can react more quickly to customers and trends.

What’s the most important thing to consider when growing your business?
Make sure you have the personnel and the systems to really pull it off. My experience has been, in our business, most people fail when they open their second unit. You see a very successful first unit and the second unit actually brings the whole company down. So my number one piece of advice would be, if you have a really successful single unit, think really hard about if you want to take that risk of growing it versus just making a lot of money and being very happy in one unit.