The Journey to Becoming a Hometown Hero: With 321 Coffee

Being embedded in your local community is a sure-fire way to ensure longevity and continued success for your business. From helping to spread your message, to enabling you to give back in a tangible way, putting your hometown at the heart of your business has a wealth of benefits.

As part of our Lenovo Evolve Small initiative, we’re sitting down with influential partners and thought leaders to bring you advice on how you can grow your business to help reach your full potential.

Today’s focus is on how you too can become a hometown hero. Joining us in the inspirational co-founder of 321 coffee, Lindsay Wrege. As a Raleigh based coffee venture that employs adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), 321 coffee is the perfect example of how a community focus – in both mission and execution – can provide you with a one way ticket to become a hometown hero.

Putting inclusion and community first

321 Coffee was founded in 2017 by Lindsay Wrege and Michael Evans with a vision to build a community space founded on inclusion.

Impacted by their own personal experiences, they were driven by what they saw as a profound lack of job opportunities for those with IDD.

“For us, it was an easy decision. We saw the need to use social good - and specifically inclusive employment – as central to our community business model.”

And they went from there, building 321 Coffee from the ground up. A space where those with IDD could thrive, the team began by setting up on folding tables with a home coffee brewer in any location that would welcome them.

Speaking to their inclusive employee base, Lindsay explains “They are the ones roasting the coffee, taking the orders, and making the lattes. We are demonstrating the value of an inclusive business model”.

And from the beginning, the Raleigh community stepped up, buying in to 321’s mission, rallying behind the venture and giving back in spades.

When community steps up

“It was incredible!” Lindsay exclaims. “People were offering whatever they could”. “They were like “I’m an art teacher, I will paint a mural for you, I’m in commercial real estate, I’ll help you find properties, I’m an accountant, I can help you understand bookkeeping.”

For Lindsay, 321’s concrete following within their local community gave her the space to think about the next steps for her business. “We were reaping the benefits and could see the tangible impact that strong community relationships were having on our business.”

“Once you have that strong foundation, you can then begin looking at all the decisions that you oversee and have influence in, and how can you make those with intention too”.

This two way relationship helped solidify 321’s place in the Raleigh community and enabled them to grow faster than they would have been able to without that community buy in. Fundamentally, people wanted to support something they truly believed in.

321 Coffee’s tips for how you can become a hometown hero

So how do you become embedded within your local community?

Lindsay has outlined four key areas that helped her, and could help you, to become a hometown hero within your local community.

1. Tangible Community Impact

“Look at all areas of your business, and how every decision can be made with impact. Whether that be pay, staffing, or providing access to vote, any move you make that impacts your community will come back to you tenfold”.

2. Harness the Stories within your Business

“We rely heavily on an organic social presence to further our reach. We are doing all of it ourselves, telling the everyday stories of the people behind our business.”

“Yes, we got to go meet Queen Latifah, and not only was that cool, but it was one of our barista’s first time on an airplane, and look, he got to sit in the pilot’s seat. You know, just cool stories, and that resonates so much with our community”.

3. Pay it Forward

“Once you have your platform, focus on paying it forward. Looking at our supply chain, we partner with local businesses, small businesses, minority owned businesses, and work directly with our coffee bean farmers.”

“If a company and entrepreneur set out to do something embedded in the community, that’s fantastic, and I think the challenge that you extend after that is “what more can you be doing?”

4. Keep Dreaming

“We opened our big flagship location here in downtown Raleigh back in August, completing a goal that we’ve had for the past 5 years. That was awesome but Michael, my co-founder, said to me ‘now we get to dream again’ and I think that’s a really important perspective to hold on to”.

“Yes, you’re going to have goals and you fight hard to reach them. But if you don’t want to stop and settle, don’t.”

Hometown Heroes

For 321 Coffee, their success is intrinsically linked with their community. By partnering with your own community, you too can begin to form the relationships which can lead to limitless opportunity.

We will continue to work with inspirational organizations like 321 Coffee to support small businesses and help build inclusive businesses that are benefiting the social fabric of the communities they work in.

Looking to Evolve Small? 

In 2021, Lenovo launched the Evolve Small Initiative, based on the belief that small businesses are the heart of North America. With the help of partners like Queen Latifah across the United States and Canada, Lenovo has led a rallied effort to provide financial aid, mentorship resources, and community support to minority and woman-owned small businesses. 

Sign up for Lenovo Evolve Small to create custom marketing video ads with Queen Latifah for your small business and enter the contest for a chance to win a grant donation, tech and mentorship with the Queen of Small to help build your business empire. 

Because we know that when you thrive, we all thrive. 

Apply for Evolve Small grant and professional development package via Goodie Nation.  

Want more articles like this? Explore the community resource library and sign up to receive monthly mentorship newsletters! Each month will feature a different thought leader with topics and resources to help small businesses flourish. Check it out

Are you currently or aspiring to make a meaningful impact in your local community or hometown? What advice from Lindsay resonates with you most? Do you have any advice to add? A penny for your thoughts - please share with the community below!