Large vanilla latte with some weather data, please...Last Saturday, my wife and I stopped by a cafe in town owned and operated by Friend of Dave Chris Stoddard and his wife Mary Ellen called the Lucky Finn Cafe.It's a great local coffee shop with a back deck that overlooks scenic Scituate Harbor. Funny thing is, you likely have seen the building at some point (before it became the Lucky Finn), as it is in a scene early in the movie "Witches of Eastwick" which was filmed in our area years ago. Sitting on the back deck at the Lucky Finn on a sunny, crisp, late Fall or early Spring morning (like last Saturday was here) is one of the things we love most about living in our town.Chris and Mary Ellen are not your typical, "mom and pop" retail shop owners -- they are driven entrepreneurs who, like many of us, are looking at how they want to spend their next chapter as their kids begin to leave the nest and they wind down life in the corporate world. While some of us dream about food trucks, Chris and Mary Ellen took action and pursued premium seaside coffee.They have done such a great job building an impressive following and brand in our area that they opened a second shop in a town over from the original location. I quickly caught up with Chris during the morning bustle as he zipped between the barista station and food prep area. His energy and passion for the operations of the business fascinates me and I always learn something new when we chat.On this occasion, the conversation turned to the weather -- but not in the casual banter, chit-chat way. As they learn more about optimizing their business at the Harbor location (which is smaller than their newer shop), Chris mentioned that one of the biggest factors they have seen that impacts their operations across the board is weather -- when it is nice out, the shop (and scenic back deck) is packed with people eating, drinking, talking and, inevitably, taking selfies to post on social media. So they need to be able to plan food, coffee and staff accordingly -- otherwise lines get too long, they run out of menu items, and service suffers. Chris mentioned that what he and Mary Ellen are really looking to do is get access to weather data that they can plug into their model and help them analyze how to best prepare for surges and slowdowns that will occur throughout the year based on sun, temperature, etc. It's really smart. And it reminded me of something I wrote about a few years ago and say here from time to time: EVERY business is a data business.If a local coffee shop can take a data first approach to operating their business in this way, so can your business -- it doesn't matter what the industry may be. And if you are not thinking this way now, you are already behind -- the smart companies in your space are already doing so and leveraging data in ways that are radically changing how they operate.Visit the Lucky Finn on a nice day and see for yourself. Chris and Mary Ellen are definitely on to something....Happy Mother's Day to all the FoD moms out there. Be sure to take some time to relax and enjoy your day -- it doesn't take too much data to say that you deserve it! XOXODave