Author: Sarah Armstrong
Contributor, The Keyword
A San Francisco café used Gemini to cut hours spent on routine tasks like design, email marketing and sales forecasting. Summaries in this piece were produced with Google's AI; generative AI remains experimental.
Overview
Hrag Kalebjian took over his family's business and set out to modernize operations to reach more customers online. Henry’s House of Coffee now runs a successful nationwide subscription program while maintaining a neighborhood shop, but managing e-commerce alongside in-person service meant Hrag needed ways to save time.
Hrag turned to Gemini as a multipurpose assistant to automate workflows and speed creative work. Below are three concrete ways he uses Gemini to simplify operations and grow the business.
1) Automating sales tracking without costly software
Monitoring daily revenue is essential but can be tedious. Hrag asked Gemini to act as a technical helper and generate custom code for a daily sales forecaster. Rather than building the tool from scratch, he described what he wanted in plain language and used screenshots to troubleshoot bugs with Gemini's help. The system now delivers a morning report automatically.
Try it yourself: Request a Google Sheets function from Gemini that highlights days when sales dip below your monthly average, and ask Gemini to walk you through installing and using it.
2) Cutting design time for menus and customer materials
Designing menus and instruction cards often requires switching among several apps. By bringing existing documents into a single workspace, Gemini speeds document redesign. Hrag uploaded a long, technical 15-step PDF for an Armenian coffee kit and worked interactively with Gemini. Within about 20 minutes he had a print-ready instruction card, reducing turnaround on assets by roughly 95%.
Try it yourself: Upload an internal overview or standard operating procedure to Gemini and ask it to convert the content into a clean, friendly, print-ready customer guide.
3) Turning industry updates into engaging marketing content
Drafting newsletter copy can take hours. Hrag uses Gemini to summarize coffee industry news, refine ideas and produce copy that fits his brand voice for "The Sunday Pour," his weekly newsletter. This approach helps him deliver concise, engaging updates that perform well with subscribers.
Try it yourself: Paste article links or text into Gemini and ask for a three-bullet summary in a casual tone suitable for a newsletter. Pro and Ultra subscribers can also schedule Gemini to compile industry reports automatically each week.
What this enabled
By delegating routine tasks to Gemini, Hrag reclaimed time to focus on customers and the business itself rather than repetitive work. The experience highlights how small businesses can experiment with AI tools to streamline operations and prioritize high-impact activities.
Legal and subscription notes
Links in the article point to Gemini product pages and subscription information. For details about scheduled actions or subscription tiers, consult Gemini's support and subscription pages.
Subscribe
Get more stories from Google in your inbox by subscribing to The Keyword. Your information will be used in accordance with Google's privacy policy.