How To Start A Coffee Shop Business

Many people try and fail to make a new cafe work. It takes time and patience and above all quality and location. It is a shame that so many fail. There are many reasons for this: a lack of technical and business knowledge, the jungle of authorities disregarded, the café does not generate enough profit quickly enough, and much more. So let’s take a deeper look into how you can potentially make this work as a business idea.

Tip 1: Have Support From Your Family and Partner

A successful start-up is not possible without family and friends. That doesn’t mean that everyone has to stand in the shop or bake cakes on Sundays. But moral support and protection are very important.

What is your partner saying? Is he/she behind your plan or not?
Does your family understand and support you?
Are your friends enthusiastic about your idea too?

It is important that your immediate environment supports your decision. Because in the first three years you will have little time for your loved ones. They have to endure a lot! Your worries, your stress and even your failure. However they also will revel in your success.

Tip 2: Get a Grip on the Jungle of Authorities

A specialty in the food sector is the care with which – despite all the passion – you absolutely have to proceed. There are many requirements, permits and regulations that you have to comply with. The time required for all of these prerequisites should not be underestimated.

Certain hygiene and catering training can last upto three years. It is possible to shorten it under certain conditions. However, it can be a high investment of time and money but will certainly serve you well. Do things by the book and get legal proceedings in order.

Tip 3: Start Researching and Planning in Good Time

Create a timeline – what are the first steps? Who does what with whom? Opening a café or restaurant is complex – a real monster project. There is a lot to consider, especially if you are not alone in the shop later. So structure your thoughts early on with the timeline. The period includes the four to six months before the opening, the opening day and, depending on the concept, several months after the opening.

Writing down the countdown: what will be important when?
Planning is good. Verification is better. Now it is important to compare the plan with reality in order to minimize errors.
Best practices: Talk to 3-5 restaurateurs who have already had an opening behind them. Here you will get a lot of valuable tips for improvement.
What will you serve? What will you offer?
Will you sell other items. Coffee granules in packets, cakes to take home?

Tip 4: Create a Workable Concept With a Business Plan

The business plan depicts your concept in text and numbers, including innovative offerings like a single origin coffee subscription to attract discerning customers, alongside inquiries about “best practices” from founders with a similar gastro concept.

You can ask, for example:

What was the decisive factor for your success?
If you founded a company again today, what would you do differently today?
What are your three tips for founders in this area?
And then you build your learnings into your business.

Your business plan must include a little bit of everything. Including your hopes and dreams for the business. Will you branch out and sell other things, as previously mentioned? Coffee shops are forever evolving and so is the market. You should look at coffee packaging trends for example.

Tip 5: Be Brave, Confident and Stick With It

Have a lot of courage! Believe in yourself and your idea, because you need that. Many will say without being asked: The concept does not work anyway, your idea is not sustainable etc. Everyone has these doubts, and you are not alone. Business is a scary concept, yet achievable if marketed right and believed in. Treat it with passion and TLC.
Here are a few encouraging tips:

Look for supporters in your private environment who think you and your idea are great. They carry you through difficult times too.
Internalize your business idea. This is how you shine and ignite your passion in others too
Find a mentor
Hold on to your business dream

Stay tuned and dare to go through with it instead of listening too much to all the people who know everything better and better and say: It will never work. People don’t always know best and many may be trying to put you down. Eliminate those people from your business journey, because negativity is never good. In business, you have to be smart, positive and realistic, but also passionate.

Tip 6: Have Enough Cash When You Start

Your financing is in place. You order your coffee machine and the kitchen equipment. The electricians are coming in to fit all the wiring and lighting. And then your account is empty. The loan approved by the bank has not yet been paid out. If you do not have equity as cash you will be in trouble, you will not be able to keep to the schedule, etc. That will be really expensive and you must have the cash to be able to keep the business flowing over day to day. If the final financing has already been secured, short-term bridging finance can be the solution. This can be in the following ways:

Borrow in a private environment – family, friends & fools
Taking out personal loans via online platforms
Borrow via your bank or a business loan

A choice of location crucial for your success

An ideal location is an easily accessible place, which is in the roaming area of ??customers, especially in the morning. Before committing to signing a lease, spend time on site and look at who passes by and when. This will help you determine whether there are enough potential customers. And also whether the establishment is visible and how the competition is performing.

Use of Facebook and other social networks to market

Facebook is the dominant social network in the world. Opening a “fans” page for your business (or the site itself), can be a great move to attract potential Facebook surfers, and make them follow any content posted on this fan channel – unique promotions for page fans, announcements about new products, service added or discontinued and the like.

This is actually an online “customer club” , which allows you to keep in touch with the customer at any time. In the news items that appear on the Facebook page, it is possible and desirable to include links to your website. When surfers click on a status, they will be taken to the site to continue reading it. In this way you will also gain visits to the site itself, and at the same time the surfers will also be more accessible to purchase what you offer. Beyond that, Facebook – like Google – also allows you to advertise for a fee in a variety of forms: regular sponsored ads, sponsored stories (influenced by what happens on Facebook pages for businesses) and more. The pay per click is lower than in Google AdWords, making Facebook the second largest advertising platform after Google. Inanimate moves can also be made through Google’s social network (Google Plus) and even via Twitter, as organic marketing channels. Get to know all the subtleties that result from the abundance of channels available for use, and combine it all into one big marketing framework that takes into account your needs and those of the business.