Saturday, May 15, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Advice on Starting A Cofee Business
One of the main reasons for starting a business is to make money. If you want to make some real money with the coffee retail business, you must follow steps that will lead to that goal.. Enjoy..^^,.
Menu Planning
If you are planning a particularly small operation, or have very limited capital, then you may not have the option of providing any type of food service. But, increasingly, owners of gourmet coffee shop businesses are finding it difficult to ignore a rising consumer demand for a special menu to go along with the beverages they sell. Many coffee shop businesses treat their menus as afterthoughts. This is a big mistake. You should base your menu on the personality of your customer base and a practical assessment of your resources.
Case in point — A retired psychologist from Connecticut knew that he and his wife wanted to move to Colorado, and the two of them spent 10 weeks traveling around the state looking at prospective cities in which to open a coffee shop business. They had narrowed their list down to eight towns when they hired us to spend a week with them to assist in their decision making process.
Before we set off to join them, we talked quite a bit by phone and they told us that they only wanted to do coffee and some pastries. They made it clear they absolutely did not want to get involved in a food service operation.
So we went looking at various locations, with that in mind, but, in every town we went to, we kept hearing the same message from coffee shop business owners:
We were planning on only coffee and pastries, but we have since decided that we also had to serve some light lunches.
By the end of the week, our clients said to us:
You know, we keep hearing the same thing over and over---so we think we ought to incorporate some light food into our operation also.
More and more food product companies are expanding the variety of products specifically crafted for gourmet coffee drinkers. Both retailers and suppliers are responding to the booming specialty coffee market.
Besides the fact that serving food will create satisfied customers, you always want to take into account that you are paying rent on your space 24 hours a day. You want to try to generate sales during as many hours of the day as possible.
If you are only serving coffee and pastries, then basically what you have is a morning operation. If you add some light food and some additional beverage options, you can fill those dead or slow times in which you are already paying rent, without having to make a big investment in equipment or significantly increasing you labor costs. Bellissmo's video Everything But Coffee will help you learn the essentials that enhance coffee shop profitability.
Since you are already paying rent and hiring people to be on hand to serve your customers, you can find ways to produce additional income with the same amount of bottom-line expenses. When you can increase your sales without increasing your bottom-line expenses, you increase your profit.
Case in point — A retired psychologist from Connecticut knew that he and his wife wanted to move to Colorado, and the two of them spent 10 weeks traveling around the state looking at prospective cities in which to open a coffee shop business. They had narrowed their list down to eight towns when they hired us to spend a week with them to assist in their decision making process.
Before we set off to join them, we talked quite a bit by phone and they told us that they only wanted to do coffee and some pastries. They made it clear they absolutely did not want to get involved in a food service operation.
So we went looking at various locations, with that in mind, but, in every town we went to, we kept hearing the same message from coffee shop business owners:
We were planning on only coffee and pastries, but we have since decided that we also had to serve some light lunches.
By the end of the week, our clients said to us:
You know, we keep hearing the same thing over and over---so we think we ought to incorporate some light food into our operation also.
More and more food product companies are expanding the variety of products specifically crafted for gourmet coffee drinkers. Both retailers and suppliers are responding to the booming specialty coffee market.
Besides the fact that serving food will create satisfied customers, you always want to take into account that you are paying rent on your space 24 hours a day. You want to try to generate sales during as many hours of the day as possible.
If you are only serving coffee and pastries, then basically what you have is a morning operation. If you add some light food and some additional beverage options, you can fill those dead or slow times in which you are already paying rent, without having to make a big investment in equipment or significantly increasing you labor costs. Bellissmo's video Everything But Coffee will help you learn the essentials that enhance coffee shop profitability.
Since you are already paying rent and hiring people to be on hand to serve your customers, you can find ways to produce additional income with the same amount of bottom-line expenses. When you can increase your sales without increasing your bottom-line expenses, you increase your profit.
Design & Construction of your Coffee Shop/Espresso Business
Design & Construction of your Coffee Shop / Espresso Business
Service and customer flow are of crucial concern to coffee shop business operations and come under the heading of ergonomics. Ergonomics is an applied science that coordinates the design of devices, systems, and physical working conditions with the capacities and requirements of the worker.
Example–A client in the Midwest had already designed and built a beautiful coffee bar in a large downtown metropolitan area when we were called in. He had a one-group machine and already needed a two-group machine, even though he had only been open for a few weeks. He had done a poor job of designing his work area and had not allowed enough room to expand to a two-group machine, let alone a three or four group. In addition, the workflow patterns were horrendous, at best. If we had designed that coffee bar from scratch, we would have definitely done many things differently.
This is the kind of situation you can avoid by hiring professionals like Bellissimo to assist you. It is much better to spend a few dollars up front, rather than thousands of dollars later, go back and retrofit and redesign your coffee bar.
Remember, even if you are working with an architect, you should get coffee professionals such as Bellissimo to get involved and review the architect’s plans. Your architect may not be knowledgeable about the operational requirements–the importance of equipment layout, work, and customer flows–in coffee shop business design and food service establishments.
Bellissimo's consulting services include designing coffee shop layouts for their clients.
Service and customer flow are of crucial concern to coffee shop business operations and come under the heading of ergonomics. Ergonomics is an applied science that coordinates the design of devices, systems, and physical working conditions with the capacities and requirements of the worker.
Example–A client in the Midwest had already designed and built a beautiful coffee bar in a large downtown metropolitan area when we were called in. He had a one-group machine and already needed a two-group machine, even though he had only been open for a few weeks. He had done a poor job of designing his work area and had not allowed enough room to expand to a two-group machine, let alone a three or four group. In addition, the workflow patterns were horrendous, at best. If we had designed that coffee bar from scratch, we would have definitely done many things differently.
This is the kind of situation you can avoid by hiring professionals like Bellissimo to assist you. It is much better to spend a few dollars up front, rather than thousands of dollars later, go back and retrofit and redesign your coffee bar.
Remember, even if you are working with an architect, you should get coffee professionals such as Bellissimo to get involved and review the architect’s plans. Your architect may not be knowledgeable about the operational requirements–the importance of equipment layout, work, and customer flows–in coffee shop business design and food service establishments.
Bellissimo's consulting services include designing coffee shop layouts for their clients.
Your Coffee Shop/Espresso Business Location
The three words most frequently associated with success in any retail business are: Location, Location, and Location. Finding the great location that is going to work for you is absolutely vital to the success of your coffee shop business.
One compelling reason why location is critical in this business is that research in the Seattle area indicates that while people love coffee, they will rarely go more than a block and a half for it. You have to put your business "where the action is," so to speak.
Because coffee is primarily a convenience product and an impulse buy, your customers are not likely to go far out of their way to find you. You have to count on high visibility and high numbers of people passing by your location on a daily basis.
Do not expect your customers to drive around on one-way streets and go three blocks out of their way to find you. Your coffee shop business needs to be in a convenient location.
In our work, we frequently have clients who have been looking for the right location for six months to a year, and we always try to temper their eagerness and encourage them to be patient. It will be worth waiting for the right location. It really will make a difference.
It is important to keep in mind that you can call on professionals to help you find and evaluate the right location for your business, and we highly recommend that you do so. If you have to spend a thousand dollars to get a professional opinion from someone who has been in the coffee shop business, someone who has been through all this a number of times before, do it.
Clients have taken us to eight locations they have picked out in a given town and all eight locations were absolutely disastrous. To us, they were obviously disastrous, but not to them. The message: If you do not have the retail experience, hire a professional to help you.
At the very least, talk to other people who are successful in retail and ask for their opinions. Bellissimo's consulting services include helping their clients find locations.
One compelling reason why location is critical in this business is that research in the Seattle area indicates that while people love coffee, they will rarely go more than a block and a half for it. You have to put your business "where the action is," so to speak.
Because coffee is primarily a convenience product and an impulse buy, your customers are not likely to go far out of their way to find you. You have to count on high visibility and high numbers of people passing by your location on a daily basis.
Do not expect your customers to drive around on one-way streets and go three blocks out of their way to find you. Your coffee shop business needs to be in a convenient location.
In our work, we frequently have clients who have been looking for the right location for six months to a year, and we always try to temper their eagerness and encourage them to be patient. It will be worth waiting for the right location. It really will make a difference.
It is important to keep in mind that you can call on professionals to help you find and evaluate the right location for your business, and we highly recommend that you do so. If you have to spend a thousand dollars to get a professional opinion from someone who has been in the coffee shop business, someone who has been through all this a number of times before, do it.
Clients have taken us to eight locations they have picked out in a given town and all eight locations were absolutely disastrous. To us, they were obviously disastrous, but not to them. The message: If you do not have the retail experience, hire a professional to help you.
At the very least, talk to other people who are successful in retail and ask for their opinions. Bellissimo's consulting services include helping their clients find locations.
Financing
Your resources will determine your concept. People often start out with grandiose expectations. They do not focus sufficiently on establishing sound financial plans for their coffee shop businesses. There is a joke in the industry that for every person who is trying to open one cart, there is someone else who is trying to open ten.
Very rarely is somebody realistic and sensible enough to say: "I would like to open a coffee cart, and if the concept is good, and if it is profitable, and if I enjoy the industry, then I will plan on opening more operations in the future."
Rather than starting out by investing a lot of energy into preplanning your business concept, the first thing you need to determine is, how much money can I pull together? You need to plan in accordance with the total amount of money you will have available to work with.
Another factor is that you cannot spend your entire budget on the initial opening; you will need operating capital. If it turns out, as it often does, that your dreams are bigger than your pocketbook, do not give up and get discouraged.
If your ultimate goal is to own a nice sit-down coffee shop business, but you do not have enough money to achieve that goal initially, it does not mean that you cannot go into the coffee shop business. What it does mean is that you may have to start with a more modest plan; perhaps with a coffee cart or coffee kiosk. This will give you an opportunity to find out if you like the coffee shop business. Once you learn about the business, and can turn a profit, it will be easier to go back to the bank and say, "This is what I’ve done! Look at how successful I’ve been! Now I would like to borrow money because I want to open a beautiful, sit down coffee shop business!"
Very rarely is somebody realistic and sensible enough to say: "I would like to open a coffee cart, and if the concept is good, and if it is profitable, and if I enjoy the industry, then I will plan on opening more operations in the future."
Rather than starting out by investing a lot of energy into preplanning your business concept, the first thing you need to determine is, how much money can I pull together? You need to plan in accordance with the total amount of money you will have available to work with.
Another factor is that you cannot spend your entire budget on the initial opening; you will need operating capital. If it turns out, as it often does, that your dreams are bigger than your pocketbook, do not give up and get discouraged.
If your ultimate goal is to own a nice sit-down coffee shop business, but you do not have enough money to achieve that goal initially, it does not mean that you cannot go into the coffee shop business. What it does mean is that you may have to start with a more modest plan; perhaps with a coffee cart or coffee kiosk. This will give you an opportunity to find out if you like the coffee shop business. Once you learn about the business, and can turn a profit, it will be easier to go back to the bank and say, "This is what I’ve done! Look at how successful I’ve been! Now I would like to borrow money because I want to open a beautiful, sit down coffee shop business!"
Starting a Coffee Shop Business
The specialty coffee shop business or espresso business provides opportunities to individuals in 2002 that exist in few other areas. For a relatively small start up cost you can be your own boss and possess your own coffee business. The investment for a coffee cart, coffee kiosk, coffee drive thru, or a coffee shop franchise ranges from $10,000 to $100,000.
What other business will offer you this? Let’s plan to open a clothing store…with inventory fixtures build out you’re probably looking at an investment of close to $1,000,000 dollars. Once you are open can you compete with the GAP or Banana Republic? In almost every industry or business opportunity I can think of, there are major chains that dominate the landscape. Is there in coffee? No. There is one major coffee shop chain, and we all know who that is…and then there are many smaller coffee shop businesses. The good news is, you can open your own coffee shop business. If you educate yourself and do the right things, you can compete with any coffee shop franchise, chain, or business.
What other business will offer you this? Let’s plan to open a clothing store…with inventory fixtures build out you’re probably looking at an investment of close to $1,000,000 dollars. Once you are open can you compete with the GAP or Banana Republic? In almost every industry or business opportunity I can think of, there are major chains that dominate the landscape. Is there in coffee? No. There is one major coffee shop chain, and we all know who that is…and then there are many smaller coffee shop businesses. The good news is, you can open your own coffee shop business. If you educate yourself and do the right things, you can compete with any coffee shop franchise, chain, or business.
