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.