To open a coffee shop is a big dream for many coffee lovers.
ARE YOU READY TO OPEN YOUR OWN COFFEE SHOP?
you will have your own space to share your happiness with your friends, you can brew your favorite coffee everyday, you can hold any kind of activities in your coffee shop, to play your favorite sofa music in your shop, the most attractive point is you can charge all your stuff by yourself, – a space to be yourself.
coffee shops separate in many different types, like Starbucks or like your favorite secret indie coffee shop at the corner near your apartment. To open your own coffee shop, you have to think about what is you positioning in the market? and what are the special products that you want to sell in the market? we all know coffee shop and cafe store are the different business types. Most of times, coffee shops just provide the desserts, cakes, coffee, coffee latte, on the other hand, cafe store with “MEAL”, for example: steaks, hamburgers… etc. Now, you must have one idea in your mind, let me guess.. huh… pretty clear…you just thinking about you should open a cafe store not a coffee shop, because… in your area not so many people understand specialty coffee, also if you can provide the meal to customers, your business will be more stable? oh, fellow, to show your professional skill is the most important part for your coffee shop or cafe store, not just follow the market trend blindly.
Cantata Kahve will be the best example for you, yes.. at very beginning, we tried to sell any kind of things in our coffee shop, ooh man, seriously, ANY KIND OF THINGS… in this small coffee shop we tried to sell salad, drinks, rice hamburgers, tea, notebooks, stationery, cocktails, coffee cups, cookies, cakes… the only thing we didn’t try to sell is our lovely baristas (kidding). we thought that was a good idea, a coffee shop with everything! but the true is not like this, this idea caused us a very big problem and that is – customers don’t understand who you are.
PICTURE TALKS… HERE ARE OUR PREVIOUS PRODUCTS
To choose what is your positioning is the most important thing in your coffee business. after all these tragic experiences, we just focus on specialty coffee and choose siphon to brew it now. After few months, our business flies very fast till now, because in this period, customers understand who you are, and if they want to drink siphon coffee, they will come here. your concept for them is more clearly now. So, let’s take one paper and pen, to write it down, what is your professional? and what do you want to sell? if you are good at espresso, good! then sell more espresso, if you are good at drip coffee, good! let’s prepare your equipment now.
One more thing i would like mention is, to build your dream won’t be easy, you will have many difficulties, you won’t sleep well because you always think about where is the rent for next month? remember, this is the necessary procedure when you create your business, so don’t be too much frustrated. Secondly, you should be more active – to do something. Please don’t waste too much times to “think about” your dream. if you want something, please be more courageous and chase it. When people come to me ask some suggestions for their future business, the first question that i throw it to them is.. when will you open your store? next week or next month? if the answer is no, or they aren’t ready yet (most of them will tell you i still need to think more about it), i will directly ask them out, because they come here not really to ask you any suggestion, they come here for heard some good glorification about their DRAFT IDEAS.
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
wish you will work it out, and see you in your shop soon.
written by Regina