I will open a comfy coffee shop with final fantasy ost playing in the background.
I already bought the coffee machine, refrigerator and I'm just starting to make the menu.
Post good business advice pls 🙂
Especially how to navigate social media
Opening a business
>Especially how to navigate social media
You're already on 4 chan... What more is there?
I want to make viral marketing videos so I'm studying some videos that were successful.
I don't even want advice I just wanna talk with you guys about it 🙂
Good marketing is important, but a sound business strategy is too. What demographics are you targeting? Who do you imagine is going to be your customer? what kind of margin are you projecting? what are your fixed costs?
how is typing Black person and posting anime breasts supposed to drive business??
I'd go there 1000% if they typed Black person and posted anime tiddies
>how is typing Black person and posting anime breasts supposed to drive business??
>I'd go there 1000% if they typed Black person and posted anime tiddies
This. Sounds like where I'd want to shop.
Have you ever worked at a coffee shop? Or in food service? If not, you might want to just keep that espresso machine for your house
My only advice other than "never open a coffee shop" would be to own the building your business will be housed in. That way if your business fails, at least you will be able to get rent coming in.
>own the building your business will be housed in
This is the sole advice that came to mind.
Doesn't matter what you're doing.
Dog grooming, insurance, machine shop, etc.
If you don't own the building, all of your profits will go to "rent", and you will go out of business eventually.
There used to be a good pizza place down the street from me.
Pizza is a near ideal business. Yes, there is competition for price, quality, etc. But it's a universal appeal where distance-to-you, ease wins.
Quite similar to coffee. Slightly less dependent on commute path.
But the building was owned by a... person, a certain ethnicity, who happened to own a chain of pawn shops. This was in Ohio.
I came to be friends with the owners, and they told me when they moved in, rent was $2K/month. On a corner with a light, parking about a block away. Full service bar across the street.
As they became successful, the rent went up to $5K, $12K, then $22K. That's when they shut it down. Bailed out.
Not because they didn't know what they were doing, or had bad employees, bad product, etc.
Killed by a single item on the expense report.
If the building is not owned by YOU or a direct family member, then you are at the landlord's mercy.
And no landlord merciful.
if you're going to own the building, own two buildings instead of owning the building and a business. I mean *duh*.
not possible. I own all assets and move if the landlord gets all israeli or whatever. Besides I'm a top earner in my country, I could even pay the rent on my own without a business
>not possible. I own all assets and move if the landlord
>landlord
R.I.P. coffee-anon
NGMI. That landlord sees your profits and wants a cut. No different than legally-authorized gang or mafia dues to stay open.
My favorite coffee shop shut down after 15 years because the landlord renovated the other side of the shopping center and got a new coffee shop to move in there for twice the rent. They weren't even allowed to stay and compete, they were kicked out so the new shop wouldn't have to deal with the competition
>I could even pay the rent on my own without a business
Lots of people start or buy businesses who have the resources to keep the doors open while spending more than the business generates to do so.
But that's not really a functional business, it's essentially a hobby. Nothing wrong with doing that if you want to spend your time and money that way, just don't be surprised when other people don't see it as a legitimate business.
That may not seem to matter to someone with that kind of disposable financial resources who doesn't need to generate and maintain goodwill to generate and maintain revenue, but it can matter a lot...
people who have never started/run businesses tend to see competitors and competition as a strictly adversarial zero-sum game, but that couldn't be farther from the truth...there's a reason why many businesses congregate in market districts devoted to one field like clothing or israeliteelry, why car dealers place dealerships right next to each other on a "mile of cars", why fashion retailers going for the same customers congregate in malls, etc. Competition is good for everyone when done right, a rising tide lifts all boats and the support and respect of others in your field matters. This is especially true in lean times if you just happily cruise along in your hobby while others are losing their life's work, family legacies, etc.
1/2
2/2
Dilettante/hobbyist owners who act like they are above the trials and tribulations of others trying to stay afloat by making more money than they spend are generally not appreciated, and if they piss enough people off funny things can start happening on the supply side because those business communities all know each other and all deal with the same supply chain and regulatory framework.
In this case a shop/owner who looks the other way at predatory leasing of commercial space because "I got mine and can afford exhorbitant rent if need be because I dont need to make a profit" isn't a team player and represents a threat to anyone in the business community who needs to rent space.
Even if it's true, STFU about it and run your business like a business, not a hobby. Fail to do so and you may face far worse than a lack of customers; your ability to even do business, have products to sell, have a place to operate, etc. may be seriously hampered by the very same business community you seek to be a part of. I know people who pissed off otherwise gracious and friendly fellow businesses who suddenly could not EVER get a sign permit approved, and have personally declined to sell parts and supplies to people whose dabbling threatened existing businesses and their markets.
is this even true in today's america?
even big-box stores rent the retail space now
Obviously not all retail space is created equal so you have to know your area when buying, and even then it's a risk. But if even big box retailers are renting, that would point to at least some demand for retail space.
Still both sides of retail seem like a wild-eyed gamble and nothing more. How many, for example, scented candles / funny fishing hats / touristy coffee mugs does a tenant have to sell just to even pay the power bill never mind then rent, right? That's why I have been just sticking to residential rentals because it seems more stable than having a brick-and-mortar store as a tenant, which seems like a literal nightmare on either end. People don't NEED the funny hats you're selling but they DO need a place to live. Just my 2 cents though.
Don't create a business based on what you personally think is "comfy" or otherwise appealing or necessary unless you have objective data showing that your potential customer pool feels the same way.
Create a business only if you can be consistent, and better than the surrounding businesses. Coffee is extremely competitive. Is coffee not a big industry where you are? Then start a small shack outside of another business or something. Most importantly, who will you hire? Will you work it yourself all day every day until it works, then hire someone? What about training? What about inventory? Make sure EVERYTHING is perfect on paper before you do anything! Food handling especially is super important to nail down from a legal perspective. And for coffee shops, your clients will be picky as hell, so the product better be flawless, quick, and well priced, served by a pretty face.
thank you coffee is huge where I live luckily. I plan on hiring my niece I'm also training as a barista. I plan on doing great coffee
>training as a barista
what the frick does this even mean? I thought you were opening your own coffee business not trying to become a manager at starbucks. seriously it's like you said you want to be a dentist and are practicing by brushing your teeth. it's fricking asinine, like you either literally cannot make coffee yourself OR you think how many pumps starbucks puts in pumpkin spice latte is relevant. either is severe moronation and I'm beginning to think I fell for a troll thread.
means I've learned how to make lattes and stuff, I just love coffee and want to learn bro. I'm really product focus, I want to make the best coffee possible
>plan on hiring my niece
Hot
coffee is big in my area, enough that there's so many roasters selling their own beans. i don't know how anyone could break out. only thing i can imagine is you have a comfy spot on a block with enough traffic and no one wants to bother
maybe if you can get a drive-thru system where slobs can get their java so quick they're happy
You have to make a parallel business. Like selling meth, where people are too busy to make their own stimulants/drugs.
1. get store front location
F
yeah I thought so too. look appealing from the outside, open the windows and let them smell the coffee
>look appealing from the outside, open the windows and let them smell the coffee
no as in
>have a place to put your coffee maker
there is a place here called the coffee cabin, it's literally a home depot shed on a dirt lot at an intersection but you've FAILED the ONE THING you actually need, which is "have a location".
oh yeah yeah obviously good and accessible location is key thank you
So you will lease a building, yes? What will the terms of the lease be? How much per week? How many years? Right of renewals.
I have seen fully kitted out restaurants for sale as a going concern for $7. Why? Because the owner is busting their arse 7 days a week and losing shitloads of money every week because turnover is too low. They are locked into a 5 year lease and would pay someone anything to get out of the nightmare..... so they sell a business that cost $70000 to set up for $7 to end the misery.
What is your exit plan or how will you be safe?
Eg first 3 months free, 6 month probation period after which you can pull out with no penalty, low lease cost.
With coffee you might find a mobile cart is a better deal - no lease costs.
Dont be a complete pretentious asshat about coffee.
I was a teenager in a small town, a coffee shop came in. I went in with friends and ordered a cappuccino, the owner literally scoffed in my face and said "You probably mean the fake cappucino that comes out of a machine at a gas station, not a REAL cappuccino!". She condescendingly went on to tell us all the differences and how she doesnt serve that junk.
We never went back in. She could have engaged me in a nice way and taught me something interesting. Instead all I remember about the interaction is how shitty she was.
It didnt last very long, most people buy coffee at the gas station.
This
Don't be arrive bucco
Just smile and make what they order
If you're looking for training I suggest playing Papa's Freezer ia 8 hours a day until you become proficient
My gas station has an automatic espresso/americano machine with three flavors of beans to choose from. There's 3 machines so we actually got 5 beans.
Barristas btfo. $1 a cup if you bring your own.
>with final fantasy ost playing in the background.
Anon you gotta go full weeb or move to japan and get weeb tourists.
t.has weeb friends keep going to japan and telling me about the random cafes they go to because they dont know every country has shit like bicycle cafes or boardgame cafes
ITT: OP finds out that retail business is 99% real estate
OP doesn't seem like the learning type.
Restaurants are the hardest business to succeed at. If a toy store has a bad month the toys are still good the next month. With a restaurant the food goes bad and you need to buy more. It causes struggling restaurants to burn through money really fast.
I was given advice to never open a business that has a lot of transactions. Coffee, while high margin, has too many transactions for my interest as a business opportunity. Cups, lids, beans, equipment, syrups, dairy, payroll, other paper goods, office supplies, merchant fees, insurance, workers comp, bookkeeping, rent, etc etc etc then you have selling the final product. You need a lot of sales transactions to cover cost of goods etc. Passion is great but it doesn't always equal a good business.
>Arcades were a mistake
I think you got bad advice frendo
>were
Arcades have mostly gone the way of the dodo, amigo. However, transactions at a coffee shop vs arcade are completely different. There no receipt printed for every quarter a kid pumps into a game, nor are there merchant fees or complicated recipes clouding your true cogs.
Stupid advice, never run a business.
All my sundry comes from the coffee supplier in the same supply chain, they print my cups free of charge. That's baseline.
Then you get your own sundry third party because it's marginally cheaper as soon as you know your turnover volume. Then you contact with them to save time in repetitious negotiations on price of fricking cup lids.
The margins for cafes sink with staffing, a lot of business owners are chefs who never respect front of house, think they can manage staff from the kitchen despite not even being able to hold a section, the staff sit on their arses all day and yelling at them and firing them cyclically doesn't achieve anything but burn your good staff.
A good coffee shop has three things going for it.
1. Location vs. Rent. A roll down curtain over an alleyway with a trestle table is a sacrifice that could increase your profitability by 20 fold. I've run these honk tier businesses that are more profitable than chain restaurants like McDonald's because the rent was so low and the product was equal to anyone else's.
2. Efficient staffing
Staff who aren't reliable aren't welcome, period. To keep reliable staff you've got to keep them busy and well paid, they've got to be efficient, you've got to get customers working for you rather than against you. If you run with one staff member and leave a stack of dirty dishes for the next morning, that's your staff member productive at 6am.
Keep double the cups simply to allow you to float dirties, use casual labour to clear the float rather than to run peak service because they're unreliable.
3. The coffee is good.
If your coffee isn't good hope to shit someone tells you, I used to send this one of guy every morning as a taster.
Machine not cleaned, pressure too low, hard water, overextraction, hung over barrista, the old c**t would lay onto them
If you can't bring in $200 every day, you're not ready to start a business.
That's a stupid arbitrary figure.
You've got a 4 year business plan and usually a business loan to repay. You're going far further into debt to start a business than just what you invest directly because you'll be operating at a loss for extended periods.
A lot of businesses make agood turnover for the first few months but are deep in the red, then six months after opening the sales slump and they're dead in the water. Lacking a good business plan, their initial success goes nowhere, they can't keep up sales.
Some cafes have the same menu for years and do just fine; but if your menu stops doing well then what? Did you plan weekly and monthly specials six months ago? Did you field suppliers a month ago? Did you print new menus last week?
You've got to do that shit over, and over, and over, even if you don't enact it.
I run 3. They were all profitable after their 1st sale. Hopefully that tip jar is keeping you out of the red.
I ran a coffee shop.
You're going to live in check-list hell
>opening list
>stock list
>transaction x/y read
>register balance
>variance list
>close list
There's no other way to do everything reliably, the difficult here is doing everything, every day, the exact same way, at the exact same time. It's hard.
If you think owning a business means setting your own schedule do I have bad news for you. The business needs the schedule more than the employees.
Menu design is a big deal, take that seriously.
Sourcing products at a good price is a huge deal, you can lose your entire profit this way.
If you've got a physical premises and pay rent you've got to be relentless in monetising your space. Everything you put on the wall is for sale, everything on the table is for sale, the time of day you're open is for sale, the time you're closed is for sale, you operate 24h even if you're not open 24h.
One way to manage this is to join a catalog club, which automatically sends you a rotation of junk products which you send back unsold after a set period. Really the only way to rotate marginal sale stock if you aren't actively merchandising.
You've got to let people buy into your supply chain, piggyback your deliveries, act as the reception desk for other businesses deliveries. Monetise, monetise, monetise