Start & Run a Coffee Bar. Tom Matzen

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СКАЧАТЬ Finally, preparing a business plan will hopefully inspire and motivate you to take action! Knowing what you want to do isn’t very useful unless you actually do it.

      2. Your Vision for You

      Take out a pen and a piece of paper, or sit yourself down in front of your computer as you read through the rest of Part I. Write down your thoughts and answers to the questions we raise. Taking action now will give you a good head start on your business plan and will help you formulate what exactly it is that you want to do and how you are going to do it. Take action now.

      Your vision of your business lays the foundation for your business. Your vision is what will give you a sense of direction and give your life a sense of purpose as you build your business.

      What is your vision for —

      (a) Your day-to-day activities? What will you do on a daily basis? Do you see yourself serving customers? Do you see yourself networking with other business owners in your local area? Do you see yourself being a positive force in your community?

      (b) Your lifestyle? Are you early to bed, early to rise? Do you see yourself working six days a week? Do you want annual holidays?

      (c) Your time? How do you want to spend your time? Think of leisure, family, work, fitness, and private time for yourself.

      (d) Your future? Do you plan to own your coffee bar long term or sell it down the road? What do you see yourself doing a year from now, five years from now, ten years from now?

      While you may not address each of these issues specifically in your business plan (e.g., your banker may not be interested in what time you plan on getting up each morning), being clear on these issues now will help guide you as you build your business.

      If your goal is to run the coffee bar as an absentee owner, hiring a good manager will be vital to the success of your business. If you plan to work the coffee bar yourself, hiring staff will be a higher priority. If you are a late riser, plan on hiring and training staff who can open the coffee bar. If you have high family priorities, keep in mind that you may need to spend a considerable amount of time in and on your business, especially in the early stages. And if you have a clear vision for your future, it will help you get where you want to go, whether that is lying on a beach in Hawaii or running a multiple location franchise.

      Once you know where you want to be, you’ll need to start clarifying the vision you have for your coffee business. You will need to decide whether you want to start out with a franchise, buy an existing business, or start from scratch. Below we have listed some of the pros and cons of each.

      2.1 Your vision for your coffee bar

      What is the vision you have for your business? Do you want to create a community space where people come to gather in a warm, inviting environment? Or do you see yourself catering to the fast-paced morning-coffee crowd? Are social and environmental concerns important to you? Do you want to make a positive impact at the local or global level? What message do you want to convey to your customers and/or your community? How do you want to differentiate yourself from your competition? Do you see yourself drawing people in using unique foods like scrambled-eggs with Dungeness crab, olive oil cake, or bacon-apple doughnuts with maple glaze? Or do you see yourself promoting quick service at a busy drive-thru?

      Do you love art and want to create areas for local artists to display their wares? Do you love music and want to have local music nights? Do you love poetry and want to have weekly poetry readings? Do you love to hear people’s stories and want to have Wednesday night storytelling?

      Where do you see your coffee bar being located? What types of things appeal to people in that area? If you lived in San Francisco, you might want to tie in three themes that people in that city love: burritos, bicycles and coffee!

      What fun concept(s) could you build your business around?

      How serious do you want to be about your coffee? Are you going to provide sampling? Are you going to brew cups on demand using unique one-of-a-kind bean blends? Are you going to get really serious about your coffee and refuse, as one coffee bar in New York does, to offer cappuccinos because the milk overpowers the subtle flavors of the coffee?

      If you don’t have a clear vision, spend time creating one ... research what other successful coffee bars are doing, what they are offering, what they look and feel like. Google the Top 10 coffee bars across the country, visit websites, look at menus, jot down ideas that appeal to you.

      Recognizing that you will want to create a business that is consistent with your own personal style, the success of your business will ultimately rest on how consistent your business concept is with your specific target market. We will focus more on target market research later in the book but now is also the time to start thinking about the style of coffee bar that will appeal to your specific target market:

      Does your target market love social causes? What kind of decor do they find appealing? Are they going to feel more comfortable sitting on an expensive, upscale settee, or lounging in an arm chair you got from the second hand store? Do they like fast service and consistent on-the-run products? Or would they prefer to take time in choosing the perfect, high-quality bean to take home and serve to their friends and family? How important is taste and quality to your customers? How important is value? What is going to keep your customers coming back to you regardless of economic conditions? What concepts are consistent with today’s trends? What concepts are going to withstand the tests of time? What concepts, styles, product and services are going to foster loyalty?

      As you continue reading this book and doing additional research, you will want to come back to these questions again. The idea is to fine tune your concept into one that appeals to you on a personal level as well as to your target market. You may find that you have to be somewhat flexible in order to give your business the best chance for success. For example, donating a portion of your profits to help fund a school in Rwanda may not be #1 on your priority list but if, after additional research, you discover that tying in to a global social cause is very important to your target market, makes your customers feel great, builds loyalty and does some good in the world, it may move much higher up your priority list.

      3. How Should I Start Out?

      3.1 Should I buy a franchise?

      A franchise can offer you many benefits, including name recognition and clout in negotiating better pricing. Many franchises also offer assistance in obtaining financing, site selection, coffee bar design, training, and marketing. A good franchise will save you money, give you a proven system, and increase your odds of making money.

      However, one disadvantage is that the assistance provided by most franchises costs you in the form of an initial franchise fee as well as monthly royalties. You may also be restricted in terms of product lines and menu items and may be required to get written approval for use of names and logos in any advertising you do. You may be given a very small territory, which limits your ability to expand.

      Franchises don’t always deliver what they promise. Many franchisors mark up the products they sell to you, thereby defeating one of the major purposes behind franchising — that is, the chance for franchisees to purchase supplies that were bought in bulk at a lower price than an independent store would pay.

      As well, if the franchise gets a bad name or bad publicity, you are often stuck along for the ride.

      3.2 СКАЧАТЬ