Start & Run a Coffee Bar. Tom Matzen

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СКАЧАТЬ cup of $3 gourmet coffee versus that same table generating more income with a party of four who is interested in lunches and specialty coffees at $13 per person.

      Generally though, a busy establishment attracts more customers and more customers generally mean more sales. Think of the last time you ate at a busy restaurant, maybe even waiting in line to get in. Isn’t the hidden message along these lines: “if the place is this busy, the food must be really good!” Now think of a time when you have been the only guest at a very quiet restaurant. Did you not wonder if maybe everyone knew something you didn’t? That maybe the food was bad or the restaurant had had some bad press? Same thing with a coffee bar. If people walk by and see lots of customers, they assume that it must be a great place!

      7. Risk Assessment

      Eighty percent of all businesses fail in their first five years. To ensure that you don’t become just another statistic, you need to examine all the risks associated with your venture.

      Spend a few minutes now to brainstorm anything and everything that could go wrong in your business. Ask yourself how you will overcome these challenges should you encounter them. To help you get started, we’ve included several sets of questions for you to answer.

      (a) Should you own your own business?

      • Are you prepared to put in the time and effort necessary to build your business?

      • Are you prepared for the sacrifices you will need to be successful?

      • Are you prepared to learn the skills you will need?

      • Are you prepared to implement the strategies successful businesses use?

      • Building a wholesale business involves knocking on doors and selling your service — are you comfortable with this?

      (b) Are you familiar with the market you are choosing to get into?

      • What are the current trends?

      • What are the trends of the future?

      • How will these influence you and your concept?

      • Are you well positioned to meet these trends?

      (c) Is your concept suitable?

      • How strong is your concept?

      • How focused is it?

      • How vulnerable is it to competition?

      (d) Are you offering the right products?

      • Will your products appeal to your specific target market?

      • Is your product line focused or are you trying to sell all things to all people?

      (e) Are you offering the right services?

      • Will your services appeal to your target market?

      (f) Are you financially set?

      • Do you have enough start-up capital to fund your concept properly? (We discuss this in detail in Chapter 2.)

      • Have you considered how negative cash flow will affect you?

      As you continue through this book, you will see that there are many other potential risks. They include —

      • Poor site

      • Too high rent

      • Poorly designed coffee bar

      • Unaccounted-for cost overruns during construction

      • Poor staff hiring and training practices

      • Poor business, product, staff, facilities, and financial management practices

      • Inferior quality products

      • Poor customer service

      • Failure to market the business

      • Lack of funds to market the business

      • Poor marketing strategies

      • Lack of willingness on the business owner’s part to build wholesale business

      8. The Business Plan

      Once you have addressed each of these issues, you must prepare the actual business plan. There are a number of resources available to you at this stage. Your community’s chamber of commerce or government business information center can provide you with sample business plans. There is also a ton of information online on preparing a plan.

      If you are using your business plan to obtain financing from a financial institution or private investor, you will want to ensure that it is clearly presented, well organized, and professional looking. Make sure there are no grammatical or spelling errors. It is also well worth including graphs, photographs, and artist renderings, if possible. You may also want to spend the extra dollars and buy a presentation folder or binder that will help convey your professional image.

      You will need to put particular emphasis on your financial figures. We recommend preparing four sets of profit and loss projections, called pro formas, that look at worst, best, break-even, and most realistic case scenarios. Pro formas are discussed in more detail in Chapter 4.

      If you are looking for private financing, be sure to include projected return on investment figures for your potential investors.

      If you will be using your business plan for internal use only, you may wish to keep the plan on your computer or in a file, and refer to it as needed to help keep you on track. It doesn’t need to be as presentable as it would be for a banker or investor, but you still want it well-organized and complete.

      2

      Setting Up Your Business

      All things are difficult before they are easy.

      — John Norley

      1. Choosing a Name

      Creating a strong name for your coffee business is important because it is what will draw your customers in and what they will remember about you. It will be the base of all your outside store signage; it will be displayed on your business cards, letterhead, and checks you send out to your suppliers; it may even be on your take-out cups, ceramic mugs, and napkins. So make it a great name.

      The name you choose for your business should fit three major criteria:

      (a) Unique. The name must be different — a stand-out-from-the-crowd type of name that will catch the attention of your target market.

      (b) Fitting. Naming your business “Joe’s Fish СКАЧАТЬ