coffee business strategies

Most of the people who are reading this most likely followed a link from one of the many forums that I frequent, and that goes along great with today’s topic. Forums are one of the best places to receive advice, opinions, and education. I completely feel that without the help of the great people in this community, I would not still be in business. However, I’m noticing a growing trend: Everyone wants to know what everyone else is using. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but there are risks involved with trying to copy other people’s style of business. You have to remember the importance of demographics, and understand that what does work for me might not work for you.

The biggest debates going on right now are uniforms, whipped cream, and name tags, just to name a few. Everyone seems to have an opinion on all of these topics, and every opinion tends to be different. When you go to make a major decision that will alter the appearance of your shop, or the way you conduct business, it is essential that you make your choice based off what your business can handle, as opposed to what somebody else is doing 1,500 miles away from you. There are better ways that you can gather information from some great local sources.

If you are fortunate, one of the best forms of advice you are going to find will come right from your own backyard. Watch your competition, as they are the ones who have made changes to their business as a reflection of what customers want. Don’t go so far as to mirror them, or else you just as well ask if you can buy their franchise.

As an example, in the town where my shop is located we have a soft competition with two other locations. We gave them quite a bit of business when we were still in the planning stages of opening our shop. We wanted to see what they offered, how their pricing was, what type of whipped cream they used, what syrup they used, and a ton of other things. We took what they have done, the information that we picked up online, and everything that we learned from some of our other networking resources, and developed our attack plan. Some of what we do is the same, but most of it is an improvement over them. None of the other shops wear uniforms, and I thought that it made it hard to differentiate who was an employee from who was just hanging out, so we went with a uniform style of dress. Everyone else in town uses fresh whipped cream, and we saved time, money, and effort by using the canned cream. None of our customers have complained, and it fits our bottom line.

There are many reasons to go into business, but only one of them is important. If you can’t turn over a profit, then you will not be able to keep your doors open. You have to be able to effectively provide quality while watching your bottom line. The advice that people on the boards give you is exactly that, advice. If you like it, if you think your customers will like it, and you can justify it financially, then do it. However, don’t break the bank to change your methods just because someone told you that it is a more pure way to do things. At the same time, if 10 customers tell you that they would rather have fresh whipped cream, run out and buy and a dispenser, some chargers, and get the stuff whipped up as soon as possible.

If you are an effective manager (check back for an article dedicated entirely to this topic), who listens to the customer, your business choices should dictate themselves. Make sure that you have a way for customers to anonymously provide you with information, whether it be a comment box or through your website. Also ask your regular customers for their opinions. If they like your shop they will bend over backwards to make it work for you, just don’t forget to compensate them for their valuable information.

If you desire to be successful in this business, then you will change the ways that you do things a thousand times. There are positive changes that which will move your business forward, and negative changes which will raise your bottom line while dropping your profit margin. Once you can differentiate the two, you one step closer to reaching your breaking point.