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What to Consider When Opening a Coffee Shop? Insights from an Active Coffee Shop Manager

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Professional barista communication - follow Cafe_Style (WeChat public account: cafe_style). Time commitment is essential. Those who can open coffee shops in China typically have some financial resources, so they tend to be half-hearted about time investment, thinking coffee shops come easily and operation isn't difficult - just hire experienced people to run it. Wrong. This is a full-time job. Though small, it requires all the components of a complete business. Many entrepreneurs-level individuals opening coffee...

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Time Investment is Essential

Those who can open coffee shops in China generally have some financial resources, so they tend to be half-hearted about time investment, thinking that running a coffee shop is easy and the business isn't difficult, so they can just hire a few experienced people to run it. Wrong. This is a full-time job - though the sparrow is small, it has all its vital organs. Many boss-level individuals who open coffee shops ultimately fail not because they run out of money, but because there are too many trivial matters. Not only do they lose money, but they also have to invest their time, and eventually they can't keep up with the time commitment.

Don't Do What You Don't Understand

Watching Starbucks open coffee shops looks simple, but there are actually many subtleties. Just looking at it means you know what it is but not why it is so, which can lead to many simple mistakes. Impulsively opening a coffee shop for certain reasons is very risky, and it's highly likely that you'll end up closing down. Therefore, think about it - for you, why are you so passionate about opening a coffee shop? This is the primary thing you need to figure out.

Try Working in a Coffee Shop

In fact, the most effective and basic method is to directly go work in a coffee shop. Working inside the shop allows you to fully understand business knowledge related to capital utilization, personnel arrangements, and specific operations. Learning to interact with customers in advance and gaining service experience is also important preparation. Some things cannot be obtained from books - only through personal experience can you truly understand them.

Never Neglect the Quality of Specialty Coffee

The person in charge of FrontStreet Coffee stated that the profit from selling coffee can be very high, but the premise is that the coffee shop must invest enough costs to hire the best employees and purchase the highest quality coffee.

The owner Jingjing explained: "Whether a coffee shop can succeed depends entirely on its reputation. The coffee beans we select are all roasted by ourselves. We hope customers can understand our brand and our culture, so we can grow together and develop collectively."

She also believes that the demand in the specialty coffee market has doubled in recent years.

"This means we face more intense market competition. For example, cold drip coffee, which has become popular in recent days, is equally well-liked."

She feels that making a good, high-quality cup of coffee requires considering many factors. One of them is the love for coffee and the commitment to high quality in roasting.

"From the roasting machine to the coffee grinder, and from the coffee machine to the coffee's taste, aroma, tasting environment, and coffee preparation methods, we need to consider all factors to ensure consumers get the most wonderful coffee experience."

"Our roasters pay great attention to the comprehensive coffee experience. They would never just throw you a roasting machine, coffee grinder, and raw coffee beans and be done with it. By insisting on the same standards for the entire roasting process every day and strictly monitoring coffee quality, we guarantee that consumers can drink the highest quality coffee."

She believes that while delicious food may be the biggest selling point for the success of coffee shops and restaurants, the quality of coffee is also a key factor that can determine the success of a coffee shop.

Coffee Shop Business Tips

1. Develop Peripheral Snacks to Increase Total Consumption

Today's coffee shop products are quite diverse, including various cold and hot drinks, Chinese and Western-style snacks, simple meals, coffee noodles, and coffee supplies... with over a hundred types of products. It's not easy to support a shop by selling coffee alone. You should strengthen the combination of snacks and simple meals to increase customer spending.

2. Coffee Bean Inventory Guidelines: How to Maintain Coffee Freshness

Coffee business owners should pay attention to inventory issues. When purchasing raw materials or peripheral products, the principle should be to sell and use them up within a short period. When selling coffee beans to customers, you should ask about their possible usage dates and not sell poor-quality coffee beans to customers, in order to enhance their confidence in the product and their trust in your shop. If customers particularly like a certain type of coffee bean, and they are regular customers who visit regularly, the quantity can be controlled. If they are irregular regular customers, you can ask them to inform the shop in advance when they plan to visit (make an appointment). The coffee specialty shop can then prepare this type of coffee bean in advance, thus avoiding large bean inventory, maintaining the fresh quality of coffee beans, and meeting customer needs.

3. Understand Professional Focus to Improve Service

Coffee business owners themselves need to have a professional level of understanding of coffee. Employee training content should include basic knowledge of coffee and related products, basic brewing skills, shop management and operation processes, practical internships, employee report filling, and basic etiquette. The editor suggests that coffee shop owners should constantly think about developing different coffee recipes, cooking techniques, improving service quality, and developing new peripheral products to increase performance. More importantly, they should think about how to maximize product added value and transform into a coffee shop with a special, unique style, in order to remain invincible in the future coffee market.

4. Create an Interactive Environment Beyond Just Being a Coffee Shop

Don't let the coffee shop you operate be just a coffee shop. Instead, make it a good place for spiritual exchange and interaction between the owner and customers. Inside the coffee shop, through specially designed music and lighting, combined with themed art exhibitions or regularly held concerts, reading clubs, performances, and exhibitions, you can create an atmosphere of an art exhibition gallery. This should win the favor of many customers and also allow modern people who are often under heavy pressure to find spiritual relief. I believe many customers will also become regulars who frequently come to consume and engage in spiritual communication because of the comfortable atmosphere and humanized space you create.