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Opening a Coffee Shop: Essential Questions and Practical Advice

It's well known that I once advised people against opening coffee shops, but seeing everyone still full of passion... So! I've decided! If you can't persuade them, join them.

Following the previous article "What Do You Need to Prepare to Open a Coffee Shop?", this article continues to organize several questions that most people consider when opening a shop, and provide some brief suggestions for everyone. While not necessarily useful, at least it can help you avoid some pitfalls.

Q1: Do you have to take coffee training courses before opening a coffee shop?

If you are already an experienced barista with in-depth knowledge of coffee and can combine your own experience and understanding into expressions that even coffee beginners can understand, then you may not need training courses. However, if you are an ordinary barista/coffee enthusiast who doesn't yet have a systematic understanding of coffee and doesn't know where to start learning, you can take relevant training courses. Training courses are equivalent to a stepping stone/enlightenment that can correctly guide your learning direction.

But! Completing training courses doesn't mean you truly understand coffee, because what teachers teach is not all there is to coffee knowledge. Therefore, after finishing the courses, you still need to continue improving your coffee expertise, learning more coffee knowledge, and mastering more coffee skills.

Q2: Do you need to get certified before opening a coffee shop?

Not necessarily. This can be chosen based on your personal situation. Not all coffee shops require baristas/owners to have barista certificates, especially since the fees are not low. Certification certificates are not important; what's important is whether you can demonstrate your professionalism when facing customers, making them feel that their purchase was worthwhile.

My personal view is that regardless of what level of barista certificate you pursue, if you don't continue to improve yourself after certification, learn more coffee-related knowledge/technical research, or if you can't apply what you've learned after certification, then you could save this money as operating capital/working capital for your coffee shop.

Q3: How can you ensure your coffee shop doesn't lose money?

Isn't this a very simple question!! If you don't open one, you won't lose money!

But since you've already decided to open a shop, regarding product, design, and promotion, you must be good at least one of these three aspects! You can't just rush into opening a shop without understanding anything. At the very least, you should have in-depth knowledge of one of these areas. If you're good at coffee, desserts, baking... you can attract customers through your skills, quality, and reputation; if you're good at design, you can attract customers through your shop's decoration and design; if you're good at promotion, you can attract customers through your resources, knowing how to drive traffic through the internet and social platforms.

If you don't know anything about anything and leave everything to third parties or others from the start, the cost of opening a shop will be too high. Moreover, when you don't understand anything about shop operations, you can't better control the costs of opening and running the shop.

Q4: What do coffee shops rely on to make money?

Shops under 50 square meters rely on product output and turnover rate, shops over 50 square meters rely on environment and atmosphere, big cities rely on foot traffic and check-ins, small cities rely on regular customers and repeat purchases. (Is that all?) That's all - these few sentences need to be contemplated! The fewer the words! The more important!

Q5: Where should a coffee shop be located?

Where to open a coffee shop depends first on what type of coffee shop you want to open. Do you want to open a coffee shop that attracts people for check-ins, a coffee shop where customers can better enjoy a cup of coffee, a coffee shop focused on takeout, or a coffee shop with its own roasting...

If it's a coffee shop that attracts people for check-ins, the environment around the shop and surrounding facilities are very important. Whether it's near a subway station or commercial district determines the foot traffic of the location. If it's an enjoyment-type shop, you can choose a location in a community with a clean, tidy, and relatively quiet environment, but naturally, foot traffic will be reduced. If it's a coffee shop focused on takeout, you can choose a location in small streets and alleys, but the premise is that it can't be too remote and far from office buildings and residential areas. If it's a coffee shop with its own coffee bean roasting, you need to consider the smoke exhaust issue during roasting, so it's not recommended to choose a residential area, and the smoke exhaust system must be properly installed.

Q6: Do you have to choose expensive coffee machines?

Whether it's a coffee machine or a grinder, expensive doesn't necessarily mean good. Choosing cost-effective options is the most important! Unless your shop places great emphasis on overall design and display, and needs to purchase some machines with good-looking appearances from the start to match the design. Coffee machines with good-looking appearances are generally not cheap, so when purchasing, you must, must, must find reliable merchants/formal e-commerce brands! When some machine prices have a large deviation from common prices/market prices, there's usually something fishy... transactions need to be handled with caution!!

When first opening a coffee shop, it's not recommended to start with very expensive coffee machines. You can first start with some machines that may look average in appearance but have performance that doesn't lose to some well-known brands, while also being cost-effective. Consider upgrading machines when the coffee shop can operate stably and also make money. Although good coffee output requires good coffee machines to work with, the prerequisite is that the barista must have a certain level of professionalism, and the coffee beans must also have good and stable quality.

Q7: Do you need to hire employees?

It's recommended to consider based on shop size and menu composition. Before hiring, you need to estimate the coffee shop's revenue after opening and make a comprehensive judgment. Except for coffee shops that have done sufficient promotion before opening/coffee shops that include light meals, one person is generally enough to handle the work in the early days of opening. Therefore, to ensure initial profitability, the owner can first consider operating alone, and then consider adding staff when customer traffic gradually increases.

Actually, it's not that opening a coffee shop will definitely lose money, but the premise is that the essence of a coffee shop is a business, so you need to rationally consider every step of opening a shop and clarify your goals.

Finally, the same saying: opening a shop is easy, running it is difficult. Since you've decided to open a shop, let's work hard! After all, it's your own dream, and only by doing it will you have no regrets~!

Image source: Internet

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