If you’ve decided that you want to open a café or coffee shop, you understandably may be wondering if you have “what it takes” to build a successful café or coffee shop.
We’ve done some research and here are the top five attributes of thriving café/coffee shop owners.
Good delegation skills.
You can’t do it all. You just can’t. You’re going to have to hire the best people you can find, tell them what needs to be done and by when and let them do what you hired them to do.
In addition, as your shop becomes larger, busier, older – or all of these – there may be some tasks you’ve done for months or years that could be better done by someone else, allowing you to focus on the important things: hiring, creating processes and procedures, marketing, buying, etc.
In other words, you eventually want to delegate much of the operations of your shop so that you can “work on your business, not in it.”
You’re not afraid of the details.
As important as it is to delegate, it’s also critical that you embrace details: you’re meticulous about your processes and procedures, who you hire, the quality of your product and customer service, and on and on and on.
Being meticulous and not afraid of tackling the “little things” (how your baristas greet your customers, how your bathrooms “look,” what types of mugs you choose, making sure your shop’s marketing and branding is consistent in all marketing channels, etc.) show how much you value your business – and your customers. This will only help your bottom line and also position you as the “go-to” café in your area.
Speaking of details, you know that numbers don’t lie.
You’re going to be on top of your books like a June bug on a window screen: relentless! You may “feel” that revenue is greater than outgo, but is it? What do your numbers actually show? If they say there’s more going out than coming in, you need to face that fact and not try to find excuses that “feel” right. Look at the facts and if the fact’s aren’t what you want, study your numbers to see what you can do to improve.
You’re likeable, you like people and you’re not afraid to reach out to others.
Being likeable – and knowing that you’re likeable – means that you have a certain sense of self-worth and self-confidence, necessary traits for success in and of themselves.
But being likeable means not only being respected by your employees and customers, it allows you to create customer loyalty and develop relationships in the community (you’ll need those, by the way).
You’re flexible/adaptable.
Your business plan is not going to follow its script. Your “best” employee is going to quit suddenly. Your shipment of scones is going to be late – for a week. Your bookkeeper is going to get sick and neglect to send your lease payment in on time, a new coffee craze will appear and your customers will clamor for it.
From start to finish, from pricing your items, marketing and more, you’re going to have to adapt to constantly adapt to changes in market conditions, shop needs, personnel issues, and more.
Are you ready to adapt and thrive?
Speaking of thriving: if you love coffee, you don’t have to open a café to share your love of coffee with others and make a decent income doing so. Ubean Coffee is now opening up opportunities all over the country for people to become independent distributors of our specialty, premium, organic coffee. You can work part time or full time: the choice is entirely up to you. What’s more, distributorship is incredibly affordable. Check out Ubean.info for more information.
In the meantime, find the independent Ubean Coffee distributor nearest you and try some of our great coffee!