Your Coffee Shop Success
Keys to Your Coffee Shop Success
What does it take to be a successful coffee shop?
Here at Seattle Coffee Scene, we’ve looked at hundreds of coffee shops in Seattle and beyond – including many wonderful cafes in Europe. During this time, we have seen many seemingly amazing coffee shops fail while others grow into incredible coffee businesses.
What determines success or failure?
After years of observation, we think we’ve come up with some important elements of what coffee businesses should have to compete with their local competition. In this post, we’ll discuss some of the things that often play a big part in a coffee shop’s success.
If you are thinking about starting a coffee shop or a mobile coffee business, you’ll find a few things that you should consider during your planning.
Your Coffee Shop Success
Successful Coffee Shops Start with a Business Plan
Successful coffee businesses start with a coffee shop business plan written right from the start. A coffee business owner who knows what they want and how to get it is likely to increase their chances of success.
There are too many variables to simply “wing it.”
From what I have seen, you do not have to go on a spiritual pilgrimage to reflect on a grand plan for opening a coffee shop. Your plan can be simply written, direct, and thorough.
Not all business plans are the same. For example, you wouldn’t use a tech startup or manufacturing business plan to open a coffee shop.
There are some elements of a business plan specific to a coffee business that you should be aware of and which it should contain. These elements are there to help you determine the best direction to launch and take your coffee shop.
A Coffee Shop Business Plan Prepares You for Lease Signing
We know that those with a coffee shop business plan often are more prepared, better funded, and better negotiators when it comes to things like signing your coffee shop startup lease.
Every aspect of your coffee shop property lease will be important to your overall success. Even if you are unsure about the details, you know you have to prepare before signing a multi-year property lease that obligates your business to thousands of dollars.
The best way to prepare for your coffee shop lease signing is to have a coffee shop business plan. Those with a business plan will likely experience more success than failure.
Understand What Makes Your Coffee Shop Unique
From what I have seen, success does not just happen. And like any prudent business owner, you never want to base your ultimate success on simple chance.
Embedding your uniqueness – what makes you special – within your planning will be important right from the start.
Therefore, I recommend determining your coffee shop’s uniqueness early on and articulating what will be in your business plan.
What things will make your coffee shop special? You uniqueness can come from a variety of different aspects.
These unique coffee shop details may include:
- Choice of menu
- Design and space
- Coffee roasting profiles
- Location and design
- Customer experience
- Customer service
- Other unique elements (music, art, furniture, fixtures, etc.)
- Your coffee brand
All these elements play an important part in your coffee shop’s success. However, if you are beginning to feel overwhelmed, consider starting with the basics. For example, I would first settle on your coffee shop business concept. Next, I would determine your menu and customer experience.
Don’t know where to start? Focus on:
- Coffee business concept
- Coffee shop menu
- Customer experience
Additional Reading: How to Start a Coffee Truck Business
How to Run a Successful Coffee Shop
Once you’ve determined your key coffee shop concept, your coffee shop menu, and what type of experience you’ll likely have, you can focus on launching and starting your coffee shop.
Launching your coffee shop to the day-to-day successful operation and management of your coffee shop requires you to change gears a bit – but never take your hands off the wheel.
To run and manage a successful coffee shop, you will need to develop a variety of systems that could run on their own with every little guidance.
In addition to creating systems to run and operate a successful coffee shop, you will need to hire good staff.
Among a successful coffee shop owner’s top jobs is hiring amazing baristas. Ultimately, your baristas will be the face of your business. Your customers will receive a certain level of quality of products and service from your baristas – who will, in turn, work to affirm your brand and drive repeat sales. That is why, among other elements, barista training will be an important part of this setup.
Critical Success Factors for Coffee Businesses
While every coffee shop is different, customers still expect a certain level of quality and value that makes them feel good about their purchases at a reasonable price.
Remember, every potential customer is not necessarily your ideal target customer. Your target customer will be unique to your coffee shop and ultimately drive the success of your business.
Nevertheless, let me list a few critical success factors that are important for most traditional coffee shops:
- High-quality coffee and a deep menu
- Convenience (location, parking, customer access)
- High value (Price, quantity)
- Branding
- Customer service
High-quality Coffee and Menu
It is rare for a successful coffee shop to have a disastrous menu. That’s because the primary reason for your customers visiting you is ultimately what’s on your coffee shop menu board. Developing your coffee shop menu will be the first thing you’ll want to focus on as you start your business.
Having a high-quality menu that appeals to your coffee shop target market will not only pave the way for your success but will drive sales and profitability. In other words, your success is based on your level of sales and customer retention (or repeat business).
In turn, your level of sales is largely based on appealing to your target market. Appealing to your target market means offering them quality menu choices.
Convenience
In most cases, when it comes to successful coffee shops, convenience fights for the top spot for what your customers want. This means everything from easy accessibility to ease of parking and speed of service – it all counts!
If you boost the convenience factor at every possible corner, you will likely see your coffee shop sales increase.
Enjoying High Value at Your Coffee Shop
We all enjoy receiving high value in everything that we purchase and experience. The mix of price, quantity, and quality is important for exceeding customer expectations – and driving repeat business. Creating high value is both of function of real and perceived value. Both are essential to drive continued sales.
Coffee Shop Branding
In many areas, competition is high among coffee shops. Developing your coffee shop brand will play a big role in differentiating yourself between your coffee shop and others. Developing your coffee brand will take some thought, trial and error, and creativity. However, your customers will seek you out once you get it right.
Customer Service
Continuous barista training and education is the key to consistent customer experience. Your customers want to feel welcomed and understand the value of every dollar they pay. If you are able to set high standards of customer service right from the start, you’ll be able to build a strong team that is dedicated to bringing the best value to your customers.
Essential Tips for Operating a Successful Café
If you haven’t started writing your business plan, I recommend that you get started with it now.
Developing your coffee shop business will help you articulate what you want in a business – and hopefully create a path forward.
If you aren’t sure where to begin, consider exploring various coffee shops in and around your community. It will help you develop your coffee shop concept.
Do everything you can to develop your convenience, high value, and branding development for your coffee shop startup.
Next, find the best possible connection to serve your coffee shop customer. Finding the right coffee shop location will be important to your success. Remember, every coffee drinker will likely not be your customer. Stay focused on your target market and customer – what they need and value.
Develop messaging that resonates with your target customer. The quality and type of messaging will boost your brand’s appeal and hopefully drive sales as you differentiate yourself in the marketplace.
Tips for Opening a Successful Coffee Shop
- Write a business plan
- Develop a coffee business concept
- Assess convenience, value, branding
- Choose the best location
- Develop your message
Your Coffee Shop Success
Additional Questions:
Should You Open a Drive-Thru Coffee Stand?
A drive-thru espresso stand can be a great alternative to a traditional brick-and-mortar store. Like any other business, there are both advantages and disadvantages to opening a drive-thru coffee stand. I’ve seen both profitable and struggling coffee stand businesses. The likelihood of success often depends on picking the right location that offers convenience and a great menu.
Is Starting a Coffee Trailer a Good Business?
Another alternative to opening a traditional coffee shop or a drive-thru espresso stand is by going mobile. A mobile coffee business, such as setting up a coffee trailer, would help you avoid many of the startup and operational costs that burden many other coffee business concepts. Additionally, we’ve also explored how to start a coffee truck business. Going mobile and serving coffee on wheels can offer huge benefits while reducing the disadvantages of opening a coffee shop.
