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8 needed skills to open a coffee shop
Are you a coffee lover? Have you always thought about opening up your own business? If your answers were “yes”, the idea of having your own cafe must be quite exciting for you, right? Even so, money is not the only thing you need to open a coffee shop.
As any other first-timer, you must have questions about what are the needed skills to open a coffee shop, and that’s why we are here.
Do you have the money and want to know if a cafe is the right idea?
Our team of experts gathered the top 8 skills to open a cafe. Check them now!
Table of Contents
Get to know the market and the products to open a coffee shop
How does this market work? What do coffee shop customers like about their favourite cafés?
What the competitors have been doing?
What do they sell?
What are you supposed to sell and how are you supposed to serve?
Those are just the prime questions you need to know the answer to before starting your café business, because they will help you decide whether this market is right for you or not.
Each market segment has its own way to function and it’s important that you learn the particularities of the one you have chosen to work with.
In the same way, it is crucial that you know your products just as much.
To be successful, a coffee shop requires someone able to deal with specific ingredients and machines.
A good barista can make a huge difference to your business, for example. But it’s not just that. The more you know, the better you will run your business.
Know you have to be ambitious
One of the main skills needed to open a coffee shop (and probably the first one) is inside yourself. Are you passionate and motivated enough to face the challenge?
Besides money, starting a business requires time and a lot of mental strength. You are going to face difficulties and you are going to make difficult choices.
If you are here, though, you probably have thought about it already and you feel you are ready. That is your ambition talking to you and you must keep it alive to go forward.
Be sure about what you want
You have thousands of ideas and plans. The perfect coffee shop is already pictured in your mind – it works, it is beautiful, and the customers love it.
Put everything you have already thought on paper, collect all the references, and start to make a real plan.
Do all the ideas make sense to you and your business? Would they work together?
A clear vision will guide you through the whole process of opening your coffee shop, and each decision must be made according to the business plan.
Remember no one’s ever pleased every person on the planet, so you have to know who you are willing to please and work in that direction.
Pick the best location and equipment
The right location is another crucial point. Consider the kind of customer you want in your coffee shop to decide where you are going to place it.
For example: if you’re designing a place for young people, it may be a good idea to find buildings around schools and universities, and so on.
Also, a coffee shop tends to be a place to hang out, be comfortable, some people even use cafes to work out of the office. If you want to offer this kind of environment to your customers, be careful about choosing the building.
Consider the structure of the building and the potential renovations and repairs you’d like to make on it.
After picking up the right place, don’t forget about the equipment. If you want to offer a good experience, the price can’t be the key here.
High-quality equipment costs money and you should keep that in mind. Sometimes, cheap equipment may need a lot of upkeep, which will make it expensive in the long term.
Have a great team
You need great people if you want to run a great business. Your team will make sure the place is always at its best to serve the customers.
From the cleaning to the kitchen, the service, and the cashier, everything needs to be held in place.
To have that, you must provide good training and environment for your employees, show them they are part of the business and that you appreciate their efforts.
Select the best suppliers
If you can’t rely on your supplier, they are not good for your business – nor for your mental health, let’s face it.
Sometimes it’s not even about keeping your storage full of products, but being there and trying to find solutions if anything goes wrong and they don’t have the products you need.
A reliable supplier is always there for you. Besides offering a high-quality product, they are there to help.
Be creative on your menu
Yes, of course, you need to offer coffee on your cafe’s menu – many kinds of coffee. But this is just the basics that your future customers will expect.
After looking at your competitors and the options the market has to sell, you should ask yourself: how can I stand out? What do my competitors have been doing that I can do differently? What are the opportunities they haven’t noticed yet?
Creativity is the key here, but it will only come if you keep your eyes open.
Wanna upgrade your menu?
Put your heart into it
Yes, back to the beginning here, because it is important! The passion for your coffee shop can’t be over after opening it to the public.
You are the person who is more interested in your business’ success, so you must stay close and make sure you are doing everything you can for this to happen.
The passion you show will certainly reflect in every aspect of your coffee shop, engaging your team and your customers too.
Are you ready to open a coffee shop?
After drawing a checking mark in each of those items, yes, you are ready to open a coffee shop!
