Precautions you need to know before investing in opening a coffee shop
Coffee shops are a business that has a chance of success quickly, but there is also a chance of failure if you do not plan your business well in advance. Let's check out the list of 7 things to be careful about before opening a coffee shop because in this era, you have to think carefully about what you invest in. Whatever you can be careful about, you have to be careful. Be careful not to use the wrong type of equipment. 1. Be careful not to use the wrong type of equipment. Budget-friendly coffee makers, are they really effective? Many people think that if you have a small budget, investing a little is not wrong. However, if you buy a small coffee maker (home use) and sell it to customers in a community, and there are continuous customers, a home use coffee maker may not meet the requirements because it cannot brew continuously for a long time, resulting in poor coffee taste and customers not buying again, which also affects the cost of unsold coffee beans. Don't understand the ingredients 2. Don't understand the ingredients Let's start with coffee first. Each coffee variety has a different taste and aroma, as well as a different price. Coffee lovers will know this well, and each type of customer likes different coffee. A good coffee variety with a strong taste is suitable for office workers or working people. A weak coffee is suitable for general customers or students. In addition to coffee, you also have to look at other ingredients such as milk, sweetened condensed milk, sugar, and ice, which must be selected to be appropriate for selling coffee, not just based on preferences. Setting the price of coffee before checking the target group of the shop is wrong! 3. Setting the price of coffee before checking the target group of the shop is wrong! We need to make the price of coffee consistent with the target customer group and control the cost of coffee to be consistent with the selling price again. This is to get coffee that has both price, quality and taste that the target group is willing to pay for, better than setting the price in advance. For example, if we set the price of coffee very low because we are afraid that it will not sell, causing us to reduce the quality of the coffee to control the cost, even though the target group in the area has relatively high purchasing power and focuses on drinking strong, fragrant coffee. This may also be a chance that it will not sell. Good location does not always mean good sales. 4. Good location does not always mean good sales. We often hear that a good location is a location with a lot of people passing by and will have a higher chance of selling than other locations. This is not always true. A good location for a coffee shop must be a location where the target group can pass by, can easily stop by to use the service, and has no direct or indirect competitors. This type of location is very difficult. Try finding a secondary location and focus on meeting the needs of customers in that area. For example, choose a location near an educational institution, focus on decorating the shop in a cute style, taking beautiful photos, not strong coffee, and adding blended drinks and snacks. This will have a higher chance of selling. Don't think that marketing or building your identity isn't important. 5. Don't think that marketing or building your identity is not important. These days, even push cart shops have to create their own identity and do marketing because coffee shops are a highly competitive business with many competitors in the market. Customers are always ready to buy from other shops instead. Therefore, creating an identity to make people remember is very important. In addition to the shop name, customers must also remember the shop's highlights, whether it's through the shop's decoration, the taste of the drinks, or the shop owner's unique characteristics. As for marketing, it will help our shop have a better chance of selling, make it easier for them to open up and try our services, and come back to buy coffee from our shop again, such as doing a point collection promotion, a promotion of 10 get 1 free, etc. Investing too much in store decoration 6. Investing too much in store decoration Spent a lot of money decorating the shop to make it look beautiful, intending to attract a large number of customers to come take pictures and check in, but forgot that customers might come to take pictures only once and never come back again. If it's a shop in a tourist area that focuses on the turnover of new customers, decorating the shop beautifully will help with this. But if it's a shop that relies on regular customers, try decorating just right and save the budget for promotions and advertising media, which will be more useful. Lack of cost-profit management plan 7. Lack of cost-profit management plan Because the cost of a coffee shop is not fixed and there are always unexpected things happening at any time, such as new competitors that require more budget for promotions, increasing employee wages according to government policy, rent that keeps going up and never down, etc., not including the cost of raw materials that are always adjusted. Therefore, planning profit-loss is very important, including estimating the time to pay back the investment. Equally important is making financial statements each month to see the operating results and plan the shop management correctly.
It may seem a bit difficult, but it’s not too difficult for those who are serious about opening a coffee shop. Or if you want to learn more, try studying the course “Open a Coffee Shop to Make Money” by Ajarn Benyapa Naowarn, a coffee making instructor and 4-time barista champion, nicknamed the “Cooking Witch” and owner of the Benyapa Coffee Academy coffee making school.Click here to learn.
