What should I prepare if I want to open a cafe?

It is said that everyone once dreamed of opening a literary cafe.

The bookshelf is full of your favorite books, play those casual and niche style music, and quietly put the small items you picked up from the secondhand stall or travel on the wooden cabinets with incense. These objects are old, childish and full of time marks. Pick them up at random, and they can remind you of a memory and story.

Every day I get up and go to work lazily, start a good day in the aroma of coffee, watch books and listen to music, and always observe the interesting stories that happen every day in a small cafe from the perspective of a third party. It's a pleasure to think about it.

Many readers left me messages about their coffee dreams, hoping I could give them some guidance. The instructor dared not say, but the experience of a cafe that has been open for two years can indeed be shared. Today, let's talk about the preparatory stage of opening a cafe.

What needs to be stated in advance is that the following positioning of a coffee shop is a coffee shop with a good atmosphere and elegant literature, which is different from the cheap milk tea shop that often gathers truant students and street thugs (whether or not it will be beaten, it doesn't mean anything, it's just a different position).

Well, if you have more than 100,000 yuan on hand, you can try to prepare!

(1) site selection

Location is very important, and it can even be said that the business of your cafe in the past few years is directly determined by the location.

The best choice of the address is around the campus, the university town is the best, the middle school is also good, and the second is near the residential entertainment area (preferably a better neighborhood). The first principle is that there is a large flow of people. the second is that customers are as infatuated with the smell of cafes as you are.

After such consideration, you will find that the main types of customers in the coffee shop business are idealistic student parties, rich and leisure winners, and busy people who often need to work overtime. Other groups are not the main consideration.

So you know how to choose an address. Under these premises, try to be comprehensive, according to your own economic situation, find a place as conspicuous as possible, and open your dream.

Many idealistic young people often have some misunderstandings before opening a coffee shop, such as opening a coffee shop in a secluded place, away from traffic, the more difficult it is to find, the more difficult it is to show the niche and high pressure of the coffee shop.

I used to think the same way, but it turns out that before realizing my literary ideal, keeping the cafe alive is the most important thing.

Before your cafe became famous and became a clean stream in the industry, believe me, few people are willing to look for and visit the eighteen corners of the mountain road, and your monthly rent, water and electricity industry will not charge a dime less because of your literary and artistic feelings.

(2) scale and store rent, water and electricity

1. 30 to 50 square meters is an ideal scale.

At the beginning of opening a coffee shop, I do not recommend that the scale is too large. 30-50 square meters is enough. I know a curator whose small shop area is only about 10 square meters. The layout is very warm and the business is doing well.

Small things are easy to operate, cafes need a warm sense of accumulation, because small, you can make every corner into what you like, of course, the most important thing is that the capital investment is relatively small. Opening a coffee shop requires a protracted war, and saving money will allow you to preserve more strength and persevere.

two。 Try to reduce the rent and water and electricity, the rent is the big head

When you come to the point of considering the rent of the store, don't worry.

My advice is to take some time to learn about the rental situation nearby and have a chat with nearby businessmen about condoms. Generally speaking, they will be willing to tell you the store rent as long as you don't reveal that you are about to become their competitor.

If you have first-hand information and then talk to the landlord, you will have more confidence in your heart.

If you plan to open a coffee shop here for a long time (it is recommended that it is not easy to accumulate customers), try to extend the signing time for at least 5 years, increasing by a percentage each year, which is generally 5%-8%. It depends on your ability to keep it at the lowest level. After the agreement is over, remember to ask the landlord for a rent-free period for decoration, not necessarily for a month, but what is saved is the Dream Fund.

In addition, in southern cities, commercial water is generally 3.50 yuan per ton, and electricity consumption is between 8 cents and 1.5 yuan per kilowatt-hour. Each city is different. Do more research. Although this money seems small, it is also a considerable expenditure to accumulate as much as possible. The principle of doing business is actually very simple, that is, to raise prices, reduce costs, and gain space for price differences.

(3) Decoration style and purchase of objects

1. Light decoration, heavy decoration

If you have a friend who is studying design, you can ask your friend to give some advice or draw a sketch (don't forget to pay). If not, my advice is to find some pictures of your favorite cafe online, which corner you like, and decorate the corner like that. I've tried it myself, and it's feasible.

Because the store is rented, you have to consider whether you can take these things away from the cafe in case the rent is too high or the business is not good. So the storefront should be decorated lightly and decorated heavily.

Except for some things that you think are very necessary, such as painting the wall (you can ask the landlord to introduce you to the workers), other places can be made up with decorations. For example, using large bookshelves instead of walls to separate the space, using a variety of good-looking table lamps instead of chandeliers and so on.

You can feel free to go into some cafes, such as coffee, carving time, etc., the composition of decoration will also be greater than the decoration part. Now often see the characteristics of the factory style, to some extent, is actually the product of light decoration.

two。 Addition of objects

Coffee machine and coffee beans: both are the treasures of the town shop, the quality of coffee, in a sense, determines the style level of a cafe. That's why I don't want to use shoddy coffee beans anyway. It's a bit of stubbornness in my heart. Coffee machine brand is Nova, the old Italian brand, it is quite easy to use, the price is about 2w.

Furniture such as tables and chairs, sofas, bookshelves and so on: you can look up the secondhand market in your city, where you can find a lot of good and cheap things, and call one or two friends who will bargain when you go, which can save you a lot of money. These thrift stores usually have moving trucks, so it's best to get the merchant to distribute them for you free of charge (save a money) before paying.

3. Selection and purchase of books

This is a personal hobby. I always feel that a cafe without books is like a coffee shop without a soul. I like to read and buy books. When there are few guests on weekdays, smoking a favorite book is my favorite thing to do. If your cafe is not only a place for chat and gathering, but also a habitat for peace of mind and spiritual nourishment, it will greatly improve the recognition and acceptance of the cafe.

The choice of books is divided into three categories: 60% of classics (including literature, economics, tools, etc.), 30% of bestsellers, and 10% of magazines, but the most important thing is the book you want to read, because the person who spends the longest time in the cafe is yourself.

4. Other categories, such as table lamps, furnishings, etc.

In fact, a treasure is a very convenient existence, you like, dream, or even see things, basically can be found on a treasure, but also can compare goods, good quality and low price.

(4) looking for suppliers

This is the resource that you should prepare before opening a store, it is best to prepare both hands, one is the supplier of the physical store in this city, you can look it up on the Internet, then call to ask, and then go to the physical store to check, they generally provide delivery services.

Find a few more stores, add a Wechat, and get a price list. Some stores have cheap coffee beans and some stores have cheap cream. Again, compare goods to three stores to reduce costs. The second category is Taobao, some of the things you need, the supplier may not have, then go to a certain treasure.

Conclusion:

Prepare for these four aspects, your coffee shop can basically open, of course, during this period of hard work, only those who have experienced can experience. Those days of riding a bus across more than half of the city to step on suppliers make you both hard and happy.

Above, I hope it will be helpful to you who want to open a coffee shop.