Running a coffee shop is a calm thing.

Zhuang Yueli, nicknamed Zhuang Tsai, was born in Yunlin, Taiwan in 1974. He came to the mainland around 1993 to study in the director department of the Beijing Film Academy. After graduating in 1997, he established the first carving time Cafe, which is one of the few chain coffee brands in China. As a non-popular cafe in China, carving time Cafe now has more than 50 chain cafes in more than 20 cities across the country. In addition, in addition to cafes, but also involved in coffee shop-related industries, with three independent brands carving time Coffee College, Yifeng Shangda public relations, border culture and other brands. At present, the development has entered the 18th year.

Business origin:

The most original and initial thing in business is to sacrifice rather than want to make other people's money first. Only when you sacrifice to a certain extent can others enjoy something because of your sacrifice.

In fact, now, you can find many cafes with similar styles in the streets and Xiaolong. However, sculpture time has a very special meaning among some people. It seems to be the representative of a certain literary temperament in the capital. People who like it yearn for it, and they will directly call it carved light. The unpopular cafe was born in 1997, when Starbucks had just entered China. Now for more than a decade, Starbucks has conquered cities and territories in various cities in China, and the sculpture time is spreading and passing along with its own footsteps. The only constant is that you will never confuse the sculpture time with Starbucks.

People are brands.

There is a small street between Peking University and Tsinghua University, called Chengfu Street. In 1997, Zhuang and his wife, kitten, chose a shop facing the street to run the first cafe. They painted the small door of the cafe in wood and built two small steps in front of it. There is a small window on the white wall that allows passers-by to look at and imagine the world inside. Zhuang Yili said that at that time, all kinds of people came and went in this small street, living a blind life, with the best literary and artistic atmosphere.

Sculpture time has an orthodox literary temperament from birth. Its creator graduated from Beijing Film Academy and loves movies. Most of its guests are Chinese and foreign teachers and students from around. They seem to regard carving time as a secret base for communication. And its birth also seems to be very casual, but the boss and wife want to open a coffee shop, and happen to have a sum of spare money that did not succeed in filming.

"at that time, we didn't have any baggage, very naive, very romantic, even a little silly, because we didn't have so many worldly things, so we just played down, slowly made credibility, and then slowly became a brand." There is neither a utilitarian beginning nor a distant goal, carving time began its steps, some places of interest, followed by careful exploration and gradual development.

The cafe has just opened, but it has been losing money all the time. For a long time, the kitten was maintaining the operation of the cafe, while Chuang Ling-lie worked outside as a part-time job. "he followed the film crew, interviewed, filmed, edited, and did everything. He was often busy until midnight and couldn't go home. He could earn more than 4000 yuan a month, of which more than 3000 yuan was put back into the store. But it doesn't lose much. After all, it's a mom-and-pop store that makes money for its own use. " The coffee shop is beginning to look like a small business for Chuang Lai and his wife.

At that time, the school of sculpture time had a particularly strong flavor. Because of its love of movies, sculpture time often showed films by Tarkovsky and Yasujiro Ozu. "when the movie was on, the whole cafe was full. At that time, the mood of people watching movies was a bit close to the pilgrimage, especially the works of this kind of master. " Around the campus, those who are full of naive thinking and reverie about the world like to meet their spiritual needs in the carving time, and the sculpture time also accumulates its primitive temperament in such an atmosphere.

"at the beginning, the person is the brand, the brand is the person, and the tone of the carving time is also similar to our personal style, not so publicity, relatively low-key, and then in this state, the influence will imperceptibly permeate the whole brand."

Slow business

Zhuang is from Taiwan, and because he wants a life different from that in Taiwan to study in Beijing, he seems to be more willing to accept something new and exciting. Because he has been in an aggressive and exploratory state of mind, he does not feel that he is a quiet person.

Someone once asked him whether inexperienced people in business rely on intuition or what? Zhuang Jieli's answer is to love and add a little bit of adventure. No one will tell an inexperienced coffee shop owner what you'd better do, and it's safer not to try and make mistakes. "some things develop slowly, not perfectly from the very beginning, and have experienced a lot of twists and turns. Starting from some starting points, 1.1 points of improvement, slow development, opening a coffee shop belongs to this kind of business that needs to develop slowly. " At first, the carving time only provided books and coffee, and there was almost no food. Later, it was found that the food was more profitable, and then began to enrich the menu.

Time continues to move forward, and people's consumer demand for cafe culture continues to emerge. In the past, people chose to discuss and communicate more often in restaurants or teahouses, but cafes were not the most mainstream. With the consumption cultivation of several major coffee brands in the mainland and the upgrading of user demand, the coffee shop has gradually shown its charm. In the market at that time, there happened to be a lack of literary and artistic cafes, so the literary and artistic style in carving time naturally caught up with the good time.

When the sculpture time reached its sixth year, the team decided to move from an office in a residential building to an old factory yard on the edge of the North fourth Ring Road, where the environment and vegetation were very good. And the place is so large that it exceeds the size of the carving time Cafe. It was originally intended to be a coffee experience area, but because there is a certain distance from the main city, the flow of people has become a big bottleneck. So the team changed its way of thinking and used this place as a coffee classroom, which developed into the present coffee college. It not only teaches some courses in cafe management, but also courses in coffee making and gourmet making. The price of the course also ranges from about 3000 yuan to tens of thousands of yuan. Coffee college because it coincides with the rising period of coffee shop development and relies on the brand of carving time, coffee college has also become a profitable project. The coffee college has become a derivative of the carving time Cafe in business, which expands the management system of the carving time.

After obtaining venture capital in 2011, carving time can be more confident to achieve step-by-step development, mainly used for store development and involved in the entire coffee business industry chain, "We have a micro industrial chain, such as our coffee beans, from planting and stir-frying. Extraction and then to consumers. Although it presents a literary and artistic temperament, in fact, the tone of our business is enthusiastic and the model is calm. "

Literature and art and merchants

Now Zhuang Yueli will feel that he is a businessman and a Virgo businessman. He regards running a coffee shop or dabbling in the service industry as a carrier of his literary complex, which, in his view, does not conflict with business. "Art was nurtured in my childhood or in my bones. Businessmen are the way I am now. I like to do business, like to see the shortcomings of certain industries, and find ways to defeat them, so that I can do better or replace them. When I see something wrong, I want to weaken him to grow myself. "

Every cafe takes countless people's painstaking efforts, from location selection to design, to training, to inspection and opening, so profit creation should not be taken too lightly. However, as long as the capital flow is well mastered in the early stage, there will be a good return in the later stage. This is the experience he summed up in the secret book of cafe management.

A cafe is very important from location to design to service. For example, it is best to be close to universities or bookstores or museums, because different forms of business can communicate with each other and will not appear too abrupt and lonely. But do not be too much in the limelight, do not be seen too quickly, it is best to choose the second floor of the shop facing the street, this location will appear that the cafe temperament is very patient, and the rent will not be too high …...

And design is an aspect that Zhuang Mengli attaches great importance to. He will persist in carving time and need to maintain a tone, which may be elegant or literary, but it is by no means the same as other coffee brands.

"A cafe plays the role of a server, and it should better hide itself and listen to others. So our style will be very simple, we don't use fancy materials, and we don't have too much styling. This simplicity is not done at random, it may have very powerful elements in some aspects, and there will be a lot of white space in some places. Zhuang Qianlie likes to design, so far, how to reflect the design and style of the newly opened cafe, he will still care about, or even his own design.

"making coffee requires you to wipe the cup, wash the dishes and make coffee. There is a real process here, and it is also a very steady process."

-- Zhuang Kui