How to run a coffee shop to make a profit in the first month? A must-see to open a coffee shop

Follow the caf é (Wechat official account vdailycom) and found that Beautiful Cafe opened a small shop of its own.

A cafe usually doesn't make a profit until a year and a half later, so many investors are very cautious about opening cafes. It is either a joke or a fantasy if a cafe makes a profit after opening a shop for a month. But Miguang Xiaozhu really did it.

Unexpectedly, this cafe is located in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, a small fourth-tier city. With the coffee consumption market far inferior to that of first-tier cities, how did Ziguang Xiaozhu make a profit within a month? We need to start from the beginning.

There was a lot of chaos in the market, and he wanted to open a decent coffee shop

Wu Xiaoyong, founder of Ziguang Xiaozhu, is a post-80s born in a small village in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province. Before entering the catering industry, he worked in the chemical industry, which had nothing to do with catering.

In the early days, Wu Xiaoyong had a feeling for the cafe, which was the same as many people who fell into the cafe, but Wu Xiaoyong was different. He did not blindly regard his feelings as a business.

Before opening the store, Wu Xiaoyong conducted a survey of the local coffee market and found that there was no decent, high-end coffee shop except for two Starbucks and several coffee chains.

"many of our cafes are under the banner of cafes, but they actually sell Chinese food, and some even serve Boiled Fish with Pickled Cabbage and Chili." Wu Xiaoyong said.

Chaos is the best way to describe a local cafe in Quzhou, so in 2014, Wu Xiaoyong made up his mind to open a decent cafe.

Four tricks to beat the cafe next door that has been open for two years.

After confirming the idea, Ziguang Xiaozhu officially opened in 2014.

Wu Xiaoyong chose Miguang Xiaozhu's store next to a very famous local Chinese restaurant. "leaning against a big tree to enjoy the cool" does have a guarantee in terms of passenger flow, but there is a coffee shop that has been open for two years just less than 50 meters away from Miguang Xiaozhu.

Generally speaking, the first entrants in the market had a clear advantage. In the next two years, Wu Xiaoyong competed fiercely with the coffee shop next door, and came from behind, forcing the coffee shop next door to close. How exactly did he do it?

1. Increase per capita consumption by 20 yuan to form a price distinction.

The per capita consumption of the cafe next door is about 50 yuan, while Wu Xiaoyong raised the per capita consumption of Ziguang Xiaozhu to 70 yuan.

In this way, a distinction is formed directly in price, and it also directly reflects the difference in positioning between the two. Dill light small building positioning is more high-end, the main hit is about 40-year-old people, take the business route.

Of course, this positioning is also the result of Wu Xiaoyong's full investigation of the local coffee industry.

Except for Starbucks, there are very few local cafes in Quzhou that take business routes, and most cafes spend about 50 yuan per person.

Therefore, Miguang Xiaozhu had obvious differences in positioning at the beginning, and then in the first month after opening, its business was booming, which well proved the correctness of Wu Xiaoyong's judgment on the market.

2. Focus on making coffee + western food

The cafe next door felt threatened by the arrival of Miguang Xiaozhu, which separated some of the passenger flow, and policy makers began to think about change and began to add a large number of Chinese food to the product line.

At this time, in response, Wu Xiaoyong was faced with a choice: whether to add Chinese food?

After careful consideration, Wu Xiaoyong decided to stick to the general direction of focusing on coffee and western food, only adding the only Chinese dish to the product line, cooking rice. This is also a product that many coffee shops will choose to add to the menu, because it can be well integrated with western food.

Finally, under the market verification, it is proved that Wu Xiaoyong's approach is correct.

3. The retro decoration of old objects + green plants is not easy to be out of date.

"the decoration of the cafe next door is mainly in modern style. After two years, this decoration style has become out of date, and I feel uncomfortable, not to mention picky customers."

In order to avoid this, Wu Xiaoyong adopted the retro decoration of old objects with green plants in the design of the decoration style of his store. This kind of decoration is not only not easy to be out of date, on the contrary, the longer the time, the more flavor.

4. Delicious food died of takeout

When the takeout market began to be hot, the coffee shop next door also began to try to make takeout. At this time, Wu Xiaoyong faced the question of whether to do takeout.

This time Wu Xiaoyong also did not follow the trend of making takeout, because in Wu Xiaoyong's view, delicious food died of takeout, no matter what efforts were made in packaging and technology, it could not stop the decline in product quality. Once the product quality is not good and the customer experience is not good, it will seriously affect the customer's impression of the brand.

I have to say, Wu Xiaoyong is the kind of person with good intuition. Soon, the business of the cafe next door went from bad to worse, and he fell into the awkward situation of making Chinese food but not doing Chinese restaurant next to him, and being unable to do western food, so he had no choice but to close the shop.

In this two-year competition, the cafe next door, which has accumulated for two years, gradually lost its advantage, while Wu Xiaoyong always stuck to his original intention and won the market.

Although Wu Xiaoyong's cafe is now so successful, in fact, his entrepreneurial road is not smooth, there have been management mistakes, but also stepped on some holes.

Encountered three major pits in the catering industry and paid more than 100,000 yuan in tuition fees.

1. Management mistakes, no punishment mechanism, spoil employees

Wu Xiaoyong came from a grassroots background. at first, he wanted to give priority to humanized management and use guidance as far as possible to treat employees. Therefore, there is no need to establish any punishment mechanism for employees who have made mistakes.

However, unexpectedly, this kind of management, which only depends on guidance, is too humanized, which not only does not make employees get rid of their bad habits, but spoils them, not only does not correct their mistakes, but aggravates them.

2. There is no channel to purchase goods, and the chef got nearly 100,000 kickbacks.

Wu Xiaoyong, a newcomer to the catering industry, has neither experience nor connections.

When he opened a coffee shop, the first thing he faced was the lack of channels for restocking. At that time, he blindly trusted the chef and gave the task of ordering to the chef for a long time.

Later, Wu Xiaoyong inadvertently found the chef's purchase channel, which found that there is something fishy. It turned out that the chef had been keeping a kickback from him, which was as much as nearly one hundred thousand. After being discovered, the chef resigned, and Wu Xiaoyong also learned a lesson and began to personally control the purchase channel.

3. The decoration process is all listened to by the decoration company, and it has been reworked many times.

When professional diners decorate the store, they will bring their own chef to design the kitchen and bar, but at that time Wu Xiaoyong was decorated first and then recruited. He didn't know anything and could only listen to the decoration company. Finally, when the store opened, it was found that no matter the design layout or the choice of equipment was unreasonable, his store often needed rework.

These problems did not defeat Wu Xiaoyong, but became the driving force for him to move forward. He constantly summed up the experience in the failure, and learned the coffee shop management skills from other competitors, slowly, Miguang Xiaozhu got into the right track and started the profit model.

How to maintain a steady flow of customers in a coffee shop

1. You want to do everything

Many coffee shops will make this mistake in the early operation process, strive for perfection, want to do everything. Do your best in all aspects, but it's obviously impossible, and it will make the boss feel particularly tired over time.

So what are we gonna do?

Find out what you do best, such as homemade specialty coffee, homemade desserts, etc.

This is what customers want to see, they will see your efforts and will be willing to pay for your hard work. Also, don't peddle your products at a low price just because you just started business, which will make life very difficult in the future.

All in all, you need to make what you do best become your unique selling point! Customers will flock to it!

2. Do not know the value of products and services

What can it bring to customers? Of course it's my product! Who knows their products better than I do?

But what I want to say is, do you know what your customers can get from your products and services?

In other words, what is the value of your products and services to customers? Can they really meet the different needs of customers?

Customers come to the coffee shop to consume not only coffee, but also the environment here, a place to reunite with three or two friends and families.

Only by understanding the needs of customers, your products and services are truly valuable and meaningful!

I don't know who your customer is.

Of course I know! He / she comes to the coffee shop for coffee every day and drinks Flat White every time.

But what I'm asking is, do you know his / her routine? Do you know what habits he / she has?

What time does he / she come to the coffee shop every day? Why are you here?

Is it a takeout latte before going to work every day? Or do you patronize here at lunchtime?

Only when you really know your customers can you adjust your products, services, prices and marketing strategies.

In the final analysis, serving customers is your real purpose in opening this cafe, isn't it?

Seize the opportunity to chat with them and get to know each other better.

To strive for every new customer to become your regular customers, these regulars are the cornerstone of your long-term business!