Look at the outside world and don't just wait for one person in your coffee shop.

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The lights are bright and the lines are simple. Looking into the window, there are huge bean dryers and computer detection instruments. If it were not for the smell of coffee, it would be like a science laboratory. Our meeting with Mr. Hu Yuanzheng was chosen at this Taoxuan coffee experience shop located in the Neihu Science and Technology Park, where coffee is processed according to the specifications of the food factory.

Hu Yuanzheng, who is now in charge of coffee selection, has studied biotechnology since the Department of Plant Diseases and insect pests at National Taiwan University and has run three biotech companies. Until 2006, when he spent two years in the United States with his wife waiting to give birth and raising children, he began to explore coffee. He was the second person in Taiwan to pass the examination of coffee appraiser at the CQI Coffee quality Research Institute.

It's so troublesome to open a shop! He decided to concentrate on baking beans

In 2011, he briefly conceded to operate a coffee shop in the Norwegian Forest of the mansion, renamed it "Taster'cafe", and finally chose to sell black coffee alone, or even become a mid-market seller of coffee beans.

When opening a coffee shop, dealing with the landlord, food safety of raw materials, customer service, and so on, all made it impossible for him to make a good coffee. "it's so troublesome!" So he chose to return to his major and set off the best quality of beans in the way of food science.

(pick a corner of the coffee shop, the blackboard is written like a chemical formula, are all the details of good coffee. )

The advantage of language allows you to go to the world.

Hu Yuanzheng now has an airfare of several hundred thousand a month. He travels to and from various countries as judges of evaluation competitions, teaches coffee expertise, and is the teacher of many people in the industry. "at that time, only 1/10 people in Taiwan knew coffee, and if they could speak English, there were only 1/10." he describes that he happens to have a language advantage, and he is relatively lucky, which is the key to reaching out to the world.

From personally searching for beans on the manor to opening the shop downstream, Hu Yuanzheng, who has decades of practical experience in the coffee industry, says that opening a coffee shop is not like the mysterious and beautiful landlady who does nothing every day in the Chinese film "Coffee alone." sitting by the window in a daze, someone comes, but if you don't think about it carefully, you can only wait for a guest to come after opening the shop.

The Internet makes it easy and dangerous to open a shop

"before Starbucks came into Taiwan, our coffee shop relied on brand marketing." Hu Yuanzheng describes that since Starbucks entered Taiwan in 1996, supermerchants began to sell freshly brewed coffee in 2004, so that ordinary high school students can start buying coffee. Ten years later, when students become white-collar workers, they can switch to Starbucks, and the layout of enterprises consciously or unconsciously. Let coffee gradually change from a luxury to a necessity in the minds of Taiwanese.

"the Internet changes the consumption pattern of the middle class." Hu Yuanzheng observed that social networks began to grow in 2008, giving independent stores and small brands room for self-reliance. With the rise of self-baking shops, the Internet allows them to maintain their connection with consumers at almost no cost. A little observation is a successful store. As long as there are thousands of likes on the fan page, simple message operation will be an effective business behavior.

Not only coffee, but also changes in the production and marketing structure of agricultural products can be seen. In the past, it was the production and marketing class to the wholesale market, but now it is the young people who return home to place orders from the Internet. In the past, small shops had to slowly do word of mouth in the alley, and the new generation of coffee shops could quickly become popular through the publicity of the Internet. But rising rents have made the life cycle of these coffee shops shorter, often when three-year leases expire, and one shop disappears.

Coffee teaching in Taiwan is not systematic.

From the social liberation of advocating industrialization in the past and entering the era of knowledge-based economy in Taiwan, the coffee industry is no longer the inheritance of the traditional master-apprentice system. Hu Yuanzheng said that the most interesting and dangerous thing about the coffee business is that because information is getting easier and easier, everyone thinks they can easily enter the industry, but it is not.

"there are a lot of ideas in food science involved." Hu Yuanzheng says that although there are 10,000 super coffee and 3,000 self-baking shops, even the National Kaohsiung Restaurant Travel University, the highest university in the catering industry, has only increased its teaching programs in the industry in recent years. This means that if we want to enter the industry, all knowledge must come from the private sector and from the Internet to find and sign up for cram schools. On the other hand, the courses offered by the Government Vocational training Council are still at the level of standard beverage preparation, and there is no systematic teaching for upstream processes, baking, and so on.

Set aside some time to see the world outside the store

Hu Yuanzheng clicks on the computer function of his mobile phone and calculates in front of our eyes: to open a 20-ping coffee shop in Taipei, you need to prepare at least 2 million; a medium-sized one needs at least 4 million. Before opening the store, you must observe the surrounding consumer groups, the flow of people, and then set the price and characteristics of the goods, and the rent should not exceed 25% of the turnover. In fact, opening a coffee shop is not romantic at all. On the contrary, it is necessary to have a very realistic consideration. It is not that the so-called "literary youth shop" will make money.

Hu Yuanzheng stressed that coffee shop operators can't just see the one-mu plot of land in their shop. "did the guests come in with any cake?" Or just order the cheapest drink? " We should have time to see the outside world clearly, think about the position of the store in the community, and the existence of coffee is to make people's mind clear and know what they are doing.

Do you have a second feature besides coffee?

"if you only want to keep the luck of your life, the biggest problem is that you can't take risks." Hu Yuanzheng said that unless local characteristics are found, through community management and connecting groups, opening a coffee shop can not only sell good coffee, but also become a "good neighborhood" of the neighborhood. And those who are willing to open a coffee shop must not focus on opening a coffee shop at the very beginning. They must have a second feature besides coffee, otherwise it will be difficult to survive.

From an enterprise's point of view, there should be a permanent direction, not greedy to concentrate, to make the product value for money rather than value for money. Hu Yuanzheng said bluntly that in the next few years, more and more small coffee shops will close down. If they are really interested in coffee, they will have to survive even if they go to medium-sized coffee shops to hire people.

Keep walking and keep doing. There is no such thing as pressure.

Isn't there a lot of pressure to go back and forth to and from international competitions as judges, as consultants for coffee chains, and for baking factories and shops to manage? Hu Yuanzheng asked what is pressure? 'financially, it's just a matter of two hands, nothing to do with it,'he said.'it's not about stress.'

The basic principle of the economy is moderate inflation, so progress must be made every year. From not a single order to today, Hu Yuanzheng has repeatedly reiterated that do not think about pressure, but ask whether things have been done. "what else can't be solved except the dead," he said, using his best efforts as an antidote to stress. "if you want to let your life go on, you have to keep going."