How to run a good coffee shop

Actually, I've always wanted to write a little something about coffee shops. In everyone's impression, I am a person who is more emotional than rational, and I don't know much about business. Therefore, in opening a coffee shop, customers often put forward various business ideas to me. I am grateful to them, but sometimes I feel that my business thinking is completely different from theirs. I am not saying that their opinions are unreasonable, but I feel that my understanding of coffee shops is different. So borrow this article, let me run a cafe thinking to tell you.

First of all, I want to emphasize that I want to talk about how to open a good coffee shop, not how to open a big coffee shop. The Chinese sometimes think big is good, and that's not true. Our country is very big, but in terms of many welfare benefits, it cannot compare with some very small countries in northern Europe. The difference between good and bad is here.

There's a difference between a good cafe and a big cafe. Starbucks, for example, is a big coffee shop, but not necessarily a good coffee shop. There are some very small cafes, open in very special places, there is a beautiful scenery outside the window, sitting there feels very comfortable, this is a good cafe. There are also many small cafes, many people in which reading, writing or office, they will gradually become familiar with each other, and finally a lot of stories happen, which can also be called a good cafe.

A coffee shop without scenery and without story is not a good coffee shop in my opinion.

A good coffee shop has to be awesome to pick its favorite customers. I read in Sanlian Weekly a letter written by a coffee senior. His friend runs a leisure hotel in Dali. A guest goes in and picks and shouts, and finally asks if there is a room. He and the clerk answered simultaneously. He said no, the employee said yes. He glared at the employee and said he had made a mistake. There were no more rooms. Afterwards, he told the clerk that a good store should choose its favorite customers. If such customers come too many, they will affect the original customers, affect the image of their store in the eyes of customers, and then affect the business.

Some people say coffee shops must advertise more and print more leaflets. In fact, people who say this may really rarely visit coffee shops, they often see famous books, cross-strait what kinds of coffee shops, but they walked into the past? I think most people who walk into coffee shops come because of recommendations and referrals from friends. You see KFC and McDonald's ads everywhere on TV, but have you seen many Starbucks ads? Coffee shop this thing, is the need to accumulate precipitation and accumulation, good reputation is the best advertising. In fact, their understanding of advertising is very narrow, that is, printing more leaflets, more newspapers, in my opinion, a waste of money, but also a waste of manpower. Coffee shop this thing, more need is a kind of soft advertising, let consumers unconsciously fall in love with you, but do not know.

Many people say that 1923 should be a big billboard, so that people can see it, and I don't agree with all of this. In the past, the signboard of 1923 was very small. Later, at the suggestion of a friend, I changed it to a bigger signboard, but I originally did not want to be a signboard. I don't like commercialized and fast-paced things, but I hate things with strong appearance and weak content. Cafe is a casual, low-key, cultural place, a big eye-catching billboard in my opinion, will seriously destroy the atmosphere of the cafe. A cafe without any signboard is itself the biggest signboard.

Others say that everything in 1923 should be standardized, clothing standardized, service standardized. I think it's demolition theory. For example, the current urban construction, blindly pursue tidiness, a thousand cities on one side, some of the original rich history and personality of the building are demolished, you walk on the street, are the same building, life here, it obliterates your imagination, let your life extremely monotonous. Cafe is a place with artistic imagination, I don't want my shop and rigid, so my 1923 is to use handwritten menu, no big billboard, the way the clerk greets the customer, I also want to be a little casual, have their own personality. However, customers must feel comfortable.

Our coffee is sometimes made differently. At the beginning of the store, I made the same cup of coffee with Ersan, and we had different ways of doing it. In my opinion, coffee itself is a work of art. My preferences are different from his, so the coffee I make is naturally different. Just like the same paragraph, we wrote it on paper with a pen, he has his feelings, I have my feelings, you like who often drink who is.

There are also many people who say that coffee shops must be renovated frequently. In fact, if you think about it carefully, you will find that many large restaurants are really famous for one or two dishes. To Quanjude you must order roast duck, to Tianjin you must eat Goubuli. Besides, there are only a few kinds of coffee beans in the world. If you renovate them, you will make some improvements in the style and flower pulling method. I don't really like fancy coffee. It's too fancy, with sugar and milk and chocolate, which seriously affects the original aroma of coffee. In the West, real coffee lovers may drink only one or two kinds of coffee in their lifetime, and because of habit problems, they are not accustomed to drinking other coffees. The reason why you keep changing coffee may be because you are not a coffee lover. In fact, good coffee is like drinking beer, once you like which taste will be difficult to change.

An overly sensitive person may not run a coffee shop well. But an absolutely rational person, he doesn't even have to open a cafe. The people who really like coffee shops and coffee shops are emotional. As long as they step into this coffee shop, they can resonate with the owner of the shop through the layout, music and words of the shop. A completely rational person would not have such concepts in his mind. He only knew how to count money at night. How could he think of resonance?

People who only want to make money cannot open coffee shops. The probability of coffee shops closing down is very high, and it is very difficult to operate. You can't expect him to bring you big profits. In fact, think about it. Your like-minded wife met in the process of opening a coffee shop. This is a big gain in itself. Some people can't get it in their lifetime.

And, by the way, I want to say that 1923 is not closed, it will always exist, but it needs to adjust in the process of growth, remove some impetuous and unnecessary things. Maybe in a few days, it'll come out in a better form.

And my coffee dream will last forever.