Copy the "many people's coffee shop" model and open your own coffee shop

A group of young people jointly opened a "cafe for many people". (photo by reporter Zhang Yujie)

(Zhang Sheng / tr. by Phil Newell)

Drinking a cup of coffee and reading a book in the warm sun is the ideal life condition for many young writers and artists. Opening a coffee shop is the ultimate dream of more literary and artistic young people. Just because of the investment threshold and other reasons, very few people finally realized this dream. Originally, the dreams of Huang Jiasheng, Wang Feng and Lu Zhihui probably ran aground, but after copying the "coffee shop for a lot of people" model, their coffee shop is about to open to welcome visitors. As many as 28 shareholders contributed, finally making the dream come true this July.

Since its inception on Douban, the micro-entrepreneurship model of "Cafe for many people" has quickly become popular all over the country, and now this trend has also blown to Foshan. Among the 28 shareholders, despite their different occupations, ages and identities, one thing is in common-opening a coffee shop is their common dream. For them, although there are many difficulties in the process of starting a business, they use a relaxed state of mind to think about the process of realizing their dreams, which is more important than whether they can make a profit in the end.

Dream start

Three people are trapped in a joint venture to raise funds through the Internet.

At school, Huang Jiasheng, Wang Feng and Lu Zhihui were classmates majoring in e-commerce. In February, the trio, both 23 years old, came up with the idea of opening a cafe. Unexpectedly, four months later, this seemingly distant dream is just around the corner-if all goes well, the cafe will officially open in early July. However, this cafe is no longer just the dream of the three of them, but the dream of 28 shareholders.

At first, the 120000 yuan pooled by the trio fell far short of the budget for opening a store, and they, who had a regular job, could not spare much time in the complicated work of preparing for the cafe, and they hoped to find more partners.

In fact, this idea has already set a precedent on Douban. At the end of last year, a Beijing netizen launched the "Cafe for many people" campaign in the form of publicly raising funds on the Internet, with a minimum investment of 2000 yuan to become a shareholder. Soon the netizen's start-up capital was collected, the number of shareholders increased rapidly, and finally the cafe, which has more than 80 shareholders, opened smoothly. At the same time, the model of "cafes for a lot of people" has been copied all over the country.

"when we opened the coffee shop, we also updated Weibo and found that many people in Foshan have the same dream." What the three sponsors hope to do is to bring these people together to help them realize their dreams.

Dream landing

In order to realize the dream, subscribe before we meet.

Although they studied e-commerce in college, the three young people, who had no entrepreneurial experience, were not very successful in their first communication and promotion meeting held on April 23. "there were 13 people who were interested in joining the club, but they said that our ideas were too empty. As a result, only one of the 13 came in."

In addition to being depressed, this exchange meeting also made them find their own shortcomings. They began to visit cafes in Foshan to conduct market research and put their heads together to make the entrepreneurial plan as perfect and detailed as possible. The full preparation of "almost accurate to the price of each cup" also paid off. although not many people came to the exchange meeting on May 1, they basically agreed to subscribe for shares after reading the plan. Since then, this literary and romantic dream has officially landed.

The promotion on Weibo and Douban has also begun to gather popularity. Netizens continue to contact them through Douban, qq, Weibo and other channels to subscribe for shares. "unexpectedly, netizens from Fujian and Zhejiang contacted us to join us, and we never even met each other. After communicating through qq, the money was transferred to our account the next day."

Since then, it has been going well. According to their plan, taking into account all kinds of pre-opening expenses and one-year operating expenses, they need to raise 350000 yuan, which is divided into 175shares according to 2000 yuan a share.

The largest shareholder holds 50000 yuan.

The three sponsors selectively choose shareholders. "We hope that more people will participate, which is the spirit of many people's cafes." Therefore, they specifically stipulated that the shareholding of a single shareholder is capped at 100000 yuan. so far, the largest shareholder holds 50000 yuan, and the vast majority are minority shareholders who have only subscribed for one or two shares.

At present, the coffee shop project has 28 shareholders, "We will clearly tell shareholders that the survival of the coffee shop is the foundation, but profit is not the goal, but whether the dream of the coffee shop can be sustained."

Start-up experiments:

28 shareholders "show their own powers"

Among the existing 28 shareholders, there are a variety of ages, backgrounds and occupations, including children's clothing designers, white-collar workers, business executives, private company bosses, and even college students. "from the '70s' to the '90s', of course, the most is the post-80s." Jiasheng does not deny that these shareholders have more or less the common temperament of literary and artistic youth. Chen Shuxin and he Guangchong, who are also shareholders, just graduated from a school in Guangzhou a few days ago. In their view, it is a very cost-effective thing to realize the dream of their cafe owner, even if he is one of the owners, with 2,000 yuan.

In a typical cafe, there are no more than four or five shareholders, and as many as 28 shareholders, it is difficult for everyone to work in the same place, many of whom have never been in business before. Almost all shareholders are personally involved in the actual action of preparing to open a store.

"We divide shareholders into groups with different functions according to their individual wishes and strengths, each with different responsibilities. For example, now that the hard fitting of the store is over, the shareholders in charge of the soft outfit can start to buy accessories. There are also those who specialize in procurement, marketing, and so on. " Four or five non-local shareholders also advise on the institutional structure, uniform and logo design through the network. "some shareholders are very busy and take the time to do their part." He Guangchong, who is fond of art, personally drew a picture and gave it to Jia Sheng as a cafe decoration. Everyone is participating in it in their own way.

Being able to meet different people and gain new knowledge is what the shareholders involved in the project think is the greatest gain. "for example, how to apply for a license and how to deal with intermediaries, different shareholders can always learn new things from other people's opinions because of their different backgrounds."

The aspirations of shareholders: it is more important than making money to realize their dreams.

But whether this "cafe for many people" model can be sustained, and what new problems will be encountered, the road ahead is not clear. Similar stores that have already opened in Beijing have not yet made a profit. According to experts, the biggest difference between this cafe and other cafes is that there is almost no precedent for the large number of shareholders. "the more people, the more difficult it is to manage."

Because of the dispersion of ownership, it may be difficult for the matters discussed at the shareholders' meeting to reach the 2/3 threshold, which will hinder decision-making. And the minority shareholders who subscribe for more than one or two shares may not be able to maintain their enthusiasm for participating in management, so how to mobilize their enthusiasm? "it is impossible to prepare solutions for all problems in advance. We can only avoid them as far as possible and take them one step at a time." Shareholders said that there are no ready-made examples to refer to, although they have communicated directly with similar stores in other places, but the situation is different in different places and can only be analyzed specifically. "for example, some cafes are now having financial problems, so we plan to publish our financial statements once a month, and the bills will be kept for shareholders to check at any time."

According to the current company structure, before the formal opening, the preparatory committee will do the preliminary work such as decoration and certification, and how to spend money is a very important issue. "if the amount is less than 5000 yuan, the committee can make its own decision, and if it exceeds it, it will send mass e-mails to all shareholders, and more than half of them can use it with their consent." Jiasheng said that the proposal has not been blocked so far. After the opening, the board of directors will be elected according to the principle of "one person, one vote" for all shareholders, and will be responsible for the decision-making of the daily affairs of the cafe. For major affairs, a general meeting of shareholders will be held to vote in accordance with the principle of "one share, one vote". A consent vote of more than 2/3 can be passed. Not only that, the coffee shop will also hire professional managers as store managers, responsible for the day-to-day operation of the coffee shop, accountable to the board of directors and shareholders.

How long will it take to make a profit? "normally, about two years." Jiasheng said with a smile that in the market research, it is found that the return cycle of the average coffee shop is about 1 to 2 years.

When the dream was about to shine into reality, they decided to name the cafe "Su Mei", which is the transliteration of "soulmate". Shareholders aside, the identity of a "soul mate" may be the inner force that brings these people together and keeps them going.

China Coffee Trading Network: www.gafei.com