100000 Entrepreneurship: selling Coffee outside Cafe

Industry advantage is that raw material costs are not high, digging the first bucket of gold is suitable for start-up cafes,"mostly cross-industry, high probability of failure"

Financial Weekly Reporter Lin Hong/Wen

Sitting at the window of Anan's cafe, I turned my head and saw the bustling people coming and going on Chengdu East Street. I could stare blankly without restraint. Looking up, the snow photos of minus 40 degrees read: "Sometimes life must have life."

A couple walks in and asks for homemade coffee. The girl stirs the coffee machine, like the joy of the cogs rolling when the curtains are pulled. The boy giggled.

The melody of "Yesterday once more" flows in this 130-square-meter blue space, the sunlight outside the floor-to-ceiling window is soft and warm, and the aroma of coffee diffuses at the tip of the nose. "Hello, I'm Nan." The owner of the cafe in front of him was reserved and calm. He wore Woody Allen-style black-framed glasses and a white shirt. He was dressed artistically.

Abandoning foreign enterprises with high salaries, 100,000 start-up cafes

Give up the annual salary of 300,000 foreign company work, go down the peak, start again, look for another mountain scenery, not everyone has such courage, Anan did. "Sometimes it's good to know how to give up something in life. I've been in the IT industry for ten years and experienced it from bottom to top. In another ten years, I want to change my way of life. In this life, if you only do one thing, you won't gain much. If you change your life for another ten years, it should be more creative, and the meaning is more important."

In 2006, Anan chose to return to Chengdu from Beijing and operated the Four Seasons Feelings Cafe."40,000 yuan won the shop, decoration and coffee machine. These equipment totaled 60,000 yuan." Anan told the Financial Weekly reporter that he used 100,000 yuan to open his beloved cafe. At this time, he also has a halo above his head-China's first barista certified by the European Coffee Association.

Perhaps because he had experienced too many things, Anan also had different experiences and opinions on life and coffee. In Anan's view,"coffee is just a drink, a way to feel the details of life." So he positioned "four seasons feelings" on coffee culture: "you spend money, you have the right to a good cup of coffee."

A professional coffee culture makes Anan's cafe stand out."We often encourage customers to buy coffee beans and make them at home. We also hold coffee salons to teach you how to make coffee so that everyone who likes coffee can drink a cup of fresh coffee," Anan said.

Sell coffee outside the cafe."

"More than 100 square meters of shop alone is not able to make money, 10 tables, even if you can reach 80% of the attendance rate, but also can only be flat," Anan said, his coffee shop because only coffee, no other products, so in the first two years, Four Seasons Feelings Cafe can barely maintain balance,"A month is about 15,000 turnover."

"The first choice is that there is a problem with the site selection. When I chose the port at that time, I only paid attention to the proximity of Chunxi Road to the commercial center, but did not carefully investigate the surrounding formats." Anan told the financial weekly reporter that the downstairs and next door of the Four Seasons Feelings Cafe are hot pot restaurants, and the property management is very chaotic, which is very unfavorable for him to make "exquisite niche coffee".

More profits come from off-site,"coffee shop is to provide a display platform," Anan told financial weekly reporter, outfield income can reach 40,000 or 50,000 per month, and this part is basically zero investment. "I package coffee culture to high-end customers such as banks, real estate companies, 4S shops, etc." After entering the commercial coffee culture service field, Anan said,"I have opened up a unique commercial coffee business route, and coffee consultation is also one of our businesses."

"Sell coffee outside the cafe," Anan said, for example, Four Seasons Feelings Coffee held as many as 15 coffee culture salons for all buildings in Chengdu Vanke Real Estate,"Each income is 5000 yuan." Since then, Four Seasons Feelings Coffee has formed a development model with three main lines: coffee shop, freshly roasted coffee beans and coffee outfield coffee culture salon service.

1.2 million investment in new building, monthly turnover of 200,000

The explosion of Chengdu real estate in 2007 brought Anan's cafe business a second opportunity for development. Chengdu suburb Huayang, high-end buildings in this year intensive presence. Anan found a favorite place for cafes in Cannes Impressions here: "I always felt that the location of the old store did not conform to the consumption habits of the region."

Cannes Impression, also known as Haiyun Park, is a modern theme park in Huayang. Anan's new cafe faces the Funan River. Sit in the open-air cafe on the second floor and enjoy a cup of on-site cappuccino with a panoramic view of the river.

"The property management of this community is very good. More than 80% of the parking spaces on the surrounding streets are more than 300,000 cars. The consumption power is guaranteed." Anan said, The new cafe area of 800 square meters, Single building 2 floors, And the second floor is Ananhua more than 100,000 own built,"Rent-free, Equivalent to I only need to pay single-storey rent," Anan told reporters, The whole new store total investment is 1.2 million. The new store is called Love Coffee, and its monthly turnover has reached 200,000 yuan.

In the production of cafes, Anan also adjusted his thinking, the original on-site coffee baking and professional coffee supply is still retained, in his "product pyramid", the bottom layer is popular taste of Chinese tea, milk tea, etc., the middle layer is exquisite Western-style tea, fruit tea,"maintain a small number of products belong to the basic consumption of the same industry".

At the top of the pyramid, is to strive for unique core coffee,"this can be said to be unique, completely dependent on my personal technology," Anan said, the most expensive coffee in the cafe is a live demonstration of coffee making skills and taste, 198 yuan for two. "It's all imported beans, mostly from Colombia, Brazil, Indonesia and Africa," Anan said. The taste of coffee beans is that the guests follow him,"my guests are enough to believe in my professionalism, mainly the correct location, this environment has such consumption capacity."

Dig the first bucket of gold suitable for start-up cafe? Anan begs to differ: "Business success has a lot to do with one's own business experience. The advantage of this industry is that the cost of raw materials is not high, but many people open coffee shops because they like it, most of which cross industries, so the probability of failure is high."

China Coffee Trading Network: www.gafei.com