Experience sharing: How to own your own cafe

One in four people in Taiwan wants to open a shop, and it is a lifelong dream for many people to open a coffee shop, but according to the entrepreneurial records of Taiwan's small and medium-sized enterprises, only about 20% of an enterprise in Taiwan can operate for more than five years. 80% can not maintain long-term operation, in the end what kind of coffee shop can be long-term, how to realize the dream of a small owner?

When Chen Tianyao was 17 or 18 years old, he always had a dream in his heart-- to open his own coffee shop. It was not until he started a business and opened the Baja Cafe for the third time at the age of 35 that he succeeded in realizing his dream.

More and more people like Chen Tianyao cherish the dream of coffee, and the consumption of coffee is surging in the new generation. nowadays, many young people or office workers also dream of owning a coffee shop of their own, imagining themselves sitting in a coffee shop built by themselves. listen to your favorite music, drink happy coffee romantically, and enjoy life comfortably.

Although having a dream is the most beautiful, not everyone is suitable to be a coffee shop owner, because there is a big gap between dream and dream realization.

Only 20% of people with a low success rate have opened a store for more than five years.

According to the statistics of the entrepreneurial records of Taiwan's small and medium-sized enterprises, only about 20% of an enterprise in Taiwan can operate for more than five years, and 80% can not maintain its long-term operation. This is the so-called "August 2 rule" in the market. According to this number, coffee entrepreneurs have an average chance of success of only 2 ○%, that is, eight of the ten stores face difficulties shortly after opening or after a year or two of operation. Very few people can really survive five years.

Chou Wen-pei, general agent of illy Coffee in Italy and deputy general manager of Meifu Foods, who has coached 400 or 500 businessmen to open coffee shops for more than a decade, has seen too many examples of companies failing to open coffee shops. He gives advice to novices who want to open coffee shops: "drinking coffee is happy, loving coffee is romantic, but running a coffee shop is not happy and romantic at all."

In the case of Chen Tianyao, for example, in order to realize his dream as a student, when Fuxing artists joined the army after graduation, he began to save bit by bit. After leaving the army, he even worked two jobs, working more than 16 hours a day. He is determined to save the Dream realization Fund as soon as possible.

In addition to saving money, he also prepares hard to be a boss. I worked in an advertising company during the day, and at night I came to the hotel (now Sheraton) to work as an outfield waiter. After work, I volunteered to stay and help the desk hand, while secretly learning how the bar player can mix wine and make coffee. This diligence moved the bar player, so he personally taught him the bar skills and repeated the process of making coffee every day. In this way, Chen Tianyao finally became an assistant to the bar player when he went home in the early hours of every morning and slept only four or five hours a day.

It was only after more than ten years of training in the catering industry that Chen Tianyao built his dream and built his favorite European cafe in the alley of Xihua Business District on Minsheng East Road.

Even when he became a boss, Chen Tianyao recalls that at the beginning of his business, as a boss and partner, he still worked more than 16 hours a day, taking care of everything from the front desk to the backcourt. He went home under the starlight after closing every day, and sometimes he was tired. I simply stayed in a small hotel at the entrance of the alley and had no record of going home for several days.

Hard work finally has a price. Chen Tianyao sold only four cups of coffee on the first day of the opening, to the good result of selling more than 100 cups of coffee in one day three months later, so that the investment cost of 2 million yuan was fully recovered in two years.

Xu Shuming, who started the name of Jiufen Coffee in Jiufen Mountain City at the age of 23, even if he had the first successful entrepreneurial experience, at the beginning of building Pisces Square on normal University Road, he devoted himself to the shop, decoration design, a table and a chair. He took care of all by himself and reused the old house and the old furniture he had picked up. The space of 80 ping only spent 800000 yuan to build Pisces Square. He not only made tea and coffee himself every day. They even take charge of the store, sleep in the store every day, do business when customers come to the door, and recover all the investment in less than a year.

Self-evaluation uses 6W2H to clarify the blueprint in mind.

Over the past decade or so, after making money and investing again and again, Hsu Shuming has opened stores in Taipei normal University Road and Yangmingshan one after another, and now has six unique storefronts.

If you start a coffee shop simply for the sake of interest, like the romantic atmosphere of the coffee shop, and enjoy a leisurely and elegant environment, once you repeatedly brew coffee, brew coffee, wash cups and dishes, and clean utensils every day from morning to night, romance will also turn into stress, and interest will soon become a nightmare.

So before you open a coffee shop, be sure to ask yourself your "6W2H" from the bottom of your heart.

Why? Why would I open a coffee shop?

When? When am I going to open the shop?

Where? Where do you want to open my store?

What? What does my coffee shop want to sell?

Whom? Who am I going to sell my coffee to?

Who? Who will run the coffee shop?

How much? How much am I going to spend to open a shop?

How to? How am I going to run this coffee shop?

In addition to my passion and love for coffee entrepreneurship, whether for interest or to make money, I honestly answer this "6W2H". After completing the self-evaluation of opening a shop, I already have a very deep idea and clear concept of my entrepreneurial dream, and then I can draw up a more clear blueprint.

If you already have a clear concept and outline of opening a coffee shop, you also need to see if you have the qualities of a boss and whether you are suitable to be a boss.

Because enthusiasm always fades, once interest becomes a burden, dreams face the test of realistic pressure, if there is no belief and perseverance, no extraordinary patience and physical strength, lack of these conditions and characteristics, even if you open a store, you may not be able to operate for a long time.

Xu Shuming, the owner of Pisces Square, said clearly: "the key to success in opening a store is to find a good place, and to have a lot of money, but the most important thing is to try your best to cultivate the qualities of being a boss." even if you have the first two conditions, it is not easy to succeed. "

The characteristics of a small boss make entrepreneurial success faster.

Therefore, getting to know yourself and knowing yourself is the first step in assessing whether you are fit to be a boss. As the saying goes, "know yourself and know the enemy, fight a hundred battles". Only by fully understanding yourself can you give full play to your strengths and clearly set directions and goals. So before opening a store, you should self-evaluate whether you have the "materials" to be a boss, and test whether you are suitable to be a boss.

Here are ten qualities you must have to be a boss:

First, we should have an independent personality.

Second, have the character of perseverance and not admitting defeat.

Third, hard-working and serious working attitude.

Fourth, extraordinary physical strength and superhuman endurance.

Fifth, careful, keen observation ability.

Sixth, we should be able to adapt to the circumstances and make a judgment immediately.

7. EQ should be high and emotional management should be good.

Be able to put down your posture, be diligent and inquisitive.

9. Like to make friends and make wide connections.

Be creative and constantly innovate and strive for change.

Although these conditions and characteristics do not necessarily have to be at the same time, it is undeniable that if the "speed matching" index is very high, the more conditions you have, the easier it is to succeed in starting a business.

Admittedly, judging from the entrepreneurial history of coffee shops all over Taiwan, coffee shops close or give way as fast as they open them. Why do so many coffee lovers want to join the ranks of coffee shop entrepreneurs one after another?.

According to statistics, one in four people in Taiwan wants to open a shop, and it is a lifelong dream for many people to open a coffee shop. In the ranking of entrepreneurial market surveys in various industries, the hot index of opening cafes has remained high. It is the store that office workers want to open most.

The main reason for failure is to hold the mentality of "try".

Looking back on this upsurge of opening coffee shops, it can be said that Italian coffee has been burned since it was introduced into the country. over the past decade, the domestic coffee consumption population has greatly expanded, and the coffee consumption of the Chinese people has doubled. It does show that the domestic coffee market has great potential for growth.

According to the customs import statistics of the Ministry of Finance, Taiwan's imports of raw beans, cooked beans and coffee powder reached 19850 metric tons in 2005, including the demand for freshly brewed coffee market, ground coffee powder, instant bags and canned coffee. According to the ratio of 21 million people, the annual coffee consumption per person is ○. Eight kilograms, which translates to about 120 cups, compared with the annual ○ per person 13 years ago. Three kilograms, about 50 cups, the overall coffee consumption market has grown by about one. Five times.

According to Chou Wen-pei's statistics on the amount of coffee imported, the production value of coffee translates to NT $2 billion, but when converted into coffee products, the annual consumption of Chinese people is as high as NT $100 billion to NT $12 billion ○.

Given the promising market prospects and the growing consumer population and consumption, it is not surprising that the number of entrepreneurs who dream of opening coffee shops in Taiwan is increasing.

In addition to the expansion of the consumer market, the threshold for opening a coffee shop is very low, and it is also the main choice that most entrepreneurs consider when getting started. It is not difficult to open a shop. With 1 million yuan or 2 million yuan of capital, you can open a coffee shop, but how to operate successfully and continue is the real effort.

However, the most difficult thing in the process of opening a shop is the helplessness of being the ideal that is no match for the pressure of reality. Many owners who only want to operate coffee shops are usually forced to increase their turnover by changing from a coffee shop to a simple coffee shop to a fast food restaurant, and finally close down.

Having seen too many cases of failure to open a coffee shop, Zhou Wenpei found that these entrepreneurs were not determined at the beginning, and many of them had a "try mentality." but he believes that only by moving forward and without turning back can they succeed.

The key to realizing your dream is to draw up a clear business plan.

Guo Yuru, the owner of a Cavalier cafe on Yongkang Street, does not give himself a way out. Originally just an office worker in a trading company, tired of the nine-to-five days, he decided to let his life take a different path. when he made up his mind to open a coffee shop, he quit his job and applied for Kaiyuan Foods, a coffee supplier. Start as a salesman and make preparations for opening a coffee shop wholeheartedly.

Standing in the mansion business area for many years, Yu Yongkuan, the Norwegian forest owner, believes: "operators should have the best ideas and preparation before opening a shop, as well as the worst."

A coffee shop does not always have guests coming to the door, so when there are no guests, the owner should be able to withstand loneliness and panic, and have a determination to survive the low ebb.

Because if you want to open a coffee shop and make money, you can't take any chances. You must be prepared beforehand. If you do more preparation in the process of realizing your dream, you can make your dream come true.

Gao Zhenyu, the Kuroshio owner known as "Xiao Gao", spent more than five years working in a coffee shop to make money, exchanging entrepreneurial experience on the one hand and storing venture capital on the other, making solid preparations for starting a business. He not only learns to brew coffee, absorb coffee expertise and thoroughly understand coffee machines with the mentality of employees, but also learn management and strategy from the standpoint of being a boss.

During his study of the arts, he carefully wrote a thick stack of business plans, including cost, budget, procurement, management, and goals, all evaluated beforehand, revised and adjusted the contents of the plan at any time, and clearly drew up the blueprint for the coffee shop in mind, so that he could successfully achieve his dream.

"opportunity is always for those who are ready." Chen Tianyao absolutely believes that as long as the capital, professionalism and boss mentality are well prepared, step by step to turn the dream into a money-making opportunity, we can successfully build a popular coffee shop.

Written by Fu Yingyi, excerpted from Today's Weekly

China Coffee Trading Network: www.gafei.com