Hangzhou's first crowdfunding coffee shop closed down sadly.

"people gather firewood high flame" or "three monks have no water to drink"?

It sounds beautiful.

Hangzhou's first crowdfunding coffee shop closed down sadly.

Our reporter Ji Yuya

In the summer of two years ago, three "post-90s" issued an assembly order to "recruit 50 people to open a coffee shop" through this newspaper, which drew cheers and questions: can such a coffee shop be opened? How long can you survive after driving?

Nine months later, Hangzhou's first crowdfunded coffee shop, JuCoffee, which gathered 110 shareholders and the curious eyes of the outside world, opened in Huanglong Business District and answered the first question.

After a year and a half of operation, the second question has also been answered. Recently, the reporter visited and found that "JuCoffee" had closed down at the end of last year, and the shop with the sign of "JuCoffee" had changed its owner.

When various crowdfunding projects are surging, the crowdfunding cafe, which hundreds of people have rushed to join, has failed to subvert the reality that "three monks have no water to drink". The result is so sad that we can't help but ask: do many people crowdfunding a cafe really just sound beautiful?

The first crowdfunding cafe in Hangzhou has been closed

Huang long Yayuan, Happy Valley Lane in Hangzhou, was once the birthplace of the first crowdfunding coffee shop in Hangzhou. Today, the former cafe store has a Korean New year pastry shop and an online shopping service community store. Nearby merchants still remember the coffee shop that closed at the end of last year, but most of the comments were "there are not many people sitting in the ordinary shop" and "business does not look very good".

Xiao Chu, who once served as chairman of JuCoffee and spent a lot of hard work on it, has returned to the track of normal working life. He is reluctant to mention too much about the collapse of JuCoffee. "it is mainly because the rent is too high. It costs about 20,000 yuan a month, and it is difficult to balance the income and expenditure. After 600000 yuan of crowdfunding has been spent, shareholders are unwilling to invest any more money. "

When one of the shareholders came at the same time, he summed up the main reason for the collapse of "JuCoffee" with "more people and more ideas, no backbone and no sense of responsibility". In fact, when preparing for the cafe, the board encountered the biggest bottleneck in this model-inefficient decision-making. Although there is a board of directors and a board of supervisors, in order to ensure democracy and participation, the major decision-making of "coffee gathering" still needs to consult everyone. From the proposal to the implementation, it often takes a lot of time, and they also pay a high cost, such as missing out on a lot of favorite shops.

Until JuCoffee went out of business, the board of directors had not really solved the problem. "the implementation of the rules of procedure before it has been formulated is a problem in itself." Xiao Chu reflects.

In the blueprint originally drawn by the board for "Ju Coffee", it also includes turning the coffee shop into a social platform where shareholders from various industries "make blood" for the coffee shop. At this point, difficulties have also been encountered in the actual operation.

Many "cafes owned by many people" have disappeared.

In fact, JuCoffee has made a lot of efforts to survive. Last summer, in order to reduce rent expenses, they reduced the area by nearly half and redecorated it.

However, the reports that they "continue to lose money and can't make it out" still appear in various media. In Xiao Chu's view, these "biased reports" have become a disadvantageous factor in the operation. "which coffee shop didn't operate at a loss at the beginning? It was true that the operation was not very good at that time, but it was not the so-called continuous loss of money. in fact, we also had a profitable month. " 'We may be able to make a profit as a whole with a little more persistence, but these reports have made shareholders even more unconfident, 'Mr. Chu said.

At the end of last year, when the store lease expired, no shareholder was willing to continue to pay the rent, so "gathering coffee" was naturally difficult to sustain. An attempt by many people to open a coffee shop with romance and feelings ends with a "peaceful breakup". "because everyone is trying for the first time and has taken a lot of detours. If I do it all over again, I should be able to lead the team to make a profit before the crowdfunding is used up. " Xiao Chu said that what is beautiful is always short-lived, but there is still helplessness in his voice.

The collapse of JuCoffee is not the only example of the failure of crowdfunding cafes. Wuhan, Changzhou, Dongguan. There are also crowdfunding cafes in the area that are facing closure because of poor management.

In September 2011, Mosquito er Niu (net name), who first came up with the idea of "coffee shop for many people", gathered 78 shareholders to open the country's first "coffee shop for many people" in Chaoyang District of Beijing. Then, this model gradually spread all over the country. But "coming back soon" was released on May 24 last year. After Weibo, "Cafe for a lot of people" stopped updating Weibo. At about the same time as JuCoffee closed down, netizens revealed that the "cafe for many people" in Beijing had closed down.

They have thought of a lot of tricks in order to make a profit.

Since its trial opening in July 2012, a crowdfunding cafe in Changsha has also reported several times that it is going to close down.

Yesterday, the current manager, Yi Qifei, told reporters that 600000 yuan of crowdfunding was raised by the 145 shareholders, 300000 was spent to open the store, and there was still a balance of 200000. At present, there is a balance of income and expenditure, with a slight balance, but if the loss of the coffee shop is taken into account, it has lost 100000 in the past two years.

"in the first year of opening, in fact, day-to-day operations were slightly profitable. However, because of the large investment in new equipment, the cafe is still losing money. " Yi Qifei said that in order to maintain the operation of the cafe, shareholders also thought of a lot of mistakes. For example, to organize offline activities such as film days, open classes, and matchmaking meetings; three responsible persons were selected to contract the cafe, responsible for their own profits and losses, for a period of six months, and then if the cafe began to make a profit half a year later, and then paid dividends to shareholders, "Last winter, when there was a loss in daily operation, I even thought about transferring it."

Fortunately, the spring of 2015 also brought spring to this cafe. "Business has been good for the past few months." Yi Qifei said.

In Hangzhou, although there have been previous failures, the trend of crowdfunding cafes and teahouses seems to be on the rise.

Teahouse 123, located on Youth Road in Hangzhou, is one of them. In February last year, Cai Hua, founder of Block B, the 12th floor of Wechat's entrepreneurial platform, launched a crowdfunded teahouse, which raised 1.23 million yuan in four days, with 10, 000 shareholders each. The 123 teahouse opened on a trial basis in December last year and officially opened in January this year.

Manager Zhang Chengtan said that at present, 123 teahouse is still operating at a loss, and the crowdfunded funds are probably enough to last for half a year. "during the trial operation, it is almost a place for shareholders to entertain themselves. Now the business situation is getting better. If the monthly expenditure cost is 2000 yuan, the income is probably just over 1000 yuan. "

123 teahouses have also used a lot of brains to help make profits, such as selling advertising space in teahouses, renting workplaces every month, and holding weekly entrepreneurship lectures and other activities.

"gather coffee" encountered the decision-making efficiency is not high enough, shareholders' enthusiasm diminished and other problems, 123 teahouse also encountered. "it took a month to make the decision to buy a set of uniforms." Zhang Cheng's solution is not to pay too much attention to the opinions of shareholders, to gather a few people in the group of shareholders to make decisions before making a decision, and then to shrink their minds and not diverge.

O2O may become a new idea of crowdfunding.

Both Yiqifei and Zhang Cheng do not seem to worry too much about follow-up funds.

"123 teahouse is already a brand, and every day many people come to me and want to join or cooperate." Zhang Cheng gave an analogy to "there is no shortage of money": before the teahouse wanted to hold a promotion activity, shareholders pulled in 200000 yuan to sponsor it every minute.

Crowdfunding cafes and teahouses, how to achieve commercial operation, rely on their own hematopoiesis to survive, is the most important issue considered by the two shopkeepers.

Zhang Cheng's direction is directed at O2O (which combines offline business opportunities with the Internet, making the Internet a foreground for offline transactions). "now our main source of income is the rental of weekend venues in cafes. Our teahouse has an official Wechat account, which is very popular. In the future, we hope to combine online activities with offline activities, while teahouses, as a carrier of activities, attract fans through brands, and then use online promotion to drive the popularity of offline activities to achieve profits. "

And Yiqifei is the main "brand". "our coffee shop has been rooted in Changsha for almost three years and has become quite famous. And now the crowdfunding project is very hot, there is no shortage of funds, the key is how to manage. " Yiqifei said that next month, the cafe will open another branch in Changsha, and they will invest in the brand and management team. "the key is to make a brand effect." Of course, we will also try the O2O model, which is also a new trend. "

Author: Ji Yuya

Source: Zhejiang online-Today Morning Post