Five problems that cannot be avoided in opening a successful cafe

It's not what you think.

Five problems that can't be avoided in opening a successful cafe

Li Xiangdong, a reporter from China Business Daily

Editor's note:

Sitting on the soft sofa in my own cafe, listening to soothing music and enjoying the expression of customer satisfaction. Such a scene may be the dream of many people. However, do you know how many problems it takes to open a cafe, and are there standard or personalized solutions to these problems?

In early August, more than 50 investors gathered in Greenland Coffee and listened to Wang Zhaolong, former president of Starbucks China and now general manager of Beijing Greenland Catering Management Co., Ltd., explain how to open a successful coffee shop. We specially extract the essence of his speech for investors' reference.

Would you like to open a cafe that serves coffee and desserts alone, or with meals?

In big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, Starbucks and Shangdao coffee can be found in almost every corner of the bustling area. Many customers only notice the differences in LOGO, tone and decoration style between the two cafes. In fact, the two brands also represent two types of cafes: "pure cafes", which only serve coffee and desserts, and "integrated cafes" that offer Chinese or Western food. If you choose to open a cafe, do you choose quasi-Starbucks or quasi-island?

Expert comments:

What kind of coffee shop to open depends on the characteristics of the target group of customers. In cafes where domestic customers are dominant, business will be better if they provide catering services, while in areas where foreigners or returnees are concentrated, pure cafes are more in line with their tastes. This is mainly due to the differences in food and beverage habits between China and foreign countries. Foreigners are used to consuming drinks only in cafes and eating snacks at most. At lunchtime, just have a sandwich and hamburger. But domestic consumers are different, lunch is generally very formal, there must be soup, vegetables and staple food, but also more accustomed to having a formal lunch in a cafe. Similarly, in areas where foreigners are concentrated, coffee shops do better in the morning, because foreigners like to soak in cafes at noon, while drinks sell better in the evening. In places where Chinese consumption is dominant, there are more guests in the afternoon and in the evening. Different customer groups determine the type of cafe you open and the adjustment of business hours.

However, operators must make it clear that even if they bring food and beverage, they must make their customers look like a cafe, not like a cafe or a restaurant. For example, in order to localize and pursue innovation, some cafes actually sell all kinds of snacks and occupy most of the space in the back kitchen, losing the refreshing and clean environment that the cafe should have, but like ordinary street snacks in Chengdu. The loss outweighs the gain.

Tasting coffee or consuming coffee shop environment?

Miss Wu runs a cafe, but she has been struggling with the ratio of high-priced coffee to cheap coffee, and she doesn't know how to match coffee to other soft drinks. Recently there is a worry: a few days ago, a group of guests thought that the quality of her coffee was so poor that they never came again. She painstakingly asked another friend who owns a cafe to bring back some native coffee from Brazil, but she didn't want to keep it for more than four months. No one spent it, and the best taste period was almost over.

Expert comments:

In fact, Miss Wu's troubles are also troubles for many cafe operators. In fact, at present, many Chinese people are consuming coffee rather than in the environment of coffee shops, because the comfortable and soft sofas, soothing music and the relaxed atmosphere in the air are the main factors that attract these consumers to patronize. Thinking about things, talking about business and killing time in a cafe is the need of many people, and the taste of coffee comes second. However, it is undeniable that more and more people in China will taste coffee, and more and more people know coffee. They are not satisfied with drinking only that kind of coffee that tastes bad, even three-in-one coffee, but are willing to spend more money for coffee that tastes purer and more continuous. Therefore, operators should pay attention to distinguish between these two types of customers, according to their consumption frequency, consumption time to purchase. At the same time, we should also train waiters to know more about coffee, and use this knowledge to communicate more with customers, which can not only distinguish consumers who are high-priced coffee, but also train more people who know how to taste coffee among existing customers.

There used to be no cafe in the railway station, but now why are they huddled together?

On August 1, Beijing South Railway Station, the largest railway station in Asia, was officially opened. The frequency of Beijing-Tianjin intercity trains every 15 minutes makes the South Railway Station full of people at the beginning of its launch. The careful Miss Wu found that there were three cafes in the South Station, and the business was good. She has been running a cafe for five or six years, and in her common sense, the train station is full of people, but not many people will walk into the cafe. The discovery greatly subverted her criteria for the location of cafes.

Expert comments:

The fact that cafes are clustered around the railway station makes sense. If you observe carefully, most of the customers who spend in the station cafe are business people, and it is standard to surf the Internet while sipping coffee. In the past, these business people traveled mainly by air, so there were already more cafes than convenience stores at the airport. Now the train speed has been increased many times, and it has become the first choice for many business people to travel. Of course, cafes will also appear at railway stations where business people are beginning to appear frequently. However, the cafe at the railway station must be able to surf the Internet and be quiet and comfortable, so that it can compete with the soft waiting room and win over customers. Therefore, everything is not absolute, it is necessary to carefully analyze the changes in passenger flow and successfully turn the passenger flow into passenger flow, which is what cafe operators need to pay close attention to.

The location of the coffee shop is very important, including the business hours of the property where the business is located, the probability of the flow of people being converted into customers, and so on. If the location is in the office area, business must be very slow on Saturdays and Sundays, open in shopping malls and shopping malls, business is good on weekends, but business is bad from Monday to Friday. At the same time, the business hours of the coffee shop should be consistent with the business hours of the property, so as not to cause the shopping mall to be closed during the period when the coffee shop is supposed to be the best time for business.

Choose to run your own business or join the brand store?

At a franchise exhibition, Wang Xuejia was deeply moved by the phrase "A cup of coffee costs only 1.7 yuan for 15 yuan" and decided to open a coffee shop of her own. But as soon as she saw the expensive franchise fees and management fees, she thought it would be better to open her own shop and make a high profit. In hesitation, she decided to come to the investment club to listen to the experts.

Expert comments:

Opening a cafe is both simple and complex. In addition to the site selection and preparation before opening the store, there are also personnel recruitment, interview, education and training, store recruitment design, MENU design, business card design, DM design and distribution, personnel uniforms, salary conditions, company registration, food manufacturer search, price determination, cup and plate selection, first purchase volume. These questions are troublesome. If you choose to join, these problems will be solved by the alliance leader according to the standard, which can really save investors a lot of trouble.

However, investors should do the math carefully: they should choose which one is more profitable than opening their own shop or joining. Brands like Starbucks are all directly operated and are not open to join. Because at present, the coffee quality and service level of the franchise stores are difficult to be guaranteed. If you can not find the desired brand to join, as long as they have their own characteristics, they will be successful. For example, elaborate a delicious snack, become a topic club meeting place, and so on.

Why is it best to lease the venue of a cafe for more than 5 years?

A friend of Wang Xuejia told her that if you open a cafe, you must sign a contract with the property for more than five years, and the longer the time, the better, otherwise you will lose money, and recommend him to choose a community or second-rate business location.

Expert comments:

The decoration of the cafe is an one-time investment cost, and then apportioned among the various operating years, the theory is, of course, the more years the more advantageous. The consumption idea of the cafe is tasty, commercial, appointment, long time, low frequency of opening the table, and low mobility. Therefore, the biggest cost of opening a coffee shop is not the material itself, but the opportunity cost of decoration, the flow of seats, and the energy consumption caused by consumers' consumption habits. In addition to the time span of the property, it should also be carefully considered in terms of spatial concern. For example, some enterprises have specially contracted and operated all the coffee shops in secondary hospitals, which are also very successful.

Wang Chaolong summed up the six abilities necessary to open a cafe:

Understand coffee, recognize the hardship and fun of business.

Master the necessary knowledge of coffee shop management: talent, logistics support system (especially joining support), corporate culture.

The location of the customer group is clear.

The product or service is unique and the brand is well-known.

Site selection should break through the convention and have new ideas.

It is necessary to have adequate financial preparation, especially the continuous investment ability of follow-up funds.