Is it reliable to start a business in a coffee shop during the 3W coffee boom?

Data Map.

C.C. Startup Coffee Inside.

The walls of the cafe are very entrepreneurial.

The cafe's ordering area.

Founder coffee.

"Coffee + Internet" concept favored start-up coffee opened four in a month

Reporter Zeng Yanzhu of Guangzhou Daily (except signature)

Yesterday, in Shiwan pan-home e-commerce creative park drinking coffee Lao Luo, out of the coffee shop suddenly found that the coffee shop name changed,"formerly called 'entrepreneurial coffee', now called' founder coffee', do not look carefully really can not find, renamed more momentum." Lao Luo works in the Pan-Home E-commerce Creative Park and visits this coffee shop from time to time. It is said that the coffee shop renamed, mainly to keep up with Thursday in Zhangcha New Media Park listed in the establishment of C.C. entrepreneurial coffee to distinguish, this statement has been the park related responsible person acquiescence.

The reporter's investigation found that with the popularity of entrepreneurial coffee shops such as 3W coffee and garage coffee, Foshan has also rapidly emerged similar entrepreneurial coffee. Four have been opened in less than a month recently, mainly distributed in Chancheng. Traditional coffee shops are generally places for petty bourgeoisie parties, and the customers of such coffee shops are mainly entrepreneurs. In addition to providing wireless Wi-Fi, office, negotiation, coffee and other services, there are a large number of entrepreneurial mentors and investors behind them to help qualified entrepreneurs grow rapidly in a short period of time. However, at present, this kind of coffee shop in Foshan is still in its infancy, whether it can succeed remains to be seen.

Phenomenon: Start-up coffee shops opened four in a month

A wave of start-up coffee is quietly sweeping Foshan, four start-up coffee shops in less than a month six consecutive opening, momentum is very strong.

C.C Venture Coffee, supported by Foshan City Emerging Industry Investment and Financing Promotion Association and strongly supported by Municipal Science and Technology Bureau and Zhangcha Government, is the latest officially opened venture coffee shop in Foshan. This coffee shop claims to be Foshan's first "Internet +" project incubation as the main entrepreneurial coffee space, providing more than 700 square meters of open office space, 500 square meters of fixed office area, together with its incubation base covers an area of more than 1000 square meters.

A major feature of this store is that it has a strong professional financial services team, and famous investment institutions can provide financial support. This characteristic also determines C.C. Entrepreneurship Coffee, which is an entrepreneurship incubation platform with full-chain financial platform as its core service competitiveness and comprehensive entrepreneurship incubation, communication, financial law, human resources and other entrepreneurial services.

Two days before the coffee shop opened, it was located in Nanzhuang Green Island Lake and claimed to be Foshan's first business start-up and O2O theme coffee shop. Shi Jianhui, the general manager who founded the coffee shop, is himself a post-80s entrepreneur. The coffee shop is crowdfunded by more than 30 Foshan entrepreneurs and professional managers. It integrates the concepts of entrepreneurship cafe, Internet experience and "WEWORK" joint office, and is committed to providing comprehensive entrepreneurial services such as entrepreneurship counseling, project docking, resource integration, learning exchange and conference office for entrepreneurial talents with entrepreneurial dreams in Foshan.

Chuangxiang Coffee, which opened last month, claims to be Foshan's first entrepreneurial service organization with "coffee bar" as its carrier. The difference between "Chuangxiang" coffee shop and other coffee shops lies in that, in addition to providing catering services of general coffee shops, it also relies on the platform behind it to provide entrepreneurial resource elements such as people flow, capital and information for makers, and to provide site and talent support for entrepreneurial teams and individuals in Foshan. According to Sun Ruoqi, the owner of the coffee bar, the Entrepreneur Coffee Club regularly holds salons, lectures and other activities with the theme of entrepreneurship and investment, so that investors and entrepreneurs have a platform for communication and docking.

Compared with the above three, the "Founder Coffee" located in the Pan-Home E-commerce Creative Park appears to be low-key, and the main features of the project have not yet been announced at the trial stage. The head of the park said that financial services will certainly not be less. On Saturday, China Ceramics Capital Summit Forum was held in the park. Financial experts from Wudaokou School of Finance of Tsinghua University and Beijing Rongye Capital appeared together. The head of the park revealed that these institutions may become financial support forces for coffee shops in the future.

Results: Some signed projects, some are still groping

Entrepreneurial coffee is different from ordinary coffee shops, the crowd is relatively fixed, entrepreneurs. Moreover, it generally needs a large space, which can be used for office, road show, training, etc. All of this costs money. Mr. Wu, who runs a coffee shop in Pujun New Town, revealed that at present, in addition to Starbucks, Costa and other brand coffee shops in Foshan, other small coffee shops with weak brand influence are difficult to make profits. He's been in business for years and still hasn't made a profit. "Start-up coffee can't support itself by selling coffee alone. Coffee shop is only a platform for attracting customers in the early stage, and its profit depends on the incubation project in the later stage." Mr. Wu's statement was unanimously agreed by the founders of several coffee shops.

So, what is the current situation of these four coffee shops? From what has been announced so far, the biggest momentum is C.C. Venture Coffee. At present, nearly 60 projects, such as Baby Ann, Campus Captain and Hejing Environmental Protection, have joined C.C. Entrepreneurship Coffee to enjoy the incubation, entrepreneurship counseling, dissemination, unified administration and human resources services provided by C.C. Entrepreneurship Coffee. Pai Technology is an enterprise that has signed a contract with C.C. Venture Coffee. The person in charge of the enterprise revealed that with the help of the finance and contacts of Inamori Capital, Pai will realize the promotion from ceramic industry design to all-category design.

Chen Liping, founder of C.C. Venture Coffee, said that the team will participate in providing services from the seed period of the project to the listing of the whole chain, with mature projects, mentors and other advantageous resources, deeper and longer-term services, which is different from the rest of the city's venture coffee houses. She introduced that C.C. Venture Coffee will provide in-depth membership services for entrepreneurial teams, mentors, investment institutions and individuals through its established 3C library, namely project library, mentor library and angel library. In addition to the signed projects, there are still many projects under negotiation.

"Chuangxiang" coffee led by post-80s beauty Shi Jianhui, the main direction is learning communication. In addition to attracting the landing of the "Local Management Practice and Innovation Forum", office public welfare salons will be held regularly to invite influential industry leaders, scholars, company executives and successful entrepreneurs in certain fields to share entrepreneurial skills, management experience, business wisdom, etc. for those who have entrepreneurial dreams in Foshan, helping entrepreneurs master the latest industry trends, development directions, and practical methods in the entrepreneurial process. Wujing Coffee also established Foshan Green Island Reading Club with Boruisen Management Books, a domestic book planning and publishing organization, to build a learning and exchange platform for entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs and enterprise executives in Foshan and even the Pearl River Delta region.

Yan Laigao, head of Chuangxiang Coffee, said that the coffee bar is now in the early stage of investment and has not yet achieved profitability. Like Chuangxiang Coffee, Founder Coffee has not announced specific directions and progress of incubation projects.

Reminder: Entrepreneurial coffee needs to find the right "business model"

Entrepreneurial coffee is not uncommon in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, especially after 3W, garage coffee is booming, similar coffee shops are blooming all over the country. However, the reporter survey found that not all coffee shops can operate smoothly. Since the year before last, there have been similar coffee shops closed for six consecutive years. The most famous case is HER COFFER, which was crowdfunded by 66 returnees and rich Americans, and was on the verge of closing down within a year.

Dong Jianqiang, founder of Shenzhen Qidian Coffee and founder of China Entrepreneurship Coffee Alliance, said that at least hundreds of domestic enterprises are labeled as "entrepreneurship cafes". However, active start-up cafes are still in first-tier cities with a strong entrepreneurial atmosphere. Behind the prosperity of entrepreneurial coffee, most of them face the pressure of survival. According to the statistics of China Venture Coffee Alliance in 2013, among nearly 50 venture coffees, no more than 10% of them are profitable, about 30% of them are breakeven, and 60% are in cash flow loss state. This situation has continued unabated over the past two years with the increase in start-up coffee shops.

Of course, in fact, almost all of these start-up coffees have investor backgrounds behind them, and there are no plans to make money selling coffee. On the one hand, start-up cafes have semi-public welfare nature, providing free or low-cost services for entrepreneurs; on the other hand, they meet the needs of investors for social networking and investment projects. In the long run, if you invest in a successful project, you may get hundreds or thousands of times the income.

"These coffee shops are not profitable at present, mainly for information or contacts." Some venture coffee investors revealed that they hope to make money through projects incubated in coffee shops. If there is no project, simply selling coffee will definitely lose money." Therefore, it is very important for start-up coffee shops to find their own "business model". Since it depends on incubation projects, it is necessary to determine the specific incubation project content and have a certain resource library.

According to statistics from relevant departments, there are more than 1000 young people engaged in creative industries in Nanhai, Chancheng and Shunde districts, and more "invisible entrepreneurship" hidden in the private sector. Whether entrepreneurial coffee can find these people, serve these people well, whether these people's projects have investment value remains to be seen, and whether Foshan's entrepreneurial coffee can succeed remains to be seen.