Why do other people's coffee shops make money, but only "I" lose it?

Coffee shops have replaced fast food restaurants as the first choice for parties or killing time. In the annual start-up exhibition, coffee shops are always voted as the top ten start-up industries, so it can be seen that opening a coffee shop is fatally attractive to many entrepreneurs. How wonderful it is to be able to smell coffee, chat with guests and make money every day!

Although like to drink coffee is the basic condition to become a coffee shop owner, but after all, drinking coffee and opening a coffee shop are two different things. Drinking coffee is romantic, but opening a coffee shop is realistic.

So, how can we open a successful coffee shop? Today, I would like to talk to you about two aspects: the positioning of the coffee shop and financial planning.

"coffee shop positioning"

When you dream, you should also have a sense of direction.

Determining the positioning of a coffee shop is the first step in successfully opening a coffee shop.

For example, open a deluxe, take-out or inner-seated small coffee shop? Do you only sell coffee in the shop, or "coffee + pastry" or "coffee + pastry + light meal"? In addition, is it a single store or a compound coffee shop allied with other industries (for example, in conjunction with bookstores)? All this has to be thought out from the very beginning.

The management orientation of the coffee shop determines the capital, personnel, menu, location, and even the design and decoration of the store; we must first determine the management direction, and then plan other details. But many shop owners, on the contrary, often decide to decorate and choose the location first, and then consider what type of coffee shop to open. For example, "I really want to open a coffee shop full of Provence style," focusing on how to decorate Provence style, which is the most common and fatal mistake for coffee shop owners.

"Financial planning"-to open a coffee shop, you have to be careful with your abacus.

The software and hardware required by a coffee shop are as follows: 1. Menu (menu, including coffee, pastries and light meals) 2. Money-generating equipment (coffee maker, oven, microwave oven, gas stove, smoothie machine, refrigerator, freezer, etc.) 3. Hardware equipment (air conditioning, lighting, etc.) 4. Vessel 5. Design and decoration (bar design, coffee shop style and tone, table and chair furniture, etc.).

Of these five elements, the menu is the most basic, which will determine which money-generating equipment and hardware equipment need to be purchased, and will also affect the bar design. If you only want to open a "coffee + pastry" coffee shop at first, the design of the bar is relatively simple, but if you find that this alone is unable to maintain operation, and when you want to add smoothies, you will find that the bar may not have room for a smoothie machine; if you want to add more light meals and do not plan the kitchen at the beginning, the problem will be even bigger, and even need to be redecorated, which is another large expense. Therefore, at the beginning of starting a business, it is necessary to think clearly about the selling projects in the coffee shop.

"Financial situation 1: decoration budget out of control"

In terms of financial planning for coffee shops, the following expenses must be included:

1. Money-generating equipment

two。 Hardware equipment

3. Utensils

4. Design and decoration

5. Rent (first month's rent + 3 months' deposit = 4 months' rent)

6. Raw material

7. Personnel expenses (eg salaries of timers)

8. Miscellaneous expenses (water and electricity expenses)

9. Can maintain the reserve of the coffee shop in deficit for at least 5 months [(rent + raw materials + personnel expenses + miscellaneous expenses) x 5]

It is suggested that the budgets of wealth-generating equipment, hardware equipment and utensils are immovable, and the only thing that can change is the cost of design and decoration; as for rent, it involves the choice of location, which is quite variable.

"Why do we keep warning entrepreneurs not to start with design and decoration when opening a store? Because experience tells us that when many entrepreneurs have NT $1 million in cash, the first thing to do is to find a design and decoration company. At that time, they have plenty of money, and the decoration budget is often constantly increased in order to build the coffee shop of their dreams. Obviously only 200000 of the budget, often by the time it is finished, it has already spent 500000. "the rest of the money is used to buy money and hardware equipment, and after deducting the rent and deposit paid to the landlord for four months, there is little left. As long as there is some trouble, the coffee shop is very likely to be unsustainable and either close or give way.

"Financial situation II: spend every penny well"

"some people are willing to buy a 500 yuan chair to decorate the coffee shop, but others buy a 50 yuan second-hand chair with a chair cover, and the effect is just as good."

Coffee brewing equipment and bar are the core of the whole coffee shop. "in fact, a good two-hole or three-hole Italian coffee machine, whose price ranges from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yuan, is enough to handle the guests of 150 square meters of coffee shops."

The after-sales service of the coffee machine must not be ignored. his experience is that if the Italian coffee machine breaks down and the supplier cannot come and repair the machine within four hours, the coffee machine is useless, "because you don't have to do business all day!"

"Financial status III: upholstery Design should be flexible"

In fact, the design and decoration is very flexible, appropriate to local conditions, the investment should not be too large, as for the pure take-out coffee shop, the decoration is even simpler, as long as the bar is well designed, the rest can hardly spend any money.

Source: @ France-Senna left Bank Coffee