Chongqing first Campus Coffee chain: bean Sprout Cafe

Three years ago, Xu Tao and his three entrepreneurial partners were only sophomore students at Chongqing Southwest University of Political Science and Law. Four energetic young people cultivated the first bean sprout cafe with strong "idealism". What our friends didn't expect was that this "weak" campus cafe could grow rapidly and occupy Chongqing's college coffee market elegantly at the rate of an average branch every year.

How can four young people with an average age of 23 turn an independent cafe into a direct chain? How to make a chain into a business? Let the bean sprout answer.

Founder: Quiet Mustang

Orchard New Village Community, Yubei District, Chongqing City, is only one street away from Southwest University of Political Science and Law. In addition to residents, more Western political students come and go here. The neighborhood is thinner than expected, the streets are not spacious, restaurants, beverage shops and various Ministores are densely arranged along the streets. The road will be covered with various fragrances, and the smoke from cooking in the store will melt into the bright sunlight of Chongqing autumn afternoon.

There is no lack of thick atmosphere of life and market atmosphere here, but there is no lack of fashion sense interspersed among them. The coffee shop is located here. The existence of "bean sprouts" does bring a fresh feeling to this place; and here, it also highlights the temperament of bean sprouts "out of mud and not stained".

The appearance of the Bean Sprouts Cafe seemed abrupt, but it was actually a perfect fit. This compatibility came from the precise selection of bean sprouts, and the selection time after time naturally could not be separated from the four young partners.

What do you think of successful entrepreneurs? Arrogant or humble? None of these labels seems appropriate for the four founders of Bean Sprouts Cafe.

Xu Tao can be said to be the founder of Bean Sprouts Cafe. He spoke in a decibel you could just hear, not too fast, not too slow, not too loud even when he was emotional, often with a smile on his face. A warm look makes you feel calm rather than anxious. The same is true of Wang Xiaokang, another founder. They all agreed to use the word "plain" to summarize this road storm, and all enjoy the pain and joy during the period. You can easily feel a few faint elements and a gentle force in their personality in the communication with several founders, and these are highly consistent with the feelings presented by Bean Sprouts Cafe.

Four years ago, Xu Tao was still a young freshman. As soon as he entered the school, he found that college life was very different from what he expected. In order to live independently, freshman he used his spare time to do part-time jobs, but also did selling phone cards, stall and other small businesses, but also did some youth adventures and fresh dreams, he also met these three like-minded, same school but different classes of friends in the process. Since they had come together, they were destined to do something new!

Xu Tao first had the idea of starting a business, but the project was uncertain, but he liked the feeling of coffee shop very much: comfortable, quiet and beautiful. After he shared this idea with his three friends, everyone hit it off and felt that this was what they were going to do.

The four young men said they would do it, starting with market research and project site selection.

Coffee is a favorite leisure way for young people, especially white-collar workers, but in Southwest University of Political Science and Law, it is a completely blank market: there is no coffee shop inside and outside Xizheng. Since there is demand, this is a potentially huge business opportunity.

Then there is the site selection, they chose the cafe in the orchard new village community street, one is because it is very close to Xizheng, but also the students 'gourmet paradise, the student flow is very large; second, because the rent here is cheap, for several students in school, less investment, less pressure.

At the beginning of the business, they put together a total of 80,000 yuan, plus a total of 100,000 yuan for later decoration, so they opened the bean sprout cafe.

No one had thought that Bean Sprouts Cafe would be so popular. Any Western politician could accurately point out the location of Bean Sprouts Cafe for you. And these founders certainly won't stop here, they have not satisfied bean sprouts only in Southwest University of Political Science and Law or Yubei District, this kind of "bureau gas" makes them uncomfortable. However, they never took advantage of the hot iron and expanded rapidly. Instead, they analyzed objectively and made reasonable choices. This kind of caution was due to their character. But don't forget, they're all young!

At the end of last year, Bean Sprouts Cafe entered Southern Translation College, realizing the goal of "going out" across schools and not across districts; by the end of this year, Bean Sprouts Cafe will open its fourth branch in Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications in Nan 'an District, which is an attempt to cross both districts and schools. And these four people's dreams are being realized step by step in their own way.

The first "crab eater"

There must be a campus cafe in your memory that is related to your youth. They belong exclusively to a school, but few can be made into a campus chain, bean sprouts have become the first "crab eater", at least in Chongqing.

Beansprout Cafe was originally called café 1930 rather than bean sprout. The name was changed because "bean sprouts" fit better with the feeling of campus students: fresh, weak, strong and full of hope. The choice of bean sprouts as the name of the store is also to prepare for the campus chain.

At the beginning of the shop, the bean sprouts were in a state of "self-hi", immersed in the joy of praise.

Xu Tao and the other three partners are well-connected and have many friends. They want to bring more customers through the visit of friends. At the beginning of the business, many friends came over every day, but few actually came to spend money, and even fewer customers besides friends. Xu Tao recalled that the first month was very lively, receiving friends every day, but the daily income was dozens of yuan, or more than 100 yuan. Three months later, the average monthly loss of 6000 yuan.

Faced with this situation, they rejected the passive way of increasing customers through friends, but took the initiative. They agreed that customers would be attracted and retained only if the overall model of the cafe met deeper needs. The overall model emphasizes the products, environment and services of the cafe, while the deep-seated needs of customers focus on experience. Thus, the radical reform of bean sprouts began.

Before preparing to open the store, Xu Tao found the commercial coffee for simple coffee making learning, but only some superficial knowledge and basic operations. In order to improve product quality and strengthen technology, Xu Tao continued to study at Commercial Coffee. Even today, Xu Tao still insists on studying at Mola Coffee.

For the product, they had so much to do at first that the menu became hyped. However, they later found that the products should not be "more and miscellaneous", but should be "less and refined", so they adjusted according to the sales volume of the products, decisively eliminated the products with low sales volume, and focused on making fine products.

The environment also needs to change. Coffee shop customers want a comfortable environment, but how to make customers feel comfortable? They buy wooden tables, chairs and accessories from the second-hand market, and then come back to paint and transform themselves, paint the walls themselves, blend simplicity and warmth, and make people happy with distinct colors. At the same time, they also made a wall into a large wooden bookshelf, began to move their usual collection of books to the store, and later cooperated with Green Tomato to build a coffee library to provide students with free book lending services. Books of all kinds now fill every space neatly on the shelves.

At the same time, they abandoned the initial set of "idealism" mode, which was mostly marketed only on Douban, and landed in reality. Combined with the characteristics of coffee shops, in addition to regular micro blog, WeChat, Douban and everyone marketing, they will also hold fixed film appreciation activities, show humanistic films, and hold manual classes, photography exhibitions, folk music concerts, coffee salons and other activities from time to time. They will post posters on campus like ordinary school club activities. There are almost 100 people at each activity, which also provides a platform for some like-minded students to communicate.

Through a series of inside-out, online and offline changes, bean sprouts came back to life. Since 2011, bean sprouts have swept away the haze, and there is an endless stream of people every day. Xu Tao called that time the most memorable day: Even a cup of tea with a unit price of 5 yuan also sells more than 1000 yuan a day, the average daily flow of people reaches 200 person-times, in the absence of seats, everyone is willing to share tables with strangers.

But amid the hustle and bustle, Xu Tao and his partners realized that it was at odds with the quiet, relaxed atmosphere of the cafe. In order to disperse the passenger flow and build the campus brand, they decided to open branches. On June 6, 2011, not far from the first Bean Sprouts Book Island Cafe, Bean Sprouts June 6 Cafe was born.

Focus: only based on school

Three years ago, there was only one cafe in Orchard New Village. Now, there are more than a dozen cafes imitating bean sprouts, but they are not as vibrant as bean sprouts. Beansprout's success is enviable, and many people try to replicate it. As everyone knows, for bean sprouts, growth is a process of constant choice and trade-off, entanglement and difficulty from the beginning of entrepreneurship has been accompanied so far.

Xu Tao said that making money is not to focus on "money", but to focus on "things". When things are done well, money comes naturally.

Bean sprouts inherit the knowledge and belief of the bosses, and will build a campus brand cafe as the concept, impartial, one to the end.

The bean sprouts became popular, and their popularity gradually increased. At ordinary times, friends always remind them where there is a suitable place to open a branch, but when it comes to business districts or official districts, bean sprouts are not considered. For example, a boss tried to persuade them to go to the shopping mall in Guanyinqiao business circle with him, but was rejected. Xu Tao explained that bean sprouts mainly play "humanistic campus style", based on schools. They strive to make bean sprouts a brand enterprise, not scattered individuals. And if bean sprouts test the business district or official district, then its positioning is not clear and simple, bean sprouts will eventually face the end of becoming an individual from an enterprise.

How can you do many things at once? Focus on one direction." Therefore, Sprouts has not carried out rapid expansion, but cautiously wait and see the investigation. Bean sprouts pay attention to the survival of the soil, constantly in various colleges and universities to choose suitable for their own survival opportunities. Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications is the next expansion target.

The goal of bean sprouts is to radiate the whole Chongqing based on schools and then rush to the whole country.

Today, bean sprouts have also founded their own brand of "bean sprouts coffee academy." Xu Tao and his friends define it as a school elective course to train students interested in opening cafes. They really are like a small bean sprout, once weak, but because of strong, efforts upward, will eventually grow into a towering tree.