Matt Milletto, director of the American Coffee School, tells you five things you should think carefully about running a coffee shop.

5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Opening a Caf é, with Matt Milletto of the American Barista & Coffee School

Source:Barista magazine / article: Jon Shadel

@ quality Hall Coffee Tang Xiaoyi

The American Barista & Coffee School Director-Matt Milletto, who specializes in coffee training courses, puts forward an indicator of whether an individual has the ability to run a coffee shop.

Many coffee enthusiasts around the world hope to one day own their own cafe, serve customers an exhilarating drink, and then live happily. But only a few visionary coffee dreamers seriously think about how to run a successful cafe.

Many startups seem to be overly obsessed with the quality of coffee and store decoration, which are self-evident important conditions of practice, but this is only one aspect of running a store. In fact, many professionals worry about these very important basic conditions, such as the setting of product prices, menu planning and staff training.

There is no doubt that coffee owners must have a lot of enthusiasm for boutique coffee, and even be fascinated by it. However, running a successful coffee shop is no easy task, and if you don't think carefully about the location of the store, this thorny little problem can kill you miserably long before you sell your first cup of coffee.

Matt Milletto (left), director of American Coffee training School (American Barista & Coffee School).

Every year, Matt Milletto of The American Barista & Coffee School constantly emphasizes these business facts in courses and symposiums that train new coffee operators and baristas. Milletto's love of boutique coffee is obvious to all, and so is his enthusiasm to help newcomers understand the reality of coffee business.

On the question of how to evaluate whether a person can run a coffee shop, Milletto advises newcomers to think carefully about a few questions to make sure they really understand the investment, hoping to save a few blind suitors who only see the dream of a milk vapor bubble.

Question 1: are you patient?

"patience will be the first thing you need to run a coffee shop. "Milletto said. All the obvious things test the patience of newcomers-picky customers, lazy employees and difficult machines, problem groups are too numerous to prepare-and sometimes even the business philosophy itself can be the biggest cause of frustration.

Milletto believes that running a coffee shop requires a huge amount of time and money. Although the industry makes some people a lot of money, many retailers spend a lot of time getting a small return. Milletto advises: "you must be prepared to work for free until you start to make a profit." "

Question 2: is your investment plan practical?

"you have to have a pragmatic investment and benefit plan," Milletto continued. For example, many of his students are shocked by the high price of equipment such as espresso machines. "you have to have a pretty clear idea of how much you should invest in your coffee business plan. "

The financial problems of preparing to open a new cafe can be tricky, but in any case, the combination of individual funds, bank loans and so on must be carried out as soon as possible. "realise your business philosophy and personal use of existing funds." Milletto thinks it might help to limit your business philosophy: "even if you don't have a large number of cities, you can still be the owner of a cool small cafe. "(welcome to follow @ quality Coffee and get first-hand news at any time.)

Question 3: what kind of customer layer do you want to serve?

"understanding your customer needs is the key," Milletto stressed. Targeting the main clientele you want to attract will help you make decisions in every process of menu making and even choosing a store location.

For example, if you are targeting busy passers-by, a community cafe that provides hand-brewed coffee is definitely not your ideal business model; on the contrary, a coffee shop selling fast food next to a mass transit station would be a better choice. Milletto warns: "you need to think carefully about what your customers will think of your store space."

Question4: do you have a suitable store location in mind?

This is a cliche question, but location is really the key! "one of the first points you have to keep in mind is to find a place with the right guest floor," Milletto advises. "for many new entrants, this can be a challenging extraordinary phase; it takes time to find the right place and you have to deal with lawyers and landlords.

Even so, Milletto advises newcomers to focus on the needs of the customer layer near the community. "to meet the needs of your neighbors," he said, "starting a coffee business by meeting the needs of community customers is one of the broad roads to success."

Question 5: are you ready to be creative in marketing?

Many new entrants think that as long as they bring out coffee, customers will take the initiative to patronize. Unfortunately, things are often not as simple as you think. "if you don't do marketing, don't expect your career to improve," Milletto stressed, pointing out that coffee owners need not only shrewd low-cost control, but also high-impact marketing to build a cafe's reputation.

"you are the goodwill ambassador of your cafe," Milletto said. "you have to work hard to run your cafe successfully. "there is no such thing as a silver bullet plan, and every marketing plan must meet your unique needs of targeting customers and your business philosophy. In any case, by mastering low-cost control and developing marketing strategies based on customers, you can successfully run a cafe-before you take a chance, make sure you have a pragmatic idea of what you are about to do.

The original author of this article:

Jon Shadel, a writer from Portland, Oregon, is also a fan of boutique coffee. He is currently an editor of Discover Portland and writes articles for magazines such as Salon, Oregon Business and Oregon Home. He is also the founder of Rusty Bike Media, the main content is to help marketing planners better grasp the customer layer to launch brand marketing plans. With his years of experience as a barista, he deeply loves Portland's coffee culture, and you can often find him typing crazily into a computer in a cozy cafe.