Sorry, you are not fit to open a coffee shop.

Not good at rejecting and not willing to refuse anyone casually. But sometimes I have to refuse. I have to say no.

It's a bit of an exaggeration to say the nth time, but it's not the first, second or third time to refuse to sign up for coffee.

This afternoon is another example. The result is that those who are rejected are surprised, confused and hurt, while those who refuse are very determined, helpless and magnanimous.

The whole story is as follows: in the afternoon, another person came to consult Mr. Ding, who wanted to learn about coffee. Less than forty years old. When I came up, I went straight to the point and said that I wanted to open a coffee shop and come to Huimen to study coffee. So, across a cup of latte, our conversation is as follows.

Me: why do you plan to open a coffee shop?

D: I used to work in the arts and crafts processing industry, but recently the efficiency is not good, and I feel that the threshold of the arts and crafts industry is too low, anyone can do it. So plan to change industry, feel that opening a coffee shop should be more cost-effective, and after all, it is a job that requires skills, the threshold is higher, the competition should not be so great.

Who says the threshold for handicraft processing is low? Is the threshold of Swarovski low? The benefit of the coffee industry is good? A store that can be opened by casually learning some skills is just as uncompetitive! I'll keep quiet and continue to listen to him. )

Me: what kind of store are you going to open?

D: well! I plan to open a house-of course, not just making coffee, but also making coffee. I also sell some desserts and food, as well as some other drinks, so that I can sell more and meet the various needs of the guests.

Then why not open a department store? )

Me: where are you going to open it? How much do you expect to invest?

D: open it in Chengyang! I haven't found a good place yet. I think Lupin style Street has opened a lot, and that position should be quite good. And I want to open one first and open a few more branches later. Invest! I don't know yet, about three or five hundred thousand?. You are more professional, how much do you think it should be?

If you don't know the location, if you don't even have the idea of how much to invest, it's safer to use the money to invest in the stock market! )

Me: then why do you want to learn coffee?

D: because I don't know anything, I probably want to learn about it first.

Well, most people have this state of mind. )

Me: then why come here to study?

D: I looked it up on the Internet to see that your family is the most professional. I heard that I have been doing it for many years, right? And the key point is that here is also closer to my home, more convenient.

The first half of the sentence is a little reliable, but is it convenient to learn the picture? If there is a farther and more suitable one, is it because it is not convenient enough to go? )

At this point, the conclusion has basically come out.

So I began to say to him:

First of all, thank you very much for choosing Xiumen Coffee and coming here for consultation. But after all these years of training, we have a principle: we only teach people who are suitable to study here. In other words, we have our own special courses, and we must ensure that students gain something after learning the courses, which is helpful to their development before we teach them.

But according to your introduction, I feel that our course is not very suitable for you, so you are advised to look elsewhere.

In addition, for coffee shop venture capital, I feel that you do not have a basic understanding of the market and industry. I suggest you first understand the market. After all, opening a coffee shop is not as simple as it seems, and the benefit is not necessarily better than that of other industries. The competition is also fierce.

I have already made my position clear with such a statement. But the other party was puzzled and there was a look of surprise on his face, so the question and answer continued:

D: you mean I can't learn here?

(he's a little hard to believe.)

Me: yes, I suggest you look somewhere else.

D: why?

Me: I told you. Our course is not suitable for you. Even if you do, it may not be helpful to you.

D: do you still say that? So what's your course like? Why doesn't it suit me?

Me: our course is more focused on coffee major. The main purpose is to teach people to understand coffee, understand this profession and industry, and then how to make coffee, not just how to open a shop to make coffee and sell coffee. So if you plan to run a coffee shop and sell coffee, it is still not suitable for you.

D: huh? I don't understand! So if I really want to learn, you won't teach?

Me: teaching and learning are equal to each other. You have the right to choose whether to learn or not, and we also have the right to choose whether to teach or not to teach, right? In addition, do not teach you is also because our course is not suitable for you, is in a responsible attitude to you, I hope you understand.

D: how can you understand?! This is the first time I've heard of such a thing! Don't teach even if you want to learn! Do you do this to others? (the other party is a little emotional, and the speed of speaking begins to improve.) then …... So. Haven't you also taught a lot of students? Tell me what kind of people you want to teach!

(the scene is heating up a little bit, but I have to keep talking at the same speed.)

Me: we have also taught a lot of students, but basically all of them have a clear goal. They may prefer coffee and often come here to drink coffee and want to learn more as an interest. Or plan to open a shop, but also have a certain understanding of coffee under the premise, intend to open a purely specialized coffee shop, coffee quality to win the shop. Do you understand when I say this?

(he suddenly tilted his neck and scratched the scalp with his hands.)

D: so I was rejected, right? Damn it! So I want to learn here, and you don't teach? It hurts!

(an expected reaction, but try to get the other side to clear up misunderstandings as far as possible, so as not to bring unhappiness.)

Me: I hope you do not misunderstand, do not teach you does not attach importance to you, but very sorry that we have our own principles, and the ability is limited, really can not help you, Qingdao there are many places to learn, I suggest you to have a look.

It's hard to end the conversation and it's hard to go on. I can only keep a relatively stiff smile to keep up with the changes. Fortunately, the other party finally backed down and stopped asking questions, and everyone was not too embarrassed.

There is more than one such case, and this Mr. Ding is also a typical example of blind entrepreneurship and blind learning.

Looking at the coffee industry in the dark, it looks very beautiful, thinking that opening a shop is a beautiful, decent and easy thing to make money. As for the market, I don't know anything about the market. I think that simply investing hundreds of thousands of dollars and decorating a little better can attract customers. A little more tuhao want to rely on high-end decoration and machine decoration to attract customers, thinking that they can easily recover the investment within a year, and open three branches in two years. Opening ten houses in three years is not a dream! Yes, it's not a dream, it's delusional!

That's why there is a flood of coffee shops and suicidal explosive competition. In prosperous commercial areas of the city, a new store tends to kill two old stores, and soon the new store will be squeezed out by newcomers, everyone is trying to decorate, play is fresh, so there is a coffee shop epiphyllum and then disappear into the night Some of them disappeared so quietly that even the brand-new coffee machines bought at a high price of 80,000 yuan entered the waste collection station so inexplicably!

It's a coffee shop, and it's a coffee shop that falls down. But from beginning to end, no one seems to really care about the central word "coffee". You run a coffee shop and sell coffee, but you don't know what coffee is. how do you sell it? You keep saying that you sell "boutique coffee" is the best coffee, but you don't care what the coffee tastes like.

Okay! You are one step ahead of others at least you have the desire and plan to learn. This should be affirmed! But first of all, the so-called learning must have a clear understanding.

"Coffee! Isn't it just a drink? Wouldn't it be easy to learn? "

Or "I'm so busy opening a shop that I don't have that much time. Why don't I set aside three or five days to concentrate on studying ok?"

Wrong! Coffee is a drink, yes, but it is definitely not a simple drink. If the so-called coffee learning is limited to coffee, it is really very simple and can be learned in an hour. But the real study is not just about production, but more important for people who open a shop and start a business, to look at the whole coffee profession, industry and industry, to understand its context, to understand the details of the whole production and processing, and to go deep into every link of the industry. make an overall grasp and judgment, and then make a business plan on this basis. Therefore, learning is not so simple, nor can it be easily done in a few days. If you want to make coffee well, you must first understand it from the basics, and you must combine theoretical things with the practice of opening a shop and the development of the industry.

So here's the problem again. Can the success of starting a business be guaranteed by learning and understanding coffee in such an all-round way?

NO! Please allow me to ask a rhetorical question: if you can guarantee the success of opening a shop and make a lot of money through two or three months of study, who doesn't learn such a good thing? Who won't do it?

Learning coffee is only the preparatory work, it can help you make a more suitable store opening plan, and the professional skills you have learned will also become a sharp tool for opening a shop and serve as the core competitiveness of a professional store. But opening a shop is not just about making and selling coffee. Coffee production, store environment, personnel management and management are indispensable. Of course, an objective understanding of coffee will help to make a more suitable storefront decoration when opening a store in the later stage, invest in small decoration to create a more distinctive store, and be able to make a clearer positioning for themselves and screen more suitable customer groups. when customers arrive at the store, they can provide more professional and comfortable services. But this does not mean that everything will be all right after learning coffee well, the coordination and response in the actual operation is very important. But if there is no professional understanding of coffee, it is difficult to talk about positioning and actual business coordination, because for a professional coffee shop, coffee profession is the core after all!

Then there is another question: can't you open a shop without learning coffee? Or can't you open a store successfully?

Wrong! Although I am a coffee teacher, I really don't agree with this view of "learning first".

Just as learning does not guarantee the success of opening a shop, not learning does not mean that it cannot be successful. Coffee shops have a variety of models, of different sizes, and many forms of direct marketing, chain and franchise coexist. Throughout those successful stores, not all of them are professional winners. Management and capital can all become the driving force for the development of coffee shops. Starbucks successfully expanded the world with "perceptual marketing", didn't it? Of course, by comparison, the "third wave" coffee shops in the United States, such as blue bottles and counter-culture, are relatively professional. Each has its own advantages, but in the future, who can go far enough and last long enough remains to be tested by time.

Moreover, with regard to "learning", it is easy for most people to limit it to "learning coffee technology" or "learning before opening a shop". In fact, learning is a very broad concept, and learning coffee technology is learning. Learning other people's management concepts, decoration aesthetics, and operation methods is also learning. From this range, it seems that everyone who starts a business can not get away from "learning", and opening a shop and starting a business is a long-term thing. It is not possible to learn once and for all before starting a business. Learning is always a continuous process that needs to keep pace with the times. Technological learning, constant exchanges with the industry, continuous understanding of industry dynamics, reference to other people's successful experience, is also learning, isn't it?

With that, I said a little too much. However, this arrangement is more firm for our persistence, and more relieved for those who refuse others to learn.

In the ten years of making coffee, the love and persistence of coffee have never changed. Love me and my dog, just because of my love of coffee, I hope everyone who makes coffee can succeed. This success is not only measured by how much profit is earned, but also by the joy and achievement felt in this career.

In the past ten years, I have seen too many cases of blind investment, falling in the coffee with beautiful dreams and running away, sad but unable to help. Therefore, for teaching, we are more cautious, not simply to teach people how to make coffee, but more importantly to let them understand this major and see the big world of coffee clearly. So we will teach selectively, for those who do not have a basic understanding of the coffee and coffee industry, we will kindly remind them to understand the industry before making a decision. As for learning, if we feel that he does not have a basic preparation, we would rather refuse than start the class at will. Our ability is limited, but at least the students who learn here, we want to ensure the success they can do, find a suitable corner in the coffee world, and run their own coffee business for a long time.

Although we have been misunderstood and scolded more than once, in the future teaching, we will still "pick people". We only do what we are sure of and only teach our fellow travelers. The world is too big, life is full of hardships, and a few people are willing to stop, foolishly, just focus on a good cup of coffee-if there is, let's walk together, if not, we are still focused on this good cup of coffee, I believe that there will always be fellow travelers, slowly coming …...