track your cash!! - part I

Hello Folks - sorry for the brief sojourn.  I'm in the midst of building out a new bakery for my coffeehouse, and developing new software to better manage my catering business... .so I've been a bit busy!

But enough of my stuff - I received a request to write about about managing your cash, and how to do this to ensure you are not losing cash as it makes it way from the customer's hand to your bank account.  So - here is the first segment!  

As any small business owner who deal s with cash knows - you must be very very careful with your cash and have excellent tracking systems in place to ensure your cash does not go missing.    So, this coffeehouse guy segment will look into cash tracking strategies, and how to implement them.

The basic idea behind cash tracking is to track the cash from the transaction (where the customer gives you the cash) all the way to the bank, and make sure there are systems in place to alert you to when something is amiss.

There are three basic places to track the cash:  From the customer to the cash register, from the cash register to the safe, then the safe to the bank.    If your system is working correctly, you should be able to track every cent of your money all the way to the bank.

Part I - tracking money from the customer to the cash register.

There are several components of this part:  initial cash bag, single person responsibility & combining cash with other payment systems.   

The initial cash bag should ALWAYS contain the same amount of money.  In my case, I have $100 in $1.00 bills, $100 in $5.00 bills, $150 in $10.00 bills, $30 in quarters, $20 in dimes and $10 in nickels  (I dont use pennies - i have all my prices rounded out to the nearest 5 cent).    Thus, every cash bag starts with $410 in change.  

Second, responsibility should always boil down ONE person.  My shift leaders are taught that the cash register (and the money therein) is *specifically* their responsibility.  Not the Barista, not the second Barista - just them.  When the shift leader starts their shift, they *count* the money going into the register to ensure they are starting with *exactly* $410.  If the register comes up short, there is ONE and ONLY ONE person that can be held accountable for any missing cash - the Shift Leader. 

Third, a use a new cash bag for each shift.   I have two shift leader shifts per day, thus two cash bags are used per day.  At the end of a shift leaders shift, they z-out the register (a z-out prints off a summary of all transactions that were run through the register during that shift, and it *clears* the register of all transactions for the next shift), z-out the credit card machine, and z-out the gift card machine.   

Fourth, the shift leader should NEVER count their own cash bag.  At the end of their shift, they should just pull ALL the cash (and change) out of the cash register, along with the z-out of the cash register, the credit card machine and the gift card machine, and put them all in the cash bag... and drop the cash bag in the drop slot of the safe. 

Fifth: Reconciliation.  You will need a spreadsheet that you can enter all the information into from the shift that will reconcile all the cash. 

This is an example of a daily sales sheet we use. 

#1  start off by adding in the z-out.  This is the sales for the shift recorded on the cash register.  Now, if you ONLY accepted cash, then this would indicate exactly how much cash there should have been in the register (minus the amount you started with).  However, there are multiple ways people can pay for your product, including credit cards, gift cards and other forms of payment.   This affects the amount of cash you are left with in the register.  For example (see above #3)  If  the total sales for the shift were $1005.40, and $524.95 of those sales were in credit cards, then you should expect to have $480.45 in cash (subtracting off the amount you started with).   

#2   In addition to credit cards you must figure out the NET impact of the gift cards.  SO,  if your customers use $100 on their gift cards, and only refill their collective cards by $50, then you must reduce the 'Z-Out' by$50.  In this case, in the first shift, the customers used their gift cards to purchase $45.40 worth of product, and refilled their cards with $25.70.  Thus, the 'net' impact of that shift on the 'z-out' was $19.70.

 

#3  As mentioned in #1 - you must reduce the Z amount by the amount paid by credit card.

#4 This is where you input the cash in the cash bag.  The spreadsheet is designed to add it all up to tell you how much cash was in the bag, then subtract off the amount you started with.

#5 - These are the final numbers.  It starts off with the amount of cash in the cash bag, subtracts off the amount the bag started with, subtracts off the amount paid with credit card, adjusts for the net amount from gift cards then compares it against the original z-out receipt to see how far off it is.    My rule of thumb - if the amount is less than 5 dollars off, then I let it be.  More than that, I go and talk with the shift leader to find out what was going on.

Well, that is enough for now - in my next segment, I'll write the Step II about managing cash from the customer to the bank account.

thanks!

Duncan

the Coffeehouse Guy

managing your vendors - part 2

Hello Coffeehouse people!

This is the second part of a two part blog posting outlining how to deal with different types of vendors.   If you havn't read part 1 yet, I'd recommend checking that out first.

In this section, we will be covering coffee roasters, bulk supply places (BJ, Costco, Sams, Restaurant Depot etc), specialist vendors and a quick summary of negotiating strategy when dealing with these folks.

Coffee Roasters

The coffee roasting industry is pretty fragmented.  It can be generally broken into three types of roasters.  You have the basic roasters (these are the ones that bulk roast coffee, with very little consideration for quality.  Then there are "premium" roasters - this encompasses the vast majority of the roasters that cater to coffeehouses.  Finally, there are 'super premium' roasters.  There are just a small handful of these super-premium roasters including such coffee royalty as: Stumptown Coffee, Blue Bottle, Intelligencia and Counter Culture.   These super-premium roasters are absolutely NUTS about their coffee.   I looked into carrying intelligencia and counter culture coffee a while ago, and I was told I had to 'apply' for the right to carry their coffee.  I was told they would send an inspector to my establishment to ensure I had the 'right' equipment, I cleaned my equipment correctly, and my baristas were correctly trained in how to prepare "their" coffee.   I dont know if these folks are still doing this, but it turned me off.  They seemed to act as if they were doing ME a favor by selling me beans.  Absurd.   The beans from these super-premium roasters are also INSANELY expensive.  After all is said and told, their prices were close to double what I'd have to pay elsewhere. 

If you go with these beans, you have to charge pretty hefty prices to make it worth while.  I thought about it for awhile, and then I decided to let my customers decide... through a blind taste test.

I’m going to warn you up front – my recommendations on coffee roasters goes against what every 'coffeehouse book' I've ever read recommends, but it has worked pretty well for me.

Most books and roasters will tell you to get some beans from various roasters, then to do a ‘cupping’.  For those of you who have never done this, it is tightly controlled method for getting a ‘pure’ read on a specific coffee.   It involves mixing a specific quantity of ground coffee with a specific amount of water, mixing it thoroughly and leaving the grinds to float to the surface, producing a ‘crust’.  The process of ‘breaking’ the crust, smelling the odor, then noisily slurping a teaspoon of the liquid, followed  by exclamations of “Fruity!” or “ Smoky” or “Earthy”!  Soon ensue.        Apparently, this allows those select few individuals with exquisite taste to experience the subtle differences between coffees. 

I find this entire process laughable.  We are in the business of providing our customers with the coffee that the *customers* like best.  Those coffee aficionado who do cuppings do not pay my bills – my customers do.  Thus, it makes MUCH more sense to ask your customers their opinion.

In short, it boils down to a taste test.

1.  Contact 6 roasters (include one of the super-premium roasters if you want).  Ask them for a ‘house’ blend, a ‘french’ blend, and ‘espresso’ blend and what they consider their best coffee.

2. Brew up all the house blends, then place them in cups marked 1-7 (not the actual coffee name).  Give these cups and a rating sheet to a customer, and have them taste and rate the different coffees.  The tester can add any milk/sugar they wish - have them prepare the cup the way they would normally drink their coffee.

3. Do 35-40 of these taste tests – and tabulate the results. 

4. Repeat the process for the French, Espresso and ‘best’ coffee.  

This will give you some idea of which roasters are the best for your customer  base.  

Coffee is an odd product - not unlike wine.  I'm not sure about you, but I can  *usually* tell the difference between a $5.00 bottle of wine, and a $20.00 bottle of wine.  However, I honestly cant tell the difference between a $20 bottle of wine, and a $50 bottle of wine.  We use external signals such as price tag, shelf placement etc to give us clues of its quality level (check out the article written about this by the guy who wrote Freakeconomics http://www.freakonomics.com/2010/12/16/freakonomics-radio-do-more-expensive-wines-taste-better/)   Coffee is similar.  Almost anyone can tell the difference between a cup of Maxwell House, and a cup of coffee from a respectable coffeehouse.  However, few people in a blind taste test can tell you which is the 'better' espresso - the one from Intelligencia or the one from a 'normal' roaster.      If only 1% of the population can tell the difference between excellent beans and amazing beans, then why would you pay double the price for the beans...so you can appeal to that 1%?  Hardly seems worth it...

Out of the six roasters, I was left with two that did the best.  As it happened NEITHER of the two favorite coffees came from the Super Premium roasters.  

The key to any successful negotiation is options.  The more options you have, the better the deal will be.  Once you have narrowed down the possible roasters to 2-3 based on the coffee preferences of your customers, enter into negotiations with all of them simultaneously.   Make sure all of them know they are competing with the other roasters for your business.

Coffee Roasters want you to sell or use as much coffee as possible.  The more you sell or use, the more valuable you are to them and the stronger negotiating position you will have in dealing with them.

You will not have much bargaining power with the roaster at the outset.   No coffeehouse will have much sales volume at the outset.   They have probably seen more coffee houses start and fall apart, than you can shake a stick at.    Any agreement you have with them at the beginning will not be very advantageous to you.   So, only allow the agreement to go for one year.  After the first year, you should be using substantially more coffee, which will strengthen your position, with which you can get more from the roaster.

Ideally, you’d like to get your roaster to provide you with all the brewers, grinders and associated equipment etc. for your shop, as well as upkeep & maintenance for free.  You might well get this after the first year, so it is advisable to lease your brewing equipment at the outset, until you can get your bean poundage up to where you have leverage with the roaster.

At this point, I'm going through in upwards of 300lbs per week of coffee, and my roaster supplies me with top-of-the line brewers, satellites  and grinders for free.  They also service the equipment for free.  It might take a few years to get to this point, but this should be your end-target. 

An additional point - MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SOMEONE WHO CAN REPAIR YOUR EQUIPMENT READY TO GO.  In my case, my roaster also repairs all my coffee equipment (brewer, grinders, espresso machine etc).   When you have a repair guy on call for your machines, make sure he agrees to come within an hour of receiving your call - whenever that call comes.  This is because you lose money VERY fast when you lose a piece of coffee machinery.  In my case, I have calculated that I lose about $150 per hour when my espresso machine is not operational.  If my repair guy cannot repair the machine within 15-20 minutes, he will actually bring in another espresso machine and pull mine out to work on it - this way it minimizes downtime.

As a general rule, I recommend having your roaster repair and maintain your equipment... even if it cost you a bit of money.  This is because the roaster has a built-in incentive to make sure your equipment is working well producing excellent coffee... because (of course) the better we do, the more beans he sells to us!

Restaurant Depot / BJ's / Sams Club / COSTCO

Generally, you can get supplies cheaper at these places than if you go through vendors (who deliver).  When you are first starting out, I'd recommend getting a membership at any / all bulk food/supply warehouses.  You can save as much as 15-20% on your supplies by going through these places.   Restaurant Depot is a particularly good place for supplies.

I still use these places today - a couple members of my staff goes to COSTCO and Restaurant Depot a couple times a week to pick up produce, soda, bottled water, cheeses and meats etc.  Even after accounting for higher payroll and auto wear/tear, it is saving me close to $1500 per month.  Furthermore, my staff has the ability to select their own produce, so they get the best they can find... so while my cost basis has declined, the quality of ingredients has increased!

It is also useful to have a regular habit of getting products from these places, so that way if your regular supplier screws up an order etc, you can always pick up some back up supplies while there.  The main downside to using these places is that they dont have everything you need. 

Food, Beverage, Paper Goods and Cleaner Vendors

There is a wide array of suppliers who will provide things as specific as soda only, all the way up to these HUGE providers that you can get anything from (Cisco, Thurston, Perkins etc.)    Some are tiny and ultra local, serving just one city.  Others are regional or even national.  The basic rule of thumb is the smaller the company, the less you pay and better service you get.  The bigger the company, the wider variety of products, ease of ordering and more you are going to spend.

The basic idea is to have options.. and a back up as needed.  The old military adage works for small businesses as well - two is one and one is none.  Thus, I have two suppliers who can potentially supply me with everything.  This way, if one supplier runs out of something, or starts screwing up (or jacks up their prices unexpectedly), I can quickly and smoothly transition to the other supplier.  

Dairy:  I have a primary dairy supplier, who just does dairy products.  His prices are great, and service is solid.  In addition, I have negotiated the use of a dairy cooler from him - he supplies it to me for free and repairs it as necessary.  (refrigeration repair is always expensive - When I need something repaired, I usually expect to pay a minimum of $350, with around $500 as an average.  If a compressor goes out, you are looking at closer to $1000-$1200 to replace it!!).     My back up is the big generalist supplier.  I can always get milk delivered from them if my small dairy supplier messes with me.  I sometimes switch a product over to a different supplier if the original supplier boosts his prices on that item.  You do this enough times, he will think twice about increasing his prices to you.

Bagels:  Even if you have a bakery, you may want to leave the bagel production to someone else.  Bagels are difficult to do well, and require specialized equipment.  If you have enough space, the best thing to do is to buy them par-baked and frozen... then you can just bake-off the bagels you need as you need them.   I did that for a while, and it worked pretty well.   If I had the space to store bagels in a big chest freezer, I 'd certainly do this again.  Unfortunately, now I have fresh bagels delivered every morning.  Not an ideal situation - they come late, the order is wrong etc etc.

Bread:  We use baguettes for our sandwiches, so we have to get them fresh every morning.  Baguettes (like bagels) take specialized equipment and knowledge to do well.  While we do have a bakery attached to the coffee house, we do not have the knowledge nor specialized equipment, so we have opted to have nearby bakery make them for us and deliver to us every morning.    This works pretty well.

Tea: There are a couple top-notch tea providers around, but I'm a big fan of Rishi Tea  (.http://www.rishi-tea.com)  They have top-quality teas and reasonable prices and reliably send them to you.  I recommend using loose-leaf tea when you do teas - you get much better quality teas that way.

 Papergoods / Cleaning Products:  I have a vendor that JUST does paper / cleaning products.  As with the smaller vendors, they offer good prices, excellent service and pretty good variety of products.  These guys will often times print up cups for you (with your logo), then hold onto the cases of cups until you need them.  They usually ask for you to pay for them upfront, then they just deliver them as you need them.  The minimum order is usually 100 cases, so you'll need a good chunk of cash up front.

Coffee Sleeves:  I've been using JavaJacket for years.  They have the best prices, and are good about print runs and changing graphics.  

Online Purveyors   There are a number of products you will need that your normal vendors will not be able to provide you.  I usually turn to online suppliers for these products.  

- Bulkfoods.com - we have a bakery, so we use these guys to get gluten-free flour (for our glutenfree baked goods), granola for our granola parfaits etc.  The website is ancient - circa 1992, but it works and the prices are very reasonable.

- Spicebarn - We make our own lemonbars, and these guys sell a great lemon powder that really make the bars 'pop'.  However, any kind of spice or seasoning you might need - these guys can take care of it for very reasonable prices.

 - Toddy - ICED COFFEE.   The only way to make Iced Coffee is the Toddy cold-brewing system.  It is *amazing* iced coffee.   (www.toddycafe.com).  It takes a bit more coffee beans to produce a cup of coffee, but it is sooooo gooood.

Generalist Supplier

There is a handful of generalist suppliers who carry a wide array of products - meats/cheeses/breads/ batters / produce / milk / paper goods / cleaning products.... even par-baked muffins etc!    Some of these companies include Thurston, Cisco, Perkins, US food service.  Personally, I've had the best luck with Perkins.

The biggest convenience with these guys is that it is one-stop shopping.  You can get everything in one place.  If I cant find the product with a small vendor, I can usually find it with these guys.

The downside to using these guys are many :  higher costs, higher minimum order size, less fresh products... AND you are nothing but a number to these guys.  They are so big, that you barely register on their sales data, so you have no leverage with them.

HOW TO FIND good vendors?

The short answer - ask around.  Whenever I'm looking for a new vendor, I'll start by asking other restaurants who they use.  If I get the same vendor name from a couple restaurants, I'm pretty sure they are OK. 

Negotiation redux: 

I'd like to touch a bit more on Negotiation - as this is a vital part of your interaction with vendors.

The key to any successful negotiation is multiple options.  The more options you have, the better deal you can negotiate.  Once you have narrowed down the possible vendors in one product area to 2-3, enter into negotiations with all of them simultaneously.   Make sure all of them know they are competing with other vendors for your business.

As part of the negotiating game, you must also understand your value to the vendor.  The vendor is concerned with two things – selling as much as possible, and being paid as soon as possible.   The size of the vendor is also a consideration.  For the big nation-wide suppliers, you barely register on their radar.   For a small, local vendor, you sales are probably much more significant.    For this reason, good service, special deals, equipment loans, favorable payback terms are more likely found with smaller, local providers.

You will not have much bargaining power with vendors at the outset.   No coffeehouse will have much sales volume at the beginning.   Vendors have probably seen more coffee houses start and fall apart, than you can shake a stick at.    Any agreement you have with them at the beginning will not be very advantageous to you.   So, only allow the agreement to go for one year.  After the first year, you should be using substantially more supplies, which will strengthen your position to make it easier to get better pricing/deals etc.

You are looking for a relationship with a vendor that will last for years and years.    So, do not drive such a hard bargain that they cant make money, nor should you pay exorbitantly high prices.    A happy median point must be found.   Remember – your time is worth money.  If you are constantly spending time switching vendors because you chose the cheapest vendor that then monkeys around with you and your pricing, you will waste huge amounts of your time. 

 You must have a system in place to check on vendor’s prices.  I will check my vendor’s dairy and produce prices against what I see in the grocery store.   Take pictures of price tags in the store with your cell phone camera every time you are shopping for groceries.  The prices you pay your vendors should track the prices you see in the grocery store.  For example –  you noticed that from May to June, the price of oranges in your grocery store increased 10%, yet your produce vendor’s prices increased 25%. …     In December, you notice that milk prices in your grocery store decreased 10%, but your vendor prices have not decreased at all.    These are the indications that you are being taken for a ride.

Once a year, bid out your business to other vendors – see what kind of pricing you can get for the same products.  This way your prices will never get completely out of whack.

I hope you enjoyed this section!

DUNCAN

As you may know, I'm in the process of writing a series of guides to show people how to move from a corporate job to owning a coffeehouse.  Unfortunately, they are not going to be ready for a little while.  However, If you are REALLY serious about starting your own coffeehouse, and you cant wait for my guides to come out, I also offer a 2-day, one-on-one intensive boot camp on starting a coffeehouse.  You come up to New Haven for these two days, and we spend two intensive days going through all the intricacies of starting, owning and operating a successful coffeehouse.  If you are interested, send me an email and we'll get it set up: coffeehouseguy1@gmail.com

I stumbled across this article a couple days ago- I thought I'd share it with all you folks.

Most of these 11 items Stephanie St. Claire  outlines in her article apply to owning your own coffeeshop as well.

PAY CLOSEST ATTENTION TO #1 AND #2.

11 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started My Business

A lot of people like to fool you and say that you’re not smart if you never went to college, but common sense rules over everything. That’s what I learned from selling crack. -Snoop Dogg 

My name is Stephanie St.Claire, and I am an unfunded entrepreneur. I’ve been in business for 3 years, after engaging in my own personal and tenuous renaissance (uh…divorce) and rediscovering my Divine Core Purpose. In other words, I grew a pair of ladyballs and started living the life I always wanted to while making money doing it.

But there was a LOT to learn, and some of those things weren’t covered in Who Moved My Cheese.

Throw these 4 rockstars into a blender, and you’ll have a composite sketch of me in the first three months of my business:

Glitter was literally shooting out of my eye sockets as I quit my PR firm job and started my own business. Full of optimism, living in New York City, and surrounded by a tribe of friends who were also launching businesses, art, and gigs, I felt it was the perfect time to make the bold move to entrepreneurship. I was now officially Living My Dream and Working For Myself which meant that I was In Charge of My Financial Destiny and Captain of My Promising Future.

Luckily my initial hyper-optimism buoyed me whilst, oscillating between euphoria and despair, I was slowly but systematically forced off The Magic School Bus and onto the S.S. Battleship Long Haul.

I was a quick and eager learner, but despite the hours of webinar watching, countless Friday nights pumping out site copy, and teaching myself everything I could about HTML, there were just some things I didn’t get. I had to fall on my ass to procure the “masters degree in life survival” every entrepreneur has to earn on their “journey.”

Yes, those were wildly gesticulated air quotes.

Here are 11 things I wish I knew when I started my business. I hope they will save you some time, but at the very least, some anguish because — experience is a good teacher here — the sodium from your tears acts as a corrosive melting agent on all brands of premium ice cream, but otherwise, makes a superb saline for your dirty martini. Cry over a cup, oh fathomless bird of preneurial gumption!

ONE.

Running the business is your first priority. Your success (and financial stability) will come from expertly running your business — not teaching yoga, life coaching, writing copy, or making jewelry. In other words, you will spend 15% of the time doing what you love (your gift..in my case coaching and writing) and 85% of the time marketing, administrating, selling, strategizing your business, and answering a shitload of email. Survival will totally hinge on how quickly you adopt this role of Business Owner first, creator of pretty things, second.

This sucked for me because I wanted nothing to do with running a business. I just wanted to be a writer and a life coach who wrote and coached all day. I didn’t get it.

TWO.

Ready to meet your soul mate? It’s you. Entrepreneurship is the most life changing relationship (like marriage or parenthood) that a person can have. You will be confronted overandoverandover with your fears, your insecurities, your crappy excuses, your limitations, your justifications, your shitty integrity, and your inefficient time management. The standard you held yourself to in the work-a-day world was good enough then, but it won’t be good enough to run your own business. And you will learn to accept yourself through all this because in order to get up every day and create, you have to. Somehow through that process of acceptance, while you’re busy putting yourself out there in spite of your flaws, your weaknesses will transform and you will fall in love with yourself. Not in the over-hyped “SELF LOVE 2012” way, but in a quiet way that sneaks up on you after witnessing a thousand splinter-sized moments of transcending the baser aspects of yourself.

THREE.

Your trajectory for success will take as long as everyone else’s, even though you’re special and brilliant. I heard the “two-year rule” when I started my biz, but I was confident I could do it in 6 months. I believed with every fiber of my glittery, go-gettin’ heart that my work ethic (15-hour days/7 days a week), along with my talent, skills, and personal magic, I could rip a path to accelerated success because also, this was A Leap of Faith and I was Living in My Divine Authenticity and that was worth some express lane juju kudos from Heaven.

Jesus had other plans.

See #4.

FOUR.

Running out of money is a common part of the journey. You won’t expect it, because you prepared for the long haul. You secured a business loan, or got some investors, or sold your house (cough, cough), or have one year’s worth of savings and you have planned accordingly.

But then all of the sudden, midst the puffy clouds and blue skies, your little twin engine Entreprenairplane will sputter, the needle on the gas gauge unexpectedly plummeting to zero, and you will have only one choice… land your plane on the wild, abandoned air strip called Bank Balance: Fourteen Dollars. And this will be the LAST PLACE you ever thought you’d crash land, cuz didn’t you pass this test on No More Sephora Island?

Well.

The good news is this is a rite of passage that will launch you into the League of Business Badassery in which, once you are out of the money hellhole, you will be unstoppable. You’ve been to the baddest prison there is, you looked down the barrel of your worst fear, and you stood your ground. You didn’t quit. You got up the next day, and you wrote your next post, created your next offering, and answered the email with zero dollars in your bank account.

There is nothing more beautiful than running out of money and realizing that you are doing your work because you’ve got the guts tostand in the face of no agreement and push through when there is no evidence of security. You really, truly love what you do, and you’d do it for free if you had to.

Irony is a sassy bitch, isn’t she?

FIVE.

Build a hybrid stream of income. Take a second job if it will give you peace of mind. Please don’t be a jackass like I was and make it mean that you’re failing at your business. I was so resistant to “dividing my focus” or taking any action which I interpreted as undermining my commitment to being a successful writer and coach. Do you see the hellish mousetrap that was? I really thought that by making a Plan B I was telling the Universe I wasn’t 100% serious about my success. Don’t even get me started with my crazy aversion to Plan B’s. I created a worse problem by allowing financial stress to gut me of my sanity.

If having a steady stream of part-time income would be in service to your peace of mind, DO IT.

I finally came to terms with the fact that I was being obnoxiously naïve about how money, peace, survival, and timing all work together and I got a second job. By doing this, I supernaturalized my own path to freedom and self-sustainability. And since I wasn’t freaking out about money anymore, I liberated more creative real estate in my brain to apply toward my business.

SIX.

Read Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work. The biggest challenge you will deal with in running a business is your own resistance. Period, end of story. Before you study anything about marketing, social media, money, or time management, read this book. You’ll be treated to gems like this:

Our enemy is not lack of preparation; it’s not the difficulty of the project, or the state of the marketplace, or the emptiness of our bank account. The enemy is resistance. The enemy is our chattering brain, which, if we give it so much as a nanosecond, will start producing excuses, alibis, transparent self-justifications, and a million reasons why he can’t/shouldn’t/won’t do what we know we need to do.

A professional distances herself from her instrument. The pro stands at one remove from her instrument — meaning her person, her body, her voice, her talent; the physical, mental, emotional, and psychological being she uses in her work. She does not identify with this instrument. It is simply what God gave her, what she has to work with. She assesses it coolly, impersonally, objectively.

Does Madonna walk around the house in cone bras and come-f*k-me bustiers? She’s too busy planning D-Day. Madonna does not identify with “Madonna.” Madonna employs “Madonna.”

SEVEN.

Spend less time researching, more time doing.Researching/studying/ reading other people’s blogs is a form of resistance. In order to get clarity, you must act. Clarity does not come by learning more, it comes by jumping in with your instincts and putting yourself out there, even if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing.

Block out the distractions (turn off the phone, Facebook, and Gmail) and take inspired action that feels fun, easy, and exciting. This will rattle your inner Perfectionist Catholic German Drill Sergeant, because you have been taught that succeeding requires you to do boring, tedious crap that’s difficult. Sometimes you’ll have to do boring stuff (prep your tax receipts) but when working your business, make it fun and exciting or you will end up indulging in resistance behaviors.

EIGHT.

Only say yes to clients/collaborative projects that are HELL YESES. Scrutinize any joint project carefully and qualify the person you are doing the project with (even if they are your friend and you LOVE them). Get everything in writing before you embark on the project, with a clear division of labor and deadline dates. You will most likely be splitting the profits, so have two numbers in your head: The $ number you would LIKE to make, and the $ number you NEED to make in order to pay for your time. Set the first financial deadline early to make your NEED number so that you both have the freedom to walk away if the project isn’t going to be profitable. Have a transition strategy in mind so in case that happens and one of you wants to continue on with the project, there is a way to pass the baton gracefully.

Summed up: COMMUNICATE ABOUT EVERYTHING, even though you’re friends, even though you love each other, even though you trust each other, even though you’ve worked together at XYZ Company, because projects have a way of going sideways and making everyone a little custodial and overreactive.

NINE.

You must devote time to becoming a brilliant marketer. MUST. I know you just want to spend all your days making hipster sarsaparilla-scented mustache wax, or needle pointing edgy throw pillows for Etsy, or writing your YA zombie novel, or life coaching women to stratospheric success, but if you don’t spend time marketing you will not make money.

This was my biggest weakness when I started because I thought marketing = slimy sales letters with big arrows and opt-in boxes and I couldn’t! I wouldn’t! So I put my head in magical fairyland sand, stubbornly insisting that my customers would be tractor-beamed into my budding practice by the pulsating, heavenly light that radiated from my vision boards and 4 blog posts.

And then I ate canned food and spaghetti for a long, long time.

But this rescued me — knowing what category I fell into: a guru-star, wisdom guide (ding ding), or connector/supporter. Beth Grant explains this expertly and you can watch a free webinar here which will help you figure out which one you are. And once you have that figured out, marketing to your customers will be a thousand times easier because you will be working within your natural vibe. I am not an affiliate for this, I just really love her work.

Learn what way you like to market and stick to that and do it consistently and often. Even if you hire a pro, you will be doing some marketing yourself. Keeping your website fresh and current is essential in your marketing, so learn how to work WordPress and learn some HTML code. You will be in the guts of your website A LOT.

TEN.

Email will be your new best frenemy. Your inbox will explode. You care about everyone, but you can’t help everyone. Read: Not everyone is your customer. Your inbox will be a jumble of people who want to say thank you, people who want free stuff, and people who want your services. Your job is to quickly discern who’s who and respond in the most appropriate way.

Shorten the email back-and-forth as quickly as possible with people that are your potential clients. If your business is a consultancy where you are selling your time, I recommend having two form letters on hand that you can customize to the occasion: one for your potential customer and the other for your not potential customer.

Your Customer: Acknowledge their situation, request, or problem and invite them to a 20-minute call. Include your available dates, times, and a phone number you can be reached.

Not Your Customer: Acknowledge their situation, request, problem and direct them to other resources, practitioners, blogs, or articles that would be a splendid fit for them.

I love personally connecting with my clients. In this area of business, I am 1997 all the way, and I pick up the phone and talk to them live. I set up all the calls on one day or schedule them after my regular client sessions. I have found this to save a colossal amount of time. In a 20 minute phone call, I accomplish the following:

• Find out their history and current issues.
• Explain to them how coaching works and pricing.
• Ascertain if we are a right fit and they are ready for coaching.
• Answer any of their logistical questions.
• Give them a personal sense of what it would be like to work with me on the phone (my tone of voice, cadence through the call, etc.).
• Process the invoice.
• Set up the first session.

Do you know how long that would take back-and-forth by email?
5 days to a month. Do not screw your own time economy.

ELEVEN.

Number eleven is a hodge-podge: Do not work your business 7 days a week. From time to time, forget everything you know about the “right way” to run a business and run it like a neighborhood lemonade stand. Do not price your offerings around your personal ability to pay for it — you are not your ideal customer. Work out perplexing issues in your business and it will resolve problems in other areas of your life. Breathe, play, laugh. Remember how lucky you are to be an entrepreneur. If you want to be smarter in business, read everything these two people write: James Altucher and Penelope Trunk.

Now it’s your turn: What piece of advice could you offer a new entrepreneur? Onward!

Stephanie St.Claire | Intuitive Guidance Counselor |BLISSBOMBED.com

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Hello Everyone - its me again! (Duncan)

As you may know, I'm in the process of writing a series of guides to show people how to move from a corporate job to owning a coffeehouse.  Unfortunately, they are not going to be ready for a little while.  However, If you are REALLY serious about starting your own coffeehouse, and you cant wait for my guides to come out, I also offer a 2-day, one-on-one intensive boot camp on starting a coffeehouse.  You come up to New Haven for these two days, and we spend two intensive days going through all the intricacies of starting, owning and operating a successful coffeehouse.  If you are interested, send me an email and we'll get it set up: coffeehouseguy1@gmail.com










https://medium.com/i-m-h-o/3dc264023df5

managing your vendors - part 1

In the next two blog posts, I'd like to dive into the issue of vendors - how they work, what to expect when working with them, and how to avoid being taken advantage of.

Vendors are companies that sell goods and services to your company.  These range from alarm companies, garbage pick up, produce suppliers, papergood suppliers etc.  Each one of them has a different set of dynamics and issues.

The goal of this paper is to give some insight into how to deal with vendors, what to expect, potential pitfalls and how to get the most out of them.

A couple things to take into consideration when dealing with Vendors:

1. Everything is negotiable.  We, here in America, are programmed to accept all prices that are given to us.  WE have very few opportunities to negotiate anything, thus we are not very good at it at it.  But remember - with just about any vendor, prices, services, terms and conditions - all is negotiable.  AND just because you agree to something once, it doesn't mean you cant change your mind later!  So, if they come to you with a 5-year contract, you can simply say 'no'. 

2. The cheapest alternative will often cost you more in the long run.  Better to go with a reputable vendor that wont mess with you than go with the cheapest.  The cheapest bidder will usually under bid to get your business, then jack up your prices or find other sneaky ways to extract more money from you.  You end up spending a crazy amount of time just managing these guys and checking up on them to be sure they arent playing pricing games with you (which is just another form of expense).  Not worth the effort!!  

I once had a dairy provider who liked to screw with my prices.  Dairy is unique, because prices fluctuate quite a bit with market prices.  His favorite thing to do was to track market prices on the way up, and only partially track them onthe way back down.  EG -

week one:  market prices increase 10%, his prices would increase 10%.  

week two - market prices decrease 8%, his prices decrease 5%.  

week three - market prices increase 5%, his prices increase 5%.  

week four - market prices decrease 10%, his prices decrease 8%

Before you know it, you are paying 20-25% above market prices... if you are not carefully tracking prices vs. market prices, you will end up paying WAY over market.

I once had another vendor (a general food vendor) who also enjoyed messing with me.  Every week, we were ordering 20-30 items from him.  Every week, he would choose one or two items from the list, and bump up their prices 4-5%.  It was so subtle, that I did not realize it was happening.  When I did notice, it was usually just one item on my long list of items, and it only went up 4-5%, or maybe $5.  When you are paying $800 on an invoice, you tend to shrug off a $5 increase.  It wasnt until about a year later when I was doing some price comparisons that I discovered what this guy was doing.... by then, my *weekly* invoices were up by almost $200!!!  Needless to say, I dropped that company pretty darned quick.

The lesson learned? - go with honest vendors.  You might spend a bit more up front, but it is worth if if you dont have to constantly check up on them and waste your time. 

3. Always get multiple bids - and give yourself plenty of time to get multiple bids.  IT takes time to do this, but definitely worth it.  You will get a better understanding of the lay of the land, the issues and the players.  

4. The *person* you work with (ie - the salesman at the specific company) is almost as important as the company you choose.  There is a guy who works for one of my Vendors (Perkins - now Gordon Foods) who is just awesome.  He never messes with me, never jacks up my prices, gets back to me immediately when I need something.    

5. READ THE CONTRACT CAREFULLY.  Often times, these salesmen will hand you a contract to sign and want you to sign it there and then.  DO NOT do this.  Take the contract home and read it carefully, highlight the parts that dont make sense, or cross out the parts you *dont* agree to (and initial those parts).  You are absolutely allowed to alter any contract that you dont like.  You would not believe the sort of stuff these companies write into their contracts that almost no one ever reads.  NO matter what the salesman says, if it is written in the contract, they will try to enforce it - no matter how onerous.   I've had these salesmen tell me "oh, this is just boilerplate contract speak - no one every actually enforces it!"... yeah, right.  Dont believe it.  You need to think about signing a contract as if your worst enemy was on the other side of the table from you, and will try to use the contract to extract the maximum money and inflict the most pain possible on you.  90% of the time, nothing will happen.  It will either be too expensive, difficult or not worth pursuing.  But that 10% of the time, you will be glad for the effort you put forth in the negotiation.

Now that we've covered the generalities, I'd like to go into specific vendors, and what I've learned from each.  

GARBAGE HAULERS:

In most cities, there are 3-5 garbage haulers, so you can call them and find out their prices.

What will you need?

There are a couple directions you can go with your garbage hauler:

First, you could go with just straight garbage pick up - so the garbage company supplies you with a dumpster, you throw *everything* in the dumpster and they come and pick it up once a week (or more often).  This has the benefit of being easy - you dont separate anything... everything just goes in one bin.  On the downside, it is more expensive, and you will probably catch some flack from your customers for not recycling. 

Second, you could go with a garbage dumpster and a recycling dumpster.  This is a bit more work, because you need to have *two* containers everywhere, and your customers need to separate trash from recycling.  The two bins take up a bit more room everywhere.  On the plus side - this is the least expensive option.  The more you can recycle, the better,  It costs about half to have a recycling dumpster vs. a garbage dumpster.  In addition, in this day and age, most garbage haulers have single-stream recycling, so you can put plastics, glass, paper etc - all into the same dumpster and they will sort it out. 

Third, you could go with just recycling and compost.  There is only a small  handful of things that cannot go in the recycling these days:  styrofoam, waxed boxes, lightbulbs and empty insecticide spraycans.  Pretty much everything else can be recycled.  If this is the way you wanted to go, you could have a small 55gal *garbage* can, a couple compost bins and recycle everything else.  On the plus side, you get huge kudos from your customers for composting everything.  There are some downsides to separating your compost from your garbage: composting can be expensive.  Right now, it is pretty expensive to get rid of compost - I'm paying about 30% more for my collection now that I separate my compost.  In addition, I'm using these compostable bags (made from a cornstarch derivative) to collect the compost, which cost me about 3x more per bag than the traditional black plastic garbage bag.  In total, I'd estimate I'm paying $400 more per month to separate and dispose of my compost.  

Another consideration when separating compost;  To use compostable bags or not to use compostable bags.  There are some establishments that have just plastic cans that customers dump their organic matter into, then these are in turn dumped into a compost bin, without the use of bags.  While this is certainly cheaper (compostable bags are expensive), you will need to consider the potential for attracting pests (rats/flies/cockroaches) when you have open food garbage.  In addition, you will need a way to quickly and easily clean the compost bins that go in your shop.  If you can deal with these two issues and avoid the cost of the compostable bags, you will save alot of money.

The amount you pay for garbage pick up is dependent on three things:  First, the size of the dumpster (measured by cubic yards).  Second, by how often it is picked up per week.  Third, what is in the dumpster.  So, with my shop, we have a 2-yard recycling dumpster that is picked up three times per week, and two 60gal 'cans' of compost that are picked up twice a week.   I have to do some adjustments to frequency of pick up due to seasonality (we are located next to Yale, so summers are slow when school is out, and things peak in the fall and spring).

Your trash hauler should plan on replacing dumpsters at least once a year to clean and repaint them.  The dumpsters get banged up, rusted and start smelling bad.  When you set up your initial contract, discuss with your hauler when/how they replace / upkeep & maintain their dumpsters.  Get it written into the contract...

Contractual Obligations - most garbage haulers want you to sign 5-year contracts.  DONT DO IT!!   I negotiated a single-year contract with my hauler, with a caveate that if they do not follow the contracted service, or repeatedly fail to address my customer service requests, that I can give them a 30 day notification to quit the service.   Make sure that there will be no price increases during the contract period... and if they do increase prices, that gives you the option to nullify the contract.  

LINEN COMPANIES

These are the folks who provide you with rags, mats, table cloths etc.  They usually come in once a week and take all the dirty stuff and replace it with clean stuff.  

A while ago, In my effort to keep my costs down, I tried buying my own rags and mats etc. and then washing / cleaning them myself.  It only took about a month before I went back to a linen company to take care of that for me.  It was WAYYY too much of a pain in the backside, and I wasnt saving much money.

Linen companies are a dime a dozen.  It is pretty easy to get them to bid against each other for you business.  However, the same thing I mentioned before also applies to these companies - the cheapest may not be the best... and actually might cost you more in the long run (or be such crappy service that you'll pull your hair out).   I'd recommend contacting a couple different companies to get some idea of prices.  Then, go around to a couple nearby restaurants and ask who they use... and how good they are.   Once you find a quality company, tell them about the competitive bids you've gotten and see if they will come close.

These guys are terrible about arbitrarily boosting their prices.  At least 2-3 times per year, they will just increase my price.  At first, I got angry and called the company to complain... over time, I realized that I could just *ignore* the price increase and keep paying them the same I had been paying them before.  They would eventually just reset my price back down.  You see, these guys rely on your not noticing any price increase.  For most coffeehouses, you are not paying much to these people - maybe $40-60 per week.  So, if your price goes from $45 to $50, the company banks on your not really noticing / caring about a $5.00 increase to price.  However, remember that even a $5.00 increase adds up to real money over the course of a year - $5.00 x 52 = $260.  

You might get a call from their accounts receivable department about partial payment.  Just tell them that you did not accept the price increase, and that if they do not reset your price back to where it was before, you can easily switch to another company.  I had that conversation about six or seven times.. but now they dont even bother me.  About once every six months, they reset my price and eliminate all the back charges.  

AGain, these guys like you to sign contracts - the longer the better.  When I first started out, I signed a 3 year contract, then I signed a 1 year contract... and now, I just dont sign any contract.  I explain that I have been with the company for a long time now, I have always paid my bills on time, so I see NO reason for signing any long term contract.  They try heavy-handed tactics with me, but I simply ignore them - they continue to provide me with the service and I continue paying my bills.  Nothing happened.  

If you do end up signing a contract, make sure there is a caveat in there that says if they raise the price for any reason, you have the option to decline the increase and/or you have the option to cancel the contract. 

Payment terms - you can usually push payment out at *least* 30 days.  

Alarm Companies

These are the companies who install alarm systems, then have long-term monitoring contracts

What do you need:

- I'd recommend broken glass detectors on the windows, motion detectors inside, a door alarm and a panic switch under the cash register.   You can also tie in fire alarm systems (These are usually a selection of heat and smoke detectors).    It will cost a couple thousand dollars to get this stuff installed.  

- You will also need a monitoring box (that all the detectors hook into).  You can either get one that ties into the phone line, or that uses a wireless signal.  The wireless signal is a bit more expensive,  but worth it.  I'm trying to eliminate our analog phone line (because AT&T charges an arm and a leg for a single commercial phone line!) and the alarm box wont go through a digital VOIP line.  For a while, I tried having the alarm signal on our regular phone line.  It didnt work.  Whenever you picked up the phone, the alarm would start beeping at you.  Just shell out the extra cash to get the wireless box - itis worth it in the long run.

There are a bunch of companies that do alarm systems.  Some are as small as a one-man operations (who install it, then sign you up to a monitoring service), some are huge, nationwide businesses (ADT for example) that do everything from install to monitoring themself.   I have had some bad experiences with the big businesses.  Once I had a salesman promise me a 1-year contract, then had me sign something that I did not read closely enough.  Turned out to be a 5 year contract (in the fine print) and the company tried to come after me when I tried to cancel the contract after 3 years.  

Like many of these service companies, they will want you to sign long-term contracts.  Dont do it.  Explain that you dont know what their service is like, and if you discover they are not a good company, you want the ability to get out.  Likewise, if your business is brand new, you just dont know if you will even last a year, let alone five.  Believe me, if you sign a five year contract, and your business folds after a year (or you sell it in two years...and the new owner does not take on the new alarm contract), these guys will come after you personally for the remaining term of the contract.  If you DO have to sign a contract, keep it as short as possible - 1-2 years... and add in caveats about how you can cut the contract short if service is not up to expectations, if they try any price increases (for any reason).  Some alarm companies will try to fight you on this by saying that the equipment they install is paid for with the long-term service contract, so if you have a shorter contract they will have to charge more for the monthly fees.  

If that's the case, go and find one of these single-man alarm installers, and ask how much it would cost for them to install the system for you (JUST the system, NOT a service contract).  This will give you an accurate assessment of the real cost of install.

I've generally found people in the alarm industry to be a bit untrustworthy.   Many will try to slide something past you, and tell you things that are maybe not 100% true.... so be careful when dealing with them.

Well, that is enough for this posting.  In the next posting, we will cover coffee roasters, bulk supply places (BJ, Costco, Sams, Restaurant Depot etc), specialist vendors and a quick summary of negotiating strategy when dealing with these.

thank you for your interest!!

Duncan

The Coffeehouse Guy

On a final note: as you may know, I'm in the process of writing a series of guides to show people how to move from a corporate job to owning a coffeehouse.  Unfortunately, they are not going to be ready for a little while.  However, If you are REALLY serious about starting your own coffeehouse, and you cant wait for my guides to come out, I also offer a 2-day, one-on-one intensive boot camp on starting a coffeehouse.  You come up to New Haven for these two days, and we spend two intensive days going through all the intricacies of starting, owning and operating a successful coffeehouse.  If you are interested, send me an email and we'll get it set up: coffeehouseguy1@gmail.com

So much GARBAGE out there!!!

Do a google search on "increase sales coffeehouse" or "Improve sales coffeehouse" or even such things as "effective coffeehouse marketing"... anything along these lines, and you will be faced with an array of utter garbage.  Umm - let me revise that - mostly garbage.  Almost everything I could find boiled down to: advertising,  garbage from people who dont know what they are talking about & expensive consulting firms staffed by people who have not actually owned coffeehouses in 20 years.  

Advertising:  

I found a video with a guy from some Roaster called Kahwa Coffee who claimed that the single most important thing when setting up a coffeehouse was choosing coffee beans... HA!!  What a load of garbage.  Sure, having good coffee is important - I spent a good amount of time investigating different coffee suppliers, blends, etc.  However, it is number seven or eight on the list of important things to worry about when starting a coffeehouse.  The top three things that are WAYYYY more important?  1) location 2) location 3) niche  

I stumbled across one of those hokey 'top-10' lists that made me laugh.  It was a 'top ten ways to increase revenue and profitability in your coffeehouse" - AWESOME!  I quickly clicked across to it...   Oddly enough, all 10 involved selling more drinks with syrups, promoting drinks with syrups, putting syrup displays near the cash register.. bla bla bla.  I then scrolled down to the bottom of the top 10 list, and discovered this *insightful* top-10 list had been put together by (you guessed it) a syrup manufacturer.

This garbage was sooo common - it really began to tick me off.  When you are considering making a huge investment and enormous lifestyle change, you need REAL information, AUTHENTIC direction and SOLID advice.  Too many companies are putting forward false advice they dress up as helpful guidance, but is nothing but thinly veiled advertising that will actually distract potential coffeehouse people from the real issues that could make or break the business.  A young coffeehouse is very fragile.  Something as simple as the owner not being focused on the right issues could be enough to sink a it.

People who dont know what they are talking about:

There were a number of instances of articles or lists generated by people who clearly had not owned a coffeehouse... or had not owned a coffeehouse in a VERY long time... or just worked in some monster organization like Starbucks.

One quick note here - owning a small, single-location, independent coffeehouse is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from working for some Corporate Coffee Leviathan.   Working in the marketing department for Starbucks is more akin to working in the marketing department of Ford, Proctor & Gamble or Taco Bell... large scale advertising and promotion for large mulit-location business concerns is a very different animal from a single,local independent coffeehouse.   How do I know this?  Simple - I used to work in Corporate America, and now I own a small independent coffeehouse.  Why is this important?  Because many of these self-proclaimed 'experts' in coffeehouses are ex-corporate-bigwigs that work for some impressive-sounding consulting firm that consults with coffeehouses and charge an arm and a leg.  I found one 'consulting' firm that charged $3000-$5000 to drop by your location for a couple days and rain down their 'extensive experience' on your potential coffeehouse. .  So, what is some of this wonderful advice they are hawking?   One example: I found several that recommended new owners spend alot of time on social media (Facebook and Twitter) to get their name and brand out there.    I love tech, and when twitter and facebook started going mainstream, I tried all sorts of experiments with both of these to see how I could use 'new media' to build a coffeehouse.  My findings were neatly summarized by Rich Westerfield (owner of Aldo Coffee - a small independent coffeehouse) "Other than some laptop warriors and a handful of certified coffee geeks, NO ONE really pays attention to Twitter or Facebook for coffeehouses."   Yes yes yes.  Exactly what I found.    

I found a handful of articles on eHow that talked about starting a coffeehouse - I'm not sure where they got their information, but much of it was just generic recommendations that sounds good... until you actually do it.  Some examples:

- Host Music Events / Poetry slams... On a superficial level, makes sense.  Do these events to draw people to your shop, so they get to know the place.. then potentially become long-term customers.  Unfortunately, it doesnt work like that.  Coffeehouses are all about repeat customers.  The most valuable customer is the one who works down the street, and comes in every morning for their latte and muffin.  Those customers who come in once and grab a cookie and a coffee, and dont come back because they dont live/work in the area?.... nearly worthless.  I have a rule of thumb - 1 1/2 block radius.  Most coffeehouses are not destinations in their own right - convenience plays a big role in a customers decision to go to one.  Thus, 90% of my customers work, live or transit through (every day) a 1 1/2 block radius from my shop.    The people who come in for music / poetry slams etc - these are generally not the people that live/work/transit within the 1 1/2 block radius on a regular basis.    They come in once for the poetry slam and they might have a beer and a cookie.  (though people who come for music and poetry consume less then other customers - many dont even buy anything!), then come in again six months later.... who cares!!  these are not your real customers.    POetry and Music do NOT bring in the people you want!

Furthermore, organizing these events takes up valuable time.... and when the event is done, then you have more work cleaning up, puttting stuff away etc.... and there is no long-term, residual benefit.  Better to spend your time on something that will have a longer-term impact (like finding ways to reduce your expenses etc.).  I've rarely seen a good pop to sales when I've organized some sort of event.   Furthremore, when you host music, you have to get a license from those vulture Music Rights companies like BMI, who threaten you with legal action unless you buy some expensive license from them that allows you to  play live music.   No, to heck with that.  Not worth it.

- Coffeehouse Layout - one eHow document talked about the best layout for a coffeehouse.  It indicated that the best place for the service counter was in the back of the shop.  This is a bad idea.  Your most profitable customer is the one who walks in, grabs a latte and muffin and walks out (because they dont use your tables/chairs/heat/ac etc.) .   The majority of these customers want to get in and out as fast as possible - they are usually on their way to work and in a rush.   You want to make it as fast and easy for these in-and-out customers to use your shop.  Part of that speed of service is easy access - Get your counter area RIGHT UP FRONT. so people can peer in the door, see the counter, and realize they can get something fast and easy.     it may only take 8 seconds for a person to stride from the front of the shop to the service area in the back, the distance acts as a psychological barrier to people.

- Set up WiFi - Yeah.... sure, but not for the reason stated.  The author was concerned with customer access to free WiFi.  That is not important at the initial stages.  This can wait.  However, you MUST have wifi for another more important reason - payments.  Most payment systems (gift card machines, credit card acceptance machines, ATM machines etc, all connect to the internet for verification.  Without internet access, it makes it very difficult for people to pay you!

Other people in the coffee industry leading you down the wrong path.

There is this strange aspect to the coffee industry that I have never understood - so many roasters and coffeehouse owners focus a disproportionate amount of time and energy on showing you how they travel to these distant, obscure destinations to see where the coffee is grown, dried etc.   I fail to see the purpose of this.  I believe it is important to support environmentally & socially sustainable practices (such as organic, shade grown, fairly traded coffee), and to ensure top-quality coffee.  However, that can all be done from home - there is no compelling business reason for traveling to central Guatamala to shake the farmer's hand that grew the actual coffee.  That makes about as much sense as a mechanic traveling to the offshore oilfields of Venezuela to ensure the quality of the oil he is putting in your car.  I insist my roaster produce top-quality, sustainable coffee, but I'm not going to waste my time traveling around the world to check up on the supplies.  My time is much better used building the business.

Another oddity is this practice of cupping.  If you have ever seen people cupping, it is just absurd (and pretentious  .  There is a very specific process involved in creating the cupping experience...  a certain grind of coffee, a certain oz amt with water of a specific temperature.  then you 'break the crust' with a spoon, slurp a teaspoon of coffee and swish it around your mouth.  Then you are obligated to make some obscure comment about how 'chocolaty, oakie, full-bodied, mildly temperamental" etc the coffee is.  What bolderdash.  What truly matters is that your customers like your coffee - so dont waste your time doing cupping to test various beans.  Just grab 4-5 different types of beans and let your customers taste-test them.  Whichever one they (and you) like best, that is the one you use.  Your time is WAYYYY too valuable to waste on cupping - your time is better spent devising an effective marketing campaign.

How about those barista competitions?.  These are competitions where highly trained baristas show their skills at pulling the best espresso, creating lattes, latte art, cappuccinos etc.    People who talk about these competitions pretend as if these events and the skills they demonstrate are vitally important to the success of any coffeehouse.  What a load of crap.    If you are using good beans, at the right grind on a good espresso machine and you are no over or under pulling your shots, your espresso will be delicious.   Only the 0.1% of the population who are serious coffee nuts will know the difference.    In short - dont bother with the competitions for now.  At some point in the future, when your coffeehouse is thriving and you have some spare time on your hands, it is fun to check them out.... but remember... barista competitions are just games, and have nothing to do with the success or failure of your coffeehouse.

So, what lesson should we draw from this?  Be careful what you read.  Check the source of the information.  Before you take any advice to heart, think about where it comes from, who is giving it and whether this person is qualified to give such advice... or if it just some twisted way to sell their own product.    Caveat Emptor.

Thanks for listening!

Duncan 

Coffeehouse Guy

On a final note: as you may know, I'm in the process of writing a series of guides to show people how to move from a corporate job to owning a coffeehouse.  Unfortunately, they are not going to be ready for a little while.  However, If you are REALLY serious about starting your own coffeehouse, and you cant wait for my guides to come out, I also offer a 2-day, one-on-one intensive boot camp on starting a coffeehouse.  You come up to New Haven for these two days, and we spend two intensive days going through all the intricacies of starting, owning and operating a successful coffeehouse.  If you are interested, send me an email and we'll get it set up: coffeehouseguy1@gmail.com