Opening your first business can be an exciting yet stressful experience. Whether you're planning on opening a Cafe or a Coffee Shop, there are many elements to consider. From choosing the right location to mapping out the interior design of your space, there's no shortage of tasks and planning involved in setting up shop! With this step-by-step guide at hand, we'll take you through all the necessary steps so that by the time you open up those doors for business operation, everything is ready to go as planned!
Step One: Research
Opening your cafe means each decision made along the way is solely your responsibility. So you need to ensure that you know what you're talking about. For example, people are becoming increasingly aware of where their coffee is sourced and how it's roasted. So ask yourself, why did you choose your coffee supplier? Ensure you know why you made the choices that you did.
It's important that as a business owner, you take time to research and understand the key decisions you will have to make. The more you know about the decisions you have to take, the easier those decisions will be to make.
Step Two: Location! Location! Location!
To ensure success, it's imperative to select an ideal location for your cafe that will draw in the desired demographic. Knowing who those customers are is equally important - strategise around what they want and need so you can maximise foot traffic while also converting passersby into loyal patrons!
When looking at prospective sites, location and size are the two main factors you need to consider. Envision your space, will it be an open cafe with room for large sofas and coffee tables covered in newspapers and books or will it be a bustling business ready to serve the commuters and office workers during weekday mornings and lunch rushes? Your cafe should appeal specifically to those who pass by, which means defining a target customer as early as possible.
Step Three: Cafe Concept
Now that you've got your location and decided on your target audience, it's time to fine-tune your concept. The design of your cafe is key to enticing your audience. Consider what your cafe can bring to the scene: will you be providing the latest coffee trends for bustling youngsters or sticking to the classics for a cosy haven?
Over the last couple of years, the importance of interior design in cafes has grown rapidly. Although great-tasting drinks and delicious food are extremely important, the impact of appealing, aesthetic interiors cannot be overstated. An aesthetic interior isn't just about looking welcoming and inviting to customers, it's all about providing a pleasing coffee shop experience.
Start the process with a floor plan - you can either hire a professional or find floor planning software to do it yourself. With a carefully designed floor plan, you can maximise your shop's potential, efficiently dividing the space between customer needs and operational necessities. Through a well-thought-out floor plan, that vision can easily become a reality.
Step Four: Investing in Staff
Business owners are all too familiar with the challenge of finding and maintaining reliable staff. While experienced personnel may sound like the ideal candidate, attitude plays a greater role in its success - skills can always be learned but their mindset cannot be so easily changed.
Your staff keeps your business flowing, so it's important to monitor their daily performance, and with staff management data, it's quick, easy, and far more accurate than receiving individual employee reports. Utilising reports and analytics of SPARK Staff Scheduling can easily provide you with the relevant data for all your staff and lets you create incentives to motivate your team. Motivate staff members with target milestones to reach and provide rewards or bonuses when they achieve success. Create a friendly environment of competition amongst the team whilst encouraging growth.
Step Five: The Menu
As well as the interior design, a menu should also express the vision and the theme of a business. For example, if your location is close to a gym and your audience is tailored to gym goers then you'll want to provide healthy food and drinks to customers. To ensure a great experience for guests, the menu should be tailored to their tastes and wallet-friendly.
When starting, it's difficult to know which items will be big sellers. Cafe owners often make the mistake of trying to please everyone, overstuffing their menu and creating dishes that rarely get ordered. To stand out from your competition, focus on fewer items with a 'wow' factor! Create up to 12 irresistible options - including vegan/gluten-free alternatives - for a guaranteed hit every time.
Ensure you have good stock management software that can assist you in optimising your stock to increase profits. With the right software, you can monitor your inventory to determine which items are in-demand and help reduce food costs for greater returns on investment.
Step Six: Technology
Opening a new business can be a stressful process, so it's important to invest in technology that makes your life easier. An EPoS is an essential piece of equipment so having the right tech can greatly help your business. You should look for an EPoS which integrates payments, and adds optional features like reservation management, staff scheduling and mobile ordering. SPARK prides itself on its all-in-one EPoS with customisable options available so you can equip your business with the ideal software package tailored specifically to meet your needs.
Step Seven: Market Your Cafe
The time leading up to the opening of your cafe is the chance to start building your network. There are several methods of marketing your business but some are quicker and more efficient than others.
Social Media is the quickest way to market your cafe. It doesn't cost anything to start a page and it provides you with a great platform for word-of-mouth. Firstly, ensure you're marketing to the right age range. Establish your target audience matches with the right social media platforms. If you're looking for a younger generation of customers then your focus should be on Instagram and TikTok, not Facebook and Twitter. Looking at Instagram in particular, with an aesthetically pleasing gallery of images on your Instagram, you'll be enticing customers with visuals alone.
Ensure your business information is up to date on Google so people know where you are and you'll show up on Google searches. Keep up to date on sites like TripAdvisor so that you can respond quickly to feedback. SPARK offers a feature where you can add links to the bottom of your receipts, a great way of sharing your TripAdvisor profile to acquire reviews!
From choosing the perfect location and conceptualising the menu to applying for permits and hiring staff - opening a cafe requires serious dedication. But with careful planning, you can bring your dream cafe into reality! And at the end of the day, you'll feel the joy of providing people with space to enjoy your service.
