As a culinary pioneer, the café game is hard and it’s a business with as many good success stories and complete disasters. However, there are things you can do to improve your odds. Many people fantasise about running a café business when they are stuck at their boring day job, but they don’t realise the reality of running a café is actually very tough. But these pointers may help you out and set you up for a thriving business with longevity and popularity.
1. Plan right or plan to fail
Burgin who is an industry consultant said that Café is one of the best businesses to get satisfaction from in terms of being a people person. However, peopleare not necessarily polite. They are good at talking to people or making things. Few café owners could have been in a better position if they had crunched the numbers at the start. Most cooking show on TV has placed more emphasis on hospitality and people love the idea. Unfortunately, spreadsheets don’t make for compelling TV
Burgin says; most cafes that go out of business often forget doing mock pay runs and figuring out your overheads early on is crucial to the success of the business. Always calculate the costs needed and the contribution margin of every product sold.
He also made mention that lack of adequate storage is one of the common pitfalls new café owners fall into. Café owners sometimes cheap out on their premises and then quickly run out of space to store the numerous amounts of stock.
Café owner can remarkably improve running costs by drastically reducing wastage which will depend on the owner’s ability to store as much as possible with adequate space. Common financial pitfalls can be avoided by having a great accountant, bookkeeper or business adviser on your side from the start. Without an accurate record of financial information, your business is set up to fail.
2. Stand out from the rest of the market
Nowadays, more people are now going into café business and it is crucial for business owners to stand out from the rest. Just great coffee is not enough to capture customers, basically, all cafes have great coffee so you must provide more than that. Anyone can make decent coffee with a machine so cafes must think of other ways to market themselves. Cafe owners need to think about what they can offer that no else in the industry can since it is overcrowded. This principle is crucial in any business, especially in a highly competitive industry.
The area where cafes can separate themselves and stand out from the pack is food. Food is the area where cafés can be different, the food at your breakfast café can be unique and different to other businesses. Take your café to the next level and come up with an innovative menu, we have recently seen the rise of super milkshakes, science-inspired meals and all day breakfast to satisfy peoples cravings anytime.
Another way to stand out is by the physical appearance and positioning of your brand. From the name of the café to the interior décor. Give your menu items unique and fun names that are memorable to customers.
3. Menu efficiency
While most people love to have an extensive choice regarding café menu, business owners should make sure they don’t equate this to an overly extensive list of ingredients. A smart chef would be able to utilise a small number of ingredients in numerous ways to maximise efficiency.
Your storeroom and fridge are going to be filling up with too many ingredients if you offer too many things and there’s going to be a lot of wastage for unused food. It is about being perceptive and logical when it comes to the menu. Don’t forget to present your menu in a tasteful way as it is one of the first things a customer sees upon entering your business. Ensure the menu has perfect binding and neat pages, there are many great places for printing Melbourne that do a quality professional job.
4. Diversify or die
As a way of diversifying its business, Starbucks set the bar by providing retail items such as CDs and bags of take-home coffee beans. Either you like it or not, since Starbucks has introduced this concept, multiple revenue streams has been introduced. Once your business is established and well on its way in the business life cycle, new innovations like Starbucks need to be introduced to further increase revenue and ensure a positive future. Some ideas include branching into a lunch menu or catering for workplaces and functions as well as opening another branch at another popular location.
