Until now, not everyone who starts a business will be successful. Starting a business is an arduous process and full of dangerous pitfalls. Startup cafes are a prime example of this. Let’s find out with Startups Basics!
I. Some things to know about coffee startups
When it comes to starting a business, some people will immediately have the idea of starting a coffee business. Because the demand for Vietnamese people in crowded places is increasing day by day, along with that is our country’s long tradition of drinking coffee. Perhaps, for this reason, every day we see cafes of all kinds from cup cafes, and coffee huts to luxury cafes sprouting up like mushrooms. However, opening a coffee shop is like participating in a game, with luck, risks, and sometimes it’s frustrating. However, if you know how to research, learn, and do not repeat the mistakes that the previous people have encountered, I am sure that your coffee shop will be more and more crowded and bring a very high source of revenue.
II. 9 mistakes when starting a coffee business
Below we’ll help you spot the mistakes some coffee shop owners make and face that you can avoid if you intend to run your coffee shop.
1. Mistakes when choosing premises
The first mistake that most startup cafes make is choosing a location. Like other businesses, choosing a location to open a coffee shop is extremely important, because this is the main place to do your business.
Some people often show impatience in their business. Perhaps this is also the reason why most of these people often choose hastily a space to open a shop without considering the efficiency of the space even when they have not yet identified their customers. Some people even take advantage of the family’s existing stores to open a shop. The inevitable consequence of this is that the number of customers coming to the shop is less and less and your business will soon fail.
An example for you to better understand the importance of space in the process of opening a cafe such as: If you choose to open your coffee shop on a one-way street, for example, more than 80% of people passing by The road will not turn around to enter your shop. Unless your space is very beautiful or people walking, walking in the morning and evening. In addition, the fact that you choose a location with too small sidewalks also greatly affects your business. There will be no parking space for guests, in addition, the opening of the shop next to the road will increase the rate of dust and pollution entering your shop. This is the main reason why customers don’t visit your shop.
So try to choose for yourself a suitable space to be convenient for your business.
2. Mistakes in design
Do you think a successful coffee business only needs good drinks? This will be one of the factors leading to your failure when starting a coffee business. Customers now not only come to the cafe to enjoy drinks, but they also go to the cafe to enjoy the space, to be served, and to satisfy their emotions. Therefore, the space factor and the interior of the restaurant will be important factors to bring customers back and forth to your shop regularly.
For example, if you target your customers mainly couples, then design a romantic and gentle space to attract them. If you want to startup cafes take away, for example, you will not need a cafe that is too spacious but instead focus on decorating your bar so you will be able to leave an impression on your customers.
In addition, you should not copy the decor of a coffee shop with a big brand, instead, you should design your own unique and suitable space to attract many customers with more target goods.
3. No salary
Starting a business will be very difficult for you. Unlike when you go to work as an employee, you will get a fixed salary every month so you can take care of your expenses. However, if you accept to start a business, things will be different, you no longer receive a fixed monthly salary. This forces you to try to focus on your business more.
Start-up failure is inevitable, with the first few months, marketing costs, personnel costs, etc. being very high, you have not yet got a fixed customer file for the shop, so the loss is probably possible. probability is very high. So prepare yourself a certain amount of money to be able to maintain your life as well as be able to operate your shop for a while before having a stable source of revenue,
4. No more personal savings
When starting a business, the first thing to do is to have capital in hand. You can be relatives, friends, family, or even a bank loan. However, the first thing you need to do is take advantage of your long-term savings. And maybe in some risky cases, you may lose all the money that you have accumulated for so long.
5. Losing control of cash flow
When startup cafes, financial skills are not available, this is the reason that you cannot control your cash flow. Monthly, and quarterly expenses always exceed your plan, maybe some reasons are because your management ability is still quite poor or you need to spend your life, so it is not clear between the two business and personal spending.
6. Not right market demand
This is one of the reasons why most startup cafes fail. Consumer demand is always fluctuating, making it impossible for you to keep up. So before starting a coffee business, you need to identify the target customers you will serve and carefully study the habits and preferences of this customer group to avoid falling into a passive state.
7. Overly dependent on fortifications
When starting a coffee business, the scale is small, and the number of employees is quite small. You become very appreciative of them and treat them as an irreplaceable part of your shop, consider them as your associates, and work with them to grow the shop.
That is a very good thing, but you put too much trust in them and attach too much importance to them, this is a bad thing and will be a huge risk for you when that employee leaves or works. no regulations.
8. Time pressure
The pressure on costs and possibly loan interest rates makes most startups very eager to quickly reap profits from their business. They will show their “greed” when they want to achieve their goals as quickly as possible, which is also a huge risk because haste will make their decisions no longer as well thought out as before and lead to failure if the wrong decision is even the smallest thing.
9. No time for yourself
Finally, a mistake that almost everyone who intends to startup cafes can hardly avoid is the lack of time for themselves. When you just start your business, you will have to trade off the free time for yourself, no more parties, outings with friends, …
The business will be very stressful, you have to spend a lot of time on it. However, this is not a good problem, it is easy to put you in a state of stress. So try to balance work time and time for yourself.
III. Conclude
Not all startup cafes are successful, but this doesn’t mean you can’t build your unique coffee shop. Consider the mistakes of those who have gone before and summarize the lesson for yourself when embarking on this service business. Good luck with your coffee business intentions!
Read more: https://startupsbasics.com/en/best-startup-business-ideas/
