A veteran coffee man with 12 years of experience tells you 9 “truths” about the industry!

2016-10-25 Coffee Gate Coffee Gate

Opening small restaurants is becoming a trend in Shanghai, while Beijing is still only at the second-tier level in the coffee industry;

Starbucks deliberately makes its coffee less delicious;

The coffee shop business actually has nothing to do with coffee, so don’t take the technology too seriously;

…

Yesterday, the first day of the "Dream Cafe" course jointly organized by Kamen Business School and Carving Time was successfully concluded. The course is full of practical information and is particularly brain-burning... Kamen will release some exciting content of the course in the near future.

This time, we have picked out some of the views from yesterday’s class by our instructor, Lin Jinbao (Abao). This coffee veteran with 12 years of industry experience talked about some views that may subvert your usual cognitive thinking:

Lin Jinbao, tutor at Kamen Business School

1. Don’t skip service to improve quality

It is undeniable that to this day, many people still want to open a cafe out of sentimentality.

Lin Jinbao said that this idea is very risky - there is a lack of comprehensive evaluation, and the industry itself has not reached the point where there is a mature model that can be applied.

Therefore, 60% losses, 30% break-even, and 10% profit have become a relatively objective reality. If you still insist on opening a coffee shop under such a reality, you first need to figure out a question: What exactly is a "coffee shop"?

A place for people to communicate with each other? A representation of a lifestyle? Or a certain attitude towards thinking?

In fact, a cafe is a place that sells coffee - but it provides much more than just a cup of coffee.

▵Don’t always talk about sentimental tonality. A coffee shop is just a place to sell coffee.

Therefore, as a shop owner, you need to think about what kind of "positioning" can tap into the remaining "cafe value" - why do you want to open this shop? What kind of coffee do you want to sell? In what form? What characteristics does it have? Once you have positioned yourself, you must execute it without fail, unless you prove it is wrong.

2. The coffee shop business actually has nothing to do with coffee;

“Forget coffee, coffee is too easy.”

You should treat a coffee shop as a business, but keep the feelings in your heart. Only when you have a business can you have feelings.

If you don’t understand coffee, it’s okay, there are people who know how to make it. From a barista’s perspective, “Don’t take the technique too seriously.”

Coffee technology is what technicians need to do, but for coffee shop owners, management, promotion and operation are more important.

3. "Starbucks coffee is not tasty"? Actually, it is intentional;

Many people think that Starbucks coffee tastes bad. Lin Jinbao said that in fact, Starbucks beans are not bad, they are just deliberately deep roasted.

Why?

Lightly roasted beans will fluctuate greatly during storage and transportation, which can easily affect standardization.

▵Standardization achieves replicability and is more commercially valuable

" Ignoring some features for the sake of product stability is an operational approach. Minimizing differences in this way is precisely what makes Starbucks so great ."

In fact, how many people would or have the ability to sniff the coffee in a cafe and then comment that it has "citrus aroma, obvious sweetness, and a hint of caramel"?

4. Don’t look for partners easily;

Don’t open a coffee shop with a partner easily. If you want to find a partner, you must reach a consensus on two points:

1. The coffee industry is not an industry for making quick money. You have to be able to endure "poverty and loneliness";

2. In order to maintain a long-term relationship, a contract with clear division of labor is needed.

In addition, as a founder, you should try to be in the store and do everything yourself in the first six to ten months of opening the store. Because the atmosphere of a coffee shop is largely determined by the temperament of the owner. Although there is a team to assist, soft temperament such as brand culture needs to be conveyed with strict standards.

For example, if you define a relatively high standard for the coffee shop, when there are beans with bad flavor, you must learn to throw them away in front of the clerk to convey your attitude.

5. When the team matures, the boss can "run as far as he can";

In the early stage of a cafe, the owner must do everything himself. After the team matures (about 10 months), the owner should not stay in the store all the time, which will give others an invisible pressure.

The first is the employees. If you are worried that there will be problems when you are not in the store, it is either a problem of your trustworthiness or your management and training are not in place.

▵Think about the feeling of being watched all the time

The second is the guests. Consumers have a need for privacy and like to immerse themselves in what they consider to be a "temporary exclusive territory" and feel superior as the "owner of the cafe". If the boss is present, they will inevitably have a few words with him. At this time, it seems that the guests are being told "I am the boss", which reduces their psychological favorability towards the store. This is very important for cafes that need to convey emotions.

6. 60% to 80% of coffee shop customers are women;

Influenced by the temperament and atmosphere of the cafe itself, from an industry perspective, the majority of consumers are still women.

7. “Your circle cannot support your business, no matter how big it is.”

Many coffee shop entrepreneurs hold this idea: "Many colleagues in our company are clamoring for coffee every day~I have many close friends who have no place to get together~Many of my friends are second-generation rich", so if I open a coffee shop and they come to support me, at least I won't lose money, right?

▵That's just for show

At least you have to put your head down and do the math. How many people? How often do they spend? How much money do they have? Even if we assume an ideal situation, how much money will be flowing in?

"Your circle cannot support your business, no matter how big it is." For a coffee shop in the long run, it is not reliable to rely on its own circle. You have to return to the mass market and look for your target customers in a down-to-earth manner.

8. In the field of coffee, don’t be superstitious about “professionalism”;

Don't believe in so-called professional stuff.

This is not to deny the value of "professionalism", but if the profession is not combined with your actual situation, it is just a theory without practical significance.

From a business perspective, "professional" is a noun, not an adjective in this industry.

9. Opening small shops has become a trend in Shanghai, and Beijing’s coffee standards are second-tier.

Nationwide, Shanghai has the highest level of maturity in coffee development. For example, there are many coffee shops in Shanghai that are as small as a few square meters and are developing very well. With the market segmentation, more and more small shops are opening, which is a reflection of the maturity of coffee culture.

The next one might be Qingdao, mainly because there are many Koreans and foreigners themselves have the habit of consuming coffee.

Although there are many coffee shops in Beijing, in terms of development stage, they are still at the second-tier level.

——What do you think about the above views? Leave a message to share your thoughts.

Kamen Business School & Carving Time,

The 4-day coffee shop class is in progress...

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