Digital Reporter
Lucia Edna P. de Guzman
The romance of owning your own coffee shop knows no limit. The fully booked How to Start A Coffee Shop seminar at Commune Café last October 14 saw participants from all ages and all professions—artists, aspiring authors, accountants, attorneys, and other professions (that did not start with the letter A., from all over the Philippines. All of them have different reasons why they want their own shop, which mostly boiled down to a love of coffee. But starting your own coffee shop isn’t easy, and Commune owner Ros Juan gives us fourteen things to consider when building your own café.
1. Concept
“What do I want people to feel when they enter my coffee shop?” Juan asked. The concept is what distinguishes your shop from the rest, and why many small coffee shops can open without being direct competitors of each other. Along with the shop’s vision, the concept tends to reflect the individual personality of you, the owner.
2. Vision
This is your brand, your name, and what you want your coffee shop to stand for. (Remember to google your potential name first, you don’t want to have the same name as another establishment’s, for legal reasons.. “For me, I wanted Commune to be a place where people could meet, a hub like the old salons where philosophers used to meet,” Juan shared.
3. Target Market
Who are you brewing for? This will depend on your location, and will dictate what equipment you need for your shop. For example, college students tend to drink cold drinks, so you will need a blender. This will also affect your pricing, since it would be disastrous to charge more than what your market could pay. Aside from listening to the advice of real estate brokers, you should also do your own research such as looking at what people tag on social media, visiting restaurants along the area, and talking to people.
4. Location
Where will you brew? “During the last two years, there has been the rise of the neighbourhood cafés,” Juan said, which means that you don’t exactly have to open your café near a highway. Besides, it’s always traffic here in the Metro, and with the rise of traffic in residential areas like Maginhawa Street and Xavierville, people have a tendency to go neighbourhood hopping for their coffee fix. Just be wary of rent, which can get insanely high in popular places (*cough*Maginhawa*cough*., and list your business on Google maps so people know where to find you.
5. Business Plan
“From the very beginning treat it as a serious business,” Juan advised. The business plan will include your description, products and services, sales and marketing strategy, operations, management team, future development plans and your financial summary. It seems tedious at first, but with all this data you’ll be able to learn what works best for you and how to keep your shop running.
6. Registrations and Permits
Are you going to be the sole owner of your café or do you plan to be a corporation? What permits do you need to start building and operating your café? Make sure to have a lawyer check all your contracts and have a human relations expert walk you through getting ready to hire people. “These are the nuts and bolts that you need because it will make running your business easier in the long run,” said Juan.
7. Construction
Build, build, build. While you might have had wild dreams during your concept and vision stages (and in Juan’s case, Pinterest boards., this is the part where you have to pare your dreams to reality. You have to consider how your physical set up affects not just the ambience but also the workflow of your employees. Where will you place your equipment? Where would you like your customers to sit? Remember to work with professionals and that cutting costs now can mean more expenses in the future.
8. Products and Services
This is the part where you plan what’s on your menu. This goes beyond listing what kind of drinks and meals you want to serve. Are the ingredients readily available? How much inventory space do you have? Remember that the cost of your food should be ideally be accounted for 40% of its price.
9. Employees
Hire the right people, and make sure that you can work with them. There is no fool proof hiring plan.
10. Training
“You have to be the coffee geek, the one who knows coffee through continuous learning so that you can impart knowledge to your staff,” Juan said. There are many places to learn about coffee and business, including the Barista & Coffee Academy of Asia, Enderun, Commune, YouTube, and if you have the money— other countries with their own unique coffee culture.
11. Time Table
“Set a realistic time for everything and plan your funds accordingly,” is the basic gist of it, according to Juan. Of course you should also have a contingency in case things don’t go according to schedule and budget. While we’re at it, make sure to never stop improving and maintaining your physical space, and have plumbers, handymen and electricians on speed dial for emergencies.
12. Equipment
You can’t make coffee from just beans and water, you have to have your tools. And the exact dimensions and wattage (if electrical. of your equipment affects your store design, so make sure to let your design and construction team know about it. Juan gave the following basic lists for café equipment.
Bar:
- espresso machine
- grinder
- brewer
- ice bin/ice maker
- under bar chiller
- blender
- cash register
- pastry chiller/display
Kitchen:
- exhaust
- stove
- toaster oven
- microwave
- panini grill
- refrigerator
- freezer
13. Suppliers
Where will you get your supplies? Who supplies your beans? Will you buy directly from suppliers or is it easier to buy from a nearby palengke or grocery? And if you allow take out orders, then you’ll also have containers such as paper cups, cup holders, napkins, and the like. Don’t forget the soap and cleaning materials too. No one likes eating in a dirty restaurant.
14. Love for coffee
We assume that this is why you want to set up your own coffee shop. Because if you don’t love what you’re serving then why are you even here?
