4 Things You Will Only Learn at the Best Coffee Schools

A few coffee schools can teach you brewing basics, but only the best coffee schools can teach you how to start a successful business. Opening a business isn’t easy: 20% of small businesses fail within the first year. If you’re in the coffee industry for the long haul, how can you increase your coffee shop’s chances of success?

Anything worth doing is worth doing right. That’s why our coffee education courses are designed to help students develop a solid foundation for opening a coffee shop. It takes a lot more than good coffee and nice decor to succeed in the specialty coffee industry. Our 3-Day Coffee Business Master Class is the most comprehensive coffee business education in the industry. It provides step-by-step guidance for opening a coffee shop. Including how to:

• Develop a unique coffee shop concept
• Choose the right location for your coffee shop
• Create a coffee shop financial plan
• Hire and train your coffee shop employees

Develop a unique coffee shop concept:

Building a strong business concept leads to a memorable brand, connection with customers, and sense of community. In addition, you will also be able to communicate your vision to real estate agents, architects, interior designers, employees, marketers, and potential investors.

Here are some questions the best coffee schools will help you consider:

• What is your why? Consider the reasons you set out to start a business. A great Coffeepreneur® has a passion in their core that drives them to succeed and inspires others.
• Next, what are your business’ core values? Write a list of the specific ideals you want to define your business. 
• Who is your target audience? Identify the customers who will identify with your core values and become regulars. Uncover where they love, work, and play.
• What specific products or services will you sell? Ensure they fit with your core values and the needs of your customers.
• How will your business stand out in the industry? Having great coffee isn’t enough–you need a disruptive angle that sets you apart from competitors. 
• Finally, what is your business’ look and feel? What is your business’ name? This can be the fun part, but it has to come after you’ve determined the above. Let this be the living, breathing environment for your coffee shop concept.

Choose the right location for your coffee shop:

Once you’ve figured out the why, you’ll certainly want to figure out the where. Selecting a coffee shop location can make or break your shop’s success. Consequently, this strategic decision takes into account your concept, your specific customers, drive-by and walk-by traffic, square footage, and the average transaction. It also considers the location’s earning potential, cost of the space, build-out expenses, and other key factors.

Don’t risk choosing a location with minimal research or a gut feeling. Instead, position yourself to be found by your ideal customer. Here’s some insider information on factors worth considering:

• Traffic patterns 
• Proximity to schools, apartment complexes, hospitals, hair salons, or general shopping
• The times of day people are out and about in your area
• High concentration of your ideal customer

You can even consult with the Chamber of Commerce and nearby businesses on opportunities in the area and perceived success. In other words, the best coffee schools will encourage you to maximize your new address before you ever brew a cup of coffee. 

Create a coffee shop financial plan:

As you would with many major life investments, starting a small business means you need to create a five-year financial plan. The best coffee schools will teach you the dollars and cents of a coffee shop business, including business costs and projected sales. Most importantly, we know the most common financial mistakes that business owners make, so we can help you prevent them by taking the following measures:

Coffee Shop Finances 101:

• Identify your fully operating start-up investment and budget–you need to project how much you can reasonably spend to get your coffee shop business off the ground (and sustaining) based on how much revenue it can produce in the first year of operation. (We teach a proven process for how to project your first year’s revenue based on your specific market, location, and other factors. From there, we show you how to project what would be a reasonable fully operating start-up investment based on your first year’s revenue projection. Then we show you how to allocate that investment into a detailed budget.)
• Make a return on investment timeline. Put simply, you need to project how long it will take to get your initial startup investment back out of the business from monthly operating profits so you can forecast when the business will become profitable. 
• Prepare an operations budget–you need to have detailed goals for how much you can spend toward rent, labor, cost of goods sold, marketing, and other operating expenses. Think of these goals as the bumper lanes at the bowling alley. You need to keep your expenses in each of those categories “in the lane,” otherwise there will be no profit leftover, or worse, you will be losing money.
• Anticipate the five-year growth for your business. The first year is often tough, but coffee shops often see significant ramp-up in year two and a plateau by year 4. SMART goals are something to consider creating and applying to your growth plan.  

A thoughtful financial plan will provide an overarching view of what you can expect to invest then earn each week, month, and year of running your own business. Does this all sound overwhelming? It doesn’t have to be! Our 3-Day Coffee Business Master Class  will provide you easy to understand resources and training so you can assemble your financial plan with ease.  

Hire and train your coffee shop employees:

So you’ve nailed down your concept, your location, and your finances. Finally, the best coffee schools will emphasize the importance of excellent training for your baristas! Most people can make a decent cup of coffee, but can they also anticipate customer needs, maintain the shop’s cleanliness, and keep operations efficient? Before opening day, you should spend several days training your employees–or send them to us.

Texas Coffee School Coffee Education Courses

Would you believe us if we said we’ll teach you EVEN MORE about starting a coffee shop business in our 3-Day Coffee Business Master Class? From negotiating a lease to obtaining funding to generating marketing buzz, we can show you the ropes as one of the best coffee schools in the nation. Hope to see you at an upcoming class this year!