Chandler Lipe, Texas Coffee School Coffeepreneur® and owner of The Den, is making waves in Denver. We wrote about the launch of her family-friendly coffee shop and gathering space one year ago. Heading into her second year of business, we reached out to learn about her impressive progress, growth, and streamlined operations.
The Den social lounge & coffee shop has scaled quickly and created three strong revenue streams: a coffee shop, family lounge, and rental space. This year, Chandler has fine-tuned her operations and staffing, clarified her mission, and even taught herself to optimize her business’s SEO. Heading into year two, she says it’s time to refine.
Read on to learn more about the key steps she’s taken in her first year to gain momentum, refine operations, and grow her business.
Want to learn about The Den’s origin and business concept as a place to offer resources and community to parents? Read our first article here.
Want to register for the class Chandler took before opening her business? Sign up for our 3-Day Coffee Business Master Class.
Source: The Den Google
Source: The Den Facebook
Putting the Right People, Systems, and Processes in Place
The Den is both a coffee shop and a “lounge,” a community space for parents with children’s programming, work spaces, events, and other resources. In a way, it’s a hybrid business. Some customers come for the coffee, while others are drawn to the lounge and its offerings.
Delegating Leadership
One of Chandler’s critical moves in her first year was to separate the ownership of the coffee shop and lounge into distinct leadership roles. She refers to herself as the project manager and spends four days a week onsite. She appointed a Chief of Staff to serve as her right-hand person and manage the P&L for the lounge — where parents and kids can spend time, with entry based on a fee structure.
Chandler also designated a Cafe Lead who manages the schedules and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the baristas. This layer of middle management has allowed baristas to focus on customer service while her leads keep operations in both areas running smoothly.
Some small business owners take years to learn how to delegate and remove themselves from the everyday grind. But Chandler explains that delegation is not just a necessity, it’s a fulfilling part of her leadership style. “If I do everything, then I don’t get to see other people in these moments of pride,” she says.
Creating Efficiency and Improving Customer Experience
The Den team has also worked to improve the speed and consistency of service at the cafe. While her baristas have always been friendly and engaging, she noticed too much time chatting with regulars led to delays for other customers. Chandler and the cafe lead focused on streamling processes to make sure customers got their orders in a timely manner (while maintaining a non-transactional customer experience.) She also prioritizes accountability in the cafe. The team offers free drink cards if an order is wrong or a customer has to wait too long.
As she explains, it’s better to be accountable early on; it strengthens connections with customers.
Observing Business Patterns and Fine-tuning Strategy
As a business owner, Chandler has not only been observant about trends, she’s also been disciplined about tracking and measuring metrics in order to diagnose the forces influencing her business.
Revenue Seasonality
In the first year, Chandler observed the inverse seasonality of The Den’s revenue streams. The coffee shop tends to be busiest in the summer. But the lounge — offering a welcome space for parents and kids — sees more traffic in cold weather. While this presents staffing challenges, it’s also one of the great perks of a hybrid model — it offers additional revenue when one revenue stream is slow.
Marketing Improvements
Chandler also made improvements to marketing. While she has always called The Den a “social club” for parents, she realized that her audience wasn’t searching for that term online. After taking an SEO course, she made adjustments the language on her site that led to a major increase. And she leveraged her career experience in influencer marketing and began creating trendy, relatable content on social media beyond just promoting the coffee shop.
Source: The Den Instagram
Overcoming Challenges
Even with all the data in the world, but there are some things you learn by doing, Chandler admits. One of the biggest hurdles of her first year came when the city ripped up the concrete in front of The Den without warning, completely blocking access to her storefront. Ever-proactive, even in crisis, Chandler turned lemons into lemonade by taking her situation to the media. It got the city to pay attention and even brought her one of her lead employees, who had been a journalist covering the story.
“It’s really easy to feel powerless when you’re starting a new business,” she says. “You have to fight for your business.”
Recognizing The Den’s Customer Wants, Needs, Behaviors
Finally, Chandler spent this year paying close attention to the wants and needs of her customers. She launched The Den with a clear vision, and now she’s learning to understand how to best translate and adapt that vision to best suit her customer needs.
Implementing New Programs
Chandler has always been a working parent, which is one reason she wanted to create a kid-friendly co-working space. But she’s also learned that stay-at-home parents come to The Den not for the co-working, but for enrichment and programs for their kids during the day.
To meet those needs, The Den is offering structured activity. The schedule includes activities like music classes, bilingual story time, arts and crafts sessions, and CPR classes taught by local professionals. They also rent out their space to a physical therapist and other practitioners. These partnerships are stepping stones to a supportive, community-wide network–as well as business growth.
Wayfinding and Signage for a New Business Concept
Because The Den houses both a coffee shop and the lounge area, Chandler noticed that some newcomers seemed confused when they first entered the space. Was it just for parents and kids? Could they wander back to the lounge?
As a solution, installed signage and interactive tools to help with what she calls “wayfinding” — helping people find their way through the space. That includes an iPad at the entrance showcasing events of the day. She posted “how-tos” on the craft closet and Zen room. Her staff also makes an effort to make eye contact and greet visitors warmly so everyone feels welcome and knows they’ve come to the right place.
Adjusting Language and Mission
This year, Chandler revised the language in her mission statement. She wanted to emphasize a sense of community rather than focusing specifically on topics like mental health or matrescence. While these are still important needs The Den can meet, she’s learned that leading with broad and approachable language creates a space helps a wider range of people relate to the mission and programs.
Source: The Den Instagram
Get the Same Learning Experience as Successful Coffeepreneurs® at Texas Coffee School
Chandler kickstarted her coffee shop journey at our 3-Day Coffee Business Master Class, where she learned the ins and outs of starting a coffee business from scratch. “Texas Coffee School was so helpful to me,” she says. “Being around people who really seemed to like their jobs was really nice. There was a really beautiful blend of being proud and taking your job seriously, but having fun while do it.”
“Texas Coffee School was the light for me. It was the reminder that I was working towards something and I was meeting like-minded people along the way.” “I used Texas Coffee School as leverage, as well, while getting grilled for my SBA loan – and the resume requirements typically demanded of someone opening a coffee shop.” “I tell everyone about you and I cherish the time with your team. You have something so special – and I am grateful to you.”
She also praises the Texas Coffee School network of graduates and says she’s had several Texas Coffee School Coffeepreneurs® come visit The Den.
When you attend one of our classes, you join the hundreds of successful coffee shop owners who got started at Texas Coffee School. Our schedule is released for the first quarter of next year. Sign up today to secure your spot in the classroom!
