As difficult as it can seem to truly find your passion in life — in your job, your home life or your relationships — finding a way to merge the three areas into a singular and fulfilling lifestyle of being a Coffeepreneur® isn’t as hard as you might think. It depends on how much you want to find it, then putting together a plan, executing that plan, making mistakes, and adapting and staying in motion when things don’t go as planned. Below are 2 “must haves” for a Coffeepreneur starting a coffee shop business.
1. Purpose
Find a purpose that will not only make you excited to jump out of bed, but a purpose that keeps you feeling equally fulfilled enough to never hit snooze—even through the hard work, the day-to-day, and 2+ years on.
Your purpose is your “why.” It is your passion. It is your point of view that you are unapologetic for. It is the flag you plant in the ground and stand for. It is the change you want to see in your community, or the world. It is something you are excited to share with others. It is something you never grow tired of talking about or participating in. It doesn’t have to be business related either! (In fact, sometimes it’s better if it isn’t.) Your purpose will naturally evolve over the years, but it needs to be something you care enough about that it will keep you curious, committed, and excited. A great book on this topic is “Start With Why” – By Simon Sinek
2. Mindset
Stepping past the romantic phase into the “boots on the ground” work phase of opening your own business and becoming a Coffeepreneur is going to be tough! There’s no way around it. Very little about this process will be easy, or will go as planned. I’ve walked this path myself and I’ve also observed many of entrepreneurs in different industries over the years. I’ve noticed entrepreneurs tend to approach the difficulties of the start-up process from one of two very distinct and different mindsets. One mindset leads to accomplishment and entrepreneurial freedom, and the other leads to a failure to launch.
The group that never gets off the launchpad, sets out on their journey, puts together a business plan, starts on their path and inevitably hits roadblocks. Eventually somewhere along their path they hit a big enough roadblock that they get extremely frustrated. For some reason they tend to stay hung up on the fact that there is a problem at all. For instance, their real estate agent isn’t showing them any good properties, a landlord won’t meet their lease terms on their ideal location, the city is making them jump through seemingly unnecessary hoops in the permitting process, or the contractor is way behind schedule and over budget. (All are very common and avoidable roadblocks we address in our 3-Day Coffee Business Class). These entrepreneurs get so frustrated that they wallow in the problem — it defeats them and they never achieve their goal of opening a coffee shop business.
The group that goes on to be very successful has an entirely different mindset and approach to roadblocks. When they hit roadblocks, they step back, collect themselves emotionally, accept their situation is what it is, then deviate from their original plan to overcome the problem. They stay in motion because they realize it takes a lot of energy to get moving again once momentum is lost. They know that inches do eventually add up to miles. They never say “I can’t do this.” They say “How can I do this differently that will get me some version of what I originally wanted.”
