Aspiring entrepreneurs from all over the world come to our classes with a dream of opening a successful coffee shop. Often, they’ve funneled creative energy into envisioning the concept, the space, the menu, and the name. Now, there’s one major hurdle that seems to be the source of all their questions: money. What are some of the most common questions we hear about coffee shop finances?
Meet Shannon Neffendorf, co-founder of Oak Cliff Coffee, father of four, coffee origin aficionado, and friend of Texas Coffee School. His love for coffee culture was birthed in Milan, where he observed crowds of people laughing at coffee bars and a refreshing absence of laptops. In 2006, Shannon began roasting green coffee beans on a stove top whirly pop. By 2008, he and his new wife, Jenni, were roasting beans on a gas grill and selling coffee to the neighbors.
Entrepreneur Tips from Texas Coffee School Founder, Tom Vincent
In a recent blog post, we interviewed Texas Coffee School founder Tom Vincent. More than 11 years into his own journey as an entrepreneur, he’s helped hundreds and hundreds of coffee shop owners launch their own businesses. We wanted to learn more about his best advice and entrepreneur tips for aspiring coffee shop owners.
Read Top Entrepreneur Tips for Coffee Shop Owners (Part 1) here.
If you look for them, you can find dire statistics of small business success. So, it’s no surprise many aspiring Coffeepreneurs® are afraid of failure. Of course, we host classrooms full of coffee enthusiasts from all over the world whose dreams are so persistent that they feel not starting at all would be even worse than failing. But following a cafe startup dream doesn’t mean the logical fears just disappear.
Entrepreneur Tips from Texas Coffee School Founder Tom Vincent
In 2009, Tom Vincent was laid off from his job as a creative director. Facing an economic recession and declining print industry, his lack of prospects sent him spiraling from a cush creative career to rock bottom. He eventually found himself donating plasma and picking up day labor gigs to scrape by.
Tom, a long-time specialty coffee enthusiast, (who by chance got to apprentice several of the most respected minds in the entire specialty coffee industry for two years) spent his last $3.00 to treat himself to a cappuccino.