From Seattle to New York, Chicago to Houston, and numerous cities in between, specialty coffee has enjoyed tremendous growth in market-share over the past decade. As public interest continues to soar in American cities, more and more young, creative, and incredibly driven people are becoming passionate about coffee. These days it’s not uncommon to meet people who have followed this passion and made a career for themselves as a barista, even with bachelors and masters degrees hanging on their walls.For many,
Specialty coffee, craft beverages, local baked goods, and just about all things “artisan” are in high demand these days (Even toast!). It doesn’t matter if you are in a big city like Los Angeles or you are in a small town outside a suburb of Tulsa, you’ve likely seen a small locally owned coffee shop crafting, or at least selling an array of artisan goods. Each year, thousands of would-be entrepreneurs, tired of working for someone else,
In many popular coffee regions around the United States, iced coffee is treated as an afterthought. In a lot of cases it is even looked down upon by baristas and coffee purists. The reason? “Iced coffee is bitter, and just plain tastes bad.” But why? Could it be that baristas only focus their attention in the direction of traditional hot brewing methods? What if the same level of though and care were put into iced coffee?
Starting a new business is an act of creation, an act of design. Even if you are pursuing a business model that has been “done before” and therefore proven, the myriad of decisions that you need to make when planning for a new business is mind-boggling. Still, being able to recognize which of those decisions will potentially have the greatest influence on the success or failure of your venture is a skill unto itself.
This is particularly true in the case of starting your own coffee shop business.