The Truth about opening a Cafe Business

Here's what I learned opening a cafe, and some things I think you should know if you're considering opening your own cafe or coffee shop business

[clairevermeulen]

Thank you for your feedback and honesty. I am 27 years old and just opened my own coffee shop based in South Africa, nothing could prepare me for the amount of hours and personal sacrifice it would take. Getting feedback that's real is encouraging and helps me to realise I am on the right path, this is not a business that offers instantaneous success and that's okay. Perseverance seems to be the biggest challenge, but it is imperative. This insight has helped me to shift my perspective.

[iamanovercomer]

As the owner, I need to know how the business runs and keep a close eye on the business, before hiring a manager. Even then I would have a team meeting at least once a week to see if the others have any problems, meeting the requirements of their position and looking for input on how the business can grow. Have a visual chart of the goals of the week/ month and year.

[alenaleyton]

I wish I had known all of this 5 years ago. There have been a lot I've learned along the way and implemented pretty much as you'd described--a great team, courting the local regulars, keeping the menu simple; consistently providing great service and high quality offerings; monitoring costs closely; an exit plan. But, the top consideration is definitely LOCATION. I fell in love with the space and had a great vision for what I could do with it. And it worked for a while; but now, I'm looking for ways to increase profits and reaching more regulars. Thank you so much for this information. Some of it is a little too late; but there's also more that I can use. These are phenomenal videos!

[DinisAzevedo]

Great series of videos, happy i stumbled into this channel! It would be great to see more in depth content, especially about what systems you found to work best across your years working in the industry. Either longer videos or possibly a website / blog, or even a paid course, i'd be more than happy to buy it. Hope to see more soon, best of luck!

[aroqsi]

I have seen and liked all your videos. I hope I can learn more from you in the future!

[zanetabrudzenska]

Great videos! Would you also share how and in what areas we should train the team? 😊

[IAMJORDI]

What if the one I’m trying to do is more of a café style restaurant with me as the chef. I wanted to do this for over a decade. It’s been my dream since high school to have a poetry café with good food with a small little stage inside and we would have poetry nights, and it would be called the slam as in poetry slam. I gave up on that dream years ago, but I still really want to try..

[MrWnw]

May I be curious why did you sell your business?