This may not sound like much fun to you, but this is where your research should begin.

When you visit established coffee shops, particularly ones in your area, your picture of your market comes into focus. There are a certain basic points about your coffee shop that you will want to communicate to your target market.

The next thing to do is study their advertising methods. The point: Know your target market and what they expect to find at your coffee shop.

See you with more in Part 2. They get the vacuum sealed brick of generic coffee and they re good to go. Primarily, they are:

Quality of the food and coffee

Atmosphere your store s vibe

The Price

According to some people, coffee is coffee and it does its job. There are those who want to come in, get coffee, and get out.. At that point, catering to it is your new mission. You ll find it s much more than just coffee that makes the coffee shop... Study the design of the menus even.. Keep you eyes open for these similarites. And they want an actual nice place to do this. However, there is such a thing as a REAL coffee drinker and those folks are not it. Look at how their establishments are set up. Trust me, I know both types and there s a big difference.

Start by actually going to your competition. If your clientele is going to consist of truckers running the long haul from Idaho to Texas overnight, they ll have different expectations of their cup of coffee than the professional who shows up in an Italian suit and wears a watch that cost more than your car. Then some want sit for while and read or just relax while they sip their java. places like Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks come to mind. It is my hope that this series will help you in some way.

It s the same with atmosphere. The more you study the competition, the better handle you will have on how to disposable plastic cup compete with them. Why reinvent the wheel? Observe other franchises and see what they have done to achieve their success. Companies advertise in their own unique way based on their USP (more on this later in the series), but there are common traits among them also. but if the coffee is good enough they may forgive you for things being just a little shabby. Deconstruct it, right down to the little details. But some people simply refuse to shell out any more than 59 cents for a cup just as others gladly pay $2 and up for really exceptional coffee.

And finally we have the price. Again, it comes to knowing your market. Start with the biggest successes and work your way down. Now we re not talking about a big ticket item here, like say, a Mercedes.

Part 1 will highlight how you can learn from others.

To YOUR Coffee Shop Success,

Byron Michaels
.Hello:

You are reading part 1 of a 7 part series on opening a coffee shop successfully