Coffee shops are a good investment just like any other food product is. Undoubtedly the most important aspect of setting up a coffee shop (like any normal business) is deciding on a location. It really depends on your preference but if you ask me, you would want your coffee shop to be around people who take the same path on an everyday basis or around college campuses. Why there? People on the go usually don’t have time to brew coffee anymore, if you’re there, they turn to you for their everyday fix. Coffee shops around schools seem is a good idea because students need that little quiet place to study. Libraries don’t allow drinks and food and most of these students would need pick-me-uppers to get through their studies. It’s simple. It’s logical.

Get your business plan straight. It does not cost much to actually start a coffee business if you would stick to basics and drop gourmet coffee. Leave the fancy coffee to the big players, work on your niche. Offer something unique and make names for your coffee. Know how much goes to production, to services and to lease if you’re renting out the place. It is important to see where your money goes and how it comes back to you (and to make sure it comes back).

Do not hold back on equipment. It is of great importance that you have good, functioning equipment if you’re going to run a coffee shop.

Here’s a neat trick – hire one professional barista and then make him train the other less-experienced ones. You’d be saving a lot in cost.

Starting a coffee shop business is not as hard as it looks. Like in any other business ventures, you need to cover the basics first. Get a credible supplier for coffee beans and other ingredients, get good equipment, get efficient manpower and make sure you have a good location. To further entice customers you can join in the campaign that promotes coffee as an excellent source of antioxidants. Bank on the fact that coffee does not only keep you up in the morning, it has also been linked to a lot of health benefits, including protection against liver and colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease, according to some recently published studies.

Health buffs would be all over that but of course they know that already so aside from the health benefits, another angle to consider is the kind of warm environment that your place offers. It’s the secret of coffee shops. The ambiance it offers makes people go back.

Kristel Nicole Eniego is part of VONCORE’s creative writing team. If you want to learn more about call centers in the Philippines or want to find out about outsourcing companies in Asia you can check her profile and give her a message.

An article in Forbes online says, “According to the NCA [National Coffee Association], 80% of Americans drink coffee, and more than half of the population drinks it every day.” Wow! How often do you find a product that 80% of the population wants, and half of us consume every day? In addition, coffee shops have become the social hubs of our communities. Did you know that a new Starbucks store opens somewhere in the world every day?

Coffee for health

An Arabian legend tells of a goatherd who made a beverage from berries growing on strange shrubs, and after drinking it experienced extraordinary lucidity and wakefulness. The shrubs were said to have been planted by the descendants of the Queen of Sheba, who came from Ethiopia, where Coffea arabica originates.

The Forbes article adds, “Despite earlier beliefs that coffee has negative health effects, it is becoming increasingly clear that the opposite is in fact the case. Coffee consumption is now being linked to the lowered occurrence of cases of certain cancers and chronic diseases. One study, conducted by the Harvard University School of Public Health, shows that the risk for developing Type II diabetes is lower among regular coffee drinkers. There are even studies that link coffee to added endurance during physical workouts.”

Many of coffee’s healthful qualities come from its abundance of antioxidants. The health benefits of coffee include:

–Reduced risk of cancer, especially colon and bladder

–Increased good (HDL) cholesterol; decreased bad (LDL) cholesterol

–Reduced risk of heart disease

–Reduced risk of strokes

–Reduced incidence of kidney stones and liver cirrhosis

–Reduced incidence of Type 2 diabetes

–Reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease

–Decline in levels of depression and anxiety

–Asthma relief

–Relief of malaise associated with the common cold

–Increased speed of information processing, alertness, energy, endurance, motivation, and concentration (with important implications for night shift workers and for drivers, as well as anyone wanting to remain productive on the job after lunch)

–Soothes headaches (caffeine is a vaso-constrictor–that’s why it’s a major ingredient in headache remedies)

–Science has debunked myths that caffeine contributes to breast cancer, bladder cancer, ulcers, indigestion, and osteoporosis

–Harmless during pregnancy; children are no more sensitive to caffeine than adults

–Last but not least, caffeine stimulates metabolism

Not to neglect tea or tea drinkers: according to Tribute to Tea online, “Tea’s rising popularity has encouraged entrepreneurs to open tea shops around the country, even in rural communities such as Newton, N.J.; Carefree, Ariz.; and Anoka, Minn., where people sit for a while and enjoy a pot or a cup. And even in coffee-loving Seattle.”

Tea holds its own in the health department, too: it’s a source of flavonoids; vitamins A and B6, thiamin, and riboflavin; nicotinic, pantothenic, ascorbic, and folic acids; manganese, potassium, and fluoride. Tea is being studied for its benefits in enhancing immune function, lowering LDL and raising HDL levels, reducing blood pressure, thinning blood, reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke, and cancer, increasing longevity, aiding digestion, and promoting dental health.

What about the addiction question? Neither coffee nor other caffeine-containing products are classified by drug dependence experts as addictive. Coffee drinkers do not exhibit the behaviors that define addiction–severe withdrawal symptoms, tolerance, the need to consume the addictive substance at all costs, and antisocial behavior including crimes.

Coffee as a business

An article at Java Bean Review online gives us “The 7 Deadly Sins of Coffee Shop Entrepreneurs”:

–Starting to spend your money and time without testing your business plan

–Listening too much to friends, family, and suppliers

–Choosing the wrong location

–Weak untested brand

–Not knowing how to design your work environment for speed and efficiency

–Poor menu design – too long or too short with an unproven mix

–Poorly trained employees

By opting for a franchise (a pre-packaged business complete with existing brand, business systems, and suppliers), you skip some of the many decisions and loads of work that traditionally accompany a business startup. “A franchise offers you the opportunity to go into business for yourself, but not by yourself and they have already addressed the 7 Deadly Sins,” the Java Bean Review article concludes.

Have the best of all worlds: operate a coffee shop that also serves tea–or vice-versa. Add a drive-through for customers who are in a hurry and aren’t shopping for the social factor.

Besides your coffee supplier, you’ll need a marketing expert. Be sure to find one who loves coffee as much as you do!

Lisa J. Lehr is a freelance copywriter specializing in direct response and marketing collateral, with a special interest in the health, pets, specialty foods, and inspirational/motivational/self-help niches. She has a degree in biology, has worked in a variety of fields including pharmaceuticals and teaching, and has volunteered for many causes including special-needs kids and literacy. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading, art, music, outdoor exercise, and all things Celtic and Renaissance.

Have you signed up for her free e-mail series on marketing strategies?

http://www.justrightcopy.com

Business Models If you’re pondering over how to start an internet cafe, the most crucial decision you have to make is which business model to adopt. There are numerous choices. The first one is the most conservative model wherein you provide only internet access. Another option is to serve tea, coffee and snacks along with internet connectivity. You could also add computer repairs and maintenance services and even sell computers and computer parts. Many people buy franchises of prevailing internet cafe businesses. When you buy a franchise you get the advantage of a time-tested business model and the know-how behind it, but you’ll have to pay for that edge.

Planning Before starting a cyber cafe, always chalk up a solid business plan. A good business plan should lay down your business goals, ways to achieve them, the obstacles that you may encounter, how to surpass them and financial planning and analysis. If at all possible, talk to at least three different cafe owners about what you plan to do. Try to contact cafe owners from out of town, so there won’t be any competition conflicts, and, if possible, show these experienced owners your business plan. The advice they give could save you thousands of dollars, so don’t hesitate to offer them a really nice dinner or lunch for their time.

Start Up Costs Finance is the driving force in any kind of business. So make sure that you acquire adequate funding before starting your business. How much is enough? It depends on your business model and the services you intend to offer. If you’re planning to provide exclusive services like gaming, social interaction or a remote office, your capital requirement can run into thousands of dollars. There are computers to purchase, broadband connections to book, furniture to be bought and a place to be leased or acquired outright. Include these things in your budget. Also conduct an analysis of monthly expenses, projected future incomes and profits. You can raise finance through private investors, banks and financial institutions that specialize in granting small business loans.

Changing Trends The success of a cyber cafe depends on how you keep up with the latest cutting edge technologies. Trends keep changing and technology keeps improving. Webcams, video conferencing and innovations like VOIP were unheard of before but are widely used these days. So the survival and prosperity of an internet cafe depends on how well you adapt to the changing trends in computers and related technologies.

Advertising Advertise as much as possible to draw attention to your cafe. Distribute your business cards whenever you get the opportunity. You can also sell memberships in terms of internet hours. Put in an ad in your local newspaper and on community websites. Get a listing in the yellow pages.

Last but not the least; apply for a business license to run any cafe. Evaluate all the risks, conduct your market research and adapt to changing technological trends. If you’re serving food, this will mean in inspection by the health department. Health department inspectors regularly refuse licenses until major repairs or improvements are completed. Your business plan needs to be ready for an unexpected $5,000 expense.

Pamella Neely writes about how to start an internet cafe for http://www.OpenAnInternetCafe.com.

Large coffee shops don’t necessarily make more money than smaller ones. They have to pay more for supplies, electricity, the building, employees, and other overhead expenses. They also have to spend a great deal of money to advertise. After all they can’t have that large facility being empty – it has to be full of customers.

Customers have other criteria that they are concerned with than the size of the location. People even go to drive up ones if they offer the right elements. They include fast service that is friendly, delicious coffee products, good prices, and a nice atmosphere. All of these things can be found at a small independent coffee shop or a large chain business.

In fact, you will find there are plenty of customers out there that prefer the atmosphere at a small coffee shop. They feel like they get more personal service there. It is often a sense of loyalty as well. They may have been going to that particular location for years. They aren’t going to abandon ship just because a bigger coffee shop has opened up around the corner.

Many of the large coffee shops are able to succeed due to being a chain. They are already known in the eyes of consumers as a great place to get coffee. There is also a stigma that comes with visiting such a location for some people. They still have to work to meet the needs of the customers though or they will lose business rapidly.

One disadvantage that small coffee shops have is not offering enough room during peak times. People don’t want to feel like they don’t have enough room to relax and enjoy their coffee. You may need to look at some options to take care of this issue if it becomes a problem. Sometimes just rearranging can give you more room than you thought you had.

You need to be confident no matter how large or small your coffee shop is. The fact that consumers aren’t placing their orders based on this information is good news. It means you have the chance to prove what you can do for customers on your own merit. You can focus on meeting their various needs instead of playing the size game.

There are small coffee shops that continue to grow in the number of customers. They may decide to expand in order to better serve them. This is an individual business decision that could prove to be a good move. However, if your business is already struggling, making the coffee shop bigger isn’t going to solve your problems.

Karyn Lewis writes about the ups and downs of the coffee shop business. Avoid the rookie mistakes many new operators make when they buy a coffee shop and read more coffee related articles at her site.

But before you collect your coffee maker and take out a lease on a quaint corner retail spot, you may want to take a moment to consider what it really takes to start a successful coffee shop.

Of course, the first requirement for a potential coffee shop owner is to have the passion for coffee. Sure, any top graduate from a business school who has more passion for business than coffee can put up a coffee shop, but it is often the personal touch of a coffee fanatic that can spell the difference among customers.

It is important to remember, however, that a coffee shop business does not run on passion alone. It seems that a best shop owner is one who is both passionate over coffee and a hardy dose of business acumen. One critical step, before you begin, is to have a solid and well thought out business plan.

A plan will help you clearly chart your business’s profitability for you and your investor. It will also explain why you want to have your own shop and where you want to go. Your plan will also help identify your possible market and their needs. A good business plan should be extremely thorough. Remember you may need financial assistance to fund inventory, equipment and marketing. And, if you can’t convince the bank why you need a loan and how you are going to pay for it, your coffee shop business will be toast from the beginning.

Once your business plan is completed, you need to turn from strategy and financial issues to functional aesthetic considerations. What are you going to do with all that money when you have no idea what a coffee shop should look like? A coffee shop can’t just be any place or any room. At this point, it’s a great idea to secure the help of an architect or someone with restaurant design on your team. Without such an expert on your side, you may have to study and think up the physical placement of your furniture and equipment yourself. You should consider such things as counter placement, dimensions and space allotment for your equipment. It may help to do some research and to observe successful coffee.

The next step after securing the financial and physical aspect of your coffee shop business is to kick your lust for coffee “up a notch”. Don’t be an absentee owner. Get yourself elbow deep into the details of everything about coffee. As the resident connoisseur you shouldn’t just love the taste of coffee; you should also be an expert in coffee beans, roasting recipes, and unique coffee products. Your diligence will rub off on your employees and attract customers in droves.

The road to the opening and success of your coffee shop is not an easy one. However, with careful planning, a can-do attitude, and most of all – your passion, the road to success can be an enjoyable and prosperous one.

Stan “The Ideas Man” Smith is the author of the popular “Billion Dollar Marketing Secret” eReports and a passionate devotee to the”Glory of the Bean”. Check out his directory of local coffee shops at http://www.localjava.org

For anyone considering a coffee business, a Starbucks outlet sounds like an excellent way to get started. It is a great way to leverage the brand name and gain instant business traction. So how do you obtain Starbucks coffee franchise information? Checking on the Starbucks website, it clearly states that Starbucks does not offer franchise opportunities nor do they foresee it being offered in the near future. Starbucks is satisfied with the way things are going right now and they see no reason for franchising.

There are, however, several ways to get Starbucks coffee in your own home. The Starbucks website offers a way to taste the same Starbucks coffee by purchasing some of their products that they use themselves to make the coffee. Here is a list of supplies to purchase for the Starbucks experience in your home:

* Expresso machine- Make an expresso just like the one you find in Starbucks by purchasing the Starbucks Expresso

* Starbucks coffee maker-Choose from a single cup to 8 cup

* Starbucks signature coffee press

* Coffee grinder

* Water kettle

* City mugs

* Coffee mugs & thermal mugs and tumblers

So how can one build a Starbucks-like outlet even without an existing high traffic retail front? You can certainly purchase the equipment for making coffee but would have to purchase your coffee elsewhere if you were a business.

As you can see you can get the Starbucks taste but you cannot buy into the franchise. This is bad news for those looking to enjoy the profits from a well-known brand. Starbucks is one of the most popular sought out business that few can tap into.

While franchising is not available, they do offer licensing opportunities for qualified businesses. If you don’t have licensing rights is the right to display Starbucks logo or trademark that identifies you as a Starbucks outlet, it may make a big difference to the foot traffic that your coffee business receives.

There is a way that you can become a licensed store and offer Starbucks coffee. You must fill out a survey and based on your type of business you can operate and own a Starbucks licensed store. Some examples of high traffic businesses include hotels or resorts, college campus, bookstores, grocery chains, shopping malls and more. Starbucks is clearly not offering a franchise business with this type of deal, only the license to own and operate a Starbucks in your business since they stand to make a lot of money opening up their own stores.

Starbucks has been in business for years and even though Starbucks can be found in a lot of places the aroma of Starbucks never gets old. Enjoying Starbucks coffee is easy to do at home or in your own business. Making Starbucks a part of everyone’s morning is as easy as finding their site.

Stewart Baker writes for JavaBeanReview.com where you will find a variety of coffee business opportunities such as a Maui Wowi franchise. For Starbucks coffee franchise information, please request information on how to become a licensed storefront at Java Bean Review.

People ask quite often of the importance of a business plan when starting a coffee shop. My response is always a statistic: Most businesses fail within the first year due to lack of planning but coffee shops have a higher failure rate due to their nature. If you don’t have anything to plan your course by, how can you move forward? Any business vision is blurry without a written plan.

Your plan takes time to write now, but it’s designed to help you avoid costly mistakes later. The true value of creating a business plan for your endeavor is not the finished product, but in the process of writing it.

Experience has taught me that while planning to open a coffee shop, templates and generic plans will not help you much except for the typical form the plan should follow so be very careful. You need to make yours unique, and as coffee shop friendly and specific as possible.

When I wrote my original business plan I read and studied quite a few versions of them on the internet, and picked out sections I liked best. I rewrote it until I was satisfied and then gave it to my banker. He said it was the best business plan he had ever seen. So I put the plan to use and opened my coffee shop, and made lots of mistakes!

My banker loved it but he was not a small business person, nor anyone that was familiar with coffee shop operations. Had I wrote the plan realistically and pertaining specifically to a coffee shop I’d have avoided a bad location, incorrect demographics, lack of capital, and a lot of other mistakes.

You have to be realistic with your prospective numbers and in many ways you have to get creative, especially with marketing. The specialty coffee business is unlike a lot of other food service businesses because of its nature. Writing your coffee shop business plan will force you to think about your business in a way that you will always have to think about it: it’s unique.

And just because you open your shop and may be open for a year doesn’t mean you can put the plan away. You should always be tweaking it. Trust me you will always be a business person and thinking about what you can do different and new. Things change, markets change and trends change so your business has to change as well to adapt. Otherwise, you will be closed before you know it.

It bears repeating: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. It’s as simple as that! Be sure you have a specific business plan when starting a coffee shop. Your plan won’t be worth beans otherwise!

Tony DiCorpo is a coffee shop owner, operator, barista and entrepreneur. He is also a coffee shop business consultant. He has authored many articles on the specialty coffee business and a business plan package that can be found at tonys-coffee-shop-business-plan.com

First, a word about certification. In our current market, third party certification is essential to both organic and fair trade. As the market for both fair trade and organic grows many businesses would rather change the definition than to change their practices. We are seeing this now in the fair trade coffee market place. As time goes on a search for fair trade coffee is more and more likely to turn up non-certified “fair trade” coffee, which is most likely just a marketing rouse to attract ethical customers. In a recent search of ebay for fair trade coffee 90% of the results were not third party certified, and upon further examination most looked very suspect. We have seen this already in the organic market. How many products marketed to organic consumers are actually certified? Companies have greened their names but not their practices. Without non-biased third party certification of organic or fair trade we are left to trust self interested parties who will only profit from that trust. So look at the labels a product caries, look into the requirements of that certification and make an informed decision. Know what labels you trust and know the ones that you feel are deceptions. With fair trade Transfair is currently the only certification agency, so look for the fair trade label.

The concept of growing organic is essential to the preservation of our environment. Herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers seep into the ground polluting our groundwater and it also runs off the fields and into local water resources. When forest are cleared for the planting of fields much of the topsoil is eroded and transported in nearby streams to the nearest lake where it deposits the sediment, filling up the lake. Working with the environment to prevent this erosion, organic coffee farmers preserve the fertility of the land by growing coffee in the shade, where coffee was meant to grow. This shade grown coffee provides the migratory birds with habitat and is thus called bird friendly. The concept of organic goes beyond protecting the environment and extends to protecting the the people who work in the fields. Many of the chemicals used in farming have been shown to cause cancer as well as many other health concerns. These concerns are multiplied when a person is repeatedly exposed to the sprays, like the farmers. How many lifelong farmers labored to provide our society with food and are now suffering from cancer (my grandfather is one of them)? Some studies have shown that organic methods even protect those who eat the fruits(even after they are washed), and also protect locals who drink the water.

Fair trade certified works in the opposite direction. First it ensures that the people are being paid and treated fairly. When it comes to fair trade coffee certification, “fair” has an objective definition through the certification requirements of Transfair. The coffee farmers are paid a fair trade premium (currently $1.26/lb) to ensure that they have money to invest in their community infrastructure. The money supports the families through health care, education, and through providing the needed capital to improve equipment and methods of harvest so that they can compete in the open market. Fair trade goes beyond community and family support and extends to protecting the environment. One of the requirements of fair trade certification it that a premium is paid for organic coffee, currently a full 15 cents more per pound than just regular fair trade. Many fair trade farmers have switched to organic methods and are now actively restoring the rain forest in order to receive this premium. They are not doing so grudgingly either, they understand that the rain forest is their heritage and want it to be restored. They don’t want to expose themselves and their families to toxic sprays when they can make a living otherwise. This explains why more than 80% of coffee certified as fair trade is also certified organic.

So why ask the question which is better when you can have both? Well there is plenty of coffee out there labeled as organic but not fair trade. The environment is being destroyed by some farmers out of what is seen as economic necessity. Organic is great, but by itself it is not sustainable, we must ensure that the people who grow it are properly compensated otherwise they are put in an economic position which lends itself to decisions with negative environmental consequences. Families that provide us with quality organic products deserve financial security. Fair trade does not compete with organic but it does make sure it is fiscally sustainable for the producers, thus ensuring future supply in our current economy..

This is why the fair trade model works. First it ensures the financial security of the farmers through fair prices, access to non-predatory loans and capital needed to market and sell their goods. Then it guarantees them a premium for environmentally friendly practices, which many times leads to conversion of conventional fields to organic. This model has been working for coffee and has now expanded to tea, chocolate and even some tropical fruits.

The results of fair trade have been amazing:

* Organic methods are being used and taught

* Community infrastructure is being built/rebuilt

* Clean water

* Erosion control

* Children in school

* Quality products through quality methods

* Adult education

* Secure families

* and sustainability

Next time you buy organic coffee or tea make sure it is also fair trade certified by Transfair. Request that your local grocer carry fair trade fruits when they are available.

Stephen Betzen is a long time fair trade advocate. He runs Faicoffee.com, an online Fair Trade Coffee Shop.

For more information and for future fair trade certified products look at Transfair’s website http://www.transfairusa.org/.