People

What is fair trade coffee?

Fair trade coffee means that the raw materials, the coffee beans, were sourced in a manner that the farmers of those beans receive their fair and equitable part of the proceeds. It is NOT where a sourcing company takes most of the profits. Fair trade coffee may also focus on sourcing from smaller farms. Check out Fair Trade USA for more information: https://fairtradeusa.org/.

Planet

Another important thing to consider when choosing coffee is the environmental impact it has. There are various different varieties of coffee that are more sustainable on the environment – for example, those that are shade coffees. Coffee is generally grown in tropical environments and increasingly rainforest is being removed in order to make room for coffee plantations – this is not a sustainable practice. Just like the marine stewardship council  (MSC –https://www.msc.org/) and the forest stewardship council (FSC – https://us.fsc.org/en-us), the Rainforest Alliance does excellent charitable work in certifying a wide array of products and how sustainable they are. Check out the Rainforest Alliance for more information on sustainable products, including coffee: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/.

Profit

After satisfying the people and planet components, your business must think about profits. You must turn a profit to be a healthy and thriving business. Best of luck!

Cheers!

Picture Source: http://wfto.com/fair-trade/10-principles-fair-trade

Some helpful items to address include the following:
How will my menu look? Will you offer a wide assortment of hot and cold drinks? Will you offer light bites to eat or have full meal options? There are a number of factors to consider when designing your menu such as the equipment required, where you will source your ingredients, what specialty items you will have, whether or not you will cover dietary restrictions such as vegetarians, gluten-free, and vegan, and so on. There must be a great amount thought in curating a menu that customers will rave about and have their go-to items (for when you have repeat business)!

What equipment will I need? There are a large amount of items that you will need to furnish your café, both for you and your customers. You will need items to prepare food and drinks as well as furnishings for your customers to enjoy your café. knocafe over time will feature a wide assortment of the latest and greatest equipment!

How will you staff and manage your café? As your café grows and your business expands, you may need to consider hiring more staff. You will have to manage “the books”! What kind of software might you employ to help with that process? How will you decide on staff members? These are all things that are very important to consider – human capital is your best friend! Happy employees = happy customers.

What kind of environment will my café have? Will your café target student customers? Business customers? Be a community hang-out? Host open mic nights? Be for those on-the-go? There are lots of things to consider when determining your target audience and how to mold your café to cater to that user experience. For example, if you are going to have a lot of students there that want a place to work, it might be a good idea to have fair lighting and of course…WIFI!

Similarly, you must consider your location and venue. You want a business that is visible and ideally has a fair amount of foot traffic. Walkability is important for cafés!

How will I deal with transactions? Nowadays, there are so many ways to make a transaction happen – it doesn’t have to be just cash! There are various point of sale solutions that make transactions as easy as a quick swipe! You may also want to consider such things as reward programs. For example, buy 6 coffees, get 1 free. These programs encourage customer loyalty and keep customers coming back.

Importantly, how will I deal with capital (money talks)! It takes a good amount of money to start a café – you need to buy/rent equipment, furniture, space, print signs and so forth – lots of bills to pay! It is ideal to have money able to be invested in your creation. A sound business plan is required when asking for loans to help with your start-up costs – whether this is from a bank, a private investor, or a business incubator/accelerator, a business plan helps them to determine that you have the know-how and ability to run a business. Most times, these investors aren’t betting on your product, instead, they are betting on YOU! If you have an excellent idea but they don’t have faith in your ability to execute that idea than they’ll likely pass. Being prepared with a sound business plan is the best place to start with getting your café off the ground and running! knocafe will explore all of these ideas and more – keep following!

CHEERS,

Planning is essential in any business process, including opening a cafe. You need a great depth of knowledge regarding the logistics of how you will operate your cafe. Furthermore, you need access to a fair amount of capital resources. Without proper planning, you may be putting yourself at risk in a financial sense. knocafe is here to explore the inner-workings of how to build a cafe from the ground-up, using case examples and various resources currently out there in the public sphere. On knocafe.com you will be able to explore recipe ideas for your food & drink menu (helping you plan your offerings), understand various business processes (helping you secure the proper permits and licenses), delve into cafe ideas for curating an immersive environment (workspaces, entertainment ideas, etc.), and even learning the foundations of your products (for example, how coffee is sourced). All of this cafe knowledge, brought to you by knocafe, will help you on your way to successfully owning and operating your cafe(s)!!!

Cheers!