If your dream is to open a coffee shop, then you are in the right place. Working on your vision is perhaps not the most natural venture, but with strategy, dedication, and commitment, everything is possible. Having hope is tremendous, but it’s not enough. You need a coffee shop business plan backing your idea up, giving life to your design. It does not have to be rocket science to pioneer a successful coffee shop business as long as you have a functional coffee shop business plan guiding you.
But first, you have to have a few things in check.
Be Creative and Idealistic
Imagining your dream is one thing, and giving life to it is another. All the aspects you envisioned about your Coffee shop should be covered but must be executed in the most realistic way possible. Creativity should guide you through each element that you wish to arrive at but stick to being practical.
How your brand your enterprise should be as a result of your creativity. Meaning your logo, your brand colors are all dependent on your creativity. You may outsource who executes your idea, but you give the final word to the look.
Be Realistic
Before starting this journey, you have to realize that it is not a walk in the park but one that requires untiring devotion. You will invest both your money and time to reach your goal. And hurdles are an inevitable part of starting any business, and your new coffee shop is no exception. You also have to keep in mind that you will need equipment, employees, among others. Some of the things you will need, you will have to outsource because you cannot do it all alone.
Get Your Money Right
As the maxim goes, you need money to make money. Thus you should have an account of where you will get the money to start your coffee shop. Be it investors, grants, or your funding.
After you have the above points in line, the next part is the actual drafting of the coffee shop business plan. But before that, you need to follow the following general rules in the making of your project.
Keep it Short and Concise
No one wants to be stuck reading a 40-paged document on a coffee shop business plan. It is too cumbersome, and the reader may get bored and lose interest in the middle. This may result in the missing out of the catchy parts that make your plan unique. You should, therefore, strive to write a program that is short, concise, and straight to the point.
Know Your Audience
Knowing your audience or rather the person who will read through your plan will guide you on the kind of language to use. It acts as a guide so that you include a dialect that they understand fast. For instance, if you plan to approach an investor in the financial world, tailor your language to that they will understand best.
Follow Your Instincts
Your instincts are a guide that mother nature blessed us with. It may sound right, but it doesn’t feel right. And that is when you should take a step back and re-strategize. Remember this is your dream, so don’t hold back.
Elements to Include in Your Coffee Shop Business Plan
Every plan needs a structure to outline what you envision. The scheme is aimed to give your readers an idea of what they should expect. Someone should understand your business by just reading through your plan. To achieve that, you must include the following elements;
1. The Executive Summary
This is the introductory part of your whole business venture. It may be included in your coffee shop business plan or as a stand-alone document presented differently.
In some cases, investors may ask for this summary before requesting for the primary plan. It must be as detailed as possible but still sticking to the rule of short and precise. Therefore a comprehensive one must not exceed two pages.
If you chose to include this part in your plan, it is better to put it at the end of your document.
A detailed executive summary includes the below points;
The one-sentence business overview
It is also known as the value proposition. It is a statement found at the top of the page and right under your business name. This tag line should give a clear indication of what your coffee shop business is all about. It begs to capture the reader’s attention to keep them hooked and want to read more of what you have to offer in your plan.
The problem
For a business to gain validity, it has to be a remedy to a problem. In a few words, you must indicate the issue that prompted you to want to open the coffee shop business. For instance, you may note the problem may be that people on the street you intend is a business street with a multitude of the working-class people who go mornings without breakfast. And you would like to solve that by bringing breakfast closer to them.
The solution
After indicating the problem, you need to follow it up with the remedy you intend to employ to solve it. This must be in line with the service or product you intend to introduce into the market.
Target market
This part explains to your investor who you intend to sell to. It narrows down the target audience to specifics of the age group, their type of work, and may even go down to gender. For example, you may say you aim to sell to middle-aged office working women or 20-30 aged salesmen. You must also include the estimated number of people you intend to serve in a day.
Competition
To be successful, you need to recognize that you will always face competition and in this section is where you should indicate it. Under this same section, you must state why your service or product will trample theirs over. Your uniqueness must be brought out.
Company overview and team
This part entails a brief overview of your team and explains why they are the right fit. You have to indicate their role and their responsibilities in brief.
Financial summary
Under this part, you must designate the critical aspects of your financial plan, which include charts, sales, expenses, profits, among others. The financial plan must be reasonable and not blown out of proportion.
Funding requirements
Here you must indicate precisely the amount you wish to use and for what. You must give a comprehensive breakdown of what will take up those funds. That means if you intend to use a certain amount on suppliers, you indicate it, so on and so forth. You must also show where you are to get the funds from. And in detail.
Milestones and traction
The last part of the executive summary will be the milestones and traction section. The milestone section includes the steps you have made from the moment of conception up to the point of writing the plan. This may be a simple step as business registration, to the patent of the brand. Whatever the milestone make sure to not it down. The traction you will show how far your business has come as well as how far you would want it to go.
2. Opportunity
This section of the coffee shop business plan answers the questions what? How? And who? It describes what problem that prompted the inception of your idea. It states how you intend to solve the problem. And finally who will do it. The major components are:
Target market
Under opportunity, you must report the exact number of people you mean to reach and sell to in the completion in the building of your shop. And this must also go hand in hand with who you are to sell your coffee products and service to.
Market analysis and research
To have a comprehensive analysis of the market you intend to dive in; you must do thorough market research. You first identify your market segment and determine how big it is. A segment, in this case, is the group of people that you wish to sell to. Be specific as you breakdown the layers into sections that best fit your business.
Ideal customer
Here is where you will have to describe the exact persona of your ideal client from each segment. It may sound like fiction, but it narrows the portion into nitty-gritty parts such as likes, dislikes, hobbies, careers and income level, so on and so forth. This gives you insight into the exact tactics you may employ into attracting the correct groups. For instance, including a sport-inspired smoothie on your menu to attract the middle-aged man who goes to the gym next to your shop.
Competition
Next, you must describe your competition. You must affirm who else is in the business. You must show both the direct competition and indirect competition. You should also indicate the ways they have used to gain traction in their market and how you intend to beat it. Give in detail the difference of the solution you intend to use as compared to the one they used.
This part is very crucial as it will give investors a clear picture of your input, and they can gauge if it is worth their investment or not. No one wants to spend their funds on a course that they do not believe in. So dazzle them, but do it with the truth and not mere hearsay!
3. Execution
After opportunity comes execution where you have to outline how you will turn the opportunity into an actual lucrative coffee shop business. Here you will cover the marketing sales plan, operations, and metrics. The following are the additional parts that are under marketing and sales plan and operations.
Marketing and sales plan
This section explains in detail how you intend to reach your target segments, how you intend to sell to them, and everything such entails. Below are the detailed sections included under the marketing and sales plan.
Your positioning statement
This statement shows how you will try and represent your company to your customers. It is the picture you want them to associate you with once they see or hear of your coffee brand. You may use luxuriously, classy, or comfort as starting grounds to come up with an idea.
Pricing plan
Your positioning statement will determine your pricing. For example, if you have gone with comfort, you should price your products that are not too expensive, but instead a range that is pocket-friendly to envision comfort. Remember that the pricing you choose to use must be beneficial such that you still gain profits.
Promotion
Promotion entails how you plan on communication with your prospect clients. Make sure to use the publicity that is guaranteed to work. In this section, you should state a couple that you may use in case the others do not work.
Advertising
The next part is the types of advertisement channels you intend to use the money on. This will prompt you to choose between print or digital media. Although today, digital seems to be popular, print media makes a more lasting impression. Each type has both pros and cons that you should consider before choosing one.
Public relations
If you intend to use a PR consultant, indicate it here in detail. It may be of great value to the growth of your coffee shop business and spread the word faster.
Social media
Social media is a great way to get your coffee shop business out there. There are quite a number of social media platforms that you may employ. The most popular ones include Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, among others. Therefore if you intend to use either of them, clearly indicate it. Get down to the details as well, i.e., the usage of the Instagram stories and daily story postings about new coffee benefits, recipes, or just pictures.
Operations
This part of your plan will give a detailed explanation of how your business works, including the logistics, the technology employed, and other techniques you intend to use.
Key assumptions and risks
The last part includes the risks you are bound to face when you get into the business. And the methods you may employ to solve them.
4. Team and company
This is a very crucial part that you must give all relevant information in regards to the team you intend to use to build a successful coffee shop.
Under this division, the following significant parts must be highlighted.
Team
If you do your research right, you will realize that people would rather invest in an idea supported by a great team rather than one without one. The reason behind this is quite simple; you cannot accomplish everything on your own. You need people to help you with the nitty-gritty duties. Keep in mind that as a business owner, you have to be in a managerial position to overlook each task. And you can’t do that while you are busy trying to do everything.
In this section, you must write short bios for each team player. Under which you must highlight their exact role and duties and why they are the right fit for the job. As a great addition, make sure you include their experience in their field of expertise. As this will help further capture your investors’ attention and trust now that they have a peek into your operational team. Sometimes though, you might not have the complete unit, and you should indicate it too. Indicate the reason you haven’t found the right fit yet; financial or any other. Putting such vulnerability out there makes it more realistic, believable, and achievable. Always keep in mind that a great team is the backbone of any business.
The company overview must include the following parts;
Mission Statement
This statement should give a very brief description of what your coffee shop business is about. It should be short and precise to the point. A simple description such as “it’s a home away from home” will do. Keep it simple and avoid jargon.
Intellectual property
If you have a patent or one underway, then this is the place to mention all about it. Also, if you intend to use any technological devices that require licensing, be sure to mention it here. Scientific ventures may also fall under this section. For instance, if you intend to make delicacies through molecular gastronomy that requires the use of chemicals such as liquid nitrogen, state it in detail.
The Company’s Legal Structure And Ownership
Under this section mention if your business is registered and if you have the certificate of incorporation. Your company’s equity must be laid down with the names of who owns what percentage. And if you have partners or investors already on board, make sure you include them as well.
The Business Location
You need to give in detail the location of any facility owned or leased by the company. But if you do not have one yet, indicate your preferred location plus the estimated amount the site might be. In such a case, be sure to mention why you chose that location and in what way will it benefit your coffee shop.
5. Financial Plan
Under this part, you need to include a breakdown of all the commercial needs that your company will use. You must add:
Sales forecast
This is the part where you state the projections of your sales in the next few years. It might not be in years as you may narrow down the predictions to weekly or even monthly. The projections may also be broken down further to summarize each item on the menu or simply breakfast, lunch, and dinner sales. Regardless, the investor reading your proposal must see the numbers. Remember, these numbers are the reason why they invest in you.
Personnel plan
Your employees will need to be paid, and this is where you indicate just how much each person will be getting. Take into consideration the laws governing minimum wage, insurance cover, pension, and taxes while writing this section.
6. Appendix
Last but not least, the appendix marks the end of your coffee shop business plan. Here you may insert charts, tables, legal notes, and patent notices as well. A business plan streamlines your idea and puts into perspective. And the one laid above will most definitely see you through a successful application and presentation process. See, it does not have to be rocket science.