Coffee Shop Business Plan - The Basic Points You Must Cover
By James Blake
Many coffee shop owners do not realize the importance of having a good coffee shop business
plan. A business plan is basically a document that list down your competitive strategy and
execution during the operations. Having a compelling strategy will inspire you to great heights
in business success and having a good execution business plan will ensure that your castle
is not built on clouds. It forces you to dream big and at the same time to come out with operations
to make this dream a reality.
Having a well thought out business plan will give you an advantage over your competitors.
It give any potential bankers and investors a big boost in confidence in your vision. They realize
that most of the coffee shop owners cannot put down their strategy into paper; mush to execute
them well.
In general, the language in the coffee shop business plan should be factual and business
like. You can use any prospectus of a listed company as a reference. You may say that you are
not going for listing! You must realize that the investors are really looking for good deals
and there is no better way to show them you mean business by having a world class business
plan. Use graphs and government statistics to back up your research and this will give you
instant credibility. A good business plan will basically cover two things, your business strategy
and execution.
A. Strategy
A strategy is the goal you want to achieve in your business in the short run, which is
the first one year and for the long run, which is 5 year. As this is a big topic by itself,
I shall cover the few critical components briefly.
i. Target market
The first thing you must cover is your target market. This includes the demographics,
where they eat and how affluent they are. Then you need to estimate the market size. This will
depend on how big an area you think you can realistically cover.
ii. Competitions
No business exists by itself. If there really is none, that is a sign of no demand in the market.
You must list down your nearest competitor in your chosen niche and their strengths and
weaknesses. If you can, list down their revenue per month and estimated market share as well.
iii. Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Your USP is how you position you business differently from other competitors. It answers
the question of why your customers must be crazy not to do business with you compared with
your competitors. It could be your quality food, your service, your cozy environments or your
pricing. Give them a compelling reason why and they will flock to your coffee shop.
iv. Target location and rationale
The location you choose to start your business really depends on your USP. You may choose
to do an upscale coffee shop and naturally, a nice and relaxed environment is important. The
renovation costs and may skyrocket but you can charge more for your products. You may want
to pick a shopping mall to cater for students or workers who wants to relax. If you choose
to compete on speed and delivery, you are catering more on the morning crowd who wants a quick
sip of coffee and quality food.
| 
About BTH
User Agreement
Privacy
Site Map
Contact
News Feeds
RSS Feed
Follow @Stephen Bucaro
Start Your Own Web Business
