11 Actual Confessions | Coffee Shop Owner’s

Starting a coffee business or any business is not for the faint of heart, believe me I know.  At first you worry a lot and then research your competition to a point of stalking. 

Only later to realize that you’re a community and are all in this together. On the opening day your nervous for all the wrong reasons as you put yourself and your business out there, realizing there is no turning back.  

Then in the first couple of months, there is this new kind of anxiety, uncertainty and excitement about what the next day will bring. Looking back, this is when the fun of owning your own business truly begins. 

We can all agree the pursuit is truly worthwhile despite being strapped for cash and time. Many of us share the same reasons for starting our own business while others, not so much. For me, I just got tired of working for the man and now enjoy the sense of pride, in creating something from nothing.   What was your emotional reason for taking the plunge? 

Now for the good stuff… We asked individuals behind some of America’s best cups to share what they wish they knew before opening their coffee shops, or other caffeine-infused operations. The result is 11 pieces of advice that current coffee owners may learn from or maybe had the same type of experiences. 

From mistakes made to tricks of the trade, you’re bound to discover at least one nugget of wisdom that will save you time, money, energy and quite possibly your sanity—or all of the above. 

1

“I wish I had become more of a handyman before launching my business.” 

– Peter Brown, Six Shooter Coffee (Cleveland, OH) 

2

“I wish I knew… to hire a good bookkeeper! It’s my #1 piece of startup advice. They say, “what gets measured, gets done”. Well, if you can’t trust your numbers then you can’t really measure your business. Good information is critical to making good decisions. We’ve spent the better part of a year cleaning up the mistakes we made when managing our own books.” 

– Matt Bachmann, Wandering Bear Coffee (New York, NY) 

3

“I wish I had known that you could lease equipment, and they come with service contracts.”

 – Jonathan Rubinstein, Joe Coffee (New York, NY) 

4

“I think the thing I wish I had known was how many little decisions I would have to make! What kind of light bulbs, how many chairs? What kind of wood do we use, how far apart should the lattice be spaced? Do we use brown screws or black screws? What kind of patio furniture do we buy? The list goes on and on; I can’t even remember them all anymore!”

- Elle Taylor, Amethyst Coffee Co. (Denver, CO) 

5

“Starting an online business with no previous experience with an online store, I wish I had known more about operating tools like Ship-station that are available to help small businesses. 

Learning that there are tools to help online stores get off the ground and find competitive pricing was game-changing. 

We could have saved a lot of time and money if we knew that from the beginning! We would have also benefitted from choosing a large online store platform from the beginning. BigCommerce and Shopify are worth the learning curve in the long run.”

 – Lacie Mackey, Caveman Coffee Co. (Albuquerque, NM)

6

“I wish I had known to work with an accountant BEFORE the first dollar was ever put into a bank account.”

– Colby Barr, Verve Coffee Roasters (Santa Cruz, CA) 

7

“The total lack of interest contractors have in keeping to a schedule. Time estimates are virtually useless. If you’re going to hire 3rd parties, contracts need to be made as airtight as possible before work begins. Include ratchets for failure to deliver on time or not meet specific project requirements. 

Clearly define milestones along the way with explicit penalties. The more granular you can get contractors to be in the breakdown of their bids, the better. This helps you understand the cost of work for each piece of the project and detect arbitrary markups.” 

– Matthew Tervooren, Pourt (New York, NY)

8

“I wish I had known how important taking the time to eat proper meals and exercise could be for managing stress. When you are run down or not feeling well, no one is going to take care of the business for you. It is imperative you do all you can to try to stay as healthy as possible.” 

– Caroline Bell, Cafe Grumpy (New York, NY)

9

“It’s so hard to narrow it down—I wish we would've known how much we truly didn’t know! Equipment, supplies, accounting, payroll, HR best practices, tax laws, scheduling, ordering and even water filtration systems. The list can go on forever.”

 – Janine Awan, Woodcat Coffee Bar (Los Angeles, CA)

10

“I wish I knew that when we first got our La Marzocco machine in the shop, it was probably not a good idea to take 10 double shots of espresso a day to “train” as a barista!” 

– Adam Kallen, JANE Motorcycles (New York, NY)

11

“I wish I would have known that people will drink specialty coffee above 14th Street I spent years listening to naysayers who said you had to be in The Village or Brooklyn—I wish we had opened earlier on the UES, Midtown, UWS.” 

– Jonathan Rubinstein 

Article forward from Loyalty Punch，opening a cafe is not as easy as you thought. At Torch we believe that through sharing knowledge can help the coffee community to grow, and avoid unecessary mistakes. 

Last week we are given the opportunity to intereview few of the renowed cafe across the china and hongkong, and we will let them to tell more stories about their cafe stories next week. Do stay tuned, if you have any stories / advices you would like to share with us, drop us a comment below. :) see you! 

It's My Choice, I Choose Me - Xu Xin

Everyone is always happy at the end of the fairy tale. The prince saved the princess.

Witches, dragons, were all defeated.

Wonderful meetings, great relationships, happy endings… everything seems perfect, because those things only happen in fairy tales.

Maybe we can learn from these wonderful things, maybe can make them real.

Maybe there is a group of people who are outstanding. Maybe all good things can come from these people.

Underneath this glorious spotlight, they are shining stars, but people always ignore how hard they work behind the scenes.

An effort that is not outwardly obvious is not one was never made, but more importantly, these efforts were made for the person they want to become.

Our lives are all about the choices we make. You make choices for what you like, what you want, but there are always people masquerading as friends, telling you to let it go, give it up, and even spending too much time to make choices will cause you to miss out some pportunities.

But have we ever thought about the choices we made with the mindset of "ok, fine” 

and when a better option comes along, you give it up—the inconsiderate choice.

So, how should we make a right choice?

This week, we are going to talk about one girl's choice.

A Newbie in Coffee Industry

I am Xu Xin, a girl who just jumped into the coffee industry. I come from Ningxia, and when I left my hometown, I was always happy to see the words related to Ningxia (such typical a tourist!). I love my hometown and I love coffee, and if I can open a cafe in my hometown one day, I want it to be simple, comfortable and professional.

From Architecture School to Pastry School—the Student Life

Before I entered the coffee industry, I was a student in the college of architecture and engineering. 

I was not good at spatial construction and didn’t have a great sense for numbers, which caused me to completely lose confidence in myself for specialized courses. This is probably an excuse, but actually the most important thing is I don’t like these topics. 

I became more and more anxious because I didn't understand the specialized courses and felt like I had wasted two years of college. 

Then I started thinking about how to change my life, what I can do, and how can I realize this change.

The first thing that came to mind is to stop the status quo, stop obsessing, and start doing what I love, or at least what I think is meaningful. 

Searching my heart for all things that I want to do in my life, like opening a café with sunshine, feeling peace, sharing a smile—I can image all the details. Then I knew that this is what I wanted for my life.

At the beginning, I thought that all I needed to open my cafe was a shop and the skills to make coffee. (I was too young and too too too simple!) 

And so, I decided to leave college to learn some coffee skills. I’ve searched a lot of schools for coffee and desserts online, and finally found a school with one class for one year, where I could learn coffee and baking.

Before I earned my economic independence, all my decisions had to be approved by my parents. With all my preparation, I told my family what I thought. There was no doubt that my family didn’t agree with me. “What a silly girl,” they all said.

It is also true that a child who has grown up with the advice of so many relatives and friends is not sensible to say such things as dropping out of school. But after all that, I cannot give up just because of a minor setback. 

It took me about half a year to convince my father. It was also because of his support that I had more courage to face the unknown future. And I really and truly appreciate this support.

During this one year of study, I spent most of my time practicing latte art, and some brewing too, which was actually my favorite. 

Every little adjustment greatly affected the taste of the same coffee. This small difference every time really ignited my endless curiosity in coffee. It was then that I realized that I wanted to do more with coffee than just open up a cafe.

“Bitter Rice”

In April 2017, I started my first job as a Barista. It was in an office building in Shanghai. Most of the guests there are white-collar workers working in the building—they can’t go without a cup of coffee in their daily  life. 

I really enjoyed this work,  and meeting old friends, and planning to see them every day.

There will also be some "professional" customer reviews, coffee chats, and share some ideas. I might feel guilty because I am not professional enough. Knowledge needs to be constantly accumulated, and you long for everything you are interested in.

In November 2017, I came to Pu 'er, the place of origin coffee in China. This trip took me to a new world of coffee: I took the Q-grader courses, understood how the quality of green beans could influence the taste of coffee, and the difference of regional coffee beans and different processing methods’ impact on flavor. 

Most importantly I learned how to cup coffee, and now I will not be so jealous when people are talking about the flavor of coffee, because I have learned.

Because that was also the harvest season, I was lucky to see the whole process from picking to processing coffee, and that completely changed my view of coffee. It is not just the brewing parameters that influence the flavor of a cup of coffee. 

It can be altered in every step of the process: picking, sorting, processing, and drying. I think this is real coffee. It's too sad not to experience it once.

I was very impressed by the recruitment of "Mountain Man", because the working environment was hard and also the work was very tough. 

I had to work with the farmers to pick and process coffee, working in mountains for three or four months. I was struggling for a while, but finally I wanted to give it a try. 

There's no surprise that I know nothing about it , but when I make it real, I can't ignore this important part of the coffee processing.

I stayed, and finally understood the meaning of "Bitter Rice". Fresh coffee cherries keep coming in, stirring the beans in the bed over and over again, peeling the fruit skins, classify them and then cupping the final beans, until at last a bag of qualified "green beans" were produced. 

Day in and day out, until the end of the production season, for a total of four months. I'm proud to say that I can finally tell the difference between washing , natural and honey!

Choose one ending, meeting a new beginning; 

keep moving, embracing happiness.

Every choice is an experience. I have made many choices since I left school. No matter where my choices take me, I expect a different experience.

Occasionally I feel like giving up because of some difficulties i meet along the way, but I chose what I am doing now, so I stick with my choices. 

Important and valuable things are not always easy to finish. Young people always have the energy to taste life. We choose to end one path, and look to meeting with new beginnings.

I am very glad to meet many like-minded friends along my coffee journey. They come to me in different identities to share their experiences in coffee and life, and it feels like seeing the world through new eyes to meet the infinite possibilities of life. 

I love my life after I met coffee. I am surrounded by awesome colleagues, a positive working atmosphere and many possibilities to meet the unknown. This makes me want to say “Hello!” to everyone every morning. 

If you see this article and you're in TORCH, say hi to me and share your world with me.

(Editor: “She says, she wants a BF whom is taller than 180cm and also in a good shape……” Trying to be a matchmaker hahaha.)

If everyone stops drinking coffee?

If everyone stops drinking coffee, that means there must be something more interesting than coffee. Tell me what that is, and I’ll go learn about it! Hahaha…

Hotpot

My life is not only about coffee, but also hot pot—no matter what the weather is outside. In my spare time, I like to stay in the kitchen and study for “the dark arts” of cooking—it is too “dark” to see the food or share photos!

During my first 6 months in Pu 'er, I developed a love for nature, I love to go into the mountains and other fun places.

Choose one ending, find a new beginning; keep moving, embrace happiness.

Admire perfection but if you don't put it into action, then you just stay where you are. 

As Xu Xin said, now that you have made your choice, keep moving.Even if the road twists and turns, I hope that when you are tired of walking, you will reflect on your promise to yourself.

Positive attitudes can be reignited—continue to chase your dream!

“Tough times don’t last; tough people do.”