Keep it real: The negatives of owning your own store

[Drip]

first...hello everyone...this is my first post here.....I look forward to more participation.

I am a positive person, but wanted to start off by discussing the negatives of owning your own store. Does anyone have anything they would like to add?

 

[LiftOff]

Hello

"Is it really, really busy?, cuz' I'm not feeling well and if I don't have to come in...."

"Can you put whipped cream on that?"



Just a couple reasons why I got out of that end of it

 

[ElPugDiablo]

"Is it really, really busy?, cuz' I'm not feeling well and if I don't have to come in...."

You head the nail right on the head. We got at least two "I can't come in" calls last week.

 

[CafeIzzy]

"Can I have Friday & Saturday off?" yeah, you can take them Tue & Wed.

"You know what would really help your business..."

"The other day the girl that works for you ..."

"Can you donate...."

"Ad-Valorem???..."

"Shipping is how much?"

"...you're fired."

"The girl didn't charge me for that extra syrup the other day"

....just a few of my favorite things...not to mention the **$$ comparisons. All in all, love it!

 

[CafeIzzy]

oh yeah, a recent favorite..
"the warranty expired last week you say?"
OUCH!!!

 

[ElPugDiablo]

oh yeah, a recent favorite..
"the warranty expired last week you say?"
OUCH!!!

Speaking of OUCH,

"trip charge of $150.00 will be added"
What do you mean trip charge, you are two blocks from me, not to mention you just fixed the stupid thing 3 months ago.......alright alright, just get you blood sucking son of a female canine's butt down here.

 

[Muddycup]

I agree

There alot of negitives. most can be attributed to employees, heres one that happened the other day.

I had an employee post on myspace.com the following

"Bored at work!"

refer to customers as "interuptions"

complain that she is over worked and under paid while complaining she is bored while using her lap top at work.

Jim

 

[susansaddiction]

ownership reality

I've been open for about 15 months now. Here's reality as I see it as a biz owner:

I still love coming to work (almost) everyday, as I love my regulars and for the most part, my staff.

You will work 2X as hard as you think you will, unless you just get one of those great locations that has great volume everyday, because volume is what it's all about.

The first time you have to fire someone, you'll wonder what the heck you were thinking owning your own biz...and then you just do it ...and it still sucks....

Then there will be the person whom you wish you could fire because they are just a pain in the butt - causing conflict amongst other emloyees, always whining etc., but not really doing anything to justify firing them....at that point you just pray they quit!

But, when day after day folks stop you in the grocery store etc. and tell you that you have the BEST drinks in town and that your staff is just awesome, it makes it all worthwhile.

You MUST be a morning person to survive this biz....and need little sleep if you have a family at home.

You MUST love people and I personally think that you must be creative in some sense - because that's what keeps it interesting.

Don't plan on making any real income for quite some time, unless again, your volume is exceptional.

Hope that's real enough for you - but as I said, still love it everyday!
Susan

 

[Muddycup]

got it right

susan you pretty much nailed it, I always just kind of smile at people that come up to me everyday and say they want to open a cafe.

flavour : Nice to see you on the forums we work with a few of the same vendors.

Jim
Muddy cup

 

[nzroaster]

From a roasters perspective:

"We were going to change to your coffee, but then our supplier gave us 3 more free umbrellas"

"I just dont think our customers would be prepared to try your coffee"

and my all time favorite (much of australia uses imported, roasted, beans)
"So where do you get your raw coffee from?"
"all over the world and we roast it just up the road from you, so its fresh"
"all over the world? Then whats the difference?"

 

[Muddycup]

?????

nzroaster - is thetopic you posted relevant to thread subject of:

Difficulties in ownibg your own shop?

 

[Anajoeri]

We opened our coffee shop one month ago. The location is excelent. People start to come in , but still as one of the other answers say, income is not yet good.... We are in Romania, people drink espresso all the time, it is so difficult to make them taste other kind of coffees. We are the only coffee shop that gives coffee to go in our city, but people do not want to walk with a coffee. We have a bus station near by and would be perfect in these winter days to heat up with a great latte in your hands.... These negatives do not appear in a coffee cultured country thoug,h so maybe my comment has no value to you, but i needed to share some of our negatives. Others: it is scary, you ask yourself one day why the heck did I do this, and the other day: why didn t I do this earlier?

TAZA CAFE

 

[sisupagrl5o4]

WABASH coffee, Houston, TX

i am getting ready to open my first coffee bar as well, maybe within the next month. i think the hardest thing for me is the risk you take in signing a five year contract when you've never ran a coffee business and knowing that you could be stuck with a sucky business for that long. any comments on that? oh yeah, and for people who said that you need a heavy volume of customers, how heavy is a good volume? how many customers in a 16 hour work day?

 

[celement]

Happy Customers

that drive up and say did you hear about the new Starbucks opening down the street....yeah this has happened 3x to us in 15 months with different Starbucks.

 

[coffeenation]

... i love you but...

Often, dealing with the Starbucks-educated general public. Thats the hard part. Oh-how-I-love my neighborhood, my customers. Sometimes, though you hear the same line over and over... and it becomes a little hard not to laugh at 'em. But then again.... not everyone should know way too much about coffee as most here do. However, here's my favorite examples, heard much too often:

"oh my god, is there supposed to be coffee in this caffe mocha? Cuz it tastes like coffee and i don't like it. Did you, like, put coffee syrup in here or something?"


"can i just have a regular"-cust
"a medium?"-me
"no, a regular"-cust.
"oh, ok, a small"-me
"no, just a regular cup"-cust.
"in-house? ceramic?" -me
"i dunno, just, you know, whatever"-cust.


{Big Huge Sign right in front of them saying "COFFEE. JUST COFFEE. BREWED FRESH." complete with size, price, ect. }
Annoyed: Do you have a cup of just coffee? Why do all these places make it soooo confusing!