Winking in the Dark

One of the biggest dilemmas or even traps the Independent Coffee Shop owner faces is getting themselves away from the day to day operation.

There can be many reasons for this, sometimes the overriding pride or passion leads the owners to believe that only they can serve the customers properly, resulting in that well know disease ‘presenteeism’. The symptoms are frayed tempers, tiredness, irritability, and irrational behaviour. These symptoms are very contagious and soon take hold of the rest of the team.

Passion and pride are not weaknesses on their own; they can be a real strength of an independent business. But the pride and passion need to be exhibited by every member of the team not just the boss.

Often coffee shop owners get themselves into a rut, and they can’t see the wood for the trees, but with the business just scraping by they can’t employ more people. A vicious circle ensues. If anybody has read the book by Michael Gerber, the E-Myth, they will be familiar with his concept of the entrepreneur and the technician.

The business takes over their lives, the dream of a great lifestyle serving fabulous coffee to happy customers is in tatters. They are working seven days a week and rarely have a day off and never switch off.

This problem endemic in a large proportion of coffee shop owners and one that we come across a lot. You can tell, almost immediately, when somebody is in this situation; stressed, tired, harassed and blaming everyone else. Often they feel that they have tried everything, and nothing seems to be working to get them out of the rut. They look like the archetypal owner from one of Gordon Ramsay’s kitchen nightmares program.

In the back of their mind, they know everything would be so much better if they could just get a few more customers through the doors every day. Their life would be so much better, but how?

The road to your success always starts with a simple shift of mindset, instead of spending all your time doing, you need to start spending all your time training and coaching to give people space to develop. Setting targets for your teams and reviewing progress regularly, will not only improve your operation but your customer service too. You will start to regain your sanity and free up some time to spend working on your business, not in your business. Now you’ll have some time to look at your marketing, your range and your margins, as well as talking to customers.

When you start on this journey everyone’s a winner, your team will be happier because they are getting training and reviews, your customers will be more satisfied because the service will improve and you’ll be happier because you’ll be closer to your dream.

One of the biggest pitfalls or myths that the owners find themselves in is believing is that by serving great coffee and giving fantastic service, customers will flock to your door. Like The Legendary marketer and psychologist Steuart Henderson Britt said

“Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does.”

Today to advertise a coffee shop means having an effective social media presence having good relationships with other local businesses and communicating with potential and current customers.

Harnessing these elements can supercharge the pace at which new customers discover your business, but unfortunately most coffee shop owners have little understanding of how to get the best out of these simple things.

The great news is that we, have put together for the very first time, all the strategies and techniques that a coffee shop owner could every need to get more customers.

It’s called COGGS; the coffee shop owners guest getting system. It spills the beans on how successful coffee shops get new customers for no cost. It’s guaranteed to give the independent coffee shop owner a way to beat their competition and start bring them new customers on autopilot.

Find out more here and stop winking in the dark!