How To Start A Coffee Shop: Your Step-By-Step Guide

Before even finding a physical space, and opening up shop we must stress the importance of doing your research. That isn’t an excuse to linger in the planning stage forever, but it can be the difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars to know what you’re doing in advance.

Jashinski says, above all else, to plan for a lot of bureaucracy. “It’s gonna take a lot longer than you think it will,” he said, adding that it’d be prudent to plan for that with your personal finances.

There will be a variety of hoops to jump through: submitting the plans to get approved by the government, getting feedback and making any changes, submitting again, locking down contractors, waiting on them to get permits, and the list goes on. Even in the best-case scenario, Jashinski said one can expect months and months of waiting on approval documents. Case in point: In cities booming with growth, he’s heard of businesses opening up solely to provide entrepreneurs with stand-ins to stay in line for them and get their shop’s paperwork filed due to the volume.

A store’s location is also paramount to consider in advance, and not just as part of identifying who your customer is. A new shop in an area affects the community that inhabits it, and one should be wary of how it will be received. If a shop opens with a negative perception, like contributing to gentrifying a neighborhood or competing with a beloved business, it can be an uphill battle from day one. Jashinski says that coffee shops tend to be loyalty-based, and it could be a hard sell to compete somewhere you’re not welcome.

These are just a few examples of items to consider in advance before ever buying a space. There are plenty more, but Jashinski notes that the beginning stages all tend to run together — the vision and planning can sometimes be forming or evolving simultaneously.

As for the mental aspect of navigating the planning, Jashinski says to expect an emotional rollercoaster involving lots of waiting, not sleeping, and making compromises on plans.

“It’ll be really cool and fun when it comes together,” Jashinski said. “But it’ll be hard work.”

Once the physical space exists, it’s time to staff it up. And a quintessential component of any good business is having good people operating it.

Though there is the possibility of high turnover, Jashinski is very specific in who he hires to work in his coffee shops. He hires based on passion and intelligence over experience.

“Anyone can make coffee. It’s about passion and being taught [correctly],” Jashinski said. “It’s hard to know how someone will react to customers, or waking up at 5 a.m., or being flustered.”

Once the staff is in place, it’s time to focus on what the actual shop experience will be like. This means first doing trial runs with employees pretending to be customers and quizzing the staff on what common questions or requests could be. Staffers have the opportunity to rotate through roles to get practice, time how long it takes to make drinks, get used to greeting customers, and prepare for any questions that could be asked.

“It’s pretty much like a dress rehearsal,” Jashinski said.

And in the process, coffee shops can expect to waste a lot of product, though it’s a necessity of the training. Jashinski sets high standards for nailing the product preparation every time, acutely aware that he only has one chance to make a first impression for every new customer. If the coffee is prepared to be the best it can be every single time, then that’s an opportunity for every single visitor to be wow’ed.

Even after multiple runs to iron out the kinks, there will inevitably be things that nobody has thought of. Enter: soft openings. Well before any official grand opening, Jashinski recommends a series of soft openings with family and friends — or even letting unknown customers wander in for a few hours — to get feedback on their experience and the staff’s readiness. This includes incorporating anonymous surveys into the experience for guests immediately when their visit comes to a close in order to get raw, honest feedback. Friends’ and family’s positive encouragement is nice, but anonymous feedback is from where real growth stems.

And while a grand opening date is useful for a big marketing push, Jashinski offers this pro tip: actually open your doors a few days before that date. It affords the chance for the business to operate when things (most likely) won’t be busy, and everyone can get comfortable in the space.

“There’s always stuff that comes up. There’s always stuff you didn’t think about,” Jashinski said. Having that extra time is another buffer for sorting through incidents like when water isn’t getting through the pipes correctly or the printer stops working.

After all the preparation and effort put in, it’s time to finally share your vision with the world. Open up shop, and don’t forget to celebrate!

Marketing in the digital age is necessary for success: advertising, social media, incorporating sponsors, all the facets of branding. As an entrepreneur, the business owner is responsible for all of that even if bringing in someone to strategize and execute it, especially leading up to a grand opening. (Mastering that art could be a separate guide all its own.) However, it’s worth noting that Jashinski says you can’t make everyone happy unless you have a menu on the scale of Starbucks. It all matters on who you expect your customer to be.

Remember that the trial and error will continue well into the business’s launch and lifetime and that most businesses won’t have a following develop overnight. Jashinski estimates business can be slow for three to six months even for shops that are eventually successful unless it’s a super busy location.

If you’re starting a business focused solely on raking in money, Jashinski offers this advice: “Don’t open a coffee shop.” While the percentage of profits on coffee shops can be good, it’s not in the same realm as the liquor and food kind of numbers. (Assuming an entrepreneur is operating a boutique location and not the next Starbucks.)

One of the most significant lessons Jashinski has learned is to maintain consistency. A business can’t build a following without people knowing what to expect from it, and playing around too much with the brand results in inconsistency.

"Quality and money won’t guarantee success,” Jashinski says. Instead, the focus should be on the experience for the customer, consistency of the product, and honoring the emotional connection to the ritual of coffee.