How Your Coffee Shop Can Impact Your Community
Starting a coffee shop in your community can provide immeasurable benefits. Coffee shops’ economic, social, mental, and emotional add-ons can be real and meaningful gems for society.
For example, a well-run coffee shop can be a safe place for neighbors to feel connected. Having such a place to gather, meet friends, and attend events is priceless to the health and well-being of any neighborhood.
Coffee shops aren’t like every other retailer. Coffee shops are essential to our communities. From hosting a first date, a book club, or just a comfortable place to enjoy an Americano, coffee shops remain unique to our hearts.
I want to discuss how your coffee shop can potentially impact your community in today’s post.
How Starting a Coffee Shop Can Improve Your Community
While your chosen coffee shop concept should be based on accurate data assessment, research, and forecasts, make no mistake: your coffee shop concept can impact your community.
As an aspiring coffee shop business owner, it’s essential to realize that your coffee shop isn’t just a transactional business. Instead, it is a catalyst for building a community space for people to meet, greet, and enjoy your menu too! As your community benefits, the hope is that your bottom line will also benefit too!
Here are a few ways your coffee shop can impact your community:
Offering a Private-Public Space:
While coffee shops are private businesses, they have a history of being wonderful spaces for people to meet. Your coffee shop has great potential to do the same for your area. If your community is starving for a meeting place (that is not a bar), having a private-public space is priceless.
While being a public space, coffee shops offer some privacy for their patrons. Separate spaces, single tables, and light music make it easy for people to study, talk, or just enjoy a coffee on their own or with friends.
Establishing Community Ethics
Small businesses in the hearts of our community can model highly ethical business practices that include treating their employees right and trying to be environmentally sustainable. Your ethical coffee business can lead the way or join other like-minded business owners in serving a greater civic purpose. These may include coming together to solve your neighbor’s unique challenges.
Your coffee shop can become a voice to inform your community about significant social or environmental problems. For example, you might start a campaign to support specific groups or promote an eco-friendly attitude. This can add weight to your coffee shop concept and thus to your bottom line.
Be an Economic Engine
A thriving coffee shop can be a small but effective economic engine. A successful coffee business can create multiple jobs, tax revenue, and economic benefits from other businesses, such as vendors, wholesale coffee roasters, and others.
Fight City Blight
A thriving retail space can impact the look and feel of a particular city block, intersection, or strip mall. Instead of having an empty lot or building, a thriving coffee shop can inject life into a specific area.
Your coffee shop can be a gem in your community, and an attraction people from other places want to visit. They might come for your intriguing decor, unique coffee blends, special homemade chocolate; you name it.
Hiring Locals
A coffee shop can hire locals that would otherwise not have a job. This means that several people will get valuable barista training and experience and have a way to make money.
Independent coffee shops offer charm
We all know what a chain coffee shop is like, but an independent coffee shop can offer a unique experience. From the theme and décor to the menu offerings, an independent coffee shop can offer a community a thriving and special place.
Environmentally Sustainable
A coffee shop can lead the way to be more green than coffee shops of the past. By trying to cut waste and recycling, you can help join other growing businesses – both large and small – to make environmentally sustainable choices.
Offer Fresher, Better Locally Roasted Coffee
Whether you decide to roast your beans or work with a local, wholesale coffee roaster, you’ll offer better, tastier beans than many corporate chains. As a result, you’ll help keep money in your community, support local jobs, and give your customers better coffee bean options.
Which Coffee Shop Concept Will You Choose?
Every community has different needs. Your coffee business concept will likely fill a need to be served. In turn, the hope is that your business will inject life into the corner or space – adding to the vibrancy of your community.
Traditional Coffee Shop Concept
A full-fledged coffee shop business can bring life to any corner block, strip mall, or shopping district. The whirling of the steam wand, the sound of demitasse cups clicking, coffee grinding, and customers chatting can liven up any area. However, your concept shouldn’t be limited only to serving coffee and pastries. You will have a variety of options with a traditional brick-and-mortar business. This may include anything from a coffee shop bookstore to a game board coffee shop and everything in between!
Drive-Thru Coffee Stand
A drive-thru coffee stand is a popular way to open a coffee business with less money. There are a variety of coffee stand structures you can choose from – each one of these can increase the costs. However, the best espresso drive-thru stands that best serve your community efficiently. This might mean having two-serving windows – or even a seating area.
Opening a drive-thru coffee stand can impact a local community and be located relatively anywhere. From an open highway to the parking lot of a large grocery store, a drive-thru coffee stand business can energize the commutes of your fellow neighbors and drive considerable profits.
Mobile Coffee Truck
A mobile coffee truck is a popular way to start a retail coffee business. While a mobile coffee truck gives you unprecedented maneuverability, it also provides a profitable way to sell coffee. This is especially true when finding the right coffee location might be challenging.
Setting up a mobile coffee truck can impact a community as no other coffee business can. It can be in multiple locations in one day, providing the needed caffeine jolt at the perfect time and place.
Low-Cost Coffee Shop Business Options
There are many other low-cost ways to impact your community with a coffee business, from operating an espresso catering business to opening a kiosk or coffee cart. Even selling locally roasted coffee online would be an incredible opportunity for you and local businesses.
Starting Your Coffee Business: What’s The Next Step?
Once you decide on your concept (whether you will open a drive-thru stand, a mobile coffee truck, or a café bakery, for example), you can next consider looking at your coffee shop menu.
What you will serve will dictate your need for space, your location, and your target market.
For example, if you are set on serving crepes, bagels, or something near and dear to your heart and culinary expertise, then you can focus on planning your coffee shop.
My set of recommendations are the following:
- Write your coffee shop menu
- Start writing your business plan
- Develop your coffee shop management skills
- Look for available locations
- Create a budget