Restaurant guy here with more than 10 years experience, including years working with startups. I have to chime in about your line where you said that everything has to be of the highest quality and if the mistake is made it has to be remade. This line of thinking destroys startups in the food industry. It is simply not true. I get it that we all are lovers of the art, but you have to understand that quality is a never-ending scale that always increases price. Good enough is good enough. The most popular restaurants and drink shops in the world, are absolutely known for everything but their quality, The average customer/consumer does not appreciate your art and would much rather have something in their hand now then something that you define as perfect a little bit later.
Yeah but you’re missing the point. The market he was targeting and his passion was quality coffee. If he wanted to churn out dross he could have done, but why would he? He isn’t interested in doing that.
@@jonnydoeson5562 what market though? The location is in the middle of nowhere. With so few people around, there's no sub markets to pick and choose from
@@jonnydoeson5562 there's a difference between serving drivil and having a 100% quality rating. If you want to serve food with zero mistakes then you need to charge 100 dollars a plate. In the real world cooks and baristas make mistakes constantly and still hand that product to the customer. There's quality issues that are unacceptable, don't get me wrong. I'm a meat guy in the industry so I know that if I give someone a cut of beef that's all gristle they aren't gonna come back. But if they order a steak medium rare and I give them one that's medium with a mediocre char, that's fine. I'm not happy with it, but it's a 15 dollar steak, not a 75 dollar steak. I live in an area with hundreds of coffee shops around me and the amount of times I go in for a fancy drink and the guy in front of me in line gets a drip coffee black no sugar always blows my mind. People most of the time just want something in their hand
@@doobledoo I get it, you need to make money and the bulk of the money comes from people who don’t care about the quality of the product that much. The thing is, I think this guy focussed solely on his own interest in quality coffee and forgot to appeal to the common man with junk which would actually bring money in and ultimately support what he wanted to do.
The appeal of the coffee shop isn't really the coffee but the ability to drink coffee in a "living room" away from your living room. Edit: My condolences.
@@alethalbitthat really depends on the the level of coffee awareness of consumers around the area. In a small town like that I’d wager most people can’t tell the difference between a mediocre coffee and an amazing one.
It is called the "3rd Place" Usually parks, coffee shops, restaurants and the like. The "1st Place" is home and the "2nd Place" us usually work, school or similar venue.
@@alethalbit coffee snobs like my sisters make their coffee at home. They have the machines, they've all worked in café shops in highschool/college and the only reason they go out is for AMBIANCE or as they say VIBES.
It takes a lot of courage revisiting and reflecting on a place of disappointment. As someone who wants to run a cafe, this video is really appreciated.
@@tanelpolts7257 Not sure I would call myself wealthy, at least not wealthy enough to be able to throw money at a cafe and not care about how it goes. I would love to start a cafe, and it would be a huge risk financially. I suppose that's why this video was impactful and helpful for me.
@@aquathamer707 why would the wealthy open up a cafe and not care about how it goes? If they do it it means they do care. And if it goes bust, they are not going to lose their shirt over it. An average person opening a cafe is insane. If you think the minute details matter in making it work, you're delusional. Location, location, location. And lotsa money.
"you're so stunning and brave for talking" It used to be the case that men had to sacrifice their lives to be called courageous. Now, Soylets have dropped the standard so low that you can be stunning and brave for just admitting you made a mistake lol. Of course you look like Seth Rogan
Tbh atmosphere of the space is probably more important than the coffee except for coffee snobs. Paper flyers in in mailboxes is probably best marketing in a small town
We paid the postman to put a leaflet with a free coffee voucher in every mailbox in the area. Got a lot of people in that way, but most of the problems started before opening. Lots of poor decision making by me and I would do it very differently if I started another coffee business.
Coffee snobs are making their own coffee at home. Your little village just wanted a cozy place to sit and chat with their friends while drinking something that resembled coffee. If your coffee is good, people would pick some up on their way to work at 6am, with a scone or cookie. You opened a shop that reflected your lifestyle and wants, not the customers. I fear your book will go the same way.
The book might not necessarily go this way, as it isn't limited to the community of a single village. It definitely isn't the thing a large book company would make, though.
People are focusing on the coffee but what confused me was the mention of “third places”, but not having anywhere to sit in the cafe? It’s hard to foster community unless there’s a place for community to be
Yes, this. I stopped going to my favorite bookstore when they removed their cafe. In fact, they removed ALL the seating everywhere in the store. Apparently they thought people were reading their books/magazines for free and taking up space and not buying. I don't know - I always bought a cafe drink and snack and also at least one of the books I was skimming. NOW there's no comfortable place to preview a book, or even sit and rest. The herd must keep moving! But they've lost a lot of us regulars who thought of the bookstore cafe as our comfortable third place, where we could go and chat with others in our community and buy coffees and hang out. Sad as it is to say, I won't go back there. You can buy books anywhere, especially on Amazon, but you can't get that sense of local community and comfort on Amazon. Third places, outside home or work, are important!
@@tarazieminek1947 If 5% of the town shopped there every day, that would be 75 people, might cover the rent with that, but not earn a profit in the end. Getting 5% of the town daily is unrealistic to begin with, so business was guaranteed to fail.
I guess that still makes it a good video right? I hope he doesn’t take it down since the comments and some of his advice or I guess just seeing it sinhelpful
The village still wanted a cafe! A cafe has life, music, cozy seats, interesting decor, warm friendly hosts, a cabinet full of sweet and savory foods, tea, juice, soda, a freezer of ice creams and coffee. You gave them a bespoke coffee tasting pickup office.
Yeah, most people really do not go to coffees to find the best tasting coffee. They go there to enjoy a bit of time with friends in a pleasant environment. Coffee just need to be not terrible.
Exactly, it seems that all this project was not really thought of and build up very naively with poor planning and no actual strategy or product market fit..
I agree. He is so focused on the coffee. Most (99%) of people will not notice small differences. I'm preparing a Bondi coffee with a pressurized filter for my wife and she couldn't be happier. She likes it more than from the cafés.
Heya! Cafe owner here, coming to the end of my first year. 9 months of expenses in the bank makes a start up entirely unfeasible for most people. I opened my cafe (the wandering goblin, in Nottingham) with zero money left when the doors opened officially. The secret isn't online marketing, it's putting the work in the build community even before you open the doors. I spent months running pop-ups while getting everything organised, building a following and offering consistency before the cafe's location was even finalised. You can either invest money OR time. As someone who's been in coffee 7 years, money wasn't an option because this industry doesn't pay. Your community will carry you through, if you put the time into building it. I hate the industry idea that everything has to be expensive. The idea you need an expensive machine and expensive grinder is also a load of crap. It's a matter of skill. I run my bar off of an old school lever machine I got second hand, and run everything through the same grinder - but with a thoughtful approach it's absolutely feasible to still keep everything dialed and tasting great. The mentality of "oh but if I had (x) machine I could do better" is super unconstructive and stops you focusing on what you can change in the moment. You need to work with what you have, and do the best within your means. A cheap machine isn't an excuse, and an expensive machine should be a low priority aspiration unless you're in it for the hobby. I'm really tired of running into this gearhead mentality. Obviously my cafe is based in a city, so it's a little different - but the base premise is the same I think. I do agree that everything should be of equivalent quality - I think your cheapest thing should be as good as your most expensive. A bad shot should never be served, etc. An espresso shot in most cafes costs £0.30 (assuming you have half decent coffee on house). That's a worthwhile loss to remake if the shot doesn't pull right. 30p to guarantee a great experience is a no brainer. I'm sorry to hear about the failure of your shop, I'm sure it was absolutely crushing. Having been doing nearly 100 hour weeks for the entire last year, I understand how difficult it is.
you nailed it, pop up stores and build a following, i drank at starbucks twice a day for 7-8 years as an expat here in Asia, about two years ago a new type of coffee trend emerged in vietnam, philippines, indonesia etc and since then i have NEVER stepped foot in a starbucks again and im at the new coffee shop twice a day and they did the same thing you said.
I agree but I do think having some money in the back is good though especially if it does fail. Even if you do everything right sometimes it still doesn’t work out so it’s good to not go completely broke right away!
''I can tell from looking at a coffee shop (or photos of it) if their coffee is good'' ... so I made my place look quite terrible because I couldn't afford better. Great plan.
yeah showing an empty coffee shop on google maps is not a good move. You have to make people think there is something happening and that others enjoy it already
The inside of his cafe looked terrible, his setup could just be a street stand. He also wanted to do way to much high class stuff if he wanted to capture the whole village.
He's right though. It's pretty clear who cares about the drink vs a shop that just wants to be presentable. You and the other commenters are a perfect example because you emphasized the LOOK of his shop on the topic of good DRINKS. Good looking cafes =/= good cup of coffee. Starbucks looks nice but no way am I spending 5$ on their latte when a good local barista would get me a MUCH better cup for the same price. Quality coffee is not your main priority and that's fine, basic cafes have their place too; but a coffee lover like him wasn't going for that.
I’m not sure if it would have made a difference, but the local cafe where I live opens at 5:30 AM. I believe you said yours opened at 8 AM. A lot of people are already at work or on their way to work by then.
Yep, especially in a small town that's more of a bedroom community. If people have to be in the office by 8 or 9 and you're trying to catch them before their commute you'll need to be open way earlier than 8.
If you are trying to sell a cup of coffee you.better be open by 5 AM to catch your customers otherwise it's a lost cause,you could open.at 4.and close at 8 and be better off than opening at 8 am
You started a coffee shop business in a village and opened at 8am. Did you do any research regarding demand? Did you produce a business plan? Did you have any business training prior to starting? A good business plan forces you to look at your expected income and expenditure realistically. Most businesses make a loss in the first year, break even in the second year and only reach profit in the third year. 80% of small businesses fail in the first year (in the UK). Sometimes a good business plan will show you that this business is not viable and save you from future debt, bankruptcy and regret. Too many people start businesses based on personal feelings and not facts.
The place really looks shitty, no seats, so just takeaway coffee. High quality coffee and takeaway coffe is a contradiction in itself, how can you enjoy top coffee while walking to the smelly train station?
@@frankfahrenheit9537and if you’re takeaway only, a huge part of your clientele will be pre-work commuters, which by opening so late you’ll completely miss…
@@frankfahrenheit9537 Great point about no seats. Even one of the 5-star reviews he showed in the video mentioned that there was only a "single table" to sit at. That's not enough to provide the cafe experience that he said that town was looking for.
The overly expensive, specialty factor inputs and very little custom is going to kill the business record time... its heartbreaking. I'm in no way going to run the gent in the video down because he's clearly passionate about what he was doing but you are totaly correct at the microeconomic level. This may have worked in an expensive London Borough where disposable income and leisure time of agents around the cafe may have helped.
Honestly I was shocked when he showed the photo of his "shop" . It looked like a broom closet. A cafe is a third space to hang out, unless you are located next to big offices where people grab and go
@@ianfong1000 I thought it was a small room in a basement where they'd stored the equipment after they closed at first, until I realised it was the actual shop.
I like how you are a coffee autist who tried to sell coffee to other coffee autists in a village of 100 houses which probably had 1 other coffee autist living there at most. I am fascinated by your courage and trust in this business idea. I think in a hip area of a city it would have worked out
City would've killed it even faster. Higher rent, more competition, etc. Dude just doesn't understand that owning a business requires more than being really into one aspect of that business. They got a cheap, tiny space that looked like shit. They didn't put any money into the space, opting to spend it on overly expensive product. I'm not saying spend half a million rebuilding a space, but they wouldn't even spend the money to run plumbing. With 6k and maybe a little DIY they could've plumbed it, put in wood floors, painted and decorated the walls, and maybe even bought a chair for people to sit in. As is it looks sterile, like a closet or a bathroom. They opened at 8am which is at least 2 hours later than a coffee shop needs to in order to maximize before work business (and then acted like opening your own business at 8am is some unimaginable hardship.) I mean Jesus Christ, a coffee shop that doesn't sell food could pretty much shut down at noon, all the traffic is in the morning. They didn't have food, they didn't have seating, they didn't have a goddamn bathroom as far as I can tell (weird for a product that basically immediately makes you have to shit.) It looks more like a mobile coffee bar that would be in the lobby of a big office building or something. And it might've been successful in a place like that.
I get it that you always want to serve 100% quality all the time. Like dialing in your recipe 3x a day due to temp changes and humidity. But always remember that sustainability is the key to success business. I think 90-95% is good enough for a sustainable business
In manufacturing we say you need to be churning out like 70-80% standard assembly line products and the rest you can use to do bespoke stuff. Only doing bespoke stuff would cause your company to fail in no time.
if that's what he was doing... facepalm... that's a well deserved failure... Just sell stupid coffee, pocket the margin and go on. Don't be the king of the hill, the best coffee on the planet. Nobody cares enough and goes "Oh my god, how did I live without this coffee all my life before!"...
@@DanOneOne yeah but he wanted to because he’s passionate about it. That’s what the discourse is about. He needs to make it work while keeping his eyes on the prize. It’s not that difficult tbh. I’ve seen it done in several places where I live.
@@jonnydoeson5562 well, I was passionate also and I was beaten up just like he was. This beating is our lessons to not live in a fairytale. But also this: People need something and when they need it, they appreciate it and pay for it. If everybody just does what they are passionate about, then who will do things that people need?... Look at all the stuff we consume and don't even think about. People on the other side just produce it. They don't parade their passion, most don't even like their jobs, but they produce it because people pay. So the rule is simple: They don't pay you - you don't do it. There is no other way. You can be passionate when you will be a millionaire.
i choose the cafe because of it looks most of the time, I'm not s coffee snob and I just want to have a nice place to take my friends/girlfriend with me. Your caffee shop from photos looked soulless, kinda like a corporate meeting room
Unfortunately, it seems like the cafe was too much about coffee and not enough about hospitality, hence no culture/third space element to offer the community. That said, most people leaving rude comments have never tried to launch anything themselves. There has to be another path for you with your marketing experience and expetise in coffee.
They are not rude comments. They are realistic. No one is calling him names, they are discussing strategy. And his strategy was just bad. That's why he failed. Objectively, someone else with better business skills would not have failed.
Agree. The place the shop was at, and the town it was based in, just wasn't the right space to open a specialty coffee shop with very little actual space to sit and hang out. In a small village, people would rather have a little cake or a bit with a drink rather than a high end specialty coffee shop!
Sounds like foot traffic was non existent. A location near a college, hospital or hotel would make all the difference for a fighting chance at survival.
This is a brutal watch. I totally understand why your experience was difficult to talk about, but if it's any consolation, your cautionary tale was a fascinating watch. I'm sure it's no consolation at all.
I look back and all I see is a fantastic learning opportunity. I didn't do enough due diligence and next time I do a cafe or roastery I will be in a much better position to do it right.
@@homecafecharlie Personally I find the whole fuss and expense of coffee to be totally baffling. I'd opt for a quick cheap white Nescafe any day (apologies to your sensitivities). Before opening in a small town you need to work out whether 1% of people are like me or 90% so you can make sure you have enough footfall. Your passion is brilliant but it's a business. Very best of luck if you try again.
@@robdw42Amazing that this video popped up in your feed then! For me it’s spot on. Coffee lover, interested in small business and startup stories. The Algorithm has its mysteries …
First of all, if you want me to keep coming back in a coffee shop or cafe, my number 1 criteria is a cozy environment or space. I couldn’t care less if the coffee is not that great. I can make my own exceptional coffee at home since I have wonderful coffee machines. However, being in a coffee shop is all about relaxing and trying to stay away from home for different reasons. If the coffee shop space is too boring and feels like I’m staring at a wall with few absolutely horrendous basic printed pictures, then that space is not worth spending my entire day with. I live in a small historic village with a population of 1500 more or less with 1 coffee shop and 1 bakery in our town square. Both the coffee shop and bakery did a great job of creating an interpretation to how the word COZY can be translated in an aesthetic theme without breaking the budget and without disconnecting the business space away from the character of the town. More than 2 decades and both the bakery and the coffee shop are still thriving. People keep on coming visiting everyday like it’s a routine because the space is so cozy even though the furnitures used are mostly vintage or old. People in small towns and villages are not particularly a fan of modern minimalist spaces provided the obvious demographics. It’s a cafe not a gym.
I'd say before even starting the business we need to look at the target audience. If we're looking at a very small town of people that just want a cozy place to have a hot drink and hang for a while, THAT is the promise you need to fulfill, not having the best coffee in the world. The branding and the decor need to make you feel cozy and make you want to come back. Also I'd say instead of ads you can do flyers around town, small events, like you said building community, but to do that you need to know what that community needs, wants, and values. Very interesting video I know it's not easy sharing these things!
I know a country town like yours. There's a bog ordinary "cafe" (which is also a chippy/burger joint) which does more trade than any other food business in town. At the end of the day, people want an okay coffee, for an okay price, in a friendly place. They don't give a shit if it's single origin and artisan roasted. They don't want or need "classes". They want a warm building, efficient service, and a decent price. You basically pitched a city concept (badly), to an entirely different crowd. I also think the brother in law roaster made it a vanity project.
Yeah this place would've died in a city too. More coffee snobs to patronize the business, sure, but also significantly higher rent and more competition. This guy created the least appealing cafe I've ever seen and blew all their money on expensive product that wouldn't sell.
My family owned a bakery and we learned you need to have decent coffee. You dont need high quality stuff, but certainly not big brand store bought crap. Exactly as you said most people want a decent priced cup of coffee/tea they can grab and enjoy with company. You need to make your place look almost like a home away from home. Almost how youd expect a nice welcoming living room to look. Focusing too much on the quality of the coffee and whatnot just doesnt work. People are caffeine addicts, theyll drink anything that gets them that buzz. As long as it isnt charbucks level coffee youd be fine.
I've owned and operated high street retail cafes, food service and catering businesses for close on 40 years. It's a brutal business that chews up and spits out even experienced operators, so don't be to disheartened about your first venture not working. In that village, with such a low population, not even the most experienced operator in the world could have made it work. No matter the countless other issues. Thanks for posting a well made and informative video. It's very brave to show your mistakes for all to see.
good point about the population. Hilton has a population of 1200 according to wikipedia. I lived in a nearby town that has a population of 5000 and a busy successful coffee shop. I never had a coffee shop but I would have advised him not to waste money in a small village like Hilton.
the thing is though, the general public are not coffee snobs, they just want a half decent coffee and a nice place to sit and chat. They overcomplicated a very simple concept and it didn't work out.
Good quality cafes do exist though??? Plenty of good shops in my city and he literally references a few other café owners in this video after all. It's unfortunate the shop closed down but that is the risk of starting a business sometimes. Also the point about having a nice place with lots of foot traffic can still lead to failure as addressed in the video.
Cafes should have windows. People like to look out or have in their mind the ability for others to look in and see them. It really doubles as a hub for activity. Your space just seems soooo small and closed in. Not hating just offering up what came to my mind. It takes a lot of guts to admit any wrong in public or on TH-cam. Good luck for you in your next endeavor!
I prepare my own coffee at home, I don't drink coffee from take away coffee shops unless I am on vacation. I do however go to cafes to meet friends and socialize, and I don't care so much about the quality of coffee as long as it's a friendly and cozy ambience.
This is just a tragedy. Build it and they will come. That is the vibe. Its painful, honestly. You mention early in the video that you attempted this in Hilton, Cambridgeshire. The population is approximately 1100 people. And from what you've shown us you had a nearly unmarked, side room in a residential area. With a small budget you could have made a mobile set up, that you would have actually owned. Instead you rented the side room that required your time and money to renovate. Its agonising. With a mobile set up, literally a converted ice cream van, you could have gone to hipster beauty spots around Cambridgeshire and been selling to urbane millennial walkers and gen-Z ramblers who were venturing out of the city. If that had worked it could have been a beach-head for the operation you actually wanted in the longer term. Christ, this is just murder to see.
Agree. Huntingdonshire is the local authority and they don't even consider that village's main road a consent street for trading from a mobile van or trailer. Could have set one up for so little cost. Even in the "shop" he has a counter without running water.
By 4 minutes in we've learned a small village is not the place for 3 Michelin star coffee roaster. Under capitalization gets one the wrong space, wrong equipment, and wrong aesthetic: especially for a 3 star Michelin coffee roaster. Bare minimum to open a café is probably in the 50K region, and that's with the owner working all the time. And a proper café, easily 100K. Otherwise, you're just a kid selling lemon aid on the sidewalk.
thx for sharing. sounds like a vanity project more than a business. If "the town" wanted a coffee shop, then maybe the townhall could have given you a nice space where you could have at least 2 tables and 4 seats. The space you operated in looked terrible. There's no mention of foot traffic analysis. Starbucks doesn't open locations randomly. I like the coffee tasting classes idea a lot, but i'm not even sure how you could fit the people in that space, must have been very awkward. And you folded almost immediately after opening up. And if you needed a space heater to keep your hands warm, i suspect the space was welcoming like a strain station platform. I'm sorry it failed, but that feels pretty unsurprising. I assume you didnt lose too much though, because you guys were the employees, the gear can be resold, the rent was cheap, and you had almost zero fitout.
I agree the space was a head scratcher. I've seen small coffee spaces work in cities with a lot of foot traffic but I don't see how it could work in a small town. Why would the town provide free space for a private business? It's possible they would rent a space for a favorable fixed rent and share of income?
@@sophocles1198 There's different ways to skin a cat. Cities almost always have real estate that's underused / poorly used, or unused, so they can loan it, rent it, income share it. What's clear is that a tiny, poorly heated, poorly located, poorly fitted location with limited foot fall where you can't sit down doesn't sound like a winning proposition.
This is England. The parish council will have a village hall which is unlikely to be suitable to run a business out of, and if there is space it wouldn't let you use it for free.
Vanity project crashes into reality mountain. A village coffee shop could get away with serving freeze dried coffee, with filter coffee for those who want something more upmarket. I'm not joking.
Exactly, that's the way I would have approached it if I were starting a cafe in that location. I wouldn't even bother doing my own roasting to cut down electricity costs. Pre-roasted beans from a good location would be more than enough for a basic village cafe shop.
@@piratesmvp Huntingdonshire is the local authority and they don't even consider that village's main road a consent street for trading from a mobile van or trailer. Someone selling pod coffee with tesco milk from a hatch would probably make as much as that guy in a cold cubby hole with expensive kit.
There are lots of people that will happily tell you about getting rich quick schemes but there's hardly any that tell the real story that business is hard and expensive and needs a whole lot of luck. Replace coffee with magic tricks, juggling equipment and kites and my experience is exactly the same as yours. I have no idea why TH-cam recommended me to you but I'm glad it did. Tremendous video. Best of luck with your future endeavours.
You have to start on the demand these days. Once the demand is locked down you can start meeting it. Another thing is that if you love the subject of your business, you're easily distracted by it and not focused on the business itself. A business is about making money, a hobby is about your interest in the subject and it's really hard to seperate those two if the subject was your hobby. Simply put, you have to limit yourself to proven strategies and methodologies even if you're knowledgable and motivated about the subject.
Do you need a “real story” to teach you that a venture pretending to offer “a third space” and delivering such an unwelcoming decor is a recipe for disaster??
A village doesn't want a speciality coffee in/out place. They want a caffee kind of place with normal coffee (italian), sweets, easy music. You tried to bring a hypster city coffee into a village and they said no. People that came and tried different beans... They just tried to find something they liked and didn't at the end. I stopped counting how many "speciality" coffee places opened and closed in my country. But classics stay. Be an artist in your free time but in business give people what they really want and what they are used to. Running a business is hard. Still kudos for trying and don't stop dreaming.
I don't get people startng a coffee or a restaurant with a place for basically 4 people in it. How high would the prices have to be for such a small place to pay for the salaries, equipment and everything else? I do realise it seems to be a safer route, with smaller rent, but it's actually more risky in the long run and if you can't afford a bigger place it's probably best to not do this at all. It's not an easy business even if you have a lot of money.
@@dabneyoffermein595Irrelevant. We’re not criticizing the people who did it as persons. Their effort is commendable. But the resulting ambiance, atmosphere and overall feeling of the space is absolutely awful for a café!!
I think the most underestimated aspect of business is pure presentation or design. The smallest detail matters, including perhaps paying the additional $0.10 per paper cup to get modern cups versus unsightly patterned cups. Great products are great, but humans naturally devalue even a functional product if it’s not accompanied by good aesthetics.
This level of detail MAY be important in a more competitive market, not sure it applies to a coffee shop in a small village. Just give them a better warm drink than they can make at home and a pleasant place to drink it.
To be honest, the ambience seems to be the place where they really fell down. Nothing about the space makes me wanna go spend time there. My favourite café (which also has incredible coffee) has a very similar green and wood vibe, but it’s bright and airy and filled with wonderful music, cool artwork, massive plants, very nice dishware and paper cups. It’s a place where you can spend hours hanging out and just feel cool existing. This reminds me more of a shoebox condo you’d find downtown.
No, 95% of your customers don't care won't even notice. What gets people in the door is marketing and advertising in order to run an effective campaign you have to be doing it for 6 to 9 months to confirm everyone and their brother knows and has a good shot to come in.
@@InvestmentJoy But getting a customer in the door doesn’t mean they’ll want to come back. If you don’t create a compelling atmosphere where people want to spend time, you’ll never convert those people into loyal, regular customers. That’s pretty crucial for a small business in an equally small town.
They say success has a hundred mothers and fathers, whereas failure is always an orphan. So many people on YT bragging about how great they are, very few did what you did. Thanks for sticking your neck out to share your experience.
Nah you're taking it the wrong way. You don't think the passersby had the same thoughts the commenters are saying here looking at an uninviting bespoke coffee shop in a village of a 1000 people?
All i can only hear in this video is "it is because of this, it is because of that". I don't see any responsibility here. I saw a good comment. Who would come and buy coffee at 8 when your butts need to be at work at 8. You can open up at 6. Sell some bagel along with a strong but not sure tasting brew to people rushing to work. It is morning. I want something strong. Not excite my delicate tastebuds. In the afternoon, when we have their lunches or in the evening when people just want to relax, then maybe you can switch to a fancier roast.
Hey Charlie, thanks for the video; it was really interesting to hear your reflections on your experience. I'm one of the Hilton residents (I came to one of your cupping sessions, which was brilliant) and I was disappointed when you moved on & then the shop subsequently closed. I really wish it had worked out better for both the shop and you personally! I am grateful, though, because drinking your espresso & learning more about coffee meant that when the shop did shut, I couldn't go back to drinking Nespresso at home & ended up taking the plunge and buying my first espresso machine. Still learning, but every now and then I pull a shot that I'm really pleased with. Will be awaiting the ledger!
Thank you so much for your comment. I appreciated everybody who came to the shop, and for what it's worth I really did enjoy making coffees for people. Like I said, I had no idea what I was getting myself into 😅 I'm glad you got an espresso machine and I hope my videos help you get great tasting shots!
I worked as a coffee machine engineerfor 30 years in oxfordshire. Also installing equipment. The overheads are insane. I would say, 50% of machines I installed, I was back there, collecting them when the business failed. There was one, in at Clements, that went under, customers were queuing up outsid to get served. But the landlord, seeing this kept putting the rent up, and bust their business. You need to open early, to sell beacon, egg, sausage sandwiches to folk going to work.
I really appreciate the hard truths about running a business. I cant speak about what I've heard about entrepreneur culture in the U.K. but I remember a Japanese-American investor telling me about the difference in attitudes between running a business in both countries. In Japan, business culture is that you have to succeed at first try which creates a rise or fail mentality. In the US, investors actively seek people who have failed a previous business because they learn from their mistakes. It was one of those moments where I'm glad to have an American mentality of never giving up and learning from mistakes.
People don't want good coffee; they just want not bad coffee. Most people are used to drinking Keurig; simple as. If you are simply as good as that, you will be known as the place with delicious coffee. Fancy coffee is good, but sometimes people misunderstand that a lot of times, average coffee is almost better because it is safe and comforting for most people. The day might suck, you're a thousand miles away from home, nothings going and then you get a cup of coffee that tastes just like the one you drink everyday at home. It's like a warm blanket, a little shelter from the storm.
SOME people don't want good coffee, SOME of us do. Average (even below average) coffee has it place, like when it's just a typical work day and I need caffeine hit on the cheap (and only if the price matches the lower quality). It's not safe and comforting to me, it's just a cheap substitute cause there isn't anything better close to work. Quality coffee IS the one I drink at home. The type I go for when I'm out and feel like treating myself with an equally delicious baked good. That's my warm blanket.
I still can't talk about my failed coffeehouse/bakery/cafe. I put my whole heart, time, and savings/retirement into it - just heartbreaking. Thanks for sharing your journey...
You can always try again later. You won't be starting from zero. You will have past experience and more knowledge. ....pfff just take a break to regulate emotions and try again.
Mate good job. As someone who had a small business that closed it hurt a bit to hear you had to get a “real” job afterwards - be proud of yourself, you had a real job in your venture!
Just my opinion and I am in no way a coffee expert but in my humble experience as a customer - the best coffee shops are the ones that are like home where you can sit down and spend a while there fannying about. The bauhaus/post-modern/IKEA/minimalist design just doesn't work. I'd rather go into a coffee place with books, a wonky table, an old comfy couch and a nice welcoming vibe. A lot of coffee shops focus on the wrong thing - the coffee. It's like a pub, people don't actually like the taste of beer all that much they just like to go there for the atmosphere and experience. Just look at the speciality craft pubs, people don't really like them all that much. They lack character
You can't have coffee shops like that at all anymore. Today if you create the type of place you describe it would instantly be full of stinking criminal homeless people. And in most cities you can't keep or throw them out. What you describe exists only in your memory. It is only a story to tell your grandchildren.
There's tons of character in the fancy cafes, certainly in my area. You seem to just have a very specific preference. My (very non-homogeneous area @ZaoZaoification) has so many options, each reflecting a different vibe and character as diverse as the people. I love it! So many options, It's fun to explore and I damn well care about the coffee (I ain't treating myself to room vibes, gimme a damn good cup of coffee). I've explored a cafe similar to your aesthetics that also didn't care for their coffee quality. Popular with old people but not for me and that's fine, everyone's got their own preferences. But your preference is definitely not the type Charlie would've wanted (even as a customer himself). There's tons of actual coffee lovers who'll spend more for a good cup, and that's the group he needs to get better at connecting with if he ever try's again.
You’re absolutely right. Once over the honeymoon period and into the grind, thats where your nerves shine. Either it will be nerves of steel, or nerves of bubblegum. Not the best place in the world.
My favorite coffee shop is a community based one where I can sit and drink, possibly meet with people. The clips you showed made your place look very small with no seating. I would probably not go. My loss really.
No offense but I think you needed a lot more business training. A lot of assumptions were made on your part. You seemed to focus a lot on the product, but not enough on the customer. No customer, no product. People saying they “want a coffee shop” is very vague. That might have meant that they wanted a place to sit down. Did you offer anything else besides coffee? Pastries? What were the ages of the villagers? What was the minimum amount of customers needed to break even? What time do they go to work? The ambiance of your coffee shop also did not give maximum cosiness. There were a lot of things you could have done to up the coziness and high quality feel on the cheap.
He works in marketing! That might be the most mindboggling reveal of the entire video. Not the 8am opening, the lack of money, the lack of heating or plumbing (while wasting money throwing away beans that weren't the exact right temperature), opening in a village where he apparently knew no one except his sister and her hubby, the lack of seating, etc... nope, it's that all these incredibly obvious mistakes were made by a guy who works in marketing! How is that even possible?
As someone living in a major coffee city, I can tell you that aesthetically your space was really struggling. I know you put a lot of work into the revamp, but the end result still looked cold, sad, uninviting and a bit like a broom closet with an espresso machine in it. Putting effort into the vibe of a public space is just a big a part of fostering community as is the quality of the product itself-even if they’re just in there for a few minutes each day they still remember how they felt while they were there..
I worked for a big coffee roaster who wanted to try a portable pop-up espresso/brew location in the country. It was fun, but we faced many of the issues you explained (dialling in espresso in an open space in the summer was the worst). Even with the big name/branding and access to top notch equipment, the spot only lasted one season before they relocated. There were locals who came by often, but it wasn't enough. Even the city folk vacationing there didn't help profits much. Good on you for trying. That looks like a huge challenge.
When i was in high school, a friend of mine's parents bought the local derelict gas station and set up a coffee shop. It was a success! The town loved it! It was a place that had events but also served breakfast food and always had adequate staffing during rush periods. They had several seating areas in and outside. Then they decided to host a pretty political event... In a town full of people with the opposite political beliefs. Their long list of customers dried up almost immediately. Within half a year they closed their business. I learned an extremely valuable lesson. Politics and small town business does not mix. Even now i see local businesses with campaign signs in their windows a d i think about how that candidate couldn't care less about that shop. But all the locals that dont like that candidate gladly drive past the shop to go to a more neutral one in the city next door. Its a shame.
10/10 for being brave enough for making a video explaining the issues of how this business failed. Budding entrepreneurs can learn a lot more from what went wrong stories, than success stories. This is my cautionary tale: I had a bakery/ coffee shop/ cafe in Dorset that I bought as a going concern, increased turnover to about £220k pa, then sold it 3 years later. The coffee machine cost £3000, the filter cost about £100 and needed replacing every 6 months. Rent was about £32000 pa (prime spot on a square/ High Street position), rates £10500, 2 full time, 5 part-time staff. But it is exhausting, opening 6/7 days a week, constant staff issues, maintenance costs on ovens, display chillers, air-con, dishwasher machine etc., staff stealing from the tills, managers forgetting to lock up properly or leaving ovens on, dealing with the 'sharks' that prey on new and start-up businesses (like firms that claim to reduce your business rates). Also, commercial leases have clauses that continue the liability for rent payments, even if you close the business or sell it on to somebody else who then stops paying the rent (YOU ARE STILL LIABLE FOR THE RENT IN MOST LEASES).
Sorry to hear about that but thank you for sharing! Good to hear a more nuances comment than 'make it pretty' or 'just sell cheap coffee.' I'm not an owner but I have a friend who's doing alright so I'll add something to the conversation: Charlie's right that community plays a big role. My friend is not rich but he is a very sociable and overall great guy. This gave him a gave him a great deal of network and support when he opened his shop (made a lot of coffee specific connections working a few years in different cafes on top of improving his coffee game). The landlord, handyman, logo designer, website, marketing, business plan, sign and menu creation, all of it through fantastic working relationships he maintained in his social circle, friends/family, and broader community (1 of whom was his ex-boss who owned a quality cafe). Also a tip for people, you can make a decent looking cafe with low funds but that's also a skill on it's own. My friend managed to make spray painted cheap wood look decent when he was starting off (you couldn't tell it was cheap unless you were behind the counter 😂). Been a few years now and he still works long hours building his cafe (super passionate about coffee and quality). Not a rich success story but one that's still chugging along and improving every year. Cafe's has a decent stream of customers for their location, and 1 of the top cafes in his city ranking (if not THE top but I'm not up-to-date on the latest ranking) which is great success in that regard.
Thanks for being so candid. Failure can be so hard to talk about but helpful to learn from. Condolences on the loss of your dad - I’m sure he would be proud of you for giving it a go and being strong enough to own up to failure and learn from it. Keep at it! Success is often the product of many failures. Wishing you all the best! ❤
Dude if you want a thriving small buisness coffee shop you want to be open at 5:45 and prepare toasts and other simple breakfast items. Industrial workers usually start early shift around 6 offices open at 8 you want to be up and running as these people are going to work so they can pick up stuff. Opening at 8 is simply too late.Look at the small bakeries and coffee shops that are killing it. They offer what Starbucks and coffee fellas can't. A quick stop on your way to work
As a passionate project manager by trade, this is a brutal retrospective to watch. The comments have covered it already, but a cozy coffee shop is more about the shop and less about the coffee. I wonder how much you’ve talked to the community about what they want and why they didn’t come? I’d highly encourage you to connect with the audience for your journal as well. It’s so easy to assume we know what people want, but the people often tell a very different story. Also, by 8am I’ve already been working for hours! That was way too late to just be opening.
I’d never heard of this channel, but this video showed up on my TH-cam feed, for some reason. Very helpful, great content, with smooth, efficient production. Thanks for posting.
Don't kick yourself too hard Charlie - very few businesses kick on from foundation. All of the things you've described I went through with furniture. And still learning. Keep your chin up and as a new subscriber I'll be paying attention to your next chapters!
I don't live in UK or your village. As I'm listening you said you walked through the cold british winter to open the cafe at 8 before people go to work. Personally, I get up at 7:15 am and arrive at McDonald's drive thru at 7:45 am. Get my 2 extra large black coffee and arrive at work at 8 am. My point is the coffee shop needs to be opened up way before 8 am.
😐 that location looks dreadful. I wouldnt trust coffee from what looks like a residential basement. I want a proper store with tables and chairs... maybe even a couch and coffee table--even if I don't bother to stay inside.
First of all, I really respect the investment you made in giving this cafe a go and the courage to talk about it after it closed. That said, my reaction from looking at the video is that the cafe looked a bit sterile. They say don't judge a book by its cover, but frankly life is too short and complicated not to! You really focused on serving a superior product with high standards, but the real commodity in that neighborhood probably would have been a warm and inviting atmosphere. When I see a coffee shop that's too plain and simple, it gives me the sense that it's transient. It may have worked out better for you in the city where a certain percentage of people want the best quality coffee with no frills, but I think the real product in your location would have been the third space.
I mean, did you even read a book about how Starbucks became successful before you started? People aren't paying for the coffee, they're paying to lease a table and wifi for 30 minutes. And if they don't sit around and use your space, that's just a freebie. "We don't have money for a fancy space," there's your problem. The space matters more than the coffee.
The villagers wanted a hangout place. Basic coffee, tea, juice and beer and a nice, homy atmosphere would be enough. You would never be rich, but the cafe would survive. But it great you have tried! You have learned a lot i hope. Good luck!
Bro, risk is hard but it's the right move. I'm glad you opened this shop and learned a lot. Now you have some good wisdom to pass along! Thanks for making this video!
Here's a clue: if you are thinking about starting a retail business, first you project the annual volume of sales thru the first 5 years. Then you project the average sale amount of each transaction to find out how many transactions it takes to reach that number. If your average transaction is under $10 or so, you will likely be out of business very quickly, and you will be working yourself and perhaps your family to death just to go out of business more slowly. By the way, you need to know your costs of doing business from top to bottom. Don't forget you have to pay rent, utilities, employees, and cost of goods sold, and taxes. Retail is brutally competitive, and you better be the only coffee shop for miles, and it better be good. To do $500,000, you have to sell 50,000 $10 sales in 300 or so days per year! No one would open that business with the 2 minutes of simple math above. Don't even get me started on franchises, at least you just go broke if it's your own; with a franchise, you can go bankrupt and lose everything. Lesson #1: Know what you are doing and understand the business before you invest in one. Selah
After running businesses for 20 years ive learnt that the marketing has to revolve around providing potential customers with the ability to sell the idea of buying to themselves, this sounds obvious but new business owners are often overly concerned with their own perceptions of themselves and they often stand in the way of their own success with this self-criticism … its hard for business owners to believe that its not about you as an owner, its about clear product information, reviews and quality assurances with as many regular discounts and promotions as possible to allow people to establish certainty in their own minds. Also if you try to be too personal with customers it will make them feel uncomfortable overtime even though it feels like you are building relationships, so you often need to keep a professional distance from everyone so you keep your own perspectives clear, and they feel unobligated to keep coming back.
"Also if you try to be too personal with customers it will make them feel uncomfortable overtime" This is a really good point that hasn't been made yet, and I can relate. A new casual restaurant opened in my hood, I went a few times in I guess the first couple months. Had a friendly rapport with the owner. After a few visits, I gave the place a like on Facebook... and the owner sent me a friend request within 24 hours. Awkward AF. I wasn't gonna add him and didn't feel like having to explain if he brought it up. I never went back.
@@davedavid427I agree completely. Many proprietors of UK businesses fail to judge this ‘rapport building’ aspect of hospitality correctly, and I can’t stand it.
The people I respect the most are not those who have made it ‘big’ but are those individuals who share their knowledge about the journey so that others can be inspired to do something good and wonderful too. Kudos to you for sharing your journey, it’s a pity it didn’t work out but I have no doubt you have the insight to learn and become a richer person for it. That’s the single most important aspect of life. Best of luck in your new adventure, I have signed up.
Thank you, and yes I know I made a lot of mistakes but every new business will carry with it lessons from past mistakes. It's just a matter of time and continues curiosity and effort
I worked at a local newspaper in an industrial park just off the main highway. An enterprising gentleman set up a specialty coffee stand in the lunch room cafeteria. Although there was a Starbucks nearby, one had to drive to get there. He had his loyal customer base built in. He issued punch tickets: buy 10 cups and the 11th is free. After paying the cafeteria rent to lease the space, he hired two friendly baristas to help out.
I have always had the dream of owning a coffee shop but ended up becoming a pharmacist instead, this video was a great insight into the difficulties that come with trying to grow a coffee shop and there are a lot of lessons to take away - good luck on your journey! Subscribed!
I‘m a coffee aficionado and only make specialty coffee for myself at home with my fancy gear. I know I would have to charge 10 € for an espresso to make a profit if I sold specialty coffee out of my kitchen window, so there’s no way I would EVER see a business solely based on specialty coffee generating enough profit to make a living. But it was gutsy - yet naive- of you to try! So kudos for that.
I'm glad my videos have helped you! We're all always learning. I have no illusions and don't know if I'll ever be confident enough to call myself an expert. But the espresso is definitely good 😎
Alas listening for 5 mins made my heart sink. Starting on a shoestring is impossible. Location is paramount and cheap rent tells you all you need to know about footfall. A case of perfect is the enemy of good is all too true.90percent of people can't tell good coffe from Nescaf. It was not a caff it was a kiosk
You focused on the art of making coffee. Starbucks focused on the vibes of a coffee shop. Restoring 2nd hand patio furniture and focusing on the garden might have been a cost-effective move. Still, most people never even tried to get their dream. Good luck
I'm not sure what to make of this video. I had sympathy but then quickly it turned to an incredulous rage as I kept watching. I feel bad for your sister. No doubt a lifetime of her brother's ideas and more to come. God bless her.
Right? Which part infuriated you the most, was it voluntarily increasing his product costs 30% because he had to "reset the grind" (whatever TF that means) and "won't compromise" on it... bragging about his "delicous" beans El Salvador (how's that a selling point? no one even knows El Salvador has coffee)... was it the reveal that he didn't even have heating or plumbing... acting like opening at 8am was such a grind.... opening without a penny to his name... or lesson 2 being absolutely the wrong one: that product has the best EVER, ALWAYS? He's clueless even after his failure.
I've always wondered about the economics of cafes. The amount of coffee you have to make, just for rent and energy, before staff wages and input costs, is so much I can't wrap my head around it. Thank you for sharing the details. Thanks algorithm for bringing me here. Wishing you all the best for you next endeavour.
@Lookup2WakeupI agree. Places like this need to be making coffees hand over fist to stay afloat. As has been repeated in the comments, most people who start a small coffee shop like this are already very wealthy.
As an independent cafe, as a rule there are two types who survive: 1)The ones with a wealthy owner who has no problem with losing money in it. 2)Money laundering fronts.
Mobile coffee vans and trailers are often much more profitable particularly if you're on your own and can do local events. Hardly any overheads after the initial purchases
My girlfriend buys a lot of takeaway coffee. She also “appreciates” “good” food. So I decided that something simple that I could do was to learn to make a good coffee. Learned about what could produce a decent espresso and froth milk. Milk was fine, but espresso was bitter. Got a really good hand grinder and had to learn the optimum grind for espresso. She had a sister whose boyfriend was a barista and got us some top quality beans. Got to a point where most people said I could make a really good latte. I was really pleased with the taste of even the espresso and now I make myself a coffee almost everyday. My girlfriend said she didn’t like to wait long so I started pre-grinding and pre-heating so the coffee came out as soon as she wanted/needed it. In the end she more often than not just makes an instant or buys a coffee on the way to work. I learned over time that her fine dining preference had little to do with the food as I more often than not ate food that she barely tasted and her go to meals are instant noodles and McDonald’s. Her diet is mostly easy, highly processed comfort food and her coffees are so filled with sugar that when she offers me some it taste awful to me. It was all about the time and place as well as the “hit” of salt, sugar, caffeine, etc. and I only make her a coffee now if she asks for one. It sucks mostly because I thought I was doing something that would make her day and make her feel appreciated, but rather than dwelling on it to much I think of the fact that I can now make myself something that I enjoy and that on the odd occasion that someone wants one I can make a coffee that is never said to be of poor quality. I had once considered that I could make something like this a side hustle, but people want different things and for all the hype about coffee from all the people that swear by it over the years I never really got it. I’m a swimming coach and have a lot of early mornings and still don’t make mine until I get home and can make myself one as it’s not even the caffeine it’s the flavours, smells and yes even the process that I enjoy and I just couldn’t see that transferring to being a good foundation to build a business
Wow this was super interesting and as somebody who has worked in a few cafes years ago and always kind of thought of maybe owning one some day, this really answered a lot of questions I had. Thank you so much for being so transparent and sharing your experience. I’ve always thought it must be a really tough business and like any service industry business there are so many variables like location which can make or break a business. I lived in NYC for over a decade and used to work in cafes there. I remember this one cafe that was slammed all day every day especially during rush hours. The coffee was completely mediocre at best and they really didn’t care too much about dialing in espresso or anything beyond basic coffee drinks. However they were located right next to one of the busiest stops on the L train in Brooklyn. Two streets away another cafe opened which had the best equipment money can buy along with a huge roaster in the back room. There coffee was excellent and I would go in there and think “damn…who paid for all of this?”. After getting to know the baristas I learned that there were 2-3 investors who opened the place. One year later they were closed suddenly overnight and just left a post on their IG to thank the customers who came in. Pretty brutal! The cafe down the street beside the train is still thriving and busier than ever the last time I checked.
@@homecafecharlie absolutely! Sounds like you learned some really valuable lessons that you will take with you on your next venture. Wishing you all the best!!
@@homecafecharlie do you still believe in a small coffee shop? i am the edge of open one. Better place than yours(bigger, open, seats, and nice view) , but not fancy hardware(a normal espresso machine and regular ovens and stuff like that). But looks like a lot of people here think this market is over saturated and there are not opportunities for new business.
@@andresdigi25I do think certain cities have an interest in nicer coffee over run of the mill, but realistically basically zero of your customers could name the make/model of a single commercial espresso machine. Location has to be the top factor (vibe and such is part of that, but also just convenient access and visibility, and not having too much competition nearby) It’s also very important to be serving the drinks people actually want, not just what you think is good
The 1st picture looks like a storage unit for old painting equipment I didn't even realize that that was your actual shop. You even said yourself that just looking at pictures online could tell you the quality of the coffee and the place. And opening at 8am ??? Most coffee shops here in America open at.5:30am BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVE TO BE AT WORK AT 7AM 8AM . This guy.reminds me of someone who has a " Family Recipe for spaghetti sauce " And decides to open a restaurant when they never even worked in one. Painful the ignorance.
Charlie, long time watcher here, I for one love your content. Anytime I get a notification that you have uploaded I drop everything and jump over to watch your newest video. I appreciate your in depth videos, insights and most of all your honesty. I think the turning point for me was your 078S review where you went against the grain and moreover personally helped me make a decision on my grinder via instagram chat. I still appreciate that interaction to this day. Signed up for the Brew Ledger, would be a wonderful pairing to my coffee setup. Cheers from AZ, USA, and keep kicking ass!
Thankyou for sharing. Cafes and restaurants are some of the toughest businesses. I also opened a cloud kitchen and restaurant in Bengaluru, but unfortunately, we had to close it as well. The lessons I learned were varied, but the biggest ones were that it can take a long time for word of mouth to spread, and it's an expensive and exhausting journey.
Wow. Thank you for this. I have no plans of opening a coffee shop nor want to start any business at all but just the courage and thoughtfulness of you sharing your experience is worth the time and the additional knowledge! Hope your book goes well!
Sounds contradictory but I still felt inspired after watching this video. The fact you put into practice what a lot of coffee lovers would only briefly dream of and then give up, is very commendable. Despite how easily it could fail, I 100% would try opening a specialty coffee place if I had a load of excess cash (in many decades to come haha)
After a long journey I'm glad you kept your TH-cam channel. In my experience in South East Asia, cafe's are really not profitable and often owned by rich families who just want to be able to own and show it off to their friends. Mayber if I'm rich instead of buying a boat I would open a cafe and run it at a loss but I think for coffee enthusiasts, operating a small coffee popup in your own house/apartment for neighbors and friends is the way to go.
Depends on the market too. Need to be in a situation with high volume. Customers willing to buy roasted coffee and other streams of income and offerings at the cafe
@@gregorio5543High volume area means higher rental. So having a higher capital outlay is required for such venture. For hobbyists and if city council permits, I think the mobile cart concept like those they do in Thailand makes more sense.
thank you for sharing ❤ invaluable information, and awesome to see all the comments adding other recommendations for anyone thinking about starting a local business. good luck with your book!
You’re definitely on the correct wave in terms of what the U.K. needs in its coffee culture - high quality, specialty coffee that is consistent, with basically no other extraneous services. But the location was literally the opposite of where it’s needed - I’d kill for a place like this near me in London. In fact there is one that’s just opened, but the coffee isn’t nice enough; it has the “look” you described, but the baristas are inexperienced. There’s already one near my office in St James Park called Formative - that is literally this concept with 3-4 tables thrown in, and further along in its journey. Barebones, quality single product offering businesses like this belong in hole-in-the-walls in major cities, with heavy corporate footfall. If you try again, please come to Wimbledon and I will be there literally every day.
Mate! Thank you so much for sharing this video. I learnt so much about what not to do in such a short space of time and your honesty and openness is so genuine. I’ve watched countless business videos where they focus on the moments of success making it appear even harder to attain but this truly taught me something and I really appreciate it. You’re super brave to put this out there and I really respect that. Thank you again.
I enjoyed hearing about your cafe. I can relate as I closed up my roasting company after 3 years. And hindsight is 20/20! I will say that listing the equipment as one of the top reasons (ahead of location ) for it not succeeding was surprising. I’ve see local shops here that crush it with used equipment. Not top of the line machines and put out quality drinks. Location, commitment, convenience and shared value is what drives those shops. Glad to see your passion is coming back. Good luck in next venture!
I think the equipment thing was more of a symptom of not having enough money. The cafe wasn't the nicest looking, so I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't give it a chance and just assume it's a crappy village coffee shop. If it was bright and had that design, nice machines etc, people would have given it more of a chance I think. Even so we just didn't have enough money to get to the break even point where we would have had enough regular customers
1:40 seconds in an my first question is.... where was your business plan? It sounds like there really wasn't one. It was all based on wishful thinking. Yikes. Ok... off to finish watching it.
My thought too. Love the introspection here, but he certainly could have learned from others mistakes (as he is helping us to do here) long before putting their first dollar in.
It's so obvious, isn't it? And none of his friends told him that this is a bad place to run a cafe? Actually it's not a cafe, it's a takeaway. Instead of not hurting his soul by tellimg him "search for another place" they let him run against a wall. Great friends!
That was the first thing I noticed as well. It just looked so SAD. Even the paper cups looked like something you would serve cheap drip coffee out of. I don't get how a man so brutally myopic about the details of coffee didn't even notice that his cafe and service was uninviting. Also, opening a coffee place at 8 AM? That's hilarious. Dude needed to open at 6 AM at the latest.
It’s very surprising, given that this guy’s been hanging out in some of Tokyo’s nicest coffee shops for ages and puts together aesthetic b-roll and thumbnails. It would’ve costed nothing to tidy away the fire extinguisher and other junk, put up some prints on the walls and a rug on the floor. Sadly, in the long run it probably wouldn’t have made much difference as the fundamentals were off.
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Restaurant guy here with more than 10 years experience, including years working with startups. I have to chime in about your line where you said that everything has to be of the highest quality and if the mistake is made it has to be remade.
This line of thinking destroys startups in the food industry. It is simply not true. I get it that we all are lovers of the art, but you have to understand that quality is a never-ending scale that always increases price. Good enough is good enough. The most popular restaurants and drink shops in the world, are absolutely known for everything but their quality,
The average customer/consumer does not appreciate your art and would much rather have something in their hand now then something that you define as perfect a little bit later.
I agree, seen piss poor quality in places people rave about endlessly. If a place had a reputation, they can get away with anything.
Yeah but you’re missing the point. The market he was targeting and his passion was quality coffee. If he wanted to churn out dross he could have done, but why would he? He isn’t interested in doing that.
@@jonnydoeson5562 what market though? The location is in the middle of nowhere. With so few people around, there's no sub markets to pick and choose from
@@jonnydoeson5562 there's a difference between serving drivil and having a 100% quality rating. If you want to serve food with zero mistakes then you need to charge 100 dollars a plate. In the real world cooks and baristas make mistakes constantly and still hand that product to the customer.
There's quality issues that are unacceptable, don't get me wrong. I'm a meat guy in the industry so I know that if I give someone a cut of beef that's all gristle they aren't gonna come back. But if they order a steak medium rare and I give them one that's medium with a mediocre char, that's fine. I'm not happy with it, but it's a 15 dollar steak, not a 75 dollar steak.
I live in an area with hundreds of coffee shops around me and the amount of times I go in for a fancy drink and the guy in front of me in line gets a drip coffee black no sugar always blows my mind. People most of the time just want something in their hand
@@doobledoo I get it, you need to make money and the bulk of the money comes from people who don’t care about the quality of the product that much. The thing is, I think this guy focussed solely on his own interest in quality coffee and forgot to appeal to the common man with junk which would actually bring money in and ultimately support what he wanted to do.
The appeal of the coffee shop isn't really the coffee but the ability to drink coffee in a "living room" away from your living room. Edit: My condolences.
You have a point, but shit coffee deters customers, so, like every business, it's a delicate balancing act
That is a big part of the appeal but not the only one I think 🤔
@@alethalbitthat really depends on the the level of coffee awareness of consumers around the area. In a small town like that I’d wager most people can’t tell the difference between a mediocre coffee and an amazing one.
It is called the "3rd Place" Usually parks, coffee shops, restaurants and the like. The "1st Place" is home and the "2nd Place" us usually work, school or similar venue.
@@alethalbit coffee snobs like my sisters make their coffee at home. They have the machines, they've all worked in café shops in highschool/college and the only reason they go out is for AMBIANCE or as they say VIBES.
It takes a lot of courage revisiting and reflecting on a place of disappointment. As someone who wants to run a cafe, this video is really appreciated.
are you independently wealthy?
@@tanelpolts7257 Not sure I would call myself wealthy, at least not wealthy enough to be able to throw money at a cafe and not care about how it goes.
I would love to start a cafe, and it would be a huge risk financially. I suppose that's why this video was impactful and helpful for me.
@@aquathamer707 why would the wealthy open up a cafe and not care about how it goes? If they do it it means they do care.
And if it goes bust, they are not going to lose their shirt over it. An average person opening a cafe is insane. If you think the minute details matter in making it work, you're delusional. Location, location, location. And lotsa money.
"you're so stunning and brave for talking"
It used to be the case that men had to sacrifice their lives to be called courageous. Now, Soylets have dropped the standard so low that you can be stunning and brave for just admitting you made a mistake lol. Of course you look like Seth Rogan
not only cafe, I own a hobby shop and... is similar to this. Great video.
Tbh atmosphere of the space is probably more important than the coffee except for coffee snobs. Paper flyers in in mailboxes is probably best marketing in a small town
Also megaphone on the street, Gordon Ramsay style! 📢
With good graphic design!
🎯And add a coupon for 1 free coffee.
We paid the postman to put a leaflet with a free coffee voucher in every mailbox in the area. Got a lot of people in that way, but most of the problems started before opening. Lots of poor decision making by me and I would do it very differently if I started another coffee business.
Liking good coffee doesn't make you a snob, boy
Coffee snobs are making their own coffee at home. Your little village just wanted a cozy place to sit and chat with their friends while drinking something that resembled coffee. If your coffee is good, people would pick some up on their way to work at 6am, with a scone or cookie. You opened a shop that reflected your lifestyle and wants, not the customers. I fear your book will go the same way.
Spot on
Well said
Your right
@@robertwarner-ev7wp🙄🙄🙄
The book might not necessarily go this way, as it isn't limited to the community of a single village.
It definitely isn't the thing a large book company would make, though.
People are focusing on the coffee but what confused me was the mention of “third places”, but not having anywhere to sit in the cafe? It’s hard to foster community unless there’s a place for community to be
Exactly this. Also minimal heating. Also no food
Yes, this. I stopped going to my favorite bookstore when they removed their cafe. In fact, they removed ALL the seating everywhere in the store. Apparently they thought people were reading their books/magazines for free and taking up space and not buying. I don't know - I always bought a cafe drink and snack and also at least one of the books I was skimming. NOW there's no comfortable place to preview a book, or even sit and rest. The herd must keep moving! But they've lost a lot of us regulars who thought of the bookstore cafe as our comfortable third place, where we could go and chat with others in our community and buy coffees and hang out. Sad as it is to say, I won't go back there. You can buy books anywhere, especially on Amazon, but you can't get that sense of local community and comfort on Amazon. Third places, outside home or work, are important!
Yep. You can't be a third place when there's nowhere to sit.
Opening a cafe in a 1500 persons village is economical suicide
That kind of cafe, yes. If you had a selection of good food and baked goods to go and just a simple coffee pod machine he might have had a chance.
Yeah unless you already own the building and run it just yourself
Yeah bad idea. Even in central London, it's a coin flip
@@tarazieminek1947 If 5% of the town shopped there every day, that would be 75 people,
might cover the rent with that, but not earn a profit in the end.
Getting 5% of the town daily is unrealistic to begin with,
so business was guaranteed to fail.
It seemed that the only reason for opening there was that his sister lived in town. The space does not appear inviting so he already had two strikes.
I learned more from the comment section than from the video itself...!!
I guess that still makes it a good video right? I hope he doesn’t take it down since the comments and some of his advice or I guess just seeing it sinhelpful
@@RaspBerryPiescomments are mostly spot on
The village still wanted a cafe! A cafe has life, music, cozy seats, interesting decor, warm friendly hosts, a cabinet full of sweet and savory foods, tea, juice, soda, a freezer of ice creams and coffee. You gave them a bespoke coffee tasting pickup office.
Yeah, most people really do not go to coffees to find the best tasting coffee. They go there to enjoy a bit of time with friends in a pleasant environment. Coffee just need to be not terrible.
Exactly, it seems that all this project was not really thought of and build up very naively with poor planning and no actual strategy or product market fit..
@@Lost4llenI don’t think much market research or even common sense went into this. Seemed like a mad, naive bet.
I agree. He is so focused on the coffee. Most (99%) of people will not notice small differences. I'm preparing a Bondi coffee with a pressurized filter for my wife and she couldn't be happier. She likes it more than from the cafés.
It looked like failed coffee shop from the start.
Heya! Cafe owner here, coming to the end of my first year. 9 months of expenses in the bank makes a start up entirely unfeasible for most people. I opened my cafe (the wandering goblin, in Nottingham) with zero money left when the doors opened officially. The secret isn't online marketing, it's putting the work in the build community even before you open the doors. I spent months running pop-ups while getting everything organised, building a following and offering consistency before the cafe's location was even finalised.
You can either invest money OR time. As someone who's been in coffee 7 years, money wasn't an option because this industry doesn't pay. Your community will carry you through, if you put the time into building it. I hate the industry idea that everything has to be expensive. The idea you need an expensive machine and expensive grinder is also a load of crap. It's a matter of skill. I run my bar off of an old school lever machine I got second hand, and run everything through the same grinder - but with a thoughtful approach it's absolutely feasible to still keep everything dialed and tasting great. The mentality of "oh but if I had (x) machine I could do better" is super unconstructive and stops you focusing on what you can change in the moment. You need to work with what you have, and do the best within your means. A cheap machine isn't an excuse, and an expensive machine should be a low priority aspiration unless you're in it for the hobby. I'm really tired of running into this gearhead mentality.
Obviously my cafe is based in a city, so it's a little different - but the base premise is the same I think. I do agree that everything should be of equivalent quality - I think your cheapest thing should be as good as your most expensive. A bad shot should never be served, etc. An espresso shot in most cafes costs £0.30 (assuming you have half decent coffee on house). That's a worthwhile loss to remake if the shot doesn't pull right. 30p to guarantee a great experience is a no brainer.
I'm sorry to hear about the failure of your shop, I'm sure it was absolutely crushing. Having been doing nearly 100 hour weeks for the entire last year, I understand how difficult it is.
Yeah, what are the parameters of a good espresso?
- the espresso
- the pressure
- the temperature
-the grind particle size
- the filter
Anything else?
@@frankfahrenheit9537 does it taste good?
you nailed it, pop up stores and build a following, i drank at starbucks twice a day for 7-8 years as an expat here in Asia, about two years ago a new type of coffee trend emerged in vietnam, philippines, indonesia etc and since then i have NEVER stepped foot in a starbucks again and im at the new coffee shop twice a day and they did the same thing you said.
Love this comment because it’s completely true and exactly what I was thinking.
I agree but I do think having some money in the back is good though especially if it does fail.
Even if you do everything right sometimes it still doesn’t work out so it’s good to not go completely broke right away!
You sound like a passionate car engineer trying to sell the best modded Mazda Miata in the world to my mom.
🎯💯
world just needs another coffee shop.
in the village.
😂
Pretty much! 🤣
love the comment!
''I can tell from looking at a coffee shop (or photos of it) if their coffee is good'' ... so I made my place look quite terrible because I couldn't afford better. Great plan.
Thought this was hilarious. Quick to judge but with no self reflection
yeah showing an empty coffee shop on google maps is not a good move. You have to make people think there is something happening and that others enjoy it already
The inside of his cafe looked terrible, his setup could just be a street stand. He also wanted to do way to much high class stuff if he wanted to capture the whole village.
so true xD
He's right though. It's pretty clear who cares about the drink vs a shop that just wants to be presentable. You and the other commenters are a perfect example because you emphasized the LOOK of his shop on the topic of good DRINKS. Good looking cafes =/= good cup of coffee. Starbucks looks nice but no way am I spending 5$ on their latte when a good local barista would get me a MUCH better cup for the same price.
Quality coffee is not your main priority and that's fine, basic cafes have their place too; but a coffee lover like him wasn't going for that.
I’m not sure if it would have made a difference, but the local cafe where I live opens at 5:30 AM. I believe you said yours opened at 8 AM. A lot of people are already at work or on their way to work by then.
Yep, especially in a small town that's more of a bedroom community. If people have to be in the office by 8 or 9 and you're trying to catch them before their commute you'll need to be open way earlier than 8.
@@JohnSmith-dp2jdI doubt that would have made a difference lol
That hole in the wall was barren and uninviting, I would've preferred to make coffee in my kitchen pour in a thermo and take it with me...
I worked in different coffee shops for many years, our busiest time was always between 6am-9am.
If you are trying to sell a cup of coffee you.better be open by 5 AM to catch your customers otherwise it's a lost cause,you could open.at 4.and close at 8 and be better off than opening at 8 am
You started a coffee shop business in a village and opened at 8am. Did you do any research regarding demand? Did you produce a business plan? Did you have any business training prior to starting? A good business plan forces you to look at your expected income and expenditure realistically. Most businesses make a loss in the first year, break even in the second year and only reach profit in the third year. 80% of small businesses fail in the first year (in the UK). Sometimes a good business plan will show you that this business is not viable and save you from future debt, bankruptcy and regret. Too many people start businesses based on personal feelings and not facts.
Great comment, deserves more upvotes!
The place really looks shitty, no seats, so just takeaway coffee.
High quality coffee and takeaway coffe is a contradiction in itself,
how can you enjoy top coffee while walking to the smelly train station?
@@frankfahrenheit9537and if you’re takeaway only, a huge part of your clientele will be pre-work commuters, which by opening so late you’ll completely miss…
@@frankfahrenheit9537 Great point about no seats. Even one of the 5-star reviews he showed in the video mentioned that there was only a "single table" to sit at. That's not enough to provide the cafe experience that he said that town was looking for.
The overly expensive, specialty factor inputs and very little custom is going to kill the business record time... its heartbreaking.
I'm in no way going to run the gent in the video down because he's clearly passionate about what he was doing but you are totaly correct at the microeconomic level.
This may have worked in an expensive London Borough where disposable income and leisure time of agents around the cafe may have helped.
That didnt look like a coffee shop, it looked like a basement set up
Honestly I was shocked when he showed the photo of his "shop" . It looked like a broom closet. A cafe is a third space to hang out, unless you are located next to big offices where people grab and go
@@ianfong1000 I thought it was a small room in a basement where they'd stored the equipment after they closed at first, until I realised it was the actual shop.
I like how you are a coffee autist who tried to sell coffee to other coffee autists in a village of 100 houses which probably had 1 other coffee autist living there at most. I am fascinated by your courage and trust in this business idea. I think in a hip area of a city it would have worked out
🤭🤭🤭 ouch...I love the grumpy curmudgeon aura you are giving.
“a hip area of the city” would have brought unsustainable rent prices, especially for a business with lower amounts of capital already
lmaooo
City would've killed it even faster. Higher rent, more competition, etc.
Dude just doesn't understand that owning a business requires more than being really into one aspect of that business. They got a cheap, tiny space that looked like shit. They didn't put any money into the space, opting to spend it on overly expensive product. I'm not saying spend half a million rebuilding a space, but they wouldn't even spend the money to run plumbing. With 6k and maybe a little DIY they could've plumbed it, put in wood floors, painted and decorated the walls, and maybe even bought a chair for people to sit in. As is it looks sterile, like a closet or a bathroom.
They opened at 8am which is at least 2 hours later than a coffee shop needs to in order to maximize before work business (and then acted like opening your own business at 8am is some unimaginable hardship.) I mean Jesus Christ, a coffee shop that doesn't sell food could pretty much shut down at noon, all the traffic is in the morning.
They didn't have food, they didn't have seating, they didn't have a goddamn bathroom as far as I can tell (weird for a product that basically immediately makes you have to shit.)
It looks more like a mobile coffee bar that would be in the lobby of a big office building or something. And it might've been successful in a place like that.
@@bearsonwelles3407 bro.. this 👆
I get it that you always want to serve 100% quality all the time. Like dialing in your recipe 3x a day due to temp changes and humidity. But always remember that sustainability is the key to success business. I think 90-95% is good enough for a sustainable business
Was about to come say the same thing - dialing in multiple times per day is crazy
In manufacturing we say you need to be churning out like 70-80% standard assembly line products and the rest you can use to do bespoke stuff. Only doing bespoke stuff would cause your company to fail in no time.
if that's what he was doing... facepalm... that's a well deserved failure... Just sell stupid coffee, pocket the margin and go on. Don't be the king of the hill, the best coffee on the planet. Nobody cares enough and goes "Oh my god, how did I live without this coffee all my life before!"...
@@DanOneOne yeah but he wanted to because he’s passionate about it. That’s what the discourse is about. He needs to make it work while keeping his eyes on the prize. It’s not that difficult tbh. I’ve seen it done in several places where I live.
@@jonnydoeson5562 well, I was passionate also and I was beaten up just like he was. This beating is our lessons to not live in a fairytale. But also this: People need something and when they need it, they appreciate it and pay for it. If everybody just does what they are passionate about, then who will do things that people need?... Look at all the stuff we consume and don't even think about. People on the other side just produce it. They don't parade their passion, most don't even like their jobs, but they produce it because people pay. So the rule is simple: They don't pay you - you don't do it. There is no other way. You can be passionate when you will be a millionaire.
dude, in a town of 1000 people there is maybe one guy who cares about the effect the warmer ambient temperature at noon has on the grind
Yeah, and that dude was running the coffee shop.
i choose the cafe because of it looks most of the time, I'm not s coffee snob and I just want to have a nice place to take my friends/girlfriend with me. Your caffee shop from photos looked soulless, kinda like a corporate meeting room
Unfortunately, it seems like the cafe was too much about coffee and not enough about hospitality, hence no culture/third space element to offer the community. That said, most people leaving rude comments have never tried to launch anything themselves. There has to be another path for you with your marketing experience and expetise in coffee.
They are not rude comments. They are realistic. No one is calling him names, they are discussing strategy. And his strategy was just bad. That's why he failed. Objectively, someone else with better business skills would not have failed.
Agree. The place the shop was at, and the town it was based in, just wasn't the right space to open a specialty coffee shop with very little actual space to sit and hang out.
In a small village, people would rather have a little cake or a bit with a drink rather than a high end specialty coffee shop!
Sounds like foot traffic was non existent. A location near a college, hospital or hotel would make all the difference for a fighting chance at survival.
This is a brutal watch. I totally understand why your experience was difficult to talk about, but if it's any consolation, your cautionary tale was a fascinating watch. I'm sure it's no consolation at all.
I look back and all I see is a fantastic learning opportunity. I didn't do enough due diligence and next time I do a cafe or roastery I will be in a much better position to do it right.
@@homecafecharlie Personally I find the whole fuss and expense of coffee to be totally baffling. I'd opt for a quick cheap white Nescafe any day (apologies to your sensitivities). Before opening in a small town you need to work out whether 1% of people are like me or 90% so you can make sure you have enough footfall. Your passion is brilliant but it's a business. Very best of luck if you try again.
@@robdw42Amazing that this video popped up in your feed then! For me it’s spot on. Coffee lover, interested in small business and startup stories. The Algorithm has its mysteries …
@@homecafecharlie I think you learned a lot of the wrong lessons. Read the other comments here.
@@robdw42 I agree with you 100%.
The absolute faff around it baffles me completely!
First of all, if you want me to keep coming back in a coffee shop or cafe, my number 1 criteria is a cozy environment or space. I couldn’t care less if the coffee is not that great. I can make my own exceptional coffee at home since I have wonderful coffee machines. However, being in a coffee shop is all about relaxing and trying to stay away from home for different reasons. If the coffee shop space is too boring and feels like I’m staring at a wall with few absolutely horrendous basic printed pictures, then that space is not worth spending my entire day with. I live in a small historic village with a population of 1500 more or less with 1 coffee shop and 1 bakery in our town square. Both the coffee shop and bakery did a great job of creating an interpretation to how the word COZY can be translated in an aesthetic theme without breaking the budget and without disconnecting the business space away from the character of the town. More than 2 decades and both the bakery and the coffee shop are still thriving. People keep on coming visiting everyday like it’s a routine because the space is so cozy even though the furnitures used are mostly vintage or old. People in small towns and villages are not particularly a fan of modern minimalist spaces provided the obvious demographics. It’s a cafe not a gym.
The comments are very insightful. Anyone considering opening a coffee shop should watch the video and then watch it again while reading the comments.
Comments are very informative.
I'd say before even starting the business we need to look at the target audience. If we're looking at a very small town of people that just want a cozy place to have a hot drink and hang for a while, THAT is the promise you need to fulfill, not having the best coffee in the world. The branding and the decor need to make you feel cozy and make you want to come back. Also I'd say instead of ads you can do flyers around town, small events, like you said building community, but to do that you need to know what that community needs, wants, and values. Very interesting video I know it's not easy sharing these things!
Perfection is a showstopper, isn't it
Never let perfection be the enemy of good.
Shipped is better than perfect
absolutely yes
I know a country town like yours. There's a bog ordinary "cafe" (which is also a chippy/burger joint) which does more trade than any other food business in town.
At the end of the day, people want an okay coffee, for an okay price, in a friendly place. They don't give a shit if it's single origin and artisan roasted. They don't want or need "classes". They want a warm building, efficient service, and a decent price.
You basically pitched a city concept (badly), to an entirely different crowd. I also think the brother in law roaster made it a vanity project.
But that one guy that came a few times really liked the snobby stuff! /s
Yeah this place would've died in a city too. More coffee snobs to patronize the business, sure, but also significantly higher rent and more competition.
This guy created the least appealing cafe I've ever seen and blew all their money on expensive product that wouldn't sell.
My family owned a bakery and we learned you need to have decent coffee. You dont need high quality stuff, but certainly not big brand store bought crap. Exactly as you said most people want a decent priced cup of coffee/tea they can grab and enjoy with company. You need to make your place look almost like a home away from home. Almost how youd expect a nice welcoming living room to look. Focusing too much on the quality of the coffee and whatnot just doesnt work. People are caffeine addicts, theyll drink anything that gets them that buzz. As long as it isnt charbucks level coffee youd be fine.
I've owned and operated high street retail cafes, food service and catering businesses for close on 40 years. It's a brutal business that chews up and spits out even experienced operators, so don't be to disheartened about your first venture not working. In that village, with such a low population, not even the most experienced operator in the world could have made it work. No matter the countless other issues. Thanks for posting a well made and informative video. It's very brave to show your mistakes for all to see.
do you have any advice for people that want to open coffee places?
Up!
good point about the population. Hilton has a population of 1200 according to wikipedia. I lived in a nearby town that has a population of 5000 and a busy successful coffee shop. I never had a coffee shop but I would have advised him not to waste money in a small village like Hilton.
the thing is though, the general public are not coffee snobs, they just want a half decent coffee and a nice place to sit and chat. They overcomplicated a very simple concept and it didn't work out.
Opening a coffee shop at 8am! 😂 Didn’t want any working class buying a cup of coffee from him, did he?
@@robertwarner-ev7wp exactly! Very bad idea.
@@robertwarner-ev7wpnone of the people in that village were working, come on now
Good quality cafes do exist though??? Plenty of good shops in my city and he literally references a few other café owners in this video after all. It's unfortunate the shop closed down but that is the risk of starting a business sometimes. Also the point about having a nice place with lots of foot traffic can still lead to failure as addressed in the video.
Facts. Left thousands in different cafe shops. An open area to sit and simple coffee. To escape from home.
Cafes should have windows. People like to look out or have in their mind the ability for others to look in and see them. It really doubles as a hub for activity. Your space just seems soooo small and closed in.
Not hating just offering up what came to my mind.
It takes a lot of guts to admit any wrong in public or on TH-cam.
Good luck for you in your next endeavor!
I prepare my own coffee at home, I don't drink coffee from take away coffee shops unless I am on vacation. I do however go to cafes to meet friends and socialize, and I don't care so much about the quality of coffee as long as it's a friendly and cozy ambience.
Lets be honest most coffee from coffee shops is utter sh*te. I agree with you 100%.
Which this cafe was not 3:36 LMAO
Yes!!!!
I stay away cafes that don’t have comfy chairs etc
Read this while he mentioned it was freezing cold, the only heater he would keep his hands near…. What does he think the customers felt?
This is just a tragedy. Build it and they will come. That is the vibe. Its painful, honestly. You mention early in the video that you attempted this in Hilton, Cambridgeshire. The population is approximately 1100 people. And from what you've shown us you had a nearly unmarked, side room in a residential area. With a small budget you could have made a mobile set up, that you would have actually owned. Instead you rented the side room that required your time and money to renovate. Its agonising. With a mobile set up, literally a converted ice cream van, you could have gone to hipster beauty spots around Cambridgeshire and been selling to urbane millennial walkers and gen-Z ramblers who were venturing out of the city. If that had worked it could have been a beach-head for the operation you actually wanted in the longer term. Christ, this is just murder to see.
Agree. Huntingdonshire is the local authority and they don't even consider that village's main road a consent street for trading from a mobile van or trailer. Could have set one up for so little cost. Even in the "shop" he has a counter without running water.
By 4 minutes in we've learned a small village is not the place for 3 Michelin star coffee roaster. Under capitalization gets one the wrong space, wrong equipment, and wrong aesthetic: especially for a 3 star Michelin coffee roaster.
Bare minimum to open a café is probably in the 50K region, and that's with the owner working all the time. And a proper café, easily 100K. Otherwise, you're just a kid selling lemon aid on the sidewalk.
Got any grapes
thx for sharing. sounds like a vanity project more than a business. If "the town" wanted a coffee shop, then maybe the townhall could have given you a nice space where you could have at least 2 tables and 4 seats. The space you operated in looked terrible. There's no mention of foot traffic analysis. Starbucks doesn't open locations randomly. I like the coffee tasting classes idea a lot, but i'm not even sure how you could fit the people in that space, must have been very awkward. And you folded almost immediately after opening up. And if you needed a space heater to keep your hands warm, i suspect the space was welcoming like a strain station platform.
I'm sorry it failed, but that feels pretty unsurprising. I assume you didnt lose too much though, because you guys were the employees, the gear can be resold, the rent was cheap, and you had almost zero fitout.
I agree the space was a head scratcher. I've seen small coffee spaces work in cities with a lot of foot traffic but I don't see how it could work in a small town. Why would the town provide free space for a private business? It's possible they would rent a space for a favorable fixed rent and share of income?
@@sophocles1198 There's different ways to skin a cat. Cities almost always have real estate that's underused / poorly used, or unused, so they can loan it, rent it, income share it. What's clear is that a tiny, poorly heated, poorly located, poorly fitted location with limited foot fall where you can't sit down doesn't sound like a winning proposition.
This is England. The parish council will have a village hall which is unlikely to be suitable to run a business out of, and if there is space it wouldn't let you use it for free.
Vanity project crashes into reality mountain. A village coffee shop could get away with serving freeze dried coffee, with filter coffee for those who want something more upmarket. I'm not joking.
Exactly, that's the way I would have approached it if I were starting a cafe in that location. I wouldn't even bother doing my own roasting to cut down electricity costs. Pre-roasted beans from a good location would be more than enough for a basic village cafe shop.
@@piratesmvp Huntingdonshire is the local authority and they don't even consider that village's main road a consent street for trading from a mobile van or trailer. Someone selling pod coffee with tesco milk from a hatch would probably make as much as that guy in a cold cubby hole with expensive kit.
There are lots of people that will happily tell you about getting rich quick schemes but there's hardly any that tell the real story that business is hard and expensive and needs a whole lot of luck.
Replace coffee with magic tricks, juggling equipment and kites and my experience is exactly the same as yours.
I have no idea why TH-cam recommended me to you but I'm glad it did. Tremendous video. Best of luck with your future endeavours.
You have to start on the demand these days. Once the demand is locked down you can start meeting it.
Another thing is that if you love the subject of your business, you're easily distracted by it and not focused on the business itself.
A business is about making money, a hobby is about your interest in the subject and it's really hard to seperate those two if the subject was your hobby.
Simply put, you have to limit yourself to proven strategies and methodologies even if you're knowledgable and motivated about the subject.
Well said!
Excellent comment 💯👍🏾
Do you need a “real story” to teach you that a venture pretending to offer “a third space” and delivering such an unwelcoming decor is a recipe for disaster??
A village doesn't want a speciality coffee in/out place. They want a caffee kind of place with normal coffee (italian), sweets, easy music. You tried to bring a hypster city coffee into a village and they said no. People that came and tried different beans... They just tried to find something they liked and didn't at the end. I stopped counting how many "speciality" coffee places opened and closed in my country. But classics stay. Be an artist in your free time but in business give people what they really want and what they are used to. Running a business is hard. Still kudos for trying and don't stop dreaming.
I don't get people startng a coffee or a restaurant with a place for basically 4 people in it. How high would the prices have to be for such a small place to pay for the salaries, equipment and everything else? I do realise it seems to be a safer route, with smaller rent, but it's actually more risky in the long run and if you can't afford a bigger place it's probably best to not do this at all. It's not an easy business even if you have a lot of money.
Grab and go can work, but not at this location.
And not at this price point / specialty target audience
That looks like the saddest coffee shop...
They gave it a try, you have to give them credit for that.
It looks like it's some sort of unlicensed coffee shop that someone is running out of a spare room in their house.
@@dabneyoffermein595Irrelevant. We’re not criticizing the people who did it as persons. Their effort is commendable. But the resulting ambiance, atmosphere and overall feeling of the space is absolutely awful for a café!!
I think the most underestimated aspect of business is pure presentation or design. The smallest detail matters, including perhaps paying the additional $0.10 per paper cup to get modern cups versus unsightly patterned cups. Great products are great, but humans naturally devalue even a functional product if it’s not accompanied by good aesthetics.
This level of detail MAY be important in a more competitive market, not sure it applies to a coffee shop in a small village. Just give them a better warm drink than they can make at home and a pleasant place to drink it.
To be honest, the ambience seems to be the place where they really fell down. Nothing about the space makes me wanna go spend time there. My favourite café (which also has incredible coffee) has a very similar green and wood vibe, but it’s bright and airy and filled with wonderful music, cool artwork, massive plants, very nice dishware and paper cups. It’s a place where you can spend hours hanging out and just feel cool existing. This reminds me more of a shoebox condo you’d find downtown.
Correct. Much anticipation every year concerning the design of Starbuck's Holiday cups.
No, 95% of your customers don't care won't even notice. What gets people in the door is marketing and advertising in order to run an effective campaign you have to be doing it for 6 to 9 months to confirm everyone and their brother knows and has a good shot to come in.
@@InvestmentJoy But getting a customer in the door doesn’t mean they’ll want to come back. If you don’t create a compelling atmosphere where people want to spend time, you’ll never convert those people into loyal, regular customers. That’s pretty crucial for a small business in an equally small town.
They say success has a hundred mothers and fathers, whereas failure is always an orphan. So many people on YT bragging about how great they are, very few did what you did.
Thanks for sticking your neck out to share your experience.
Nah you're taking it the wrong way. You don't think the passersby had the same thoughts the commenters are saying here looking at an uninviting bespoke coffee shop in a village of a 1000 people?
All i can only hear in this video is "it is because of this, it is because of that". I don't see any responsibility here. I saw a good comment. Who would come and buy coffee at 8 when your butts need to be at work at 8. You can open up at 6. Sell some bagel along with a strong but not sure tasting brew to people rushing to work. It is morning. I want something strong. Not excite my delicate tastebuds. In the afternoon, when we have their lunches or in the evening when people just want to relax, then maybe you can switch to a fancier roast.
You are courageous to talk about your experience. I still can't talk about mine and it was 7 years ago. Wishing you all the best.
Hey Charlie, thanks for the video; it was really interesting to hear your reflections on your experience. I'm one of the Hilton residents (I came to one of your cupping sessions, which was brilliant) and I was disappointed when you moved on & then the shop subsequently closed. I really wish it had worked out better for both the shop and you personally! I am grateful, though, because drinking your espresso & learning more about coffee meant that when the shop did shut, I couldn't go back to drinking Nespresso at home & ended up taking the plunge and buying my first espresso machine. Still learning, but every now and then I pull a shot that I'm really pleased with. Will be awaiting the ledger!
Thank you so much for your comment. I appreciated everybody who came to the shop, and for what it's worth I really did enjoy making coffees for people. Like I said, I had no idea what I was getting myself into 😅 I'm glad you got an espresso machine and I hope my videos help you get great tasting shots!
I worked as a coffee machine engineerfor 30 years in oxfordshire. Also installing equipment. The overheads are insane. I would say, 50% of machines I installed, I was back there, collecting them when the business failed. There was one, in at Clements, that went under, customers were queuing up outsid to get served. But the landlord, seeing this kept putting the rent up, and bust their business. You need to open early, to sell beacon, egg, sausage sandwiches to folk going to work.
Landlords raising the rent on coffeeshops is the no. 1 case study in the book Freakonomics. Worth reading.
I really appreciate the hard truths about running a business. I cant speak about what I've heard about entrepreneur culture in the U.K. but I remember a Japanese-American investor telling me about the difference in attitudes between running a business in both countries. In Japan, business culture is that you have to succeed at first try which creates a rise or fail mentality. In the US, investors actively seek people who have failed a previous business because they learn from their mistakes. It was one of those moments where I'm glad to have an American mentality of never giving up and learning from mistakes.
People don't want good coffee; they just want not bad coffee. Most people are used to drinking Keurig; simple as. If you are simply as good as that, you will be known as the place with delicious coffee.
Fancy coffee is good, but sometimes people misunderstand that a lot of times, average coffee is almost better because it is safe and comforting for most people. The day might suck, you're a thousand miles away from home, nothings going and then you get a cup of coffee that tastes just like the one you drink everyday at home. It's like a warm blanket, a little shelter from the storm.
Great comment 💯👍🏾
SOME people don't want good coffee, SOME of us do. Average (even below average) coffee has it place, like when it's just a typical work day and I need caffeine hit on the cheap (and only if the price matches the lower quality). It's not safe and comforting to me, it's just a cheap substitute cause there isn't anything better close to work.
Quality coffee IS the one I drink at home. The type I go for when I'm out and feel like treating myself with an equally delicious baked good. That's my warm blanket.
I still can't talk about my failed coffeehouse/bakery/cafe. I put my whole heart, time, and savings/retirement into it - just heartbreaking. Thanks for sharing your journey...
You can always try again later. You won't be starting from zero. You will have past experience and more knowledge. ....pfff just take a break to regulate emotions and try again.
@@lucy8584💯
@@lucy8584true but the learned experience is likely “don’t try it again”. Making a coffee shop/bakery profitable is damned hard.
With respect, that’s a very defeatist attitude. What in your opinion caused it to fail?
@@jonnydoeson5562 a defeatist attitude? Yeah, keep sellling sand in the Sahara, optimist.
The reason why it failed is the interior design. It looks like a white wall apartment.
Exactly
And it didn't even have heating. His hands were frozen. imagine how inviting it was for people who didn't have to be there.
Mate good job. As someone who had a small business that closed it hurt a bit to hear you had to get a “real” job afterwards - be proud of yourself, you had a real job in your venture!
I am from El Salvador, I am really happy that our coffee is all around the world and that wonderful people like you can try it. All the support👏
Just my opinion and I am in no way a coffee expert but in my humble experience as a customer - the best coffee shops are the ones that are like home where you can sit down and spend a while there fannying about. The bauhaus/post-modern/IKEA/minimalist design just doesn't work. I'd rather go into a coffee place with books, a wonky table, an old comfy couch and a nice welcoming vibe. A lot of coffee shops focus on the wrong thing - the coffee. It's like a pub, people don't actually like the taste of beer all that much they just like to go there for the atmosphere and experience. Just look at the speciality craft pubs, people don't really like them all that much. They lack character
I really miss the coffee shops like that, and the book stores right by them.
You can't have coffee shops like that at all anymore. Today if you create the type of place you describe it would instantly be full of stinking criminal homeless people. And in most cities you can't keep or throw them out. What you describe exists only in your memory. It is only a story to tell your grandchildren.
Then you have the laptops hogs who sip 1 coffee and use the space for the full day
@@bman3483 there still are some, in small and homogeneous society
There's tons of character in the fancy cafes, certainly in my area. You seem to just have a very specific preference. My (very non-homogeneous area @ZaoZaoification) has so many options, each reflecting a different vibe and character as diverse as the people. I love it! So many options, It's fun to explore and I damn well care about the coffee (I ain't treating myself to room vibes, gimme a damn good cup of coffee).
I've explored a cafe similar to your aesthetics that also didn't care for their coffee quality. Popular with old people but not for me and that's fine, everyone's got their own preferences. But your preference is definitely not the type Charlie would've wanted (even as a customer himself). There's tons of actual coffee lovers who'll spend more for a good cup, and that's the group he needs to get better at connecting with if he ever try's again.
Everyone wants to be their own boss until it isn't fun anymore.
You’re absolutely right. Once over the honeymoon period and into the grind, thats where your nerves shine. Either it will be nerves of steel, or nerves of bubblegum. Not the best place in the world.
and the political left likes to call profit -- stolen labor-- yet they dont see the downsides of business.
My favorite coffee shop is a community based one where I can sit and drink, possibly meet with people. The clips you showed made your place look very small with no seating. I would probably not go. My loss really.
No offense but I think you needed a lot more business training. A lot of assumptions were made on your part. You seemed to focus a lot on the product, but not enough on the customer. No customer, no product. People saying they “want a coffee shop” is very vague. That might have meant that they wanted a place to sit down. Did you offer anything else besides coffee? Pastries? What were the ages of the villagers? What was the minimum amount of customers needed to break even? What time do they go to work? The ambiance of your coffee shop also did not give maximum cosiness. There were a lot of things you could have done to up the coziness and high quality feel on the cheap.
He works in marketing! That might be the most mindboggling reveal of the entire video.
Not the 8am opening, the lack of money, the lack of heating or plumbing (while wasting money throwing away beans that weren't the exact right temperature), opening in a village where he apparently knew no one except his sister and her hubby, the lack of seating, etc... nope, it's that all these incredibly obvious mistakes were made by a guy who works in marketing! How is that even possible?
As someone living in a major coffee city, I can tell you that aesthetically your space was really struggling. I know you put a lot of work into the revamp, but the end result still looked cold, sad, uninviting and a bit like a broom closet with an espresso machine in it. Putting effort into the vibe of a public space is just a big a part of fostering community as is the quality of the product itself-even if they’re just in there for a few minutes each day they still remember how they felt while they were there..
quite weird that the background in this vid is way better than your coffee shop pictures
I worked for a big coffee roaster who wanted to try a portable pop-up espresso/brew location in the country. It was fun, but we faced many of the issues you explained (dialling in espresso in an open space in the summer was the worst). Even with the big name/branding and access to top notch equipment, the spot only lasted one season before they relocated. There were locals who came by often, but it wasn't enough. Even the city folk vacationing there didn't help profits much.
Good on you for trying. That looks like a huge challenge.
In the US, a huge number of workers are hard at work before 8 AM. Heck, I think that's when Starbucks workers take their first break.
they have different work hours over there, cheers!
When i was in high school, a friend of mine's parents bought the local derelict gas station and set up a coffee shop. It was a success! The town loved it! It was a place that had events but also served breakfast food and always had adequate staffing during rush periods. They had several seating areas in and outside. Then they decided to host a pretty political event... In a town full of people with the opposite political beliefs. Their long list of customers dried up almost immediately. Within half a year they closed their business. I learned an extremely valuable lesson. Politics and small town business does not mix. Even now i see local businesses with campaign signs in their windows a d i think about how that candidate couldn't care less about that shop. But all the locals that dont like that candidate gladly drive past the shop to go to a more neutral one in the city next door. Its a shame.
Shop does not look welcoming - also , work in a industry first, you will see all the unknown aspects of the business - especially the negative ones
10/10 for being brave enough for making a video explaining the issues of how this business failed. Budding entrepreneurs can learn a lot more from what went wrong stories, than success stories.
This is my cautionary tale:
I had a bakery/ coffee shop/ cafe in Dorset that I bought as a going concern, increased turnover to about £220k pa, then sold it 3 years later. The coffee machine cost £3000, the filter cost about £100 and needed replacing every 6 months. Rent was about £32000 pa (prime spot on a square/ High Street position), rates £10500, 2 full time, 5 part-time staff. But it is exhausting, opening 6/7 days a week, constant staff issues, maintenance costs on ovens, display chillers, air-con, dishwasher machine etc., staff stealing from the tills, managers forgetting to lock up properly or leaving ovens on, dealing with the 'sharks' that prey on new and start-up businesses (like firms that claim to reduce your business rates). Also, commercial leases have clauses that continue the liability for rent payments, even if you close the business or sell it on to somebody else who then stops paying the rent (YOU ARE STILL LIABLE FOR THE RENT IN MOST LEASES).
Great insight, thanks 😊
Sorry to hear about that but thank you for sharing! Good to hear a more nuances comment than 'make it pretty' or 'just sell cheap coffee.'
I'm not an owner but I have a friend who's doing alright so I'll add something to the conversation:
Charlie's right that community plays a big role. My friend is not rich but he is a very sociable and overall great guy. This gave him a gave him a great deal of network and support when he opened his shop (made a lot of coffee specific connections working a few years in different cafes on top of improving his coffee game). The landlord, handyman, logo designer, website, marketing, business plan, sign and menu creation, all of it through fantastic working relationships he maintained in his social circle, friends/family, and broader community (1 of whom was his ex-boss who owned a quality cafe).
Also a tip for people, you can make a decent looking cafe with low funds but that's also a skill on it's own. My friend managed to make spray painted cheap wood look decent when he was starting off (you couldn't tell it was cheap unless you were behind the counter 😂).
Been a few years now and he still works long hours building his cafe (super passionate about coffee and quality). Not a rich success story but one that's still chugging along and improving every year. Cafe's has a decent stream of customers for their location, and 1 of the top cafes in his city ranking (if not THE top but I'm not up-to-date on the latest ranking) which is great success in that regard.
Thanks for being so candid. Failure can be so hard to talk about but helpful to learn from. Condolences on the loss of your dad - I’m sure he would be proud of you for giving it a go and being strong enough to own up to failure and learn from it. Keep at it! Success is often the product of many failures. Wishing you all the best! ❤
Dude if you want a thriving small buisness coffee shop you want to be open at 5:45 and prepare toasts and other simple breakfast items. Industrial workers usually start early shift around 6 offices open at 8 you want to be up and running as these people are going to work so they can pick up stuff. Opening at 8 is simply too late.Look at the small bakeries and coffee shops that are killing it. They offer what Starbucks and coffee fellas can't. A quick stop on your way to work
As a passionate project manager by trade, this is a brutal retrospective to watch. The comments have covered it already, but a cozy coffee shop is more about the shop and less about the coffee. I wonder how much you’ve talked to the community about what they want and why they didn’t come? I’d highly encourage you to connect with the audience for your journal as well. It’s so easy to assume we know what people want, but the people often tell a very different story.
Also, by 8am I’ve already been working for hours! That was way too late to just be opening.
I’d never heard of this channel, but this video showed up on my TH-cam feed, for some reason. Very helpful, great content, with smooth, efficient production. Thanks for posting.
Haha yes algo got me too
Me too
Same
Spam comment
I was talking about coffee yesterday and today WokeTube suggested this vid 🎉🎉🎉
Don't kick yourself too hard Charlie - very few businesses kick on from foundation. All of the things you've described I went through with furniture. And still learning. Keep your chin up and as a new subscriber I'll be paying attention to your next chapters!
I don't live in UK or your village. As I'm listening you said you walked through the cold british winter to open the cafe at 8 before people go to work. Personally, I get up at 7:15 am and arrive at McDonald's drive thru at 7:45 am. Get my 2 extra large black coffee and arrive at work at 8 am. My point is the coffee shop needs to be opened up way before 8 am.
Nobody in that village was working, they’re all retired
@@crayontom9687 Lots of retirees get up early to walk or just start the day.
@@willofdeath but not buy coffee, apparently
Opening a cafe at 8am is insane. 5:30 sir.
😐 that location looks dreadful. I wouldnt trust coffee from what looks like a residential basement. I want a proper store with tables and chairs... maybe even a couch and coffee table--even if I don't bother to stay inside.
First of all, I really respect the investment you made in giving this cafe a go and the courage to talk about it after it closed. That said, my reaction from looking at the video is that the cafe looked a bit sterile. They say don't judge a book by its cover, but frankly life is too short and complicated not to! You really focused on serving a superior product with high standards, but the real commodity in that neighborhood probably would have been a warm and inviting atmosphere. When I see a coffee shop that's too plain and simple, it gives me the sense that it's transient. It may have worked out better for you in the city where a certain percentage of people want the best quality coffee with no frills, but I think the real product in your location would have been the third space.
I mean, did you even read a book about how Starbucks became successful before you started? People aren't paying for the coffee, they're paying to lease a table and wifi for 30 minutes. And if they don't sit around and use your space, that's just a freebie. "We don't have money for a fancy space," there's your problem. The space matters more than the coffee.
You said this better than I did ❤
True, unless you’re doing a mobile coffee cart or trailer.
Btw I’m autistic too
The villagers wanted a hangout place. Basic coffee, tea, juice and beer and a nice, homy atmosphere would be enough. You would never be rich, but the cafe would survive. But it great you have tried! You have learned a lot i hope. Good luck!
Bro, risk is hard but it's the right move. I'm glad you opened this shop and learned a lot. Now you have some good wisdom to pass along! Thanks for making this video!
You focused too much on the coffee.
Here's a clue: if you are thinking about starting a retail business, first you project the annual volume of sales thru the first 5 years. Then you project the average sale amount of each transaction to find out how many transactions it takes to reach that number. If your average transaction is under $10 or so, you will likely be out of business very quickly, and you will be working yourself and perhaps your family to death just to go out of business more slowly. By the way, you need to know your costs of doing business from top to bottom. Don't forget you have to pay rent, utilities, employees, and cost of goods sold, and taxes.
Retail is brutally competitive, and you better be the only coffee shop for miles, and it better be good.
To do $500,000, you have to sell 50,000 $10 sales in 300 or so days per year! No one would open that business with the 2 minutes of simple math above. Don't even get me started on franchises, at least you just go broke if it's your own; with a franchise, you can go bankrupt and lose everything. Lesson #1: Know what you are doing and understand the business before you invest in one. Selah
After running businesses for 20 years ive learnt that the marketing has to revolve around providing potential customers with the ability to sell the idea of buying to themselves, this sounds obvious but new business owners are often overly concerned with their own perceptions of themselves and they often stand in the way of their own success with this self-criticism … its hard for business owners to believe that its not about you as an owner, its about clear product information, reviews and quality assurances with as many regular discounts and promotions as possible to allow people to establish certainty in their own minds. Also if you try to be too personal with customers it will make them feel uncomfortable overtime even though it feels like you are building relationships, so you often need to keep a professional distance from everyone so you keep your own perspectives clear, and they feel unobligated to keep coming back.
"Also if you try to be too personal with customers it will make them feel uncomfortable overtime"
This is a really good point that hasn't been made yet, and I can relate. A new casual restaurant opened in my hood, I went a few times in I guess the first couple months. Had a friendly rapport with the owner. After a few visits, I gave the place a like on Facebook... and the owner sent me a friend request within 24 hours. Awkward AF. I wasn't gonna add him and didn't feel like having to explain if he brought it up. I never went back.
@@davedavid427I agree completely. Many proprietors of UK businesses fail to judge this ‘rapport building’ aspect of hospitality correctly, and I can’t stand it.
The people I respect the most are not those who have made it ‘big’ but are those individuals who share their knowledge about the journey so that others can be inspired to do something good and wonderful too. Kudos to you for sharing your journey, it’s a pity it didn’t work out but I have no doubt you have the insight to learn and become a richer person for it. That’s the single most important aspect of life. Best of luck in your new adventure, I have signed up.
Thank you, and yes I know I made a lot of mistakes but every new business will carry with it lessons from past mistakes. It's just a matter of time and continues curiosity and effort
I worked at a local newspaper in an industrial park just off the main highway. An enterprising gentleman set up a specialty coffee stand in the lunch room cafeteria. Although there was a Starbucks nearby, one had to drive to get there. He had his loyal customer base built in. He issued punch tickets: buy 10 cups and the 11th is free. After paying the cafeteria rent to lease the space, he hired two friendly baristas to help out.
I have always had the dream of owning a coffee shop but ended up becoming a pharmacist instead, this video was a great insight into the difficulties that come with trying to grow a coffee shop and there are a lot of lessons to take away - good luck on your journey! Subscribed!
I‘m a coffee aficionado and only make specialty coffee for myself at home with my fancy gear. I know I would have to charge 10 € for an espresso to make a profit if I sold specialty coffee out of my kitchen window, so there’s no way I would EVER see a business solely based on specialty coffee generating enough profit to make a living. But it was gutsy - yet naive- of you to try! So kudos for that.
You’ve had a huge impact on me during my coffee journey. Happy to have you back, and showing that infamous British resilience.
I'm glad my videos have helped you! We're all always learning. I have no illusions and don't know if I'll ever be confident enough to call myself an expert. But the espresso is definitely good 😎
Alas listening for 5 mins made my heart sink. Starting on a shoestring is impossible. Location is paramount and cheap rent tells you all you need to know about footfall. A case of perfect is the enemy of good is all too true.90percent of people can't tell good coffe from Nescaf. It was not a caff it was a kiosk
You focused on the art of making coffee. Starbucks focused on the vibes of a coffee shop. Restoring 2nd hand patio furniture and focusing on the garden might have been a cost-effective move. Still, most people never even tried to get their dream. Good luck
I'm not sure what to make of this video.
I had sympathy but then quickly it turned to an incredulous rage as I kept watching.
I feel bad for your sister.
No doubt a lifetime of her brother's ideas and more to come.
God bless her.
Right? Which part infuriated you the most, was it voluntarily increasing his product costs 30% because he had to "reset the grind" (whatever TF that means) and "won't compromise" on it... bragging about his "delicous" beans El Salvador (how's that a selling point? no one even knows El Salvador has coffee)... was it the reveal that he didn't even have heating or plumbing... acting like opening at 8am was such a grind.... opening without a penny to his name... or lesson 2 being absolutely the wrong one: that product has the best EVER, ALWAYS?
He's clueless even after his failure.
I've always wondered about the economics of cafes. The amount of coffee you have to make, just for rent and energy, before staff wages and input costs, is so much I can't wrap my head around it.
Thank you for sharing the details. Thanks algorithm for bringing me here.
Wishing you all the best for you next endeavour.
@Lookup2WakeupI agree. Places like this need to be making coffees hand over fist to stay afloat. As has been repeated in the comments, most people who start a small coffee shop like this are already very wealthy.
As an independent cafe, as a rule there are two types who survive:
1)The ones with a wealthy owner who has no problem with losing money in it.
2)Money laundering fronts.
Mobile coffee vans and trailers are often much more profitable particularly if you're on your own and can do local events. Hardly any overheads after the initial purchases
My girlfriend buys a lot of takeaway coffee. She also “appreciates” “good” food.
So I decided that something simple that I could do was to learn to make a good coffee.
Learned about what could produce a decent espresso and froth milk. Milk was fine, but espresso was bitter. Got a really good hand grinder and had to learn the optimum grind for espresso. She had a sister whose boyfriend was a barista and got us some top quality beans. Got to a point where most people said I could make a really good latte. I was really pleased with the taste of even the espresso and now I make myself a coffee almost everyday.
My girlfriend said she didn’t like to wait long so I started pre-grinding and pre-heating so the coffee came out as soon as she wanted/needed it.
In the end she more often than not just makes an instant or buys a coffee on the way to work.
I learned over time that her fine dining preference had little to do with the food as I more often than not ate food that she barely tasted and her go to meals are instant noodles and McDonald’s. Her diet is mostly easy, highly processed comfort food and her coffees are so filled with sugar that when she offers me some it taste awful to me.
It was all about the time and place as well as the “hit” of salt, sugar, caffeine, etc. and I only make her a coffee now if she asks for one.
It sucks mostly because I thought I was doing something that would make her day and make her feel appreciated, but rather than dwelling on it to much I think of the fact that I can now make myself something that I enjoy and that on the odd occasion that someone wants one I can make a coffee that is never said to be of poor quality.
I had once considered that I could make something like this a side hustle, but people want different things and for all the hype about coffee from all the people that swear by it over the years I never really got it. I’m a swimming coach and have a lot of early mornings and still don’t make mine until I get home and can make myself one as it’s not even the caffeine it’s the flavours, smells and yes even the process that I enjoy and I just couldn’t see that transferring to being a good foundation to build a business
Wow this was super interesting and as somebody who has worked in a few cafes years ago and always kind of thought of maybe owning one some day, this really answered a lot of questions I had. Thank you so much for being so transparent and sharing your experience. I’ve always thought it must be a really tough business and like any service industry business there are so many variables like location which can make or break a business.
I lived in NYC for over a decade and used to work in cafes there. I remember this one cafe that was slammed all day every day especially during rush hours. The coffee was completely mediocre at best and they really didn’t care too much about dialing in espresso or anything beyond basic coffee drinks. However they were located right next to one of the busiest stops on the L train in Brooklyn. Two streets away another cafe opened which had the best equipment money can buy along with a huge roaster in the back room. There coffee was excellent and I would go in there and think “damn…who paid for all of this?”. After getting to know the baristas I learned that there were 2-3 investors who opened the place.
One year later they were closed suddenly overnight and just left a post on their IG to thank the customers who came in. Pretty brutal! The cafe down the street beside the train is still thriving and busier than ever the last time I checked.
It's not an easy business but once you get going it can be very profitable. We just never got going. Next time ;)
@@homecafecharlie absolutely! Sounds like you learned some really valuable lessons that you will take with you on your next venture. Wishing you all the best!!
@@homecafecharlie do you still believe in a small coffee shop? i am the edge of open one. Better place than yours(bigger, open, seats, and nice view) , but not fancy hardware(a normal espresso machine and regular ovens and stuff like that). But looks like a lot of people here think this market is over saturated and there are not opportunities for new business.
@@andresdigi25I do think certain cities have an interest in nicer coffee over run of the mill, but realistically basically zero of your customers could name the make/model of a single commercial espresso machine.
Location has to be the top factor (vibe and such is part of that, but also just convenient access and visibility, and not having too much competition nearby)
It’s also very important to be serving the drinks people actually want, not just what you think is good
The 1st picture looks like a storage unit for old painting equipment I didn't even realize that that was your actual shop. You even said yourself that just looking at pictures online could tell you the quality of the coffee and the place. And opening at 8am ??? Most coffee shops here in America open at.5:30am BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVE TO BE AT WORK AT 7AM 8AM . This guy.reminds me of someone who has a " Family Recipe for spaghetti sauce " And decides to open a restaurant when they never even worked in one. Painful the ignorance.
I thought the same thing. When he said renting a place, I thought it was for living, not his actual shop.
The most insane part might be that he works in marketing. How TF does a guy in marketing make such obvious business mistakes?
Charlie, long time watcher here, I for one love your content. Anytime I get a notification that you have uploaded I drop everything and jump over to watch your newest video.
I appreciate your in depth videos, insights and most of all your honesty. I think the turning point for me was your 078S review where you went against the grain and moreover personally helped me make a decision on my grinder via instagram chat. I still appreciate that interaction to this day.
Signed up for the Brew Ledger, would be a wonderful pairing to my coffee setup. Cheers from AZ, USA, and keep kicking ass!
Thank you so much!
Thankyou for sharing.
Cafes and restaurants are some of the toughest businesses. I also opened a cloud kitchen and restaurant in Bengaluru, but unfortunately, we had to close it as well. The lessons I learned were varied, but the biggest ones were that it can take a long time for word of mouth to spread, and it's an expensive and exhausting journey.
Wow. Thank you for this. I have no plans of opening a coffee shop nor want to start any business at all but just the courage and thoughtfulness of you sharing your experience is worth the time and the additional knowledge! Hope your book goes well!
Sounds contradictory but I still felt inspired after watching this video. The fact you put into practice what a lot of coffee lovers would only briefly dream of and then give up, is very commendable. Despite how easily it could fail, I 100% would try opening a specialty coffee place if I had a load of excess cash (in many decades to come haha)
After a long journey I'm glad you kept your TH-cam channel. In my experience in South East Asia, cafe's are really not profitable and often owned by rich families who just want to be able to own and show it off to their friends. Mayber if I'm rich instead of buying a boat I would open a cafe and run it at a loss but I think for coffee enthusiasts, operating a small coffee popup in your own house/apartment for neighbors and friends is the way to go.
Why did you put an apostrophe in "cafe's"? That makes no sense.
@@Fitzrovialitter autocorrect 🤦
Depends on the market too. Need to be in a situation with high volume. Customers willing to buy roasted coffee and other streams of income and offerings at the cafe
It's a tough business but it can certainly be profitable. Just not the way we did this one 😅
@@gregorio5543High volume area means higher rental. So having a higher capital outlay is required for such venture. For hobbyists and if city council permits, I think the mobile cart concept like those they do in Thailand makes more sense.
thank you for sharing ❤ invaluable information, and awesome to see all the comments adding other recommendations for anyone thinking about starting a local business. good luck with your book!
You’re definitely on the correct wave in terms of what the U.K. needs in its coffee culture - high quality, specialty coffee that is consistent, with basically no other extraneous services.
But the location was literally the opposite of where it’s needed - I’d kill for a place like this near me in London. In fact there is one that’s just opened, but the coffee isn’t nice enough; it has the “look” you described, but the baristas are inexperienced.
There’s already one near my office in St James Park called Formative - that is literally this concept with 3-4 tables thrown in, and further along in its journey.
Barebones, quality single product offering businesses like this belong in hole-in-the-walls in major cities, with heavy corporate footfall.
If you try again, please come to Wimbledon and I will be there literally every day.
Mate! Thank you so much for sharing this video. I learnt so much about what not to do in such a short space of time and your honesty and openness is so genuine. I’ve watched countless business videos where they focus on the moments of success making it appear even harder to attain but this truly taught me something and I really appreciate it. You’re super brave to put this out there and I really respect that. Thank you again.
I enjoyed hearing about your cafe. I can relate as I closed up my roasting company after 3 years. And hindsight is 20/20!
I will say that listing the equipment as one of the top reasons (ahead of location ) for it not succeeding was surprising.
I’ve see local shops here that crush it with used equipment. Not top of the line machines and put out quality drinks.
Location, commitment, convenience and shared value is what drives those shops.
Glad to see your passion is coming back. Good luck in next venture!
I think the equipment thing was more of a symptom of not having enough money. The cafe wasn't the nicest looking, so I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't give it a chance and just assume it's a crappy village coffee shop. If it was bright and had that design, nice machines etc, people would have given it more of a chance I think. Even so we just didn't have enough money to get to the break even point where we would have had enough regular customers
1:40 seconds in an my first question is.... where was your business plan? It sounds like there really wasn't one. It was all based on wishful thinking. Yikes. Ok... off to finish watching it.
My thought too. Love the introspection here, but he certainly could have learned from others mistakes (as he is helping us to do here) long before putting their first dollar in.
Yeah it seem like he wanted to run a cafe in a small village, but not necessarily run an actual business.
The first interior shot solidified why you failed. Looks like crap on the inside, would never step foot
It's so obvious, isn't it? And none of his friends told him that this
is a bad place to run a cafe? Actually it's not a cafe, it's a takeaway.
Instead of not hurting his soul by tellimg him "search for another place"
they let him run against a wall. Great friends!
That was the first thing I noticed as well. It just looked so SAD. Even the paper cups looked like something you would serve cheap drip coffee out of. I don't get how a man so brutally myopic about the details of coffee didn't even notice that his cafe and service was uninviting. Also, opening a coffee place at 8 AM? That's hilarious. Dude needed to open at 6 AM at the latest.
It’s very surprising, given that this guy’s been hanging out in some of Tokyo’s nicest coffee shops for ages and puts together aesthetic b-roll and thumbnails. It would’ve costed nothing to tidy away the fire extinguisher and other junk, put up some prints on the walls and a rug on the floor. Sadly, in the long run it probably wouldn’t have made much difference as the fundamentals were off.
Thanks!