If a list of the most preferred beverages in the world would be sampled, it needs no debate to establish that coffee would appear on the list prominently. With a famed phrase of an engine that said, “But coffee first,” coffee drinking is a culture.
There is a need to provide quality coffee to consumers. If you intend to get into the business, the best coffee to offer is the third-wave coffee. However, you need a business plan if you want your coffee shop to be a success.
Below are guidelines that will help you create a business plan for a new coffee shop. Let’s break it down together.
1. Why You Need a Business Plan?
The first step in writing a great business plan for a coffee shop is understanding why you need one in the first place. A business plan for a third-wave coffee shop will help you with:
- your budget and financing plan
- the organization of the entire process
- considering all the factors & circumstances
- understanding the industry, the market, and the target customers
By writing a plan, you’ll get a clear idea of everything you need to know before opening a coffee shop. You’ll also be able to submit it to the bank for a loan, or an investor.
Let’s take a look at the sections your business plan needs to have.
2. Executive Summary
Your business plan should open with a professionally written executive summary. This section will cover the technical detail of opening a third-wave coffee shop.
You need to cover all the technicalities necessary for opening a coffee shop and organize them properly as the opening statement of your business plan.
Here’s what you should cover:
- location
- ownership details
- equipment
- products apart from coffee you plan on selling
- target customers group
- start-up funds
You have to explain why and how you plan on opening the coffee shop.
For example, you could write that the location of the coffee shop is near the city’s largest business center. That’s why you’ll attract people working in the area, and serve them the best coffee for their morning routine or lunch break.
Make sure you share your vision and how you plan to grow your business.
3. Company Description
Your business plan needs to have a strong and well thought out company description. In other words, you have to define what you plan on offering to your future guests.
It’s best that you put focus on the third-wave coffee you want to provide to your users. Give a detailed report about different characteristics and factors influencing the user-experience you plan on offering.
That means that you should give detail about:
- brewing methods you’ll use
- growing regions your coffee will come from
- extracting flavors
- degree of roasting
- blending
- barista training
- making your guests feel special
Try and describe exactly what type of service will your guests receive. Also, share company vision and goals.
4. Market Analysis
Market analysis is an inevitable part of any business plan. It shows commitment, professionalism, and proper evaluation. In case you need help with writing, check out these websites ratings.
So, before you start writing your business plan, you have to do market research and base your business plan on the data you gather. Here are the things you need to examine before making the decision of opening your third-wave coffee shop:
- your competition
- leading third-wave coffee shops
- locations in need of a coffee-shop
- specific groups of people to target
- market needs
- buying habits and patterns
Do research on what areas in your city lack a quality third-wave coffee shop. Also, try and learn what makes a customer come back for more: is it the taste, the service, the interior, or all of it together?
Once you successfully finish your market analysis, write it down in your business plan, point by point. Show that you know your numbers and you’re ready to go to business.
5. Competitive Analysis
Finally, there’s one last point you need to cover in your business plan. If you want to open a third-wave coffee shop, you have to know who your competition is and what makes them good.
Explore the entire city’s third-wave coffee shops offer and see what they’re up to. Discover your strongest competitors and do research on their work. You can do this by:
- visiting their website
- following them on social media
- learning about the cafe owners
- going to their coffee shops in person
- tasting their coffee
The more you learn about your competition, the better you’ll be at creating a unique business plan. You’ll know how to differentiate and what to offer to stay competitive. To get the edge with competitor analysis, you can make use of existing data visualization tools like Maptive to help you quickly determine where to place your new coffee shop. You can do this by simply uploading a spreadsheet containing geographical data of both your competitor’s coffee shops and yours into Maptive. You can then use Maptive’s radius tool to quickly visualize where your competitor stores lie to gain greater insight into your competition.
Final Thoughts
Writing a business plan isn’t just about writing the document. It’s about all the processes of analysis and research you go through before you start writing it.
Creating a business plan for a new coffee shop requires thorough, intensive research on third-wave coffee. Grasping all the ins and outs of how a coffee shop works would be a giant step to success.
Use the steps above to help you write a killer business plan.