5 Golden Rules for Opening Your Own

Coffee Shop?
So you’ve decided to open your own coffee shop? And I assume not just anywhere in the world, but
in a country that is producing coffee? Opening a shop in a producing country can be an incredible
experience but also presents its own set of challenges that are unique to that fact that you are quite
possibly no longer living in your home country.
Today I’m going to give you five simple tips that will help you set-up your shop abroad, in any country
and not just a coffee producing nation.

Learn the Language

If you’re going to a producing country to open your shop you most likely don’t speak the local
language. I cannot overemphasize the importance of this point as your ability to communicate could
arguably be the most important aspect. You will have the local staff who you’ll have to communicate
with and most importantly you will need to talk to and engage with your customers as well.

The amount of cultural learning that occurs while picking up a language is crucial to being able to
provide excellent service to your local customers as the language you speak even impacts the way you
view the world. I personally studied in a language school for nine weeks and had lived in the country
for almost two years before I opened my shop. I’m not saying you have to live in country for that
amount of time beforehand, but it wouldn’t hurt. It would in fact allow you to really dive into the
culture, learn the language and get comfortable before you decide to invest a lot of money into your
shop.

Get a Trained Barista

This is true in a producing country as it is anywhere in the world. Make sure you get a fully trained
barista and if you’re going to serve food then take a cooking class! Maybe you’re not planning on being
the one behind the bar preparing the drinks, maybe you’ll just be roasting or baking pastries, but any
type of cross-training that you can do will allows you to provide better service to your customer and
improves their overall experience in store. In addition, I’ve found that the more I learn about the flavors
of coffee and espresso, the more I begin to sense and expect a lot more flavor and better presentation
out of the food.

Find a Good Quality Coffee Source

You need to trust and build a good relationship with your coffee source. In a coffee producing country
there should be no shortage of people that are planting, processing and selling coffee. However, it can
be difficult to find honest, trustworthy people who have a good product. Take your time whilst you’re
still learning the language to meet people and ask around for reputable sources. I personally can confess
to having rushed into a relationship with a roaster who then proceeded to short me 40 grams of coffee
every bag that he sold me until I happened to throw one on the scale one day. Please don’t repeat my
mistake, find quality suppliers and then trust, but verify everything.

Ask a Lot of Questions

When you are starting your business you will be required to deal with a good amount of paperwork,
and many times in producing countries, they are not equipped to be efficient or knowledgeable to
answer all your questions. Don’t be afraid to ask more than one person about a particular rule, law,
application form or even which bus to take because it could save you a great deal of money and
headache. Don’t make the mistake of failing to ask some important questions because taking a cheaper
bus that puts you in the murder Capital of the world at night might not be a great idea – just ask for
advice.

Enjoy the Process

The process is a lot of fun dreaming, designing and finally seeing all your work come to reality! Make
the most of the fact that you are in a coffee producing country and go see the coffee process from start
to finish. Make relationships with farmers and enjoy educating locals about how to fully enjoy the
awesome beverages so many of them produce, but don’t often know how to properly prepare!

Article written by Z. Daggett and edited by N. Bhatt.

Perfect Daily Grind.