Table Of ContentContents
Introduction
My Cafés
First Things First: Get A Job
The Building
Choosing A Location
What Are You Looking For?
Great Business Idea vs. Great Business Model
Go Big Or Go Small
Footfall
The Little Things
The Premises
What Should You Ask The Experts About?
Building And Contracting
The Final Decision
The Café
The Basics
Building Trade
The Bleeding Bunny Rule: Workflow, Efficiency & Perception
Be Two-Faced
Selling Retail Coffee Bags
Loyalty Cards
The Delivery Drivers
50¢ Security
Tables & Chairs
Toilets
The Plated Napkin & Other Continuous Struggles
Coffee
Coffee, Briefly
Milk Slows You Down
The Importance Of Water
A Drink By Any Other Name
Knowledge : Coffee : Equipment
Extra Hot
Make The Worst Cup Better
Staff
How to Hire People
Continuity Is The Cheapest Staffing Strategy
Culture
Culture Trumps Quality Control
The Correlation Of Nice
Respect
Don’t Speak Ill Of Your Competitors
Assertive vs. Aggressive
Don’t Boast About The Long Hours
An Email Never Solved An Argument
Family & Friends
Social Media
We Are All Marketing Scum
Two Guys & A Bottle Of Milk
Have Fun
Numbers
Coffee As A High Margin Product
Understanding Margins
The Staff Cost Equilibrium
Keeping Track
Acknowledgements
For Oisín, the boulder roller.
What I Know About Running Coffee Shops
First published 2017
32 Grand Canal Street Lower, Dublin 2, Ireland
Copyright © 2017 Colin Harmon
All rights reserved. No part of this production may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form, or
by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the written consent of the
Publisher.
Designed in Ireland by WorkGroup
ISBN 978-0-9957699-0-8
Typeset throughout in Spinoza by Max Phillips and Nimbus Sans Extended Bold by URW++.
whatiknowaboutrunningcoffeeshops.com
Introduction
I’VE WRITTEN THIS BOOK NOT ONLY FOR PEOPLE who want to run their own coffee shop but also for those that
already do. It’s a lonely place running a business and I know from experience that the hardest time to
ask for advice is often the time you need it most. I’m hopeful that regardless of what stage you’re at in
your journey, you will find something of value in all the triumphs, disasters and lessons in the chapters
that follow.
I’m also hopeful that this book finds its way into the hands of those who have absolutely no intention
of running a coffee shop but are merely interested in the processes that it entails. I’ve long been
fascinated with books on people’s professions whether they are climbers, bankers, chefs or footballers.
The details of how they do their daily work are something I draw inspiration and motivation from on a
regular basis, regardless of how different my own job may be. Throughout the writing of this book I’ve
had a broader audience in mind and if this book can hold the attention of people inside and outside the
coffee community then, to me, it will have been a success, regardless of the numbers it sells.
I tend to meet three or four people a week who are looking to open a coffee shop and it’s quite a
strange conversation to have. Many of these people I’ve met have never run a business before and
have no experience in cafés but have become determined to leave their existing careers behind and
open their own coffee business. It’s very difficult to be successful in the hospitality industry – and doing it
without any experience is next to impossible – but there’s something about coffee that draws people in.
I have seen the reality of running a coffee shop turn from a dream to a nightmare on many occasions,
and it can leave a person broke, exhausted and without any options. It’s a fickle industry where it’s a
constant struggle to stay relevant and there are always more people lined up to have a crack at it if it
doesn’t work out for you.
The original title for this book was “How to Run a Coffee Shop”, but it never sat right with me so I
changed it to the title you see on the front cover. I wanted instead to write about my own subjective
opinions and experiences and the criteria that I use at work, coupled with what I feel are the more
objective standards that most of us can agree on. It’s a job that teaches me something new every day,
so I feel more at home telling you not how to do your job, but instead what I know about doing mine.
At times it has felt like something of a confessional and when I’ve gone back through old accounts,
emails and blog posts to recall my train of thought, it has often been a very sad experience for me.
Although my business, 3fe Coffee, has now grown into a world-renowned coffee brand, looking back at
the early days and how hard they were for me, my family and my friends has been a difficult and painful
exercise that involved admitting a lot of home truths.
Despite all of this, however, it is a wonderful way to make a living. The social aspect of the job is
incredible and getting to meet such a wide variety of people on a daily basis is something I’m really
grateful for. We often say that we’re only one customer away from fixing any kind of problem because
there’s always at least one professional in any discipline that drinks coffee at our shop.
I feel very fortunate to have made it this far and try never to take it for granted. In retrospect, I can
see how I often sidestepped disaster unknowingly, so if even a handful of people can benefit from my
advice I am more than happy to have shared it.
The last thing I’d like to do with this book is warn people off running a coffee shop, but I would
definitely encourage people to get a realistic insight into what doing that entails. Personally, I wouldn’t
swap my job for any other, however I’m also fully aware that my own experience of running a café could
easily have gone down a very different route.
“Failing” has become very trendy these days amongst business gurus as the best way to learn about
running a business. Failing in business has come to be seen as a rite of passage and something to be
worn as a badge of honour, and to a large extent I can understand the benefits of learning from
mistakes. I can tell you right now, however, that the only thing that’s better for a business owner to do
than failing is succeeding. If you can succeed first time round and skip the life lesson that failing
provides then do that 100% of the time.
The coffee business is an incredibly engaging one and I’m thankful that I managed to end up in it. It
has a vibrant, progressive and inclusive nature that a lot of industries could learn from and at its core
lies one simple goal: hospitality.
Colin Harmon
08/12/16
My Cafés
Café Number 1: The Twisted Pepper’s Lobby
This is the first café that we opened on December 5th 2009 in the lobby of a nightclub called the Twisted
Pepper on Middle Abbey Street in Dublin. The space was no more than 20m2 and, at best, had seating
for about 12 people, though my ability to serve any more than three customers at a time was
questionable.
The counters were all on wheels and this allowed us to pack the whole thing away at night. The
espresso machine itself rolled into a cupboard and all the tables and chairs were moved elsewhere to
make way for 600 young clubbers four nights a week. We’d often come in in the morning to find broken
glass, spilt drinks, cigarette butts and the odd pair of underwear scattered around the place.
This café was operated usually just by me, but I had a couple of part-time staff to help out. At the
height of its powers, this café served about 150 cups a day but was never a viable business or even
capable of sustaining more than one employee at a time. People would often remark that the shop was
never going to work and, although I agreed with them I knew I was doing the right thing. Making a profit
here wasn’t my primary goal (not that I had any choice in that matter), instead I was testing the market in
Dublin which, until that point, had had very limited exposure to specialty coffee. I was also determined to
build a reputation for high standards of cup quality, great service and build a strong, if tiny, brand on that
reputation.
