"What I know about Running Coffee Shops" Book Review (2023)

Introduction

Introducting a new series... Pro Tips. What I hope to do is give out Short tips or resources that you need to know if you work in our around coffee, or want to do one day. Today I recommend a book called "What I know about Running Coffee Shops" by Colin Harmon.

You can grab it online here: goo.gl/7o3LF4

#colinharmon #coffee #bookreview

Video

Just say, pro tip pro tip pro tip with enthusiasm, pro tip with enthusiasm, pro tip, what pro tip, no pro pro tip all right protip time, but I'm hoping to these protip series every week, maybe every two weeks.

And hopefully just give a quick tip away for anyone who's working in coffee who owns a coffee shop, or who is looking to start a career in coffee.

And these are just things I've learned along the way they've been super helpful to me in the last couple of years and I want to pass them on so they're helpful for you as well.

But if you're thinking about starting a coffee shop, you're, probably thinking about all the awesome things that come along with running a coffee shop drinking lots of coffee, seeing your friends, all the time being super social, having the kind of cool place in town.

There are a lot of cool.

Cool things about running a coffee shop, owning a coffee shop.

But when the rubber meets the road there's, also a lot of other stuff that most people don't begin to think about when you open a coffee shop, you are running a full-on business and this.

And once you start does not stop, you know, at times I found it to be a little overwhelming all the things are on your plate, all the people that you're caring for your employees.

And in the world of coffee there's, a lot of stuff about how to make coffee how to nerd out on coffee.

But there seems to be very little there's more and more right now, which is awesome about leadership within the coffee industry.

Some of the back end of the coffee industry as far as numbers.

And some of the kind of bigger picture things.

You need to know about systems and all that sort of stuff if you're gonna run a coffee business.

So my first pro tip this week is to read a book and I want to recommend to you guys a book that I've read probably four times.

Now, it's sort of like my textbook, my coffee shop, owning Bible, right now for everything I need to know.

So that is what I know about running a coffee shop by mr.

Colin Harmon.

So the first thing to say is that this is not like a guide book that he is proclaiming to be the best coffee shop business type book, he's very clear about saying, this is what he knows about running coffee shops, but he's opened a few and I found that the information here has been super super helpful.

So in this book, there is a tiny bit of coffee nerdery, how to make better coffee, steaming milk, all those sorts of things, but more and more.

What you're gonna find here is the backend of running a coffee business.

So we're, talking staffing, we're, talking numbers, we're talking growth, we're talking all sorts of things that they got that you don't often hear about in the coffee biz.

So I would highly recommend reading this book.

If you are interested in opening a coffee shop, if you're thinking about it, or if you do already, because this is going to give you some perspective and some insight into the coffee industry that is really invaluable Collins gone through all of his openings of his shops and sort of analyzed the best practices and written them down in here for you.

So he goes over how to do a job interview how to think about profit and loss.

And and your pricing of your products he talks about how to find a spot to lease and things like that.

You might not initially think about with water supply and electricity things.

You want to know before you sign on the dotted line for at least one of my favorite chunks of the book is when Colin talks about kind of sequencing and systems when you're delivering beverages and I think a lot of times coffee shop owners.

Think, if only I had that piece of equipment, or if I had a new espresso machine or a new grinder, we could be faster and serve more customers.

And he goes over some of the sequencing that needs to happen to have a truly fast and effective cafe, and that really challenged so am I thinking about do I need a to group or a three group machine.

A lot of us feel like we're so busy that we need a three group machine, and that we gonna need two people working on it.

And so he kind of goes through a sequence from order to exit of a customer and how you can line those up.

And some of the numbers he put out really humbled me and go CAC and I can really surely tweak my speed as a barista, but also the speed of my team and the systems of my team.

So that was really really helpful for me and I think a lot of people would benefit from that, because they're gonna go spend money on machines instead of thinking about, how could they organize the structure from start to finish of their transactions with their customers? One of the best things Colin hasn't here is the basics.

And this is just a list of things that if you're not doing in your coffee shop, you really need to start doing them.

And a lot of these are really great and really like I've, always thought, yes, that's exactly right with a bad.

One is have room-temperature butter, I, don't know, if your video coffee shop, you order like a pastry or muffin, and they give you butter and it's, fridge, cold temperature, it's horrible.

So just stuff like that get get newspapers delivered keep the washrooms clean.

Keep the doors open don't stand in the doorway.

If someone comes to the counter, the staff got to stop talking Amelie.

So it's just sort of stuff that is really important to think about if you're gonna run a coffee shop may talks about how to get new customers in the morning, how to get new customers at lunchtime all this sort of stuff.

So I, can't recommend.

This book enough, I'm, not friends with this guy, I don't know him.

He has not asked me to endorse his book, I just bordered it on Amazon or whatever was.

And it has become like a true.

Text book for me for running a coffee shop, I often will go back to it.

And look at his numbers, especially about the margins of profitability and that's something that a lot of coffee shops struggle with I think a lot a lot of coffee shops will just be breaking even, but how do you make your coffee shop profitable, turning profit and make it so that it can be something sustainable? So you can take care of employees.

Anyways, pick this book up read it read it three or four times if you are interested at all in coffee, you need to read this book, what I know about running coffee shops, Colin Harmon, pick it up.

And that concludes our pro tip.