18 books for coffee shop owners to read to level-up their business (in no particular order)
Marketing Books for Coffee Shop Owners
The StoryBrand approach offers a reliable solution to the challenges business leaders encounter in communicating about their companies. Without a clear and unique message, customers will not comprehend what you offer and will be reluctant to engage, resulting in lost sales, missed opportunities for customer interaction, and more.
Purple Cow refers to something extraordinary, unexpected, thrilling, and utterly astonishing. In his latest bestseller, Seth Godin encourages you to incorporate a Purple Cow into everything you create and do, ensuring it stands out. It's a call to action for anyone aiming to develop products and services that are inherently worth marketing.
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketin
Just as there are laws of nature, there are laws of marketing. Al Ries and Jack Trout, renowned marketing consultants and authors of Positioning, argue that ignoring these laws can prevent success, similar to how ignoring physics can ground an airplane. In The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, they present twenty-two essential rules for succeeding in the global market, including the Law of Leadership, the Law of the Category, and the Law of the Mind. These insights provide a clear path to successful products, and violating them is risky.
New York Times bestselling author and social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk offers valuable advice on connecting with customers and outperforming competitors. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook combines elements of Crush It! and The Thank You Economy to provide effective social media marketing strategies.
Marketers plan for the “right hook”—a sale or campaign to outperform competitors. Companies also focus on “jabbing”—engaging with customers to build crucial relationships. Right hooks aim to convert traffic to sales, but they don’t always succeed.
"Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions" by Dan Ariely explores the fascinating world of behavioral economics, revealing how our decisions are often influenced by irrational factors. Through engaging experiments and insightful anecdotes, Ariely demonstrates that our choices are not as logical as we believe, highlighting the systematic patterns of irrationality that govern our behavior. This thought-provoking read challenges conventional wisdom and offers a deeper understanding of the psychological forces that drive our everyday decisions.
If you’re like most people, you think your individual tastes and opinions drive your choices and behaviors. You wear a certain jacket because you liked how it looked. You picked a particular career because you found it interesting. The notion that our choices are driven by our own personal thoughts and opinions is patently obvious. Right? Wrong.
Coffee & Hospitality
What I Know About Running Coffee Shops
A hands-on guide offering insights and experiences from experienced coffee shop proprietors addressing key elements of starting and managing a thriving coffee shop.
The Successful Coffee House is a roadmap for owners of retail specialty coffee businesses. It offers 22 practical and inspiring "Action Days " that will set your imagination and business plan ablaze, including: - Creating your own Specific Brand Image (SBI) - Developing a flexible business that can evolve with industry trends - Using holistic branding to maximize your customer experience - Crafting a business that is unique with uncompromising quality - Creative ways to differentiate your coffee house - Barista hiring tips to ensure an engaging culture - Techniques to keep your staff motivated - Today's coffee house design trends - The role of the professional barista - Creating your own business plan - Weekly Playbook to increase ticket averages.
Seventy-five percent of all new restaurant ventures fail, and of those that do stick around, only a few become icons. Danny Meyer started Union Square Cafe when he was 27, with a good idea and hopeful investors. He is now the co-owner of a restaurant empire. How did he do it? How did he beat the odds in one of the toughest trades around? In this landmark book, Danny shares the lessons he learned developing the dynamic philosophy he calls Enlightened Hospitality. The tenets of that philosophy, which emphasize strong in-house relationships as well as customer satisfaction, are applicable to anyone who works in any business. Whether you are a manager, an executive, or a waiter, Danny’s story and philosophy will help you become more effective and productive, while deepening your understanding and appreciation of a job well done.
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Dale Carnegie’s rock-solid, time-tested advice has carried countless people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives. One of the most groundbreaking and timeless bestsellers of all time, How to Win Friends & Influence People will teach you:
-Six ways to make people like you
-Twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking
-Nine ways to change people without arousing resentment
And much more! Achieve your maximum potential—a must-read for the twenty-first century with more than 15 million copies sold!
The World Atlas of Coffee takes readers on a global tour of coffee-growing countries, presenting the bean in full-color photographs and concise, informative text. It covers where coffee is grown, the people who grow it and the cultures in which it is a way of life. It also covers the world of consumption -- processing, grades, the consumer and the modern culture of coffee.
Business & Innovation Books for Coffee Shop Owners (Bonus)
Okay, one thing about collecting book knowledge is that it has little value if it isn't put into practice.
One of my favorite ways to do this is to:
Read the book
Think through similar situations I've experienced and how I might react in the light of the material I'm reading
Read the Wikipedia page (great for getting the "big ideas" out of the book)
Boil down the book into a few key ideas
Reduce even more to just a couple of phrases you can pull out at any time
E.g. Purple Cow by Seth Godin is a well-known marketing book that can be distilled into one idea:
People see cows all the time – brown, black, white.
They aren't that special when you drive by herds of thousands of them.
But, if you see a purple cow, now that is worth taking note and talking about.
And distilled down even more to just one phrase: be remarkable.
